"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).
As a high school teacher, this quote speaks volumes to me.
There is a large schism in the high school setting; many teachers still
implement textbooks, and traditional ways of literacy, while many students cannot
find a way to connect to that. The ways of communication and literacy are
changing rapidly; it seems every few years a new technology emerges that can
help students learn, and teachers educate. As Gunther Kress notes “the current period writing is being
affected by four factors: 1) Texts are…ever-increasingly appearing with
writing, and, in many domains of communication, displacing writing where it had
previously been dominant. 2) Screens are replacing the page and the book as the
dominant media…3) Social structures and social relations are undergoing
fundamental changes…4) Constellations of mode and medium are being transformed”
(Gillen & Barton, 2010, p.6)
Over the
summer, my high school received a NYS Technology Grant, which meant updating
technologies in the classroom to better reach students in a changing world. In almost
all the classrooms, a SmartBoard was installed, as well as newer computers.
This will have a profound experience on how a student learns, but there is an
issue. Many of the teachers do not understand this new technology, and do not
understand how it can affect their classroom. I believe that students will not
be able to effectively learn with this new technology until their teachers
fully comprehend it. Some teachers are very open to this change, and have
embraced it, while others are far more stubborn in seem to be stuck in their
ways. One teacher has had students use iPads and different apps on their phones
to do homework, while another teacher gives the same homework out of a
textbook. It’s no surprise when 90% of the one class does their homework, and
less than half do theirs in the other class. Dana Wilber perfectly summed up
Grushka & Donnelly’s work “Digital technologies and
performative pedagogies: Repositioning the visual”, saying “this work draws
upon the transformative potential of new literacies…they argue for the
necessity for teachers to learn, as a part of a new literacies framework,
visual literacy and critical pedagogy, in order to engage students to better
understand their world and construct learning” (Wilber, 2010).
I believe that when all teachers can be on the same
digital literacy level as their students, that is when real effective learning
can be done, when students and teachers can use their technologies together to
learn from one another.
Bibliography:
Gillen, J., & Barton, D. (2010). Digital Literacies: A Research Briefing by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. London.
Wilber, D. (2010, May 31). Special themed issue: Beyond 'new' literacies - Digital Culture & Education. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the experience that you had where you teach. Basically the same thing has happened at the middle school where I teach. We had Smartboards with projectors for a few years and now we have ActivPanels which are almost like televisions (no projectors). Although they essentially do the same job, the new panels were brought in because of the new possibilities for the classroom. You can now create presentations that can be projected to the students laptops or iPads. However, we only had a two-hour professional development session to learn this at the end of the last school year. Many teachers, including myself, feel it's not enough to implement this new technology. Gillen & Barton (2010) allude to the fact that by the time teachers are sufficiently trained, the technology may be out of date. This is one of the biggest challenges to using digital technologies in the classroom.
In our classroom children create presentations using PowerPoint. This has upped engagement and created another bridge between me, my students and the new classroom experience.
ReplyDeleteWhat Green & Bigum (1998) label as 'technocentrism' has entered our school. Now, when a teacher cannot be found or one quits, our students are sent to the computer to learn. The current trend in Louisiana is called Plato and is a sad way to understand math or Spanish or Earth Science yet, with all the monies now budgeted for technology, this is how some districts are choosing to spend funding.
Extremism is not a stranger to educational reform. There is a big difference between implementing and training teachers in technology to be used inside the classroom as a companion to the human touch or the textbook touch. When a program costs the same as a teacher, that is a sign that somebody isn't paying attention to swing of the pendulum.
Meeting the l(it)eracy challenge. Retrieved at Online Library 2015.
We also received a grant to update our computers, software, and equipment so we could be more efficient and effective. We are using part of our grant to include family involvement. It seems that most of our families have smart phones and it is an easy way to connect with them. We can sent mass texts, emails, robocalls, and we are even working on an app so they can see their child's progress on their phone when ever they want. The newest software we have connects with families and give them supportive activities they can do at home to help support their child's learning. It is really amazing how technology can support school and home.
ReplyDeleteIt is without a doubt that educators must get "hip-to-it" if they want to continue reaching their students. The lives of students are changing rapidly, increasingly technological, increasingly new literacy. As students create and vie in a world of new evidences, realities, and communications, it is a must that educators seek to learn and include those new literacies into academia.
ReplyDeleteThe educator who uses music to bridge Science with students' interests, -using ill rhythms and spitting ill lines- integrating a voluminous amount of science concepts into each rhythm has activated a world of new literacy for students. Or the educator who WhatsApp with students to clarify unclear homework topics, issues, or questions; allowing students to get the answers to questions and the time when it really matters, at home, has bridge a road to continuous leaning and interest. And the anonymity of WhatsApp and other social networks, provide a welcoming environment in which students can build their text-based communication skills and understanding with confidence. These Educators understand that students come with a world of literacy skills that can be harnessed and used to broaden current knowledge with new knowledge.