Let's be real for a second, we really are moths to a flame when it comes to technology. And that's okay as long as we can also think about it critically and ask questions. As Manderino and Castek mentioned in their article "Digital Literacies for Disciplinary Learning: A Call to Action," "with a few keystrokes on a computer or a few swipes on a mobile device, individuals can be globally connected. Yet, access to information alone does not raise literacy levels, build political or social consciousness, increase civic engagement, or generate solutions to problems facing communities and the world at large." (Manderino, Castek pg 79) We, as teachers and parents, talk about how the world is at our fingertips with the access we have to technology now but we often don't teach our kids and students how to use and/or question that world. I think the most that we do as teachers is tell our students not to use Wikipedia as a source in their papers. Very rarely do we tell them why or urge them to fact check it and fix it. As Liz Zacho says in her talk that I've attached, "We are making consumers instead of creators." I think it's really important to remember, furthermore, that simply receiving the texts through different modes isn't enough to be considered literate. A huge part of that is to first understand the mode that they are learning from and question why it would help facilitate learning and producing in their specific discipline. This goes along with Manderino and Castek's article when they mention that technological tools aren't just used to master a lesson but should be used to help students attempt to solve intellectual and real-world problems. As Zacho says in her video I've attached below, digital literacy may prove to be as important as math and reading literacy.
Another point that really stuck was one of the five points that William Kist spoke about in his article, specifically the section about a balance of individual and collaborative activities. He goes off of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence and gives an example that may work in a classroom. He mentions that a way to involve individualism is to allow students to decide what medium a student uses while still allowing for collaboration through social interaction about those different mediums and what students learned from each. I really liked this idea and have seen it used in my own classes when I was in high school. Interestingly enough, I've seen it used specifically in my math class, which is where most teachers believe it is highly difficult to incorporate different mediums of literacy.
This also reminded me of the section in Manderino and Castek's article about how we should reconsider the binary of expert/novice. That instead of thinking of us, the teachers, as the perfect experts and the students as novice, we are now at a place where we can think of students as digital experts and ourselves as a disciplinary expert. Through collaboration and social interactions between us, we can increase literacy overall and hopefully get to a point where our students are not only consumers, but also creators.
Thank you for your post, Fatima. You bring up a great point - or, rather, a complication to the imperative of teaching digital literacies - about how inherently attracted we all are to digital content. Lankshear and Knoble (2008), quoting James Paul Gee touch on the this, too, when they warn that it is not enough to provide students with technology; we must also provide an avenue through which students can interact with the texts accessible through the technology in a meaningful way. This is to say that giving students iPads or xbox consoles is not going to make the better learners, but if we can find a way to incorporate those tools into a a curriculum that deemphasizes "parroting" back information, and instead fosters students' critical engagement with reading and writing, we can begin to promote "engagement" in a way that non-disciplinary literacy practices do not.
ReplyDeleteI thought the example in the Lankshear & Knoble reading, of the Chinese-Canadian student whose fanfiction provided an avenue into learning English, was a fantastic example of how to leverage new media for literacy outcomes. The problem becomes how to institutionalize that "selection" process for all students. Kist (2000) offers an impressive model for a "democratic" classroom, where students can choose the medium in which they express their thoughts. I think that model can help create the culturally well-rounded type of student that is poised to succeed anywhere because they enjoy learning new things in new mediums. But if a classroom is divided in its interested - or even its cultural lens - it may be difficult to implement such a model. Teachers cannot possibly master all the disciplines well enough to grade projects completed in twenty different mediums; students may not engage with, say, dance the same way they engage with a podcast.
But that these academics are trying to find a model in which students can CHOOSE how they learn to read and write - and learn how to read and write in a way that is applicable outside the sterile environment of the traditional classroom - is good news.
My apologies: I misspelled "Knobel" as "Knoble."
