Changing Literacies

Changing Literacies

Non-Academic Digital Practices

"It was evident that their [pre-service teachers] digital practices were not fixed, and that their relationships often provided the contexts through which they were introduced to new digital environments."

In Chapter 7 the discussion centered around four pre-service teachers and their use of technology outside of the educational setting. This quote was one describing what I feel is the situation for most people when it comes to technology. We engage is technology that further develops what is important to us. Most of my drive to learn new technologies has come from one of two things...either my family/friends or my job. I've learned how to use several tools because they help me stay connected to my family and friends. Just like the girls in the chapter, some family members prefer texting, some prefer email, and some prefer Facebook, so I do what works best for each. My kids use Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat a lot, so I've learned how to use those apps. When it comes to my job, I search the internet and take classes so I can learn new and better ways to use technology in my classroom. If I weren't a teacher, I probably wouldn't know how to use many of these tools. I think the same will be true of the pre-service teachers in the chapter.  Once they have their own classrooms, they'll understand the importance of integrating technology, and will learn new tools and skills for that purpose.

The Digital Divide

"Just as we educate our student-teachers to be critical, inclusive educators, we must also challenge and provide opportunities for them to extend simultaneously their theoretical understandings of digital literacies and competence with digital technologies so that they can in turn address the divide that persists in many school classrooms."

This is quite a long quote from Chapter 8, but I appreciated this conclusion. I can understand that there were some students in the education class who were frustrated with having to have expertise with some forms of technology to complete the assignment, but it will be an experience that will provide a good foundation for them when they run into the same frustrations in their own classrooms. There will come a time, and I believe it will be soon if it hasn't already happened in some school districts, when every teacher will need to understand digital literacy and find ways to develop it within the context of their own subject and classroom. They will be faced with a range of abilities in their classroom and will need to know how best to deal with that challenge.Teachers who have been through that themselves, as the student, will have an advantage in this type of scenario.

Visuals vs. Print

"Even if visuals are important, how can we possibly fit more into an already overcrowded curriculum, even if we do decide to buy into an expanded definition of what it means to be literate."

I like this quote from Chapter 9 because it reflects the conflict I feel about technology integration sometimes. Activities using technology, I've learned from experience, have to be done exclusively in the classroom if I want to have an even playing field for all of my students.There are always those who don't have any home access to the technology necessary to do certain assignment. Doing a print assignment, such as writing an essay, story, or short writing assignment of any kind, can take my classes two to three days, depending on how much of the process I want them to do in class and how much they can do at home. Using technology to create something visual for the same purpose or objective can take twice as long. I always have to ask myself before any tech project if the time investment will be worth it. What other things do I need to get to this grading period? this semester? this year? Do I have the time, or should we stick with print because I can expect them to do some of it at home that way? Will the technology integration make the learning experience more valuable or meaningful to them? They are all questions that need to be addressed regularly when it comes to using technology tools.

Effective Participation

"...the ability to work with and across print and digital forms of text, and to navigate their different affordances and applications, is a key skill for effective participation in the political and economic infrastructure of our societies."

This quote from the Conclusion is a truth we can't avoid, and will become ever more true in the coming years. Schools need to figure out how they are going to address it. We can look at the lack of technological skill and/or reluctance of an older generation of teachers and see it as an obstacle, but it's an obstacle that won't go away. It will only change forms. Tech changes quickly, and many tools quickly become obsolete or unusable.The young teachers of today, after 20 years in the classroom will likely be faced with technologies and tools that they are unfamiliar with and unskilled in using, and they will need to find ways to integrate them into their classroom as they become part of society.

Illuminated Text, Ch. 7-9 & Conclusion

This is an abbreviated version of a quote from the Conclusion of the book Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices. The full quote is above, as well as an explanation of why I believe it is significant.

Rough Draft - Media Ecology and Learning Case

Media Ecology and Learning Case Rough Draft

Interview Analysis

Hanging Out: 

The young man I interviewed didn't have a lot of actual friends who played the games he liked, but he did develop relationships with some people online, people who lived in other places and were different ages. He said he spent a lot of time talking to and chatting with others playing the games online, and even helped and was helped by some of them in figuring out different aspects of the games. There seemed to be a lot of collaboration and instruction going on, and occasionally there were conflicts that had to be worked out, and disagreements that had to be negotiated.

