Chapter 1 & 2: Reflective Response

Journal #3: Multimodal Pedagogies and Trajectories of Remixing

While reading Chapters 1 and 2, I found myself intrigued by the use of some technology in the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the students and how they reacted to these different forms of literacy and text. A’idah, a student in an English class who regularly writes blogs stated, “I hate writing stuff on paper because I feel like my hands can’t keep up with my thoughts when I write on paper” (p. 30). I’m sure many of us can relate to this student! What a wonderful and insightful teacher to take her students’ struggles and turn them into a desire to learn.

I feel that teachers need to not rush to teach material, but to dig deeper into the underlying issues. As an educator, I understand the struggle and the rush to collect grades and to keep a deadline based around your lesson plans and observations. However, I feel that if we truly take into consideration the new digital age that our students are living in and what they are comfortable in participating in, learning the material will come at a quicker pace than originally planned. “When educators are more aware of adolescents’ digital literacies and composing repertoires, they can more effectively marry instructional goals that children and youth need to meet in order to successfully navigate formalized education […]” (p. 35).

In relation to Green’s approach to literacy, the operational literacy practices lies in the ability to understand the constant change in technology and being able to adapt to these new opportunities. The cultural literacy practices relates to the technology that we have available in our classrooms. This creates opportunities for our students to practice these new literacies and use them in their day to day life. Critical literacy practices relates to students having the ability to use these new technologies to their benefit and be proficient in creating and developing their own ideas.

I strive to be an educator who practices new ideas in order to benefit my students. I understand that our society is changing into a digital age and I believe that we need to embrace it. My school district has given each 4-6^th grade student an I-pad, and I enjoyed learning some new ideas to keep my students involved. “As youth are engaged in the processes and practices of exploring, making, and remaking their identities […] the role of the educator becomes more complicated and, we would argue, ripe with possibilities” (p. 35).

Lankshear, Colin and Michele Knobel. A New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 23-56). Peter Lang, 2013. Print

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

 Journal #2: What counts as literacy?

“What counts as literacy, how literacy changes in response to the new media landscape, and what value we should ascribe to the new forms of communication that continue to emerge and evolve online (Jenkins, 2009).

What counts as literacy? In a world where technology controls many aspects of our lives, the answer seems a little complicated. Traditional literacies relate to reading or researching material through printed books, newspapers or magazines. New literacies are those such as searching information on the Web, texting, using networking sites or blogging. “New literacies, in contrast with traditional literacies, are more participatory” (Wilbur 2010). But in which way does literacy have the most positive effect on our day to day life and on the growing development of our brains? The answer might be different for everyone. 

We have to understand that new literacies are not going anywhere. Whether we like it or not, this is the world that we are living in. The way people view literacies has changed due to the advancements in technology and the instant gratification that we desire. Why would you drive to the library to check out a book so you could find the answer to a question that you could have found in 5 seconds on your I-phone? 

Some believe that “reading a book, and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without a doubt, than the short little bits that you might get if you’re into the 30-second digital mode” (Pugh pg5).  Others believe that the internet is “just more comfortable and meets the needs of somebody who might not be a fluent reader” (Shaywitz pg6).

I personally feel that we need to find an equal balance between the traditional and new forms of literacy. As educators, we should let those who enjoy learning through the Web and other forms of technology embrace the new literacies. However I also feel that we need to incorporate all forms of literacy into our classrooms. We need to evolve with this new change but continue to stress to our students the importance of both.

References

Dana J. Wilber, Beyond ‘new’ literacies, Digital Culture & Education 2010

Rich, M. (2008, July 27). The Future of Reading- Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

New Literacies

Journal #1: New Literacies

“The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives” (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p.9).

 

When I first became enrolled in the New Media and New Literacies course, I was unaware of how much this topic related to my life as well as my career as a music teacher. Being an educator, I have seen firsthand the impact of technology on my students and on myself. My students were telling me that I needed to “get with the program,” and I soon started integrating these new forms of literacy into my lesson plans.

The 1991 Christie Report stated that “all students should be required to learn to use computers in their course work, with the aim of attaining word processing, principles of electronic text design and publication, using printers and exchanging electronic data on a network" (Christie et al. 1991, p. 233). From 1991 to the present, a lot has changed in public schools, including the difference between requiring students to attain a certain level of knowledge on computers and technology, from having the student’s be experts in the field. In my school district, each student in grades 4^th-6^th is given their own individual mini I-pad and each is overly qualified to download apps, research online and explore different forms of communication. Teachers can also now upload their notes, classroom information, administer tests and even answer student’s questions on a new database. Many students find this new form of text and this new approach to literacy a simple transition from the old days of handwritten notes and raising your hand in class when you had a question.

As an educator, I agree with Dana Wilbur when she states that there is a “necessity for teachers to learn, as part of a new literacies framework, visual literacy and critical pedagogy, in order to engage students to better understand their world and construct learning" (Wilbur 2010). In order to benefit our students to the highest level, we need to understand that literacy and “what people do with texts” (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p9) is constantly changing, and we need to not only change with it, but also take advantage of the new possibilities it creates.

References

Dana J. Wilber, Beyond ‘new’ literacies, Digital Culture & Education 2010

 Gillen, J., & Barton, D. (January 2010). Digital literacies. Teaching and Learning Research Programme.1-32.

Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge?, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 2000