New Literacy Summary- Alexandra, Rachel D., Kelly K, and Amanda

After reading the article on new literacies (co-authored by our very own Dr. Dana), we all saw the increase in technology a danger for interpersonal communication in the classroom and in the world.

While Alexandra wonders how the decrease in face-to-face, verbal communication will impact collaboration in the classroom, she also observes that kids are more prolific than ever, even though most of their writing is over the internet. She also wonders if traditional, paper-based skills will become obsolete in the wake of technology.

Kelly K. thinks that because technology is omnipresent, literacy has become that much more vital. Also, because kids are so enthusiastic about new technologies, they are reading that much more over the internet and reading to find out more about video games. Additionally, Kelly observes that kids have developed a new language for quick text messaging, however at the risk of it compromising their writing skills. Like all of us, Kelly thinks that human contact suffers at the hands of technology.

Like Kelly, Rachel thinks the internet is great for kids that are reading online while unaware of it. She worries, however, that students' spelling, careful editing, and reading of books will suffer because of programs on computers and text on the internet. She also fears that students won't challenge their online resources and will buy into everything they are reading as fact.

I found a huge discrepancy for how the state assesses students in the old linear, read, question, answer format of reading comprehension, while the very nature of thinking has changed because the information-age. This brought to mind a student of mine who struggles very much in language arts, but whole goes home and writes prolifically on his My Space page. I struggle with the fact that while he doesn't meet my (the state's) standards for being completely literate in the classroom, he's more literate than I am on the internet. Therefore, who am I to assess him? I also appreciated the definition of literacy in the article and found it to be very Darwinian. If you can't adapt to the changing technology, you won't be technologically literate. (period)

One more thing- I find it humorous that as fast as technology changes and adapts, language changes faster. On my attempt to spell check, "literacies" is not recognized by this program. Also, Mr. Spellcheck is telling me that "internet" is a proper noun, which I'm pretty sure at this point it is not. Food for thought:)