Messing Around: 

Tiny Tyman used the computer for a variety of different activities that seemed to be things that he either wasn't aloud to do at school, or had no reason to do at school, so he actually learned a lot of skills in the informal environment outside of school that may or may not have been utilized there.  One thing he, and probably most students who use technology regularly while not in school, developed was familiarity with online tools and functions and digital text that will carry over into technology use in school.  Many tools and functions are the same or similar across a wide range of applications, online programs, and websites.  There is a whole new language to it, and learning that language, whether in or out of the classroom, gives Tiny Tyman an advantage in any place he encounters technology.

Geeking Out: 

One thing Tiny Tyman likes to do is create drum loops and songs on his computer.  This isn't necessarily a common skill set among tech users, although there are a lot of young people who participate. He told me he doesn't know how to read music and doesn't play any instruments, and that he doesn't consider himself to be musical.  His interest in drum loops came from listening to the music running in the background when he played games. He started by downloading those songs and editing them, and went on from there to creating his own songs and share them on SoundCloud and YouTube.

He also said he is very interested in science and has watched science videos since he was very young. He has done a lot of experiments, and even made videos of his own experiments and ideas and posted them on his YouTube channel. Through this process he learned about video editing and developed some production skills, learned about different file extensions, and even figured out how to deal with negative or crude comments that have been posted on his videos, occasionally. 

Schooling: 

Tiny Tyman didn't talk about the difference between text talk and traditional writing, but he did comment about reading on the computer.  He said he prefers to read text from a real book and not online because he finds it easier to do.  He couldn't really explain why, but when asked about his textbooks and classes, it seemed as though most of his schoolwork was done using traditional texts, and that was what he was used to and comfortable with in school.  Maybe if his textbooks had been online throughout his years of school, he would prefer digital text.  There did seem to be a very distinct divide for him between the use of technology at school and the use of it outside of that environment. Anything related to technology that was done in school was very different from what he did on his computer at home.  The only exception was online research, which he said he did a lot of at home, and did on occasion at school.  It seems to be a skill he may have developed mostly at home and carried it over into school when he got older and was given the opportunity to do it on assignments.

Quotes from the text:

"...young people, inundated with undifferentiated information, are increasingly uncritical and undiscerning."

"The skills and attitudes that provide young people with opportunities to participate effectively in this world are often not the skills and attitudes rewarded in our school system."

"Virtual worlds can be unfamiliar and chaotic environments in which conventional routines and control strategies are of little use."

"...teachers do need to be prepared to learn from pupils and to value their experimentation."

Digital Texts In and Out of School

Digital Texts In and Out of School

"The skills and attitudes that provide young people with opportunities 

to participate effectively in this world are often not the skills and 

attitudes rewarded in our school system."

This quote from Chapter 4 is the one I used for my illuminated text, because it seemed a good summary of a lot of what this book is about.  There are so many technology tools and skills that teens are using outside of school, and not very much of it is a part of what they are allowed to do in school. There is quite a bit about social media, chat rooms, gaming, and video production that can be hard to control, and, therefore, a little scary for teachers and schools. But, schools should try to find ways to utilize them, if possible, like the ways wikis were used in the examples for this chapter.

Digital Skills in School

Online Social Dilemmas

"While it may be the case that many youngsters are highly adept at producing all kinds of sophisticated texts out of school, it remains the case that many need support in negotiating their way through the social mazes and dilemmas they face."

Chapter 5 talked about using blogs in the classroom, and online texts that are similar to web pages.  Even though students are often "highly adept" when it comes to creating online environments, they are still young emotionally and socially.  That's why it's so important for teachers and administrators to also be adept at using and producing digital texts. They need to stay ahead of the curve, because the students will need guidance and support when faced with the choices that come with technology use. This topic seemed very poignant to me, as a middle school teacher, because there is a broad range of maturity levels among my students, and a lot of social, emotional, and physical experimentation going on during these years that crosses over into the online environment.

