Digital Technology and Linguistics Part 4

 Applying Digital Technology (How and Why)

    When trying to prove whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, the best thing you can do is either be "on the fence" or research the opposite of your feelings or preconceived notion. The main answer I sought from this project was whether it mattered that these changes in digital technology were having lasting effects on linguistics. Does is matter that I don't use punctuation at the end of my texts? Should I really care that students are writing half-sentences with incomplete thoughts? Do grammar mistakes make a difference when auto-correct exists? The answer is yes and no. I know, that answer sucks. If you came here to read a scholarly article because of the structure and vocabulary in my posts, you're in the wrong spot. I have come to the conclusion that the rules of language are changing, and will change forever.

You've been reading for awhile, rest here and think

before continuing.

    Much like the technology itself, our roles and understanding change as well. Staying current and updated on technology breakthroughs is like understanding pop culture references. They're popular for a reason. And if everyone jumps on the bandwagon, you can reserve your right to laugh at the wagon, or you can try to understand why the wagon gets so much attention, and then have minimal insight on it. For me, watching Breaking Bad opened up this massive world of references I didn't understand. And, after loving every second of it, I understood the appeal and connected with more people, as it was a pop culture phenomenon. Now, I have a greater understanding of the need for integrating these things in our classrooms.

    One study I found talks about the inclusion of memes in curriculum. Dale and Murphy concur, "memes in relation to students, coupled with their multimodal presence, make excellent samples for visual analysis" (2023). Memes, they say, "have a rhetorical impact to persuade and provoke, mixing elements of humor and viral iteration" (Dale & Murphy, 2023). Memes explore different categories of learning and have a personal connection with their relation to students.

    Memes are not the only way to relate content to students. Creating videos and podcasts, writing screenplays, compiling playlists and collages are all ways of incorporating digital technology into the classroom or workspace to enhance the learning experience. Some students may not be excellent writers and would prefer to create a visual interpretation of their understanding. Even by making these sequential blog posts, I'm finding a more entertaining way to demonstrate my understanding of how digital technology affects linguistics.

 Resources:

Dale, Jenny, and Maggie Murphy. “Reading Memes: Rhetorical Analysis of Memes as Multimodal Texts.” Teaching Critical Reading Skills Strategies for Academic Librarians, Volume 2, Reading for Evaluation, Beyond Scholarly Texts, and in the World. Edited by Hannah Gascho Rempel and Rachel Hamelers. Volume 2., Association of College and Research Libraries, 2023., pp. 395-407.