This is a way of connecting with the audience – keeping the audience in mind by not just telling us what your story is but relating it to how it might be similar or different to mine.

During my first semester teaching at the university level, my supervisor made the following statement to me: “Antonio, you have more knowledge and experience than these undergraduate students than you think. Knowing this, teach them with confidence.” Although all of us, including our professor, want to grow in our knowledge as consumers and producers, we are already critical and savvy enough consumers and producers to teach and interact with our students. Your hesitancy may stem from your healthy desire to grow so much more in your skills and knowledge to be the best teacher you can be for your students.

I wonder what “cultural wealth” means here.

One of the first tasks we have in countering “unproductive narratives” is to explain to people how their narratives are unproductive. I employ critical theory to support my explanations and to buttress my arguments against their narratives. One of the primary tenets of critical race theory is to supply counternarratives to these unproductive narratives. For critical race theorists, these counternarratives are valuable vehicles for disempowering unproductive narratives. I assert that when we allow these unproductive narratives to go unchallenged, we empower them.

True. And sometimes we just don’t know what those hidden agendas are!

If we could just teach people how to genuinely “respect” each other…
We have a beautiful concept here called لِتَعَارَفُو (li-taa-ra-fu = “to get to know each other” in the Arabic language). It basically highlights that the fact that we are very “different” necessitates that we should make collaborative efforts to familiarize ourselves with each other. From this standpoint, I see “human difference” from a very different perspective. Difference, to me, simply means an opportunity for connection!

I am a multilingual, but I am not from a marginalized community. That’s a different group altogether.

I agree with you, Hannah. The language of this document didn’t sound accessible at all. That said, I am not sure if this document is created for general readers or if it’s just targeted at teachers, educators and other teaching professionals.

This point is critical to emphasize to students, especially as ethical considerations are increasingly abandoned across social media platforms. Effective writing teachers help students to understand how to use and create information responsibly, including in online spaces. I think it is useful for writing teachers to collaborate with their students to create a code of ethics for writing online.

I agree. There’s a subtle difference. Cooperation connotes people “giving in” (sometimes), just to get the work done. Collaboration, however, connotes people focusing purely on the task and working constructively to complete it in the best way possible.

Teachers must engage students in instruction that intentionally equips them with skills and knowledge to “recognize bias and privilege present” in diverse texts. If teachers do not make this a priority, then students will not recognize the significance of engaging in this anti-bias and anti-racist work.

Never heard of these principles before.

The term, information poverty is also new for me. Imagery wise, I think of hungry people running around, looking for information. To be honest, it’s a disturbing image in some ways.

The “acting” part shouldn’t be obligatory, I think. It should be up to the audience.

This is a tough one. The questions of right and wrong behavior in terms of using media are subjective. What’s considered morally wrong in one culture may be perceived very differently in another culture. I think each learner should be responsible for defining their ethical practices and boundaries when using media.

The sharing culture is indeed crazy in today’s world, especially when it’s done mindlessly. Sometimes I wonder if people share excessively just because they can’t handle the information overload. The imagery that comes to mind is funny: people playing “Pass the Parcel.” The only difference in this case is that everyone playing the game has a parcel, and everyone is randomly throwing their parcel at each other. Chaotic!

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I thought all the action words under Consume, such as analyze, examine, consider, review, solve and search sounded less consumption-like. For me, Consumption is plain reception (i.e. reading information) and Curation is more closely associated with examination, evaluation and eventual selection/organization of information.

I am interested in learning more about the art of curation. I think this is overlooked in many cases, especially when learners are overloaded with multiple texts and expected to create outcomes in short deadlines.

Great point, Erica. This reminds me of my art and design students who are required to go back and forth between different stages of the design process to “create”! I think creation begins with consumption, just like our Make exercise this week began by studying (or consuming) mentor texts.

As much as it’s important to teach students about all the information out there, I think it’s equally critical to teach students where to draw the line. Not everything in the digital world is good, safe and beneficial. We must teach students how to choose information with wisdom and purpose.

Purpose is key! I think it’s really important to teach students to be cognizant of their purpose when using digital texts and tools. They shouldn’t use them just for the sake of using them. Students must experiment, yes, but ultimately, a clear purpose should define their actions.