Trailblazers

"Teachers need not be the docile operatives of an outdated, centralized curriculum, but can instead respond innovatively to the learning potential of powerful new technologies."

When I read this quote from Chapter 6, my thought was, "only if they have the time, finances, and support of the administration," with most emphasis on that last point. The virtual environment created in this chapter for the kids in this school sounded interesting, and definitely gave the teachers a window into some of the texts, skills, and literacies of their students, but it also seemed to take a tremendous amount of time and preparation.  There is a lot of value in understanding the online practices of our students, but the kids didn't just learn these skills overnight or in a few hours.  They are using these tools, and playing these games, daily, and for hours.  If teachers and schools are serious about learning how to stay on top of what the kids are doing, and utilizing these literacies in school, a lot of time, training, and support will be necessary.  

Digital Texts in and Out of School

Digital Texts

"Children and young people walking through the school gates each morning are required to leave behind an entire suite of competencies, practices and knowledge about digital technologies and digital text."

This was a quote from the Introduction of the book Digital Literacies Social Learning and Classroom Practices that I've thought a bit more about after reading it. It is true the students spend a LOT of time with digital text outside of the classroom.  I think they tend to compartmentalize those skills and put them away when they walk into the classroom, because they know the texts they encounter will not be the same.  It's just a learned behavior that they now have. When teachers pull out activities and assignments using technology and digital text, many of the students can simply navigate without thinking too much about it. I've learned a lot from my own students, in that respect, by walking around and seeing what they're doing and how they're doing it. They love to teach me new things.

Game Play

"Learning through game play is active, meaningful, multimodal, scaffolded, entails participation in social networks, encourages learners to take risks and allows for self-reflection."

This is the quote I chose from Chapter 1 for my illuminated text, because it made me think of the young man I interviewed for my case study (who just happens to be my son). There are so many things about game play that I think older adults misunderstand simply because they've never participated. On occasion, I've stood by him on his computer and asked him what he's doing.  Some of the steps and processed he explains to me about the game, or program he's working with are extremely complicated! Not only that, but there is constant conversation going on, either in a chat, or on Skype, or through the headphones and mic. Many of the games our students play today are multi-leveled, multi-faceted, multi-layered, and multi-player, and require some strategic and social skills that are quite extensive. It's something educators need to understand, appreciate, and try to tap in to, if possible.

Literacy Levels

"While there are many young people involved in complex and sophisticated practices, there are many who are uninvolved, or who have problems in access and usage, and still others who could be offered further challenges to extend or reflect upon their experiences."

This quote is from Chapter 2, and, until reading some of this book, I hadn't really spent much time thinking about the huge differences between digital text and print text. It is a different world, and requires an entirely different set of skills and thinking. I have seen this demonstrated in my own life when trying to show things to my parents online. They get confused by the hypertext, the web links, the menus, and navigating around on a web site. I run into students every year who are the same way. They just don't have access, for one reason or another, and they have to be taught how to navigate digital text. This disparity among students is something I can't really deal with all by myself when teaching 25 kids, so I like to find those students in my class with very high skill levels and have them help lower skilled students, or put them in groups together. Occasionally, the more skilled student gets frustrated with, or doesn't want to spend time with, the unskilled student, so I have to choose carefully.

Social Navigation

"Tom and Sam have a clear sense that texts are made powerful by what is left out, as well as what is included."

This is a short quote from Chapter 3, and specific to the boys in the study, but it's something that many adults, especially politicians, have learned how to do. It is a pretty complex way of communicating, trying to create an image by being selective about what information you release and don't release.  Students do this constantly on social media, and in some ways it carries over into their day to day social lives in school.  It certainly would complicate and make things confusing for them. I've seen many adults do the same thing with Facebook. I know a person well, and know that things in their life are complicated and less than perfect, but then will see the problem-free, almost perfect image they project on social media, and I find that confusing myself.  I know from my own children that the conflict of this image-projecting can create a very complex range of feelings. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with it when I was a teenager, and thankfully I'm old enough that I didn't!

