Mod2 Blog2 How New Literacies are Relevant to Us
We need to reevaluate our views of literacy, Sang goes on to say "In conventional literacy education, students are taught to embrace and adapt to the official and standard forms of the target language, their diverse personalities, cultures, and language backgrounds are not relevant" (Sang 2017, 18). Our education system is meant to adapt to our students. Our diversity is an important part of our lives and we must embrace that as well as we can.
This is something that my school district struggles with, the majority of my district is white. The lack of diversity shows itself more when the students are being taught the varying cultures from around the world. As a Global 9 teacher, I have to cover the entire world except the United States, and this tends to cause many questions or have the students "weirded out" by the customs found in other countries. They often bring their own biases into the discussion which can be hard to combat. However, one major reason for their biases is the lack of knowledge. We need to incorporate the differences into our curriculum even if the population does not reflect the diversity.
Digital literacy is far more than having computer skills. This is an important part of educating the next generation. Our students do not have an escape from technology, it surrounds our everyday lives. Instead of simply being able to work the computer, we need to educate the students on how to use the computer effectively. According to Jennifer Vaneck, there are a handful of important skills that are a part of being digitally literate; basic computer skills, network literacy, digital problem solving, information literacy, and media literacy. Students need to be able to navigate and use technology across all of their interests, whether it is educational, personal, social, or anything else that they might encounter.
My school district, like many others, during covid was able to supply Chromebooks and internet services to all of the students. However, they were not given the tools they truly needed to succeed with the Chromebook. They were taught how to use it, but not how to be digitally literate. Our middle school is working on incorporating these Chromebook skills into the curriculum, but it cannot stop there. I try my best to create research projects that force the students to do more than just a quick Google search. They not only have to find the information, but whether it is a reliable source, if the author had any biases, and their own personal thoughts on the topic.
Sang, Y. (2017). Expanded Territories of "Literacy": New Literacies and Multiliteracies. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(8), 16-19. https://doi.org/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1139059.pdf
Vaneck, J. (2019). Digital Literacy. The Skills that Matter in Adult Education. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/TSTMDigitalLiteracyBrief-508.pdf
Hello Bailey!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you when you said that our education system is meant to adapt to our students. Our students are the future, we need to remember that. We do nobody any good if we teach just for tests. They need to be able to know why they are learning what they are learning. They need to be able to advocate for themselves and learn skills that will help them in the future.
Yes, I can't imagine how difficult it is to teach global history in the district you are in. We need to be able to always incorporate culture and society into every subject and lesson. The students need to be knowledgeable and know what is going on in the world. By bringing in technology and media into the lessons, this will help the students to be more in tune with what is going on around them and how what they are learning are relevant to them. I teach 4 yr olds in a Special Ed setting so it's completely different from what you are doing right now, but I still try and instill technology when I can.