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post today Fatima. We all have heard and possibly even expressed to others how the world is at our fingertips with the use of the internet, but there are rarely directions behind that statement. I concur with Liz Zacho that we are producing consumers instead of creators because of the desire and ease to duplicate or alter what was found without investigating the truth or worth of what was found. This along with “the new gap” (the tech-savvy gap) discussed in Lankshear’s and Knoble’s Digital Literacies reading concerns me as a future teacher. Even though these things are factors that can limit the possible growth of future educators, proper education of the use can increase the efficacy of a particular discipline. I was impressed to hear that you have seen the incorporation of different mediums in a math class. We must talk offline of some of those practices one day. Unfortunately, my next concern is that as teachers, we may not be the most informed in our classrooms on the use of digital literacies. However, I would imagine that this reconsideration of the binary expert/novice and who plays what role at what given time in the classroom will smooth out this process. I can imagine my students knowing way more than me when it comes to knowing what is new in the technology world but that would be something that I would enjoy learning from them. What about yourself?
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike, I can see how it would be difficult to see how it would work in a math class so I'm down to talk to you in person about how I saw it work in mine. It was actually incredible to see how it actually facilitates learning because if there are only a few things I learned from that math class, it's the concepts we did in a media project.
DeleteHi Fatima,
ReplyDeleteYour post was a pleasure to read. I really enjoyed the TED talk that you included. I agree that we are instead consumers than creators. I think that we define students as consumers of information. We rarely ever really define students are creators of understanding. As an aspiring teacher by no means do I see myself as a digital expert. In the class that I was observing, students were using their ipads to take notes and do their homework on. Simply watching them was amazing because it would probably take me half an hour to even figure out how to lay out the page and switch from drawing graphs (this was a math class that I observed) to typing what the teacher wrote. I did see these students as digital experts because they knew how to navigate the technology and through this they seemed to have some tools that I lacked to create a better understanding of curriculum. Zacho even talked about coding and such. I know that it is not a usual course that is taught at schools but I believe it should be. My high school had a requirement of taking a coding course. Even though it seemed an extra requirement at the time, I now look back and see it as a blessing. My course helped give me a background of technology which in turn helped me seek more help from the computer and the internet. I personally just hope that I can one day become a digital expert as to help my students better.
Hey Fatima,
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! While it might seem strange to say at first, I totally agree with Zacho's point that digital literacy may come to be as important as math and reading literacy because, as technologies continue to develop, they find their way into more and more aspects of our lives. For example, I was observing a classroom last semester, in which ideas (like the ones we post here on this blog) were shared in a group chat during class time. I would have never imagined any sort of activity like this taking place when I was in high school, and it just goes to show how rapidly different media are being integrated into the classroom, which is great specifically in that it allows for types of beneficial collaboration among students that have not been possible in the past!
Yo Fatima!
ReplyDeleteI always wondered why students generally are not given options when it comes to the medium that they complete their work and express their views. There are so many tools at for us to utilize for the betterment of our students but so many teachers believe in the standard "one process for everyone" instead of letting those who are learning do it the best way they know how. Students need to be in charge of their own education (to a degree or medium) and it is up to us to help them as best as we can. We do not have to be left in the technological dark, we can be the energy that helps them power through this crazy educational system that we are a part of.
Wonderful post Fatima. I think this destruction of the expert/novice binary is exceptionally underused in teaching. The idea of making every student a creator is a wonderful prospect. I was just discussing the topic of creator/consumer with a friend of mine who is a Ph.d student working in Robotics at Johns Hopkins, obviously someone who was firmly entrenched himself in the camp of "creator". As a musician, we shared many views somewhat akin to disgust with purely consumer culture. There are too many of us who are listeners but not music makers, too many who call themselves "foodies" but only cook mac n' cheese.
ReplyDeleteOf course, consumption is what drives innovation and success in our society, yet there is no reason as to why every person can only be a consumer and not also a creator. The experience of consumer culture and creator culture go hand in hand as well.
For example, my songwriting completely changed when I bought Tom Waits' 1985 classic "Rain Dogs" when I was 15, and influenced my creations there on out. Likewise, a chef's work might change from purchasing a meal or buying a new product. We all have the desire and instinct to be creators, it takes the seed of education to bring that out of all students.