Post #12- Toward a Theory of New Literacies

Toward a Theory of New Literacies

This article gave great insight into how the concept and definition of literacy has changed over time, but also how we need to include it into the technological aspect and what it means to be literate on the Internet.  "New literacies change regularly as technology opens new possibilities for communication and information.  We see this happening today as people redefine literacy practices while they communicate on a chatboard associated with a website, talk to one another using a video cam, or participate in virtual reality role-playing games."  It is clear that the Internet isn't just for attaining information anymore; with Web 2.0 we are not only getting information, we can also put in our own information and change what is already posted, especially with websites like Wikipedia.  Another aspect that is quite obvious is that with the changing technologies, the literacy instruction in classrooms has also changed.  With schools incorporating different types of technology between Smart boards and other types of technology in the classroom, it is no wonder that the way we teach is changing too.  Teachers are finding different ways to teach literacy instead of the traditional, text-book ways, so their definitions of what it means to be literate are changing too.  I think we all need to take into consideration the 21st century skills that students are going to need to know, as soon technology will be everywhere.  Literacy won't just be being able to read and write anymore and comprehending what they've read; it'll be comprehending information on the Internet to use when writing research papers, how to read recipes found online, etc.  When reading through this article, I thought the following quote was very important and explains a lot about how the Internet has changed our lives, both at home and in the classroom: "The new literacies of the Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives.  These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others."  It is definitely important to teach out students how to be literate in a non-technological sense because even now, technology isn't everywhere and it always isn't in either school or the home.  When students aren't exposed to technology they need to know how to be literate to comprehend a text or decode information.  When students are literate in a non-technological sense, it will be a lot easier to apply their prior knowledge about literacy and their skills and use them to navigate the Internet and different technologies.   

Post #11- Becoming Critical Consumers and Producers of Text; Teaching about language, power, and text

Becoming Critical Consumers and Producers of Text

It is quite clear there is a difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0.  Web 1.0 allows us to be mostly consumers of information, finding resources and other information online.  Web 2.0 is much more different; not only can we consume information, we can actually be "authors" of some sort.  The creation of blogs and sites where people can write reviews or comment on news articles allows us to be authors and write our opinions on whatever we like, whether it's a product we've bought, a news article that strikes a chord, or just writing down our thoughts and opinions on whatever.  I liked the teacher that used Writer's Workshop in her classroom using different types of Web 2.0 tools, from Comic Creator to blogs.  While reading the article, I definitely think that using the blogs was much more successful than using Comic Creator.  At least with the blogs, Kristin could monitor the students' work and even put in her own thoughts and feelings or postings about book she's read.  I think that was a very good idea; if students can't get a thought out or don't know what to write, having their teacher write a posting about something they've read, it would allow students to respond to the posting.  This way it keeps the classroom conversations going and enhances what they're reading about or learning about in the classroom setting.

Teaching about language, power, and text

From reading this article, I definitely think the following quote was true: "Classroom literacy practices that involve students in reading supplementary texts, reading multiple texts, reading from a resistant perspective, and producing countertexts all help develop an understanding that text is given meaning, as opposed to containing meaning (pg 487)." I think that all too often, students are hesitant to read books that make them think outside the box or aren't exactly within their comfort zone or aren't part of their interests.  This makes them more leery of reading something in school as part of an ELA class or a history class.  I liked the part of the article that discussed students reading a variety of texts that had the same theme.  This exposes different types of books to students so they can see the differences and similarities of the way the books are written while they have the same themes or topics within them.  Students are able to tell which books they like from doing this kind of reading activity.  "Reading multiple texts encourages students to understand authorship as situated activity.  Students can consider who constructed the text, when, where, why, and the values on which it was based.  By experiencing different treatments of the same topic or event, students begin to recognize that text is not "true" in any absolute sense but a rendering as portrayed by an author (pg 493)."  I think this quote was very important and basically sums up the whole article.  It is very important for students to read multiple text so they can understand different points of views, and compare and contrast books that have the same themes or similar topics.

