Journal Post 2 1.29.23

 

Literacy is ever changing and evolving.  I think what counts as literacy is a personal decision that is made by the reader and how he or she is using it to make meaning withing their lives. Literacy can be determined in many ways.  If we think in general terms that literacy is one’s ability to read and write, we cannot discount the options that are available currently to do so.  Literacy was once dominated by publishing and printing technologies.  (Durrant and Green, 2000, n. pag.) According to Durrant and Green (2000) “there are more and different technologies available.” (n. pag.) Hence, they explain to us “account needs to be taken of a profound media shift in literacy, schooling, and society-a broad-based shift from print to digital electronics as the organizing context for literate-textual practice and for learning and teaching.” (Durrant and Green, 2000, n. pag.)

Literacy changes in response to new media by adapting.  Durran and Green (2000, n. pag.) write,“print takes a new place within a reconceptualized understanding of literacy, schooling, and technology practice, one which is likely to be beneficial in moving us and our children in the new millennium.”  Students can now interact with platforms such as Epic.com or MyOn. These allow students to select various stories, both fiction and nonfiction, to read. Epic provides certain books that have read aloud options. MyOn allows a “read to” option for students for all books which affords all levels of readers to engage with various text levels. In addition, it provides options for students to read at home if they have a limited number of paper books, thus making literacy equitable. Other platforms such as Lexia and IReady provided differentiated lessons and activities for students to engage in. Math platforms such as IReady and Zern provide students with the opportunity to practice math skills.  ZSpace which is available in my district for 7^th and 8^th graders, allows them to experience more realistic applications in Science, such as looking at cells, dissecting animals and much more. My daughter in both 5^th grade and 6^th used Minecraft to build a colonial village and Mesopotamia Village for Social Studies.  Furthermore, many of these platforms provide immediate data for teachers that can be used to create small groups and to make other instructional decisions. Teachers and students can work collaboratively via Google Classroom, Jamboard, OneDrive, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Google Drive. During one of my classes in the M.Ed program I worked collaboratively with two other classmates to create a Unit that spanned elementary, middle, and high school aged students. 

These new forms of communication need to be valued as ways and strategies to engage students as well as prepare them to be productive citizens in a quickly changing world. According to Rich (2008, n. pag.) “some literacy experts say that online reading skills with help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs.”  We do not need to treat digital literacies and traditional literacies as separate entities from one another. When we view them as working in conjunction with one another, it places value on the contribution to each.  Gillen and Barton (2010) claim that “digital literacies are not independent of other literacies, there is a relationship between traditional literacy.”

References

Durrant, C. and Green, B. (2000) Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Jan 18, 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com

Gillen, J. and Barton, D. (2010). Digital literacies: A research briefing by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Program.

Rich, M. (2008). Literacy debate: Online, r u really reading? Retrieved January 22,2023.

 

 

 

 

 

According to Gillen and Barton (2010) digital literacies is defined as “the constantly changing practices through which people make traceable meaning using digital technologies” (p. 9)

If I think about my literacy experiences during my undergraduate compared to now working on the M.Ed. program, they are slightly different. Most nights I can sit in the comfort of my own home and read, go to the ‘library’ and collaborate with classmates through our online platform, texting or email. I can be almost anywhere and gather information that I need or want to read about. This is because of how technology has changed.  Gillen and Barton explain as per Leu et al, 2004 that the ways in which we obtain knowledge and communicate are changing.  These changes provide us with ways to engage in “new kinds of social activities, civic life, learning and work” (p. 9)  In addition to this Wilber (2010) writes that “new literacies, in contrast with traditional literacies, are more participatory.” (p 2) What comes to mind here is the use of shared documents in either Google Drive or OneDrive. Many can access and edit, share, and add information.  Within the classroom or in our professional work,  we have programs like Nearpod and Jamboard where we can share ideas in real time with people in different locations.

In my role as a teacher, I have seen this change as well. When I started my career as an educator students relied mainly on books within the classroom library. They would read them during independent reading, students would check out books from the school library, and we would read books in reading group. Now we have digital programs that allow students to read books, such as Epic.com and MyOn (a program used within my school district). Students can read or listen to books, or even watch videos on certain topics. We have applications on the computer, such as Lexia that can assist students with phonics skills. IReady is another platform in which students read and respond to text questions and vocabulary. In these programs there are many multimodal features.  Students have audio in which to listen and must often attend to. They have many visuals to help support learning that they must also make meaning of.  

When I think of literacy what comes to mind is the process of reading and writing. Digital literacies afford us the convenience of communicating with others, finding information, or  paying our bills from almost anywhere. In my opinion the quote means we must be more cognizant of how we use these technologies that are now available to use within our practice as teachers. Are these new text formats that we share with our students reliable? Can students utilize this new media to meet objectives and standards that we are teaching? We want to make sure that with these new technologies that we are teaching our students will provide them with the skills and tools they will need to as the quote ends “further their own purposes in their learning lives” (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9)

 

References

Durran, C. and Green, B. (2000) Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge?The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Jan 18, 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Literacy+and+the+new+technologies+in+school+education%3a+Meeting+the...-a063132991

Gillen, J. and Barton, D. (2010). Digital literacies: A research briefing by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme.

Wilbur, G. (2010). Digital Culture and Education. Special themed issue: Beyond ‘new’ literacies. Retrieved January 17, 2023.