Monday, April 9, 2012
Digital Literacy
I use the internet almost every day, and I think I have since my first day of college. My use of the internet is mostly for communication purposes, but I also use it fairly often for research work. Other than checking my email, paying bills, and using Facebook, I probably use the internet weekly. I also use my cell phone daily. I mostly use it for text messaging friends and family- my phone is not a smartphone so I don't always have the internet in my pocket, like my parents do (who, by the way, are 30 years my senior). I use a kindle for recreational reading and a couple of word games maybe twice a week or so. My use of technology for educational purposes occurs probably 4 times a week. My thoughts about incorporating technology and digital literacy in the classroom have changed quite a bit this semester as I have taken an instructional technology class. There are so many cool ways we as teachers can engage our students in an interactive way with technology. Not only do I have access quickly to information like current events, museums and virtual field-trips, I can create a space for my students to reflect together on the way they interpret this information. There is a possibility that I will be doing half of my student teaching placement with a virtual charter school- this is a little intimidating to me simply because I wonder if I will be able to keep up with how quickly my students will be learning and using new technologies. However, I am excited by the opportunity to get resources to my students quickly and make sure they understand concepts by corresponding with them digitally. For my students that may not be as familiar with the technologies being used in class, I will make sure to assess where they stand and scaffold that learning, just like I would with any other area of study. I view digital literacy as very similar to linguistic literacy- the level of fluency with it you attain, the more successful you can be with using and implementing it in your life. And as the language of technology is constantly being added to, we will all have continual learning to do as we add to our digital vocabularies.
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I like the ways in which you have considered that your teaching will align better with a digital generation. The choices of digital texts that you have included as well as your critical thinking about how to improve student use and critical consumption of these texts will have a tremendous impact on your students’ learning. Additionally, the ideas you have for teaching them how to use these technologies better will have a profound effect on their future learning.
ReplyDeleteDo you find that you get resistant to technology changes? I wonder if we get attached to the technology we grew up with and tend to dislike it when newer generations are more literate in technology than we are. If I can get past this, I think this is a great opportunity for students to teach. Student love to be the expert, so if you just give them opportunities to explain everything to you, you will be fine. Do you like working current events into your history curriculum? Maybe you could have something like a Facebook page with current events that students could post on and you could trace the history leading to those events.
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