Post #10- Exploring the Online Reading Comprehension Strategies; Research on Instruction and Assessment; Expanding the New Literacies Conversation

Exploring the Online Reading Comprehension Strategies

With so much information on the Internet and so many web sites to find it on, it's almost no wonder how important the Internet and the many resources have become for teaching and learning.  However, even though a reader may be very "book smart" and proficient in finding information in a text there are, "new types of reading strategies necessary to learn within this interactive, informationally rich, and relatively new text environment (pg 217)."  Even though a student could find important information within an informational or narrative text, using a computer and the Internet to find information is much more complex; students need to know how to navigate a search engine to search for what they need, how to scan through the sites to determine if the information is pertinent, and how to connect the information.  So, naturally, "reading comprehension becomes an important issue to study because new comprehension skills, strategies, and dispositions may be required to generate questions, and to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information on the Internet (pg 217)."  Since children and adults have more difficulty reading informational text than reading narratives, "the processes and strategies readers employ as they interact with informational texts also differ from those they employ while reading narrative texts (pg 217)."  Not only do we now have to take into account the different skills needed to evaluate and analyze the information found in informational texts, we have to employ those skills and more to analyze and decode information found on websites and search engines.  I think this is even more difficult for people to handle, because most of the information found on the Internet is more informational text than narrative, and now people need to incorporate their 21st century skills to find the information within the text and hyperlinks.  When all these skills come into play, I definitely think that readers don't forget one of the most important skills when reading: prior knowledge.  "Readers who draw on prior knowledge of a topic and prior knowledge of text structure are most able to mentally organize and remember the ideas gained from information text (pg 219)."  While the study part of the article was a little confusing, all in all I thought this article was very informative and instructional on how to incorporate the skills necessary for finding information in informational texts and how to apply it to the Internet and websites while using the 21st century skills to navigate through different sites and hypertexts to find what is needed. 

Research on Instruction and Assessment

One thing I agreed with right off the bat with this article is that "proficient readers offline are not always proficient readers online (pg 2)."  I think this could be because a lot of students aren't exposed to computers, much less the Internet, so they don't have the skills necessary to read and look for information as they're surfing the Internet.  While I knew a lot of people have Internet access, the actual statistics that were shown in the article were a little surprising to me.  A lot of classrooms and colleges use the Internet for homework and other assignments, but I had no idea that more than 90% of adolescent students in the US are using the Internet for homework (pg 3).  That showed me that a lot of schools are making the effort to be online and do more with technology, and that can be very useful and helpful for teachers and students alike.  I think a huge part of using the Internet correctly and proficiently, especially for readers, is locating information, as shown on page 4.  "Locating information online is another aspect of online reading comprehension.  It also requires new online reading comprehension skills such as using a search engine, reading search engine results, or quickly reading a web page to locate the best link to the information that is required."  When a reader doesn't know how to narrow down their searches when using a search engine, they won't get the information they're looking for, or will find out more than they need.  When teachers give out an assignment, it seems that a lot of them just assume the students know how to correctly use the Internet to find what they're looking for.  Instead of just assuming, teachers should run through a quick tutorial on how to properly locate information to help the students with their assignments. 

Expanding the New Literacies Conversation

I definitely think the Internet has become a huge highway for communication and information gathering.  Not only can we find information on a subject we're looking for, we can even put in our own information on the Internet on that subject.  While using the Internet and different literacies and technologies in the classroom is useful and effective, I think many schools are hesitant for many reasons.  For one thing, the districts don't have enough money or funding to pay for these new literacies, with many classrooms staying with textbook-based instruction.  Another reason is that the Internet can be seen as a literacy issue, especially when students don't know how to navigate the Internet to look for important information when doing an assignment.  I think that the phrase "new literacies" can be somewhat intimidating to teachers and school officials, but we need to be able to think outside the box and look into what can help our students, since many of them are exposed to new technologies outside of school and can use them quite proficiently.  Since students with cell phones are texting and emailing and surfing the Internet on these different devices, they must have some knowledge about the literacy skills needed to read the information they're receiving.  When we have students using different devices outside of class, I think teachers should learn about the skills the students use to read the information they get from their devices and enhance them in the classroom with the Internet and search engines.  This way, the students will be working on their online reading comprehension skills for when they need to use computers to do assignments for school. 

