Quote:
“While computers, the Internet and electronic gadgetry were once perceived as the
playthings of young ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’, this is no longer the case.” (Adlington & Hansford, 2008).
Image Source: http://tiger.towson.edu/~cwilli48/New_Folder/Billgate.jpg
Why I chose this quote:
I chose this quote because growing up in the early 90s, I remember computers being a geek thing and not applying to everybody. I remember my brother, a computer nerd, trying to explain to me what the Internet was when I was in third grade. I remember feeling like the Internet was only for those really intelligent computer nerds. However, I now use the Internet on a daily basis and communicate through the Internet with hundreds of people for both education and leisure purposes. I think it is important to realize that we are not talking about technology that just a few geeks use. This is something that 90% of teens use on a daily or at least weekly basis!
Questions:
1. Why is it important for teachers to use digital media to support writing instruction in school?
- As the passage suggests, “The point of literacy education is to engender powerful communication dexterity in children that they may draw upon regardless of context, which can only occur as a result of embracing a wide range of texts and masteries as legitimate (Dowdall, 2006). Dissonance can be lessened, particularly for students who do not make the transitions between texts and contexts easily, by focusing on the aspects of texts that are assonant (Dowdall, 2006).” It is important for teachers to use digital media because that is what students are using at home and that gap needs to be narrowed.
2. What are the differences between writing online and writing in school?
- There is no one common digital language. Writing online is more of an enjoyable activity for students. Many times, students use online journals and blogging to express themselves. “Both texts provide opportunities to establish social identities, demonstrate social, cultural, technological, personal and linguistic masteries’required to position the author, draw on intertextual associations and elicit feedback from audiences (Dowdall, 2006, p. 161). But the school text focuses on endorsement of lingustic and cultural masteries and the locus of control is located away from the teenage author.”
3. How should teachers use digital spaces to support writing instruction in school?
- “Knobel and Lankshear(2006, p. 91) suggest that for effective powerful writing to take place using blogs, the focus should be on ‘genuine affinity spaces’ that will interest and challenge students into writing effective pieces for significant purposes.” It is important that teachers don’t just “use it to say they used it.” Effective powerful writing is the ultimate goal.
4. What are some of the challenges to using digital spaces for writing instruction in school?
- “One dilemma for teachers, then, is the pedagogical challenge of designing meaningful tasks that will ‘engage and enrage’ (Prensky, 2001) students. Out‐of‐school blogs may well be considered interesting, but in themselves do not, as Knobel and Lankshear put it,require ‘grammatically correct sentence rules’ (2006, p. 88).”
5. The authors of the reading provided some excellent examples of how teachers used the social purposes of new texts to support learning in school. Please find another example (Lesson plan or student created product) that provides a good example of how a teacher kept true to the social purpose of a new digital text to support learning in the classroom. Please provide explanation for you example.
- This is a great example of how a class worked together to create a photostory to help share and learn about slavery. This goes beyond a presentation in class; it is a class presentation for the world.
Reference:
Adlington, R., & Hansford, D. (2008, July 6). Digital spaces and young people’s online authoring: Challenges for teachers. Retrieved June 10, 2013, from National Conference for Teachers of English and Literacy: http://www.englishliteracyconference.com.au/files/documents/AdlingtonHansford-Digital%20spaces.pdf
I agree that it is important for teachers to use digital media to facilitate their students’ learning. I am teaching summer school this year and have a small group of fourth and fifth graders. Since most of these students have difficulties in reading and writing but are very computer savvy, I am hoping that the use of blogs during writing activities will help lessen the “dissonance” you mentioned in your posting and, in effect, enhance each student’s writing and reading skills by increasing motivation.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I grew up in the 90s as well; therefore, I remember computers being "geeky" or "nerdy". I remember it being called "Computer Geek". However, now if you don't have access to a computer - it is almost like a person is starving for technology!
ReplyDeleteThe video is a great example of a collaborative student created multimodal text!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember ever having a personal computer until middle school. It was an old desktop computer with dial-up Internet connection. I'm impressed that you were able to experience one in third grade. They weren't popular until middle school. It's amazing how things with a negative connotation can become a social norm in a few short years.
ReplyDelete