Emergent, developing, and fluent are very broad literacy evaluation labels that do not encompass habits and processes such as attitude, purpose, and use. I would label myself Developing in new literacies. I prioritize the new literacies and apply myself only to those that I find useful for second language teaching. Within each field of interest, there is a plethora of literacies and available media technologies. If, however, I do not find a new literacy constructive in multiple purposes and uses of my students’ language learning, then I do not feel that it is a good use of my time to integrate it into my curriculum. With our rapidly growing technologies, I feel that educators need to spend more time evaluating the merits of each development, with a critical eye towards possible applications in the field that will enhance the classroom experience. The one aspect of emergent readers and writers that I wish to maintain in my own developing new literacies exploration is their belief that learning is fun and exciting. This attitude is the intrinsic motivation to exploring digital literacies and incorporating multiple media resources in a language learning environment.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Exploring New Literacies...
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4 comments:
I believe that our job as teachers is to examine the new technologies that are available to us and utilize those that are students are attracted to. I talked about meeting the students at their level of learning-no matter how inept I feel towards a multimedia presentation or some new technology, if it enhances the learning experience in my classroom, I want it.
I like the way that you reveal the PROCESS of literacy rather than the "path." I hadn't thought to question it, but now that you've brought it up, I wholeheartedly agree! (I have to say that I love the new blog component of the class. I find that when I read others opinions and reflections on class discussions, I look at the issue in an entirely new way.) I think that the minute we place a finite label like "fluent" on something, it is almost an acknowledgment that the learning process has stopped and there is nothing else to see. Like I wrote on Kelly's blog post, this is why "technological natives" cannot exist completely, as we will always be behind the curve.
I really enjoyed reading your thoughts. I like how you talked about only using what you thought would be beneficial to the students. I think that it is key as teachers that we don't just use technology to use it, but to use it for a purpose that will help our students in their educational path. I also liked how you talked about fluency, technology is something that is continually changing and constantly being reevaluated and upgraded, I think it would be hard to place the definition of fluency in stone when it comes to technology because of this.
Allison, I completely agree!
So often, I see people implementing technology without a relevant context. I can't see how technology for technology's sake can possibly be beneficial. The point of technology is to solve an external problem, not to create more of them! It's important that we understand both the breadth and the depth of technology, so that we can make appropriate choices regarding when to use what.
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