Carrington, Victoria, and Muriel Robinson. Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom          Practices. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2009. Print.

The Complexities of Gaming

This is an illuminated text created using a quote taken from Chapter 1 of the book Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practice, cited above.

Interview with a "Digital Native"

Interview with a "Digital Native"

Below is the transcript of an interview I conducted with a young man, age 18, which I will use as a case study for my final project.  Following that, are some quotes taken from the Introduction and Chapters 1-3 of the book "Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices" edited by Victoria Carrington and Muriel Robinson.

The Interview

Julie: What would be a pseudonym, or username, you would like me to use to represent you in my paper?

Tiny Tyman: I don’t know.  I guess I usually go by Tiny Tyman on all of my accounts, so you can just use that.

Julie: Why do you use that as your username in all of your accounts?

Tiny Tyman: Well, because I was pretty short until like the last couple of years, shorter than most everyone else at school, so they called me that.  But now I’m like taller than almost all of them, because I’m almost six feet tall now, but I still use it.

Julie: What electronic devices to you have?

Tiny Tyman: Gosh, I have so much stuff.  Do you want to know everything?

Julie: Just tell me the newest things you have that are the most high tech.

Tiny Tyman: Ok, I have a laptop, an iPad, an iPhone 4, a Wii, and an Xbox.  I also have a 3DS, but I don’t know how high tech that would be considered.  I have a bunch of older video gaming systems, too, like around ten others.

Julie: Well, let’s just stick with the ones you told me about.

Tiny Tyman: Ok

Julie: What kinds of things do you use the laptop for?

Tiny Tyman: Well, I use it for searching the Internet, watching movies, watching videos. I play games, go on social media, play around with drum loop programs. I do art. I do drafting. I don’t know. I guess that’s about it.

Julie: What is your favorite thing to do on the computer?

Tiny Tyman: I can’t say.  I like all of them.  That’s a hard question to answer, because I like my computer, in general.

Julie: Ok, so how did you learn to do the things you do on the computer?

Tiny Tyman: I’m not really sure exactly. I just grew up with a computer, and kept using them throughout my life.  I’ve always used computers, even when I was a little kid.  I started playing games at around 6 or 7.  If I want to learn something new, I search the Internet.  Google is my primary search engine, but I’ll go to sites that are valid.  When you see 3 or 4 sites that say similar things, then you know that they’re probably not lying.

Julie: What do with the drum loop programs on the computer?

Tiny Tyman: A lot of things.  I listen to loops people made, I edit loops people made, I make my own stuff, or at least try to.

Julie: Do you spend a lot of time using loop programs, or is that a regular thing you do?

Tiny Tyman: Yes, I usually spend hours on them.  Some days I spend less time. I don’t use the loop programs every day.  Sometimes I use them every day for a while, and sometimes I go for a while without using them.

Julie: How did you learn how to do things on the loop programs?

Tiny Tyman: I always screwed around with it when I was a little a kid.  I look up videos once in a while, or look up on the Internet how to do certain things.

Julie: What do you with the songs you make?

Tiny Tyman: It depends on how good they are.  I’ve really only made like one or two songs that I think were worth sharing. I put them up on music websites, like SoundCloud, and I advertise on social media, like Facebook and Instagram.

Julie: Why do you do drafting on the computer?

Tiny Tyman: That’s something I usually do at school on the computer, because I’m in drafting.  I don’t usually do that at home, but I can.

Julie: What is your favorite game?

Tiny Tyman: That’s a hard question.  I’ve played so many games.  But, I would probably narrow it down to Metroid and Minecraft, because those are the ones that I’ve played the most, and I know the most about them.  If someone were to ask me questions about the games, they’re the ones I would have the most answers about.

Julie: Do you know other people who play Metroid and Minecraft?

Tiny Tyman: I don’t know very many people in person who play them.  I don’t have very many friends who play those two games. 

Julie: Then, how did you find out about those two games?

