ETEC523 A1

Written by: John Wu / June 2022Teacher: Dr. David Vogt

A1 Analysis:Memes in education and mobile culture

ETEC523: mobile and openlearning

Pros and Cons of Memes in Education

Case Studies and Analysis

Memes and Mobile Culture

How are Memes used in Education

How to Understand a Meme

What is a Meme?

INDEX

Definitions and Examples

what is a meme?

01

Originally coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, he defined "memes" as a cultural entity or idea that replicates, evolves, and is passed from person to person. Later on, term would later be used to describe an infinite number of permutations of different phrases, images, sounds, and videos, all spread via the internet in an effort to share ideas and thoughts quickly and succinctly.

The original concept of what a meme is

"formal" definition

While an outright definition of a meme is hard to nail down, the term is most often associated with an image or video that portrays a particular concept or idea that is then usually spread through online social platforms. That idea goes on to proliferate through social media, forums, instant messaging apps, and even news sites. The images and videos that convey the message are often altered and built upon during this process, which often results in the evolution of the original idea into something else entirely, or are simply posted with a new caption to portray an altered form of it

How are memes defined today?

modern definition

Memes are a cultural shorthand that, like all forms of communication, evolve with those who use them. Nobody can claim to know or understand every single meme that exists. There are simply too many, and they can often be too personal to the individuals creating and sharing them. (Martindale 2021)

Sounds confusing? Don't worry, think of memes as:

summary of concept

If you've been browsing the Internet or social media, chances are you would have seen the following before

Famous Examples

1.5

Learn how to apply them into various contexts and why they're effective communiction tools

how to understand a meme

02

Trying to understand "memes" with little to no prior context can be difficult because memes (for the most part) are born and created through the Internet and rapidly evolve, as they are available for anyone to remix or reconstruct based on context

When used correctly, memes delight your audience and help you build genuine relationships. (Elliot 2019)

Two basic steps: (i) Understand the context of the content being shared and (ii)know how to leverage its full meaning

Context is Key!

Language is very precise in memes due to limited space. Words are used as "action phrases" or specific verbs are used to summarize a concept.

Some memes are easier to understand than others. The easiest ones are known as “image macro” memes, which usually involve some sort of expressive image and some block text. They’re designed to help convey an state in a manner that’s simple to understand. They acknowledge a shared experience between the creator and the viewer

As the old saying goes: an picture is worth a thousand words

Contents may vary

Learn how to successfully effectively integrate memes into your learning objectives and course design

how memes can be used in education

03

Memes can be used for the following situations-Setting house rules in class-Learning new vocabulary -Microlearning-Emphasizing important points-"Nutshell" Revision tools and notes-Building and expanding vocabulary

Due to their flexible and customizable nature, memes are highly transferable and surprisingly has many potential benefits for learners of all ages.

Memes are diverse tools to enhance learning outcomes

Being concise is particulary important in many industries and professions, using memes to learn is a engaging way to learn practical skills (Goodwin 2019)

Training students to be concise writers: In certain discplines such as STEM courses, being to the point is important. Memes can help students develop skills aimed at writing clearly, eliminating unnecessary words and using their active voice (Binder 2020)

As memes are limited in space, they can foster learnersto be effective writers

Concise and Clarity in Writing

Creativity is important as it allows learners to view and solve problems more openly and with innovation

In the case of academic purposes, the use of meme pictures can also be used as the materials to improve the students' writing creativity.Benefits of using Memes to develop creativity includes increasing confidence, motivation, and positive attitude towards writing. They also can freely express their ideas as well as to maximize the opportunities to have fun (Ramadhika 2020)

Most subjects don't provide enough opportunities for students to flex their sense of creative thinking.

