Response #10
TEGR 585
Response #10
Learning With New Literacies
What are new literacies? Is learning with new literacies essential for pupils?
New Literacies as defined by John Wilinsky are classrooms that are driven by inquiry and pupils’ choice not by teacher talk and textbooks. This “new” literacy is not dependent on students regurgitating “right” answers (Vacca, pg. 31). Studies of new literacy examine literacy as completely situated in all of the many “discourses” in people’s lives that is to say – at school, work, within the family and in any social situation (Vacca, pg.31). Today’s pupils are bombarded with digital devices and software, and therefore one can argue that the pupils learn more about literacy outside of school than in school. This reflect on how literacy is being defines as well as how do we define being literate in the 21st century?
How do we as educators/teachers encourage pupils to use digital media to capture, develop and produce projects in literacy and English Language Arts classes. For pupils, YouTube, iPod Touch, cell phones with still, video, and audio capabilities, iPod Nanos and other digital de- vices are not new; they are the everyday tools they use to communicate in or navigate their worlds. However, older social practices such as writing legibly and spelling have staying power in today’s classroom, which poses a struggle for educators/teachers as how to deal with the political mandates that value traditional approaches to literacy? How do we as educators/teachers bridge the knowledge and experience those pupils in today’s world bring with them daily to class? How do we as educators/teachers put in place a new set of technology-fused social practices to support a more
thoughtful and critically reflective pupil, especially in light of the arts and technology? “Computers and other electronic devices are both a “facilitator of knowledge and medium for literacy” (Biancarosa & Snow 2004) (Vacca, pg.38).
In reality, this new technical tools/information creates space for the pupils to move beyond where they are presently and to allow for greater collaboration, participation and distribution of knowledge.
idpaul 