Worth Celebrating

<<<< Part I

Video describing the Celebration of Student Writing at Texas A&M-Commerce, as well as the curriculum from which these projects emerged. Argues that student research is worth celebrating and embraces a multiple literacies perspective supported by ethnographic pedagogy and close attention to key research in literacy studies. Features interviews with first-year students at the Celebration of Student Writing on May 9, 2008, and during two workshops for Teaching Assistants (January 2008 and March 2008). Also features photographs and video footage from the CSW and the TA Workshops on those dates. Created and narrated by Shannon Carter, Associate Professor of English at Texas A&M-Commerce. Original music by Eric Carter, recording Japanese Seizure Robots. (see also "Standardized" in NCoW collection)

Available also at the National Conversation on Writing (see Digital Collection)

Worth Celebrating

<<<< Part 2

Standardized

<<<< Part I

"Standardized" is a digital ethnography about Eric Carter (b. 1973), whose experiences with traditional literacy education and associated technologies (pen/paper) were altogether unstatisfying. Even so, his out-of-school experiences with other literacies--computers, video games, music--were extensive, rigorous, and ongoing. Now a hardware specialist at a top company in the computer industry, Eric describes these early experiences and the increasingly sophisticated literacies required of him at work and, especially, his developing experience as an electronic musician. All the music included in this video essay was written, performed, and engineered by Eric Carter, recording as Japanese Seizure Robots.

Motives for Undertaking Project: As a teacher, teacher trainer, and writer, I have struggled to understand the disconnect between in-school and out-of-school literacies experienced by students like Eric (often marked by school measures as "basic writers"). However, making visible the complexities and intellectual rigor associated with out-of-school "reading" and "writing" activities like video games and electrical line repair is difficult when one must translate these non-traditional literacy experiences into the more traditional, academic modalities (like the page-bound, alphabetic text). Given that a major focus of the current study is Eric's developing literacy as an electronic musician, it makes sense to choose a modality (film) that would enable me to play his music rather than merely describe it.

"Standardized" attempts to draw attention to the variety of ways literacy manifests itself in our lives and the lives of those often much less closely identified with school. The tools Eric finds most relevant and productive are not pens, paper, and alphabetic texts but computers, mixers, MIDI, complicated software for music production like Fruity Loops, and keyboards (of all sorts).

"Standardized: Part I included here

Rest of video (draft) is available at the National Conversation on Writing

(see Digital Collection)

A draft of this project was revamped as a scholarly webtext for Kairos; I'm in the process of revising it (again) for Computers and Composition Online (original draft will be split into two scholarly webtetexts--one a co-authored piece for Kairos and one a single-authored piece for Computers and Composition Online)