Creativity in Writing

A source of collective coping: Memes allow students to release psychological stress during difficult learning, especially during a pandemic.An alternative Evaluation Format: Educators can also study Memes to obtain information/disguised criticism to change learning objectives and improve certain aspects of the course

Taking online courses or in situations such as Covid, students are forced to learn at home. Memes can help bridge the gap between the classroom and onine learning

Fantastic for Online and Distance Learning

Activities involving memes in classrooms may have different approaches, but they are all linked by the fact that the protagonists are the students themselves. They are given the opportunity to unleash their creativity and explore a topic in different ways from those commonly adopted in the classroom, with the use of tools and languages are drawn from social culture with which they come into daily contact, allowing the transformation and adaptation of knowledge to new media. (Malakhov et al 2020)

Possibilties are near endless for the creation of new Memes while allowing students to take charge of how they want to reinterpret what they've learnt

Encourages Inquisitive BasedLearning

Want to know how effective educational memes are designed? Take a look at the following examples

Examples of educational memes

3.5

Learn how to successfully effectively integrate memes into your learning objectives and course design

Memes and mobile culture

04

Mobile Technologies allow better means of communication, learning options to users, greater exposure to the latest trends, personal development, lifestyle applications, platforms to grow businesses and multimodal experiences. It's no understatement to say that Mobile technology has drastically changed cultural norms and individual behaviors

Smartphones have greatly expanded since the turn of the century and have penetrated all aspects of people’s lives, both positively and negatively (Nolin 2015)

Possibilties are near endless for the creation of new Memes while allowing students to take charge of how they want to reinterpret what they've learnt

Mobile Culture's impact on our daily lives

O'Dea/Statista (2022) Average monthly smartphone traffic worldwide from 2015 to 2027

To put things into perspective, In Exabytes (1 Exabyte = 1,000,000,000 Gigabytes), let that statistic sink in.This heaviliy implies that Mobile culture will have prominent staying power in the future as users will consume more data than before. As Memes are image and video based, there is a strong possibility that they will be counted within popular mobile traffic

Average monthly smartphone traffic worldwide from 2015 to 2027 (in Exabytes)

Memes as Reflective of Everyday Communication and ExpressionMobile culture encourages people to express themselves through speech, text, images, body language, and a host of other mechanisms. As a way to express oneself, memes can tap into the emotions, experiences, thoughts, and ideas of people in general. Memes can be used for everything from commentary about hostile work environments to reflecting on what life is like during a global pandemic. (Iloh 2021)As Mobile culture is about staying connected with the world, “memes can condense the richness and nuances of certain sentiments into a single communicative unit" (Brown, 2017).” Memes have an expressive and explanatory power that does not take away from the essence of how people might communicate about the world around them and perhaps makes it easier to understand about worldly concepts

Internet memes are now deeply entwined in the fabric of social life and discourse. It is even posited that, “Nothing defines our use of the internet as clearly as the meme" (Rintel 2014)

Just like our smartphones, Memes are a prominent feature of global life in the 21st century and beyond

Memes and the Social World

3: They can keep up with Mobile Culture trends: Memes rarely go out of date and can be repurposed many times.

4: A source of cultural and social exchange to enrich people's knowledge in a informal and fast way. In most cases, they let you learn something new in addition to simply enjoying the joke. It's a win-win situation for you.

2: Easy to Make and Share: There are many apps available to create your own memes and share it through mobile communication apps. All you need is (i) an image (ii) text boxes and (iii) a sense of creativity and humor

1: They're attention grabbing: Memes usually contain bold text and a large image which makes them easy to notice. It's a great way to catch any learner's attention

Why are Memes so good for mobile learning and culture?

Memes and Mobile Learning

Some higher education courses are already regularly using memes as part of their teaching experience, learn how they do it

case studies: memes in action

05

Example 1: The meme communicates the concept of “generalizability” and reflects that (i) it's a concern for randomized clinical trials and (ii) insinuates that this is a challenge amongst clinicians when treating typical patients in a clinical environment (Brown 2020)

Age demographics is important as in most undergraduate programs, cohorts of Millennials (born 1981–1996) and Generation Z (born 1997–2012) make up the majority of current students. These generations are also the next wave of future and current faculty in schools of pharmacy

Case 1: Memes in Pharmacy Education (University of Florida)

The use of technology for the teaching learning process is increasing rapidly and the traditional paper-based classnotes/announcements are being replaced by WhatsApp group messages. The survey data reflects that the vehicle of information being passed on should be chosen as per its effectiveness, and memes have turned out to be very effective (Reddy et al 2020)

Example 2: Studies have reflected that when memes were used, students were more interactive and interested in learning than any other medium applied thus far when memes were combined with social media. Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platform and teaching through it is more versatile, humorous and engaging than the traditional written or PowerPoint presentation bases teaching.