Post #9- Becoming literate in the technological age, Acquisition of Information Online

Becoming literate in the technological age

Right off the bat in this article, I like how it compares and contrasts the two different activities Ms. Doyle implemented in her classroom.  Looking at the way the activities were carried out and the resources used, I can understand why scenario two would be the best way to go.  With 21^st century skills being on the forefront of education today, it is important that teachers learn and understand how to use a variety of technologies to implement and use in their classrooms, and potentially have their students use.  The following quote sums up this statement very well: “in order to be literate in this technological age, students must learn to make meaning not only out of text but also out of the vast amount of visual information conveyed to them through images (pg 571).”  I think that using a variety of technology, such as the digital cameras versus non digital cameras, in the classroom is beneficial to all students, including the bilingual students as featured in this article.  Whenever technology is used in the classroom, especially using the Internet to look up websites for information, it is important that a teacher screens websites before presenting them to the students, as Ms. Doyle did.  “By prescreening information resources, she ensured that her students were presented with only those that were appropriate to their ages and the task at hand (pg 572).”  I definitely think that the Internet and other technologies, when used correctly, can help each other as well as other members of the community collaborate and learn from each other, as stated in this article.  Using technology not only helps students within the classroom, but can also provide more opportunities to learn so much more outside the classroom.  The students and other community members can use this knowledge in the future, providing so much room for growth.    

Acquisition of Information Online

This article was a little tough to follow, especially when it came to the study of how having prior knowledge of a subject associated with their navigation of a Website to find out more information about that subject.  I think what is stated in the article was true: “Users with higher prior knowledge within a domain tend to constrain their navigational selections to specific topics within a hypertexts system, explore these topics in greater detail, and move in a more nonlinear manner though the information space (pg 292).”  I definitely think that when a person has more prior knowledge on a subject and would like to know more about something pertaining to that subject, they will know just what to search for and read closer on a Website to find out more information.  I also think they will be more focused and less distracted than users who do not have prior knowledge on a subject and navigation skills.  With so much emphasis on 21^st century skills nowadays, “twenty-first century readers must not only know how to decode and comprehend texts that they are reading as they have in the past.  They are now responsible for efficiently finding and evaluating these texts, apprehending information across multiple modalities simultaneously, and orchestrating dynamic strategies that facilitate learning in these complex environments (pg 291).”  I think these two sentences are very important in how we access information on the Internet, not only having prior knowledge about a certain subject but how to navigate through different links and texts to find out what we need. 

Post #8- Webquests, "I Guess It Was Pretty Fun"

Webquests

I think this article gives great insight on what a WebQuest is for anyone who would like to use it in the classroom and needs to know more information about them.  Just like other web 2.0 teaching techniques we’ve been learning about, I think that the following quote in this article goes very well with everything we’ve been learning about, not just WebQuests: “in addition to knowledge of pedagogical theories, preservice teachers are also expected to be competent in the use of technology for teaching and learning (pg 109).”  I think that WebQuests could be a very important and useful tool to use in the classroom to supplement the teaching going on in the classroom, but of course before students can dive into using the WebQuests it is very important that the teacher learns about them as well as the positives and negatives, as highlighted in this article.  I like that WebQuests are basically tasks that are designed around major themes of a topic to be learned (pg 110), and these tasks could be very motivational for students, as it includes technology instead of using the same old textbook to look for answers to questions.  Just like with any aspect of Web 2.0, there are negatives or weaknesses to everything; I think one of the strongest weaknesses of WebQuests is that students who don’t understand the work or aren’t at grade level in reading will have difficulty with some of the tasks or be unmotivated if the work is too difficult.  It is the teacher’s, as well as all the students in the class, responsibility to collaborate and work together to get through the tasks of the WebQuests.

