"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).
Reading and writing is something that I can't imagine NOT being able to do. It was embedded in me from an early age that I needed to learn how to do both. I even remember having to learn how to write in script (which is now obsolete). I can remember practicing my letters and struggling to read "hard" books. Both reading and writing has changed so much since I was a child, and it continues to change as our needs and wants change. Gillen and Barton discuss the concept of Modality which they describe as the combination of writing and image on screen or page. (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p.6) They go on to say that by using images in reading we are not making it easier as some people may think, but instead we are demanding a new way of reading. We are teaching ourselves and our learners to think differently which I can relate to.
My role as a teacher at the Fashion Institute of Technology keeps me on my toes in regards to modality. I've learned over the semesters that when you provide students with just text on a powerpoint presentation they will fall asleep. Keeping a proper balance of text and image is key to a successful lecture. I teach at a school that has visual learners who are creative so that makes it even more important. The above quote resonates with me because I feel responsible for teaching my students about the fashion industry while at the same time providing them with my own personal experience. I have to pay close attention to how I present information and what information I am sharing. I want to always be positive when discussing the industry while at the same time preparing them for the reality.
Using text and images in a proper flow and sequence is something I learned last semester. We learned the proper balance between images and text and how to position both on a screen. As Gillen and Barton discuss the web has drastically changed the way we educate and are educated. We now have access to more information then ever before, and that includes informative and powerful images. We can use real images now to get points across or to help support a lesson. Mostly if not all schools use computers, and smart boards in their daily lessons. While I'm sure it was a hard transition for older and more seasoned teachers it was a change that had to be made. The way we research and learn on a daily basis is completely different thanks to Web 2.O. Gone are the days where it was difficult to research or find information. We now have a world full of resources at our fingertips. In fact according to the Free Library by Farlex we have estimated that somewhere between 40 to 80 million adults in the United States have access to around 320 million unique pages of content on arguably one of the most important communication innovations in history. ( Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge?. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014)
References:
Gillen, and Barton. (2010) Digital Literacies. Retrieved from http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/33471/1/DigitalLiteracies.pdf
Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge?. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Sep 16 2016 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Literacy+and+the+new+technologies+in+school+education%3a+Meeting+the...-a063132991
Dear Ms. Bent,
ReplyDeleteI will never forget how old I felt when my 7th grade student giggled at me questioning his graphic tee shirt. I said, “I’ve never seen that Pokemon before.” He boasted, “Ït’s a MEME Miss Hill. You don’t know what a MEME is!”
This is a perfect example of Lankshear’s and Knobel’s proclamation in chapter 5, page 90. Teachers need an “institutional and cultural imagination if they are to understand the sorts of activities we propose for them.” What a fantastic way to motivate young minds! Use memes to generate a “contagious idea that can go viral on Twitter, in a Vine, or on Snapchat. It feels great to “hook” the students and then inspire them to “create their own cultural revolutions.” Since you teach a room full of aspiring fashion icons and I teach a room full of future composers, memes seems like a fantastic tool to include in our curriculum. (Lankshear and Knobel 196-97)
In order to successfully facilitate MEME-ing, I will need to achieve greater “digital fluency.” Huffaker’s article tells us: “This type of literacy refers to the ways people become comfortable using technology as they would any other natural language (Huffaker 93).” MEME-ing will keep your students awake, while motivating my student to go home to write new jingles for their ring tones.
Keep up the good work!
Your colleague in education,
Miss Hill
References:
Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote
literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2011). Literacies: Social, cultural and historical perspectives. New York: Peter Lang.