Thoughts on New Literacies (Allie W., Susan W., and Rachel M.)

Rachel said:

I believe that technology has definitely changed the world we live in today. Even when thinking about my own experience in undergrad, I am able to think back to the older technology I used to be accustomed to, and now, I am using all different technologies for entertainment and to communicate. The advances are extremely rapid and constantly changing, as it said in the article. I definitely feel that our students need to be taught to use the new technology in order to be fully functioning and literate members in our society. We need to, as teachers, also develop ourselves in order to help them to learn and assist them in their own journeys. They need to be taught many different skills in order to navigate on the Internet. They must become skeptical thinkers and decipher which information is truthful, they must be able to research and extract information from what they find and they must understand the way various web pages work and the complexity of it all. It is a lot to handle and it takes work but in order to survive in the world around us, we need to all put in the effort to insure our children's and our own futures.

Susan said:

Today’s economy is a global one. Companies from one country to another need to communicate with one another. Traditional ways to communicate include talking face to face, talking via a telephone or more recently e-mailing one another. However, more recently there are additional means of communication such as text messages, Blackberry units and instant messages for example. According to the article, “literacy and literacy instruction are being defined by change in even more profound ways as new technologies require new literacies to effectively exploit their potential. These include technologies such as gaming software, video technologies and the Internet.” One of the points here is that technology is becoming part of the mainstream methods to communicate in a classroom or in a boardroom. While, not too long ago, these expanded uses of technology were not considered part of typical literacy instruction, it is more of an accepted way to communicate. If the world is going to continue communicating in a variety of ways, then children should be taught at an early age that literacy means more than reading, writing, comprehending and communicating. In today’s world there are so many ways to communicate to one person or more than one person at a time. The important point from a school and learning perspective is to teach the students is that it is acceptable to communicate in a particular way in certain venues, but not in other venues. Communication with friends tends to be more relaxed and informal. In a business setting, the communication is expected to be more formal. The new literacies that are referred to above, may indicate that informal communication with friends may be acceptable in certain instances where previously it was unacceptable.

Technologies are changing literacy in a number of ways. First, as stated above, there are many more acceptable ways to communicate than there formerly were. However, it is very important to make sure that students understand different venues will accept different types of communication and literacy. I find there are times when students do not understand this difference. Even in the high school classroom where students use slang, personally, I would prefer that they not use slang. However, I understand that it is part of there culture and as long as they are not using a term or terms that I understand to be derogatory, I may let it go.

Allie said:

The first sentence of the article we read put it right, "The essence of both reading and reading instruction is change." Everything we know about reading tells us that we are not the same person when we finish a book that we were when we started. The same goes for technology. We are not the same world we were before the Internet. I remember how much my own literacy has changed throughout the years as technology became more pervasive. It began with the original floppy disks (they were actually floppy) on Apple computers and has continued to evolve ever since, just as it will for our students. The statistics in the article proved that computers are present at work, home and school and children need to be taught how to be literate so that they may use these new technologies to communicate. As teachers, it is our job to prepare students for the "real world" which will inevitably include using some form of technology. I think there is only one NJCCCS that is based on technology and it is Media Literacy. It is only a matter of time before more of the standards for education become focused on technology. Students will require explicit lessons on how to find information, evaluate the sources, use the information to answer questions, and then communicate the information collected.