“I Guess It Was Pretty Fun” 

This article gave great insight on how to use the technology of WebQuests in a middle school setting, and I thought this article really hit home.  When I was student teaching in a 6^th grade classroom, I had the opportunity to use the Smart board with my lessons and the students really liked it.  I think with any opportunity to use technology in the classroom as a supplement to a core classroom lesson really helps the students focus on the tasks and collaborate with their classmates.  One problem I did find during the article was on page 153, where “some students jumped right into the sites that contained primary sources, while others had to visit secondary source sites to find background information about the war.”  I think that having students visit other sources besides the ones that are on the WebQuest could be useful, but it subtracts from the time spent on doing the actual activities by poking around websites that won’t even be as useful.  That part goes along with number 6 on page 154: Maximize class time on the computer.  When students aren’t prepared or are poking around different websites trying to find information, they aren’t on task and won’t be able to get the tasks done in the time allotted.  Number 7 on page 154 also goes hand-in-hand with maximizing the class time on the computer- clarifying student rules in the computer lab and what is expected of them on the WebQuest is also extremely important.  Students should be using their time wisely in order to get the tasks done as well as learn something from the activities they’ve been doing.  I think this article is very helpful and informative on using new technologies in the classroom and especially how to use them in a middle school setting, since they are usually the toughest to please lesson-wise.    

Post #7- Elementary Classroom Web Sites, Making the Most of Your Class Website, Using Websites Wisely, School-Based Websites

Elementary Classroom Web Sites

I definitely agree that “classroom web sites can provide children with literacy opportunities.”  Having links on the website can allow children to play games, collaborate with other kids from across the country and the world, and even look at books that are recommended for children specific ages.  One thing I found somewhat surprising was that governments around the world are “supporting their citizens so they can compete in the information-based global economy.”  While it might offer positive benefits, I think it might create very negative feelings.  If students are competing against one another in a game or a project online, good sportsmanship may not be exhibited if a kid loses or wins for that matter.  Another good point that was made in the article was about the literacies of different cultures and how no two students learn the same.  That could also be very bad when competing online against other students, especially if one student is at a “disadvantage” because of different learning abilities and reading levels.  The new literacies part of the article was very informative; I think teachers and administrators could learn a lot about the benefits of using these new literacies in the classroom, especially on a school website and how students from the school, the district, and beyond could learn and improve their literacy skills from what is on the school website. 

Making the Most of Your Class Website

I think class websites are very useful tools.  It gives teachers a chance to let families and community members an idea of what is going on in the classroom, upcoming events, homework assignments, etc.  Since most teachers have access to a computer, whether in their classroom or somewhere else in the school, it almost makes sense for teachers to set up a classroom page.  Most school districts have links that take you to a place to search for faculty and staff, and most of them have set up a classroom page.  Some keep it simple and only list a few things on their page while some go all out, have links to authors, have slideshows of things going on in their classroom, etc.  Because most schools have places on their websites where teachers can set up a classroom page, it’s kind of unnecessary to make a separate website.  If teachers want to go all out and the school website doesn’t allow it, then it would be fun to get acclimated to and set up a new website.  I think that classroom websites can be very beneficial for everyone: teachers, students as well as family and even community members to support the school.  It helps students get more out of their learning and it allows teachers to use technology to reach out beyond the classroom. 

Using Websites Wisely

I definitely agree that teachers need to make clear what kinds of websites their students should be on when researching a topic.  When I was student teaching, one of the activities in my unit was a research project on recent geological disasters, and it was important that I not only gave the students a guideline on how to do the project, but also gave some websites such as CNN and other news websites that students could research the geological disasters.  It was important to give the students an idea of where to go so they could get as much information as they could, and they weren’t just searching on random websites that wouldn’t help them.  I really liked that this article gave some examples of informational websites teachers can give to their students as well as some of the information that’s on these websites.  I also liked how the websites featured in this article had an age range, making it more appropriate for viewing for specific reasons.  The Science Website for Kids site seemed like a fun way to learn about science through different games mainly focused on science.  I think students would find the subject much more interesting after checking a website like that out.  I definitely agree with the very last quote of the article: “By concentrating on key learning goals and performance-based skills, teachers can design tasks and supports that make students’ online work meaningful and worthwhile.” 

