Andrea Sterzuk

ONTD stands for On no they didn’t. It’s a member-moderated LiveJournal community where members discuss, in fairly gossipy ways, aspects of popular culture like celebrities, film, television and music. I’m a member of LiveJournal but have not yet requested to join ONTD although I visit several times a day.  These daily visits without interaction mean that I’m what you call a “lurker.” What I find most interesting about ONTD is the range of semiotic systems (writing, gifs, icons, videos, music…) that members use in integrated ways in order to accomplish their communication goals around celebrity gossip. You can also find interesting examples of online culture such as the use of memes.  I could pretend that I’m only interested in ONTD members’ literacy practices but this would be a lie as the truth is that I also have a sincere fondness for celebrity news. And now I will go watch my recording of The City.

I really like the work of James Paul Gee. I like his ideas and I like how he writes.  You can see his influence reflected in my use of the word literacies instead of literacy in the title of this blog and in my purchase of a Wii last year.

There are many literacies and ways of being literate. Literacy can be thought of as any system used as a social tool to meaningfully participate in and generate interaction. So, seeing literacy in this way means that when I do something as simple as uploading a photo to this blog, I’m engaged in literacy practices.

Lately, though, I’ve been thinking a lot about print literacy development in schools which is a more traditional view of literacy. I’m presently re-reading Gee’s 2004 book “Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling.”  At the top of another one of my stacks is “Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education,” a 2003 book by Catherine Prendergast.   It’s hard to reconcile these two books’ discussions of literacy education in North America.  (more…)

I just received a library notice about a 1997 book I really like and currently have on loan from my campus library: Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class by Daiva Stasiulis and  Nira Yuval-Davis.  It’s been recalled by another library patron and I have a week to return it.  I’m always tempted to start recall dance-offs when this happens (i.e. recall the book from the person who recalled it from me) but, since I find the book so useful, I think I’ll just return it to my library and order a copy from Indigo or Amazon.

Writing the book has taken over my table.  I prefer eating in front of the TV anyway.

I woke up this morning to an unresponsive computer. Of course it had been 2 weeks since I backed up any of my writing. Thank goodness for “safe” mode and computer technicians. I’m back to my writing, with only a short delay. Cross your fingers that they can fix my laptop quickly.

I started this blog in spring 2008 but got distracted with other projects and let it slide. I came across some interesting blogs yesterday and felt inspired to return to my own and see if I could do something with it. And once I did, I promptly deleted the boring posts I wrote last year. I’ve spent the morning playing with formatting and titles and have got the appearance of my pages to a place where I feel like I can go public. All of this construction took the place of my book writing which is what I am supposed to be working on today.