Computing is not about computers. It is about life....... We are discussing a fundamental cultural change: Being digital is not just being a geek or Internet surfer or mathematically savvy child. It is actually a way of living and is going to impact absolutely everything. The way you work, the way you study, the way you amuse yourself, the way you communicate among your friends, with your kids......Personal computers will make our future adult population simultaneously more mathematically able and more visually literate. Ten years from now, teenagers are likely to enjoy a much richer panorama of options because the pursuit of intellectual achievement will not be tilted so much in favor of the bookworm, but instead cater to a wider range of cognitive styles, learning patterns, and expressive behaviors.
In 2006 we are continuing to struggle with what being digital means in terms of education and literacy. Our classrooms have not changed fundamentally for decades but our students and the potential to radically alter our educational approach has. All we need to do is realise this and become aware of the potential of educational technology to support learning.
In an international school such as ours (International School Dhaka, Bangladesh) we also struggle with cultural issues to do with literacy and understanding. We 'deliver' instruction in English to second language learners and search for better and improved ways to integrate digital tools to help us do this.
Here are some tools and online resources that are worth investigating with the purpose of exploring the topic of 21st century literacies and of finding resources to help educators in the classroom.
- Read, Write, Think: Sponsored by the National Council for Teachers of English, The International Reading Association and Marco Polo is a resource for language arts instruction. This website provides literacy learning for the k-12 classroom and supplies lesson plans that engage and provide interactivity from prewriting to publishing
- Annette Lamb provides a series of websites at eduscapes.com including: The evolving definition of literacy, The 8W model for information literacy, Information literacy standards, Theory to practice: Literacy for today and tomorrow, Approaches to information and communication literacy, and Technology and digital literacy
- Kids Who Read: Full of resources for online learning and classroom ideas
- Using technology to enhance literacy instruction: Although 5 years old this is a valuable resource from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
- Smart library on Literacy and Technology: What will literacy instruction look like in the future?, Answering questions about digital literacy
By the way, you must read what David Warlick has to say in his Act Like a Native post this week. He concludes with:
You may say, “but who’s going to teach me to do that?” That’s an immigrant question. Natives teach themselves. They work with each other to grow their knowledge and skills. We’ve got to figure this out!
Comments?
1 comment:
Some thoughts on technology, learning and change;
‘Although 5 years old this is a valuable resource from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory’
I found this comment thought provoking. We could say of a particular approach to learning--- ‘That idea has been around for over 2000 years but it still has some relevance in the 21st century.’
I am suggesting that we need not see technology advances as heralding a revolution in educational practice but rather an evolution.
The invention of the printing press meant that knowledge in written form would soon be available for a much wider audience and that the repository of such knowledge was not restricted to a small number with the means to accumulate and keep handwritten texts secure over centuries. The point here is that the hunger for knowledge was there in us humans so the printing press was a great success.
I don’t see technological advances of the 21st century to be a revolution as such but rather a further (fantastic) opportunity for humans to access information (some would say ‘knowledge’) in ways not possible before.
I see our role as educators as evolving also. As digital immigrants we should get our passports stamped and step into the new digital country. Let us remember however that we do bring an array of skills and attitudes to learning with us as educators. A million gigabytes of stored information may not contain one byte of wisdom.
John Lindsay 18/2/2006
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