Literacy as a Metaphor

After reading "Why Are We Using Literacy as a Metaphor for Everything Else?" by Anne Wysocki and Johndan Johnson-Eilola, it continues to excite me to begin delving into my Master's project. I have a secret obsession with studying literacy and really looking at what it means. Here are some essential quotes I pulled from the text and will explain below why I see them as important:

• "[It] is possible to describe information not as something we send from place to place, in books or on paper, over time, but as something we move (and hence think) within" (363).
• "[Literacy] changes profoundly if we choose to prioritize space over time" (362).
• "The bundle of meanings and implications that comes with [the word, literacy] is...much denser and messier" (353).
• "No single term--such as 'literacy'--can support the weight of the shifting, contingent activities we have been describing" (366).

Honestly, I might as well reference the entire article, but I contained myself to these four quotes. For my project I will be studying literacy and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) - this is in a broad sense. Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola just reassured me that the way I define literacy is not out of the ordinary. I see literacy as MORE than just reading and writing. Yes, I believe that it is the base of literacy. However, society has advanced in technology, and literacy has and needs to advance with it.

This is why I decided to pull out the first two quotes. These quotes emphasize that literacy is something we are constantly using, and its changes do affect space over time. The third and fourth quotes reflect how I currently feel when dabbling with the term, literacy. To me, Jay L. Robinson in “Literacy in the Department of English” describes it best: “[literacy] is a wonderfully ambivalent term, its meaning dependent upon the contexts in which it is used” (483). Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola would support what Robinson says as they end the chapter by discussing that even though many new terms are given in relation to "literacy," the list may never be exhausted (368). That is the thing with literacy - it is creative.

I've realized what I enjoy most about studying literacy is that it is a challenge. I am never bored reading information on literacy because people view it differently and the ways of applying it to teaching changes every minute. It will be very interesting to see what "literacy" looks like 10, 20, or 50 years from now. My guess is that we would see remnants of the definitions from 2012, but it will probably be drastically different and much more complicated.

EtherPad + Teaching = Successful Classroom???

Being recently exposed to EtherPad, I have done a lot of thinking about how I might be able to use it for teaching. I'm familiar with Google Docs. I'm familiar with how it could be used in the classroom and allow for multiple editing. What I really like about EtherPad is that it allows all of that, but it seems to have a much easier platform to work with, especially for the purpose of having multiple people work on one document at the same time.

As I was thinking about my English classrooms in the past, the first thing that came to my mind was quickwrites. I love using them in my classroom. However, it's always a pain to get students to talk. It's like pulling teeth. Every-so-often I will have a student who will volunteer to speak, but my goal is to get a conversation going, not have them feel as if they are being put on the spot. If I were able to use the EtherPad for quickwrites, it would give such a different atmosphere in the classroom. So now, the students that didn't like talking or interacting have an opportunity to become a part of the class.

I can't wait to have the opportunity to actually use it with my students. I believe it can be used for multiple types of lessons, not just an English/writing classroom. When I do get the chance to implement it, I expect only to see positive results as I think students enjoy learning through technology.

Online Learning & Digital Literacy

Working in a high school that advocates digital learning and having (teaching) one class of credit recovery students through the E2020 program, I have a high regard for offering students alternative learning environments, particularly online/digital learning. Holly states in her post, "Intrator and Kunzman 'Who Are Adolescents Today? YouthVoices and What They Tells Us' from Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research," that "students are bored with school and they think [the teachers] don't care." Why do students find the curriculum boring? 

Being in special education, I believe not all students learn the same way. The bonus of technology and digital learning/digital literacy is that it offers students with a different way to learn because not all students obtain information the same way. Think about it. Are you more of an auditory learner? Maybe you're a visual learner or even a kinesthetic learner. Or, maybe you're a combination of these learning styles. 

