New Media and Literacies Tcara

One of the topics discussed in this week's readings that I found interesting was social media use in the classroom. I was first introduced to this idea when I was in high school myself and one of my teachers had us utilize Blogger to complete homework assignments, much like this course. Since then I have been interested to see how other social media can be used to encourage students' education. I think utilizing these tools in the classroom is a great way to allow students to build their technology literacy in a safe and controlled environment as they are able to explore new platforms in a low-steak climate without the need for social validation. It also brings in a new way to engage students by bringing in tools they may already be interested in. The tools being used in the classroom, in this case, a variety of computers, locked and unlocked (p. 29), allow students to engage with each other and the materials needed for class in ways they may not be able to otherwise, it also g...

When we discuss literacy in schools we are talking about students’ ability to read and write, abilities that will be used to carry themselves throughout the rest of their life and academics career. However, the worldview is constantly changing, and the resources consumed are changed along with it. “What counts as literacy, how literacy changes in response to the new media landscape, and what value we should ascribe to the new forms of communication that continue to emerge and evolve online (Jenkins, 2009)?" With the quickly changing world we constantly have to reevaluate how we view the information we take in and what we consider valuable, and the implications it has on our lives. With the influx of online resources and online readings being done both inside and outside of school the questions of the validity of reading online and the impact it has on literacy are frequently brought up, parents and teachers are concerned that the use of the internet will negatively impact their st...

"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).