Educators have started to embrace social media as a form of educational technology (eg: Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok) and surprisingly, social media brings out the joy of learning through memes

Case 2: Memes in relation to Educational Technology

Application is a crucial analysis tool for students as students can not only learn to better comprehend texts, but also to apply them to their own lives, and learn skills such as empathy when they consider people and situations from multiple points of view. Meme strategy is a powerful tool in the classroom, not only because it aids comprehension, but also because it encourages students to become active learners, critical thinkers, and insightful observers. (Hartman et al 2021)

Example 3: The perspective meme strategy can benefit students by giving them an entry point into the text and enabling them to look more closely at how different perspectives might add to, contradict, or challenge each other. The strategy also pushes students to consider their own perspective and how they experience the text. By allowing students to express their individual perspectives in figurative ways that might otherwise be difficult for them to describe through more traditional assignments

The benefit of students making these types of connections to popularculture, in this case memes, was that students who made the connections had to explain the contexts and purposes of the memes, as well as how the memes’ creators conveyed the messages

Case 3: Using Memes as a scaffolding tool (EAL/ELL Students)

A handy summary to know the advantages and disadvantages of integrating memes into your lessons

pros and cons of memes in education

06

Pros and Cons of Memes in Education

Comparison

1: Requires lots of research to determine content and appropiate age group2: Lifespan varies, some memes become irrelevant quickly, others don't3: Attracts potential unwanted negativity and hostility, what some find funny could be offensive to others

Cons

1: Makes lessons more engaging and interesting2: Breaks down difficult concepts into easier ones3: Concise and to the point4: Students can easily share them as knowledge or ideas5: Easy to find examples for educations

Pros

references and citations

07

Binder, Z (2020). The Importance of being concise. Forbes. June 3 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/06/03/the-importance-of-being-concise/?sh=7059effa17c5Brown JD.(2020) What Do You Meme, Professor? An Experiment Using “Memes” in Pharmacy Education. Pharmacy. 2020; 8(4):202. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy8040202Brown, N. (2017, June 6). What is a meme and what does this obsession say about the future of communication? Skyword. https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/meme-obsession-say-future-communication/Dongqiang, X & De Serio, L & Malakhiv, A & Matys, O. (2020) Memes and education: opportunities, approaches and perspectives. Geopolitical, Social Security and Freedom Journal Vol 3 Issue 2. DOI: : 10.2478/gssfj-2020-0009Elliot, J. (2019) Understanding Memes: A Marketing Guide of Do’s and Don’t. Retrieved from: https://blog.woobox.com/2019/11/understanding-memes-a-marketing-guide-of-dos-donts/Hartman, P; Berg, J; Fulton, H.; and Schuler, B (2021) "Memes as Means: Using Popular Culture to Enhance the Study of Literature," The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning: Vol. 26 , Article 8. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1381&context=jaeplIloh, C. (2021). Do It for the Culture: The Case for Memes in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211025896Nolin, M. (2015). The Influence of Cultural Attitudes and Norms on Smartphone Use, Technostress and Life Satisfaction. TRACE: Tennesee Research and Creative Knowledge. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1824/O’Dea, S. (2022). Smartphone traffic worldwide per month 2015-2027. Statista. February 23 2022. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/739002/worldwide-smartphones-monthly-data-traffic/Reddy, R & Singh, R & Kapoor, V & Churi, P. (2020). Joy of Learning Through Internet Memes. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP). 10. 116. 10.3991/ijep.v10i5.15211. Rintel, S. (2014, January 13). Explainer: What are memes? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-memes-20789Well, D. (2018) You all made dank memes: Using Internet Memes to Promote Critical Thinking. January 2018. Journal of Political Science Education 12(2): 1-9. DOI: 10.1080/15512169.2017.1406363.