Reflection #10: Memes

Like many of the other new literacies discussed in A New Literacies Sampler, I was surprised to see "memes" categorized as a form of literacy. I have always considered memes to simply be an expression of humor or type of social interaction. However, the authors describe memes as "contagious patterns of 'cultural information' that get passed from mind to mind" (pg. 199). Although this seems like a rather broad definition, I think it accurately summarizes how memes connect to our popular culture. We use memes to communicate ideas, jokes, and to express shared experiences. The rest of the chapter focused on what makes a meme successful, categories of memes, and how teachers could take up memes as a new literacy in their classrooms. 

Although the text mainly focused on memes in the form of short videos, I also think about images with text when I think about memes. I included this meme in my post, because I thought it was an interesting and humorous way to present educational material. How fun would it be to have your students create memes to learn about/demonstrate their understanding of the content? As demonstrated in this meme, students can integrate popular culture (such as How I Met Your Mother) as well as the consistent meme face images while still presenting an educational topic. I think you could have students create memes for any subject in middle/high school. Also, if access to technology is an issue, you could have students illustrate their memes on poster board.