Chapter 2
- What are your main insights and ideas from the given L&K chapter?
- I thought it was interesting when they were talking about social norms. They say that practices are routines and that they are dynamic to some extent. This makes me think about how a lot of going to school is just about learning these social norms. My own son went to PreK this year. He walked in the door knowing the entire curriculum that the teachers were about to teach. However, he has progressed this year by learning the social norms of school. School also prepares us for the social norms of society once we leave school.
- What unique terminology, jargon, buzzwords, and other concepts appear in this reading that required your careful attention and definition? What are your interpretations of these words and concepts?
- This time I was intrigued again by Discourses. The chapter mentions that discourses classrooms, sports, friendship networks, church gatherings, clubs, gangs, academic disciplines, discussion lists, chatrooms, types of women, weddings, funerals, families. I got to thinking about how all of these things are different in different cultures around the world. Football is popular here in the US while soccer is popular in lots of other countries. Hockey is popular in Canada. It makes me wonder why people are drawn to certain sports in different places. Church gatherings or religious gatherings are obviously very different. I have attended gatherings of Jews, Hindu, Buddhism, Sikh, and Christianity myself so I have seen first-hand how different these are. If I were to focus on changing these things from what people are used to in a book manuscript it would make for a very different society. The Harry Potter series addressed quite a few of these things and it is a very different society from what we have.
- How does this reading challenge/expand/contradict your definition of (digital) storytelling?
- I was thinking about this chapter as I thought about a book manuscript. I thought about what would happen to my characters if I changed the social norms. What if the norms we have were completely turned on their head? I’m thinking about this more. What if having children were a privilege instead of a given right? People might be temporarily sterilized at birth and then have to earn the right to have children. It would certainly make for less population. There may be less child abuse depending on the parameters for having children. How about school norms? Children could be “injected” with certain knowledge at a certain age age and then they wouldn’t have to go to school. They could go right to work or pursue higher education while already having a solid base of knowledge. Obviously there’s some technology that would need to be developed for these two examples but I’m thinking of more ideas as I go!
- I was thinking about this chapter as I thought about a book manuscript. I thought about what would happen to my characters if I changed the social norms. What if the norms we have were completely turned on their head? I’m thinking about this more. What if having children were a privilege instead of a given right? People might be temporarily sterilized at birth and then have to earn the right to have children. It would certainly make for less population. There may be less child abuse depending on the parameters for having children. How about school norms? Children could be “injected” with certain knowledge at a certain age age and then they wouldn’t have to go to school. They could go right to work or pursue higher education while already having a solid base of knowledge. Obviously there’s some technology that would need to be developed for these two examples but I’m thinking of more ideas as I go!