New Literacies

When I originally heard the term "new literacies", I immediately thought that it was using technology in the classroom to improve reading and writing.  I guess you can say that is the broad (very broad) definition.  There is definitely a lot more to new literacies than just that!

Dr. Donald J. Leu, professor at the University of Connecticut, refers to "Literacy as Deixis", meaning literacy rapidly changes.  Children beginning kindergarten this school year have much more of an advantage than children who began kindergarten  3 or 4 years ago, due to the amount of change in technology that schools are integrating. 

New literacies integrate 21st century skills and technology into reading, writing, and communication.  Since they are constantly changing at such a rapid rate (like Dr. Donald J. Leu mentions in video 1a in the following link:  http://ctell.uconn.edu/canter/canter_video.cfm?movie=1a_new_technologies.mov), educators need to trained at these rapid rates as well.  Does this happen?  Unfortunately, not so much.  For example, I know a teacher in Connecticut who received an interactive white board in her classroom at the beginning of the 2011 school year.  As we enter the second week of November, she is finally receiving training.  Yes, this is great technology to have in her classroom.  But, this is quite a disadvantage to her students when it cannot be used to it's full potential.

As educators, it is very important for us to be aware of the NETS, or the skills and knowledge we need to change the way they teach, the way we work, and the way we learn in an increasingly connected global and digital society.  Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, speaks more on this below:



Reading through the NETS for students and teachers, it is a bit overwhelming to me.  I see different strands that I feel at this point are out of my control without the proper funding, supplies, and training.  The NETS for students definitely are set to prepare students for the 21st centutry, specifically the 21st century job market!  The NETS are high standards and seem to be based off of higher level tiers of Bloom's Taxonomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy).

In my classroom, I have tried my best to incorporate my interactive white board for each and every lesson that I've done.  Our reading anthology series, StoryTown, has a digital edition for students to read at home.  During shared reading, I pull up the digital edition on the interactive white board and play the audio for students.  Vocabulary words are highlighted and I can also underline or circle certain parts that I want students to focus on.  Also, Time for Kids (part of our social studies curriculum) has a digital edition that I use on the interactive white board.  Articles come alive with video and audio clips and I feel that my students seem to be more engaged when we do the lesson this way (as compared to last year).  My students have used Net books to publish stories they have written in class.  It has also given me an opportunity to let them transfer their skills from Computer class in our classroom.