For example, the E2020 program allows students to access their education online. The students listen to lectures, complete projects, write papers, take tests...essentially, they do school completely online. Pretty cool, right? I've seen students who don't do well, socially, in classes be able to excel with flying colors. Sometimes students are bored with the curriculum because they are literally geniuses and the information they are learning is really boring. These type of students need something that is self-paced. Their life can change from hating school to actually enjoying it. Below is a screenshot of the website. If you want to find out more information, you can click the picture and it will link you to the site.

However, being in education, I've recently learned that the online credit recovery classes, such as E2020, are not the only ways to offer students a digital learning environment. In Because Digital Writing Matters by Danielle De-Voss, Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, and Troy Hicks, it addresses how educators have higher standards that they have to reach with technology and these "emerging technology standards present educators with an ever-expanding list of what students should know and be able to do with computers and the read/write Web" (94). Wouldn't it be nice to have a program that incorporates and addresses all things technology, yet gives students a unique access to education? 

Well, being based from a European model, there is now this program that is popping up all around Michigan called the WAY program. WAY stands for Widening Advancement for Youth. This is exactly what the program's goal is. As part of the program they supply each student with an iMAC and Internet connection. Upon successful completion of the program, students get to keep the iMAC. How cool is that?! So, technology and digital literacy is a major focus of the program. Below you will find a screen shot of the website that links to the website when clicking on the picture and screen shots of the brochure, which give more detailed information about this unique, digital literacy-focused program. If you click on the pictures of the brochure, they enlarge and become readable.

I love digital literacy because it is such a broad field. What I love most about it is the fact that I'm learning it along with my students. I also appreciate that it is such a creative field. This gives students the opportunity to strengthen and explore their unique abilities. Literacy is no longer just reading and writing by pen and paper. It becomes something so much more. It becomes complicated and ever-expanding.

CCSS & Technology

Being a high school teacher and as we, high school teachers, are preparing to implement the Common Core State Standards, I have realized how disappointed I am in the lack of emphasis on technology. In each grade level there is only one small strand in regards to technology. For example, in the 11-12 grade area on both the writing standards and literacy standards for the other core-academic areas, the technology strand states the following: "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information" (www.corestandards.org). This standard is extremely vague. Look at what the current grade level content expectations have to say regarding technology (www.michigan.gov/mde):

• CE 1.5.2  Prepare spoken and multimedia presentations that effectively address audiences by careful use of voice, pacing, gestures, eye contact, visual aids, audio and video technology.
• CE 1.5.4 Use technology tools (e.g, word processing, presentation and multimedia software) to produce polished written and multimedia work (e.g., literary and expository works, proposals, business presentations, advertisements).

Not only are there two standards instead of one, but the standards from the grade level content expectations are a little more extensive and in-depth. So, are schools going to lose their focus on technology as a form of introducing literacy when they switch from content expectations to state standards? Also, what really is "technology"?

I did not realize how much this lack of detail as to what students need to master before graduating high school bothered me until reading Because Digital Writing Matters by Danielle DeVoss, Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, and Troy Hicks. I have a secret passion for technology. I love incorporating technology because I truly believe that students, more specifically high school students, rely on technology, whether they really know it or not. From cell phones to laptops to iPod touches, students are constantly enveloped in the world of technology. If students do not have the opportunity to be exposed to how technology can be used for the purposes of learning and improve their writing, I fear that students will go through their high school lifetime being illiterate in writing and technology.

In Because Digital Writing Matters, DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl, and Hicks state that writing instruction for today's students "requires [the teachers] to consider what new skills and dispositions students might need for the digital age" (11). However, if there are no specific guidelines for teachers, how are teachers expected to know what type of technologies should be introduced into the classroom?

This is what frustrates me with the Common Core State Standards. The standard on technology seems unclear to me as to what the expectations are for the both the teachers and students. Being that I love technology, I would constantly be using it. However, would a teacher who is not as acquainted and comfortable with technology use it less often or maybe not even at all? How would this impact the students' education in regards to digital literacy and the fact that digital writing is currently the new way of learning? I really enjoy the input from DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl, and Hicks, but how can it be stressed to all teachers that they should have this same mindset on technology and digital writing?