Journal Week 1
"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).
Literacy is something that we use in our day-to-day life, whether we realize it or not, as it now reaches beyond reading and writing. Literacy is an all-encompassing term that can describe any form of storytelling or communication. Approaches to literacy change when we can access new tools and technologies, and when it is discovered how these tools can be incorporated into everyday life (Wilber, pg.1). The newest approach to literacy would be digital fluency. Digital fluency describes the idea of using technology and computers as comfortably as you would a spoken or read language (Huffaker, pg 93). This new form of literacy opens new doors for anyone with access to technology and a steady internet connection. Literacy allows individuals to connect to texts and language in a personal way. By introducing technology into the mix personal connections can be easier to share, as it increases access to resources.
Throughout my readings, I noticed that the words “collaboration” and “collaborative” kept occurring. I, personally, believe that collaboration is a key feature in literacy because without collaborative efforts the ideas of literacy and storytelling would crumble. If literacy focuses on how people interact with language and the world surrounding it would never continue were it not for collaboration. In the beginning, storytelling was a singularly verbal act but as technologies developed and evolved it became a written and now digital endeavor, something that would not have been able to occur if not for the collaboration between individuals who put effort into understanding the stories and languages that have been passed down to us. Now, with the frequent use of technology, it is easier for most to collaborate, to share their ideas, opinions, and stories in a more streamlined way. The use of this collaboration allows individuals to interact with more literary aspects than they might have without it, as well as share their ideas and interact with more individuals with similar ( or differing opinions) than ever thought possible before.
Resources:
Gillen , J., & Barton, D. (2010). Digital Literacies. T-L-P-R : Technology Enhanced Learning, 1–30.
https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/33471/1/DigitalLiteracies.pdf
Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.
https://www.learntechlib.org/p/5680/
Wilder, D. J. (2010, May 31). Special themed issue: Beyond ʻnewʼ literacies. Digital Culture and Education.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cf15af7a259990001706378/t/5cf58c22e982340001878469/1559596067448/Wilber+%28May+2010%29.pdf
We absolutely do use literacy in our everyday lives. I am interested in the idea of digital fluency, I think if schools could incorporate that it would solve a lot of issues for specific types of learners. I agree with how you said that using technology can increase the sharing of personal connections. I think that students need to be able to communicate and collaborate about topics in order to formulate their best thoughts and opinions on something and like you stated in your post, literacy and storytelling would crumble. You made many great points in this post and I really enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeleteThe collaboration piece you mentioned is huge for literacy, but I believe it extends beyond literacy to teaching as a whole. If we try to make our classroom exist as an island alone, our classroom won't be as successful as one that buys in and integrates itself into the school community. In many ways, I feel like collaboration is its own form of literacy that teachers and students should learn to be fluent in. Finding an intersection between traditional literacy, new literacy, and collaborative literacy is paramount to the long term success of our students and our school communities! I enjoyed reading your post and thought that you made many very good points throughout your writing!
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right that literacy is used in our everyday life whether we like it or not and sometimes we also do not realize it is happening in certain moments. Digital fluency is a new way of literacy and I wonder if schools will start using that since many schools right now are struggling with technology usage. It has been a difficult time to meet the needs of all learners but this new way of literacy would help tremendously and give opportunities for students to use their computers more. I agree that without collaboration with literacy there would be no storytelling or sharing of ideas. Collaborating is a way to interact with and learn from others. Overall I enjoyed reading your post, nice job!
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