School-Based Websites

This article started off like the “Making the Most of Your Class Website” article by stating the benefits of having a website through the school.  I definitely agree that they “may help foster a deeper understanding and commitment from the community at large, developing communication across classes, grade levels, cultures and even continents.”  Since diversity is quite common in classrooms nowadays, students who are from different countries or have family in other parts of the world can tell their family members about the teacher’s or school’s website.  The family members can then check out the website and get an idea of what is going on in the classroom, school, and community.  I also agree that when planning a class website, teachers need to keep in mind the audience targeted as well as the content on the site.  I looked at the table which showed specific features usually seen on school websites, and I thought about some of the school websites I’ve seen and some don’t even have everything on that list. I think the one thing that a lot of school websites lack is teacher/staff biographies/email addresses.  I would understand not having biographies on the teachers, but teachers should at least list their email addresses somewhere on the website.  If a parent needs to get ahold of a teacher during the day, usually an email is the way to go.  As I read through the article further, I noticed that after the study, most people within a school district didn’t know what should be on a school website or didn’t have a lot of the recommended features.  I think that it might be because people who aren’t technologically savvy might be afraid of messing something up, or it could be because school officials don’t want to divulge so much information.  Whatever the case may be, I think having more information about the school on the website can be beneficial for people who want to learn more about the schools or the district, find teacher websites, and just be very informational to whoever comes across the website.

Post #6- Chapter 7, The Commons on Flickr, The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms

Chapter 7

Even though I personally don’t have a Flickr account, I like the positive attributes it can have in the classroom, and that it seems easy enough to use.  “From a classroom standpoint, think about the ability to capture daily events or highlights and easily share those with parents, community, and colleagues.  Field trips, speakers and visitors, special projects, and much more could become a part of any classroom’s “photo stream” and could be a great way of sharing the teaching and learning experience (pg 102).”  I really like how this can be used in the classroom; if a student is sick or a parent can’t come into class, they can be up to date on what goes on in the classroom and even the school through the Flickr account.  I also like that “the real power of Flickr lies in the ways it can connect people from around the world (pg 105).”  If the students have an event or go somewhere, the pictures can be uploaded to Flickr and the photos can have the tags in them.  Then someone from a different part of the country or the world can search for photos that have a certain tag and see for example a class that went apple picking.  That person can then comment on the photo and can learn more about the field trip or the area.  I didn’t know much about Flickr before this class, but I did know that it was used to upload photos and share with friends.  I didn’t know that it could be used in classrooms, especially to the extent showed in the book.  I think the positive uses of Flickr in the classroom can be summed up in the last sentence on page 110: “Flickr is a great tool for introducing students not only to digital images and publishing, but also to the social conversations and collaborative learning opportunities that the Web now offers.”

Photostreams to the People: The Commons on Flickr

This article was very informative on how to use Flickr, not necessarily in the classroom, but just getting started with the whole process of starting an account.  The Commons part of Flickr is like the driving force, where people can look through different pictures and even change them, which I really like.  One thing that I saw in the article that could be used in the classroom was using Flickr to make collages.  A project that came to mind when I came across this was at the beginning of the school year, the students could use Flickr to look up pictures of things they like to make an “All About Me” collage as a way of introducing themselves to each other; another project that this could be great for is doing heritage appreciation.  Each student could find pictures of food or the architecture in the country they’re from and present it to the rest of the class.  I also liked that the article gave background information about how Flickr came to be; sometimes it’s difficult to find out how a website has gone worldwide in a short period of time or how it was even founded.

Connecting the Dots: The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms

One of the problems nowadays is the large achievement gap in schools.  Another big problem is that some of the schools that have the largest achievement gaps don’t have the technology necessary to use in the classroom.  I definitely agree that having technology in the classroom, with the bright colors and different graphics used in lessons, it captures the students’ attention more instead of just reading from a textbook, as is usually the case in most traditional classrooms.  When I was student teaching in a 6^th grade classroom, I had the opportunity to use a smartboard in my unit.  I loved learning all about it and how to use it, and all the things that could be done on the smartboard really intrigued my students.  They loved the different pictures, videos, and other bells and whistles I incorporated into the presentations.  Using technology, for me, gave everyone a way to learn something new while tapping into their previous knowledge.  I do think that from the experiences I had during my student teaching shows that although technology in the classroom won’t completely close the achievement gap, it will help.  It has to start somewhere.