Reflection #10: Chapter 9-Memes

A meme for teachers-a meme I saw on Facebook that I related to at the end of the school year because it had been such a busy school year with work, graduate school, and everything else going on in my life.  I believe a lot of teachers can relate to this meme, especially in my cohort.  Lol.

Memes include such things as popular tunes, catch-phrases, clothing fashions, architectural styles, ways of doing things, icons, jingles, and the like.  This chapter focuses on online memes of the popular conceptions of memes.  A 5 year study focused on three purposes: 1) To identify and examine the qualities that seem to be part of a successful online meme, 2) To establish key categories of successful online memes so as to better understand the online "memescape" in terms of purposes, uses and appeal, and 3) to explore possible ways teachers might take up memes as a "new" literacy within school-based learning contexts.  I have heard of memes but did not know what they really were until I read this chapter.  Early on memes were used as marketing strategies.  Memes originated with Dawkins who described three characteristics of successful memes 1) fidelity, fecundity, and longevity.  "Meme" is a popular term for describing the rapid uptake and spread of a particular idea presented as a written text, image, language, "move", or some other unit of cultural "stuff".  As educators, if we allow our students to engage with online memes we can enable them to have important strategies for identifying important memes and how it relates to them.  "Savvy online meming may well provide students with a fruitful and accessible practice for bringing positive social changes in the ways people think and, perhaps, act towards others".  I am not sure how I would relate memes to kindergarten but I am sure there are ones out there that would be beneficial to my students as well.