"Digital Dj-ing"

LP record mixing & scratching; to CD "scratching & mixing"; digital media mixing; to the age of digital photo, music, images, and video mixing. The DJ has "crossed over". Once seen as the music maker for an underground hip-hop movement, the ideas behind this mixing and reshaping of music seem to be finding roots within the educational system. Using a variety of media to make information relevant to students as well as making the dissemination of it engaging for the techno-savvy student.

Allowing students to link their own ways of seeing the world with media that they find accessible and not at all foreign, the students were able to think critically about a problem, to present it in a clear and logical way and to think about how it could be made palpable and relevant to an audience that would be academically and socially diverse with a wide range of ages.

It is becoming increasingly important for educators to understand that literacy can no longer just be the words read off the page or written on to it, but that these written words have a connection to a larger context that can not easily be removed without affecting the meaning of the text that it is a part.

If we are to teach then we must be constantly learning, searching, and evaluating the many ways that we can engage students (in this case engage them in literature) and make sure that we don't stick with status quo or adopt things because we are told this will be so. This article reminds me that I will be a guide for my students, pointing out important parts of the literary landscape while simultaneously allowing them to point out things I have missed, helping me and fellow classmates to take a different perspective and look at something we may never have seen or found relevant.
The description of the presentation demonstrated this, that our students think on levels we may not understand, but are no less important pathways for sparking an interest in learning about something they may or may not have thought or cared about before.

After reading this article, it reaffirmed the importance of creating an environment where students feel comfortable expressing opinions that may not be of the mainstream or that may stir up controversy. All the while remembering that the fun of education is attempting to navigate these waters with a critical eye, to ask questions that people think about but are often afraid to ask, and to learn the importance of specificity in identifying problems and developing possible solutions.