Code Breaking and Meaning Making - Week 5

Code breaking and meaning-making is the aspect of digital learning that focuses on understanding the text, image or digital message that is given to you by someone else or created by you. These two concepts really go hand in hand as they are so closely related to one another. In fact, they're almost considered a two-step process. Code breaking is focused on the symbols and patterns that are used in digital spaces. During this step, you may be given an emoji (😮) and you must use your knowledge of social situations or texting norms to realize that it means that it represents being shocked or surprised. Meaning-making is when you ask yourself "What does the shocked emoji mean?". It may depend on the text that surrounds it, the person who created/sent it, or the general connotations society has created for it. In the past week, my biggest challenge was breaking the code on Flipgrid. For those who may not know, Flipgrid is an online platform that students and teachers can use to share and discuss via videos. Upon my first glance, I was very confused as to what the symbols on the website meant and what I had to do to use it. Shortly thereafter, I was able to read their explanations of the website and how to use the features, as well as watch some video tutorials that were shared with the class. These greatly helped my understanding of the platform and I was confident in creating my first Flipgrid video to share with my classmates.

Retrieved from Flipgrid.com

Along with Flipgrid, I was also able to explore some other creative "makes" the past couple of weeks. As I have mentioned before, one of the most important factors in understanding digital spaces is that I am consciously aware of the fact that I can always learn something new even if I feel comfortable using that technology. This was apparent as a professor explained a new feature of Desire2Learn to me this week. This platform is used for teachers to post content, documents, announcements, etc. to their students and for students to submit assignments or email their teachers. Although I have been using many features on this website for years, I was made aware of the "Groups" section. This allows students to work on group assignments together. This includes a discussion forum and a "locker" which allows students in the group to share files with each other. This is a great new way to collaborate that I hadn't done before. I learned the new labels, mechanisms, and structures using my code breaking and meaning-making skills. As Hinrichsen and Coombs write "The existing purposes and conventions of digital texts are not always rigidly defined and can be subject to rapid metamorphosis or splintering; reading and creation practices may therefore be similarly fluid" (2013). The word "locker" was one I previously had associated only with a physical, metal, containment unit, with a locking mechanism. The way that the locker on D2L is used is a digital storage space for documents. 

This resource discusses the concepts of code breaking and meaning-making, as well as the concepts of "text users" and "text critics". http://alphaliteracy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Four-roles-of-reader.pdf This source helped further my understanding and build on what is discussed by Hinrichsen and Coombs.

References

“#1 LMS for Online Teaching & Learning.” D2L, www.d2l.com/.

Flipgrid. Ignite Classroom Discussion. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://flipgrid.com/

Hinrichsen, Juliet & Coombs, Anthony. (2013). The Five Resources of Critical Digital Literacy: A        Framework for Curriculum Integration. Research in Learning Technology, volume 21. DOI:          10.3402/rlt.v21.21334

The four roles of a reader [PDF]. (n.d.). Eleanor Curtain Publishing.