Tiny Tyman: I got started into Metroid out of curiosity. What started me on it was when I played Super Smash Brothers. The character in that game that I always played with was named Samus, so I wanted to know what the game was like that she came from, and it was Metroid, so I got it and really liked it.  Metroid’s one of those games that’s not very familiar here in the US because it’s origin is Japan, so that’s where it would be more popular. As far as Minecraft goes, it’s a totally different story. It all started from a Facebook game request.  Somebody I was friends with sent me a Minecraft Tower Defense request, so I decided to try it because I’d heard a few people on Facebook here and there talking about Minecraft, and it looked interesting.  So, I tried the game, and I thought it was really fun, but I didn’t know anything about the game Minecraft, so I went to their site and played the trial version and really liked it.  When my demo expired, I got the full version, and that’s how I got into Minecraft.

Julie: How long ago was that?

Tiny Tyman: Well, my account says 2013, but it feels so much longer than that. 

Julie: Okay, so now who are the people you know who play the games?

Tiny Tyman: There are many people who play them.  You just have to find the right group of people by joining a forum or playing online in a multiplayer game. 

Julie: How does that help you with the games?

Tiny Tyman: You can discuss different things with them, and meet people to play with.

Julie: Have you ever answered other people’s questions about games?

Tiny Tyman: I haven’t really answered questions on forums as much as answering people’s questions while playing the game itself online. Sometimes I help people, and sometimes other people help me.

Julie: So have you met a lot of people doing this?

Tiny Tyman: I’ve met a lot of people, all different ages from all over the place.  It depends on the game, though.  Minecraft usually has younger people playing it. Metroid’s not an online game, so I go to forums for that, and I watched videos on YouTube to show me how to do stuff on there.  That’s how I learn to do a lot of things.

Julie: What other things do you watch videos about?

Tiny Tyman: I watch videos about a lot of things.  I can’t be all that specific because I watch so many different things.  It’s usually just the things that are running in my head at the time.  Mostly it’s about how to do something, or how to make something, or watching different games being played, and other things like that.

Julie: How do you use the computers at school?

Tiny Tyman: I use them to do work in classes, typing, English, drafting, research.  When they give us free time, I play games and draw on the computer.

Julie: Are there other ways that you would like to be able to use the computer at school?

Tiny Tyman: Well, you know there are a lot of restrictions on what you can do on the Internet at school, like we're not aloud using any social media. I wouldn’t mind if the restrictions weren’t as strict, but the teachers say they’re there for a reason, to keep kids from doing things they aren’t supposed to. It would be nice if teachers would let people play certain games that would teach you something, but they don’t.

Me: Do you think teachers would let you use the computer to do other things if the restrictions weren’t there?

Tiny Tyman: Some would let us do other things, but it depends on the teacher and the class you’re in.  Some teachers are strict, or they don’t let you use any technology in class, because they don’t want you to play games or get sidetracked. I don’t usually want to use the computers at school to do the same things I do at home, because at school I’m too busy doing assignments, and most of them aren’t on the computer.

The Connections

“And yet, in many classrooms these devices and the texts produced with them are still perceived to be irrelevant, and even dangerous, in relation to children’s learning and their development of powerful practices with text.” (Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices, Introduction)

“Children and young people walking though the school gates each morning are required to leave behind an entire suite of competencies, practices and knowledge about digital technologies and digital text.” (Introduction)

“It is time our classrooms became places where digital and print literacies come together to allow children opportunities to develop the skills and attitudes they will need to navigate complex urban sites and social forms.” (Introduction)

“Learning through game play is active, meaningful, multimodal, scaffolded, and entails participation in social networks, encourages learners to take risks and allows for self-reflection.” (Chapter 1)

“Members of a community of practice are brought together by common activity centered on an area of knowledge.” (Chapter 1)

“Learning occurs through centripetal participation in the learning curriculum of the ambient community.” (Chapter 1)

“…learners require guidance in reading multimodal texts and…we need to ‘redefine the work of the reader’. “ (Chapter 2)

“Limitations of schooled conceptions of literacy both in the UK and elsewhere, as predominantly skills led and paper based, need to be expanded to systematically and consistently include digital texts…” (Chapter 2)

“Digital Literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse, and synthesize digital resources…” (Chapter 3)