I certainly wasn't thinking 'literacy' when I was creating a blog, but the idea of learning something new technologically was motivating. After reading further about Student and Teacher Blogging that Succeeds and Learning about Blogs FOR Your Students, I was blown away at the connections made between writing and reading, as well as the motivation to become a better reader and writer because of the global environment. Even after posting this, I continue to go back and evaluate what I have written so that it makes sense and uses correct grammar and spelling because I know that classmates, and maybe even strangers in the web world, will be viewing and critiquing what I put here.
In the world of constructivism, I learned that blogging is a wonderful way to reflect on your learning and better understand your own thinking. Blogs allow us to interact with each other in ways that can help us improve our literacy. It makes sense that teachers have made so many provisions to 'teach' using differentiation, but what an amazing opportunity to differentiate your own learning. Blogs allow us to include graphics, links, videos, and audio that connect our thoughts and provide student-centered learning opportunities that engage each author to utilize varied forms of communication.
I absolutely love the graphic created by Dean Shareski about this connective literacy:
I was pleased to see you mention that technology is all about collaboration and that you have incorporated blogging as a tool to support literacy. Sometimes it is difficult for people to make that connection. You were able to do so when you realized you revised and reflected on your writing due to your post being shared with a global community.
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ReplyDeleteBefore the turn of the century, the Internet was promoted as "the infinite library," and we were to be consumers of the content provided by others. Then, the web 2.0 tidal wave rolled ashore and it all became (as you observe) about collaboration.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that many educators, including you according to your first sentence of your second paragraph), don't initially perceive technology as a tool that is at all connected with literacy reading and writing (despite the fact that, for many of us, our reading and writing mediated by electronic information technology). The global audience that you point to as influencing what you are thinking about this did not exist when the "infinite library" first arrived, but it does now and it defines the literacy landscape.
Those in our profession who do not recognize the renegotiating that is necessary as reading and writing is redefined are becoming irrelevant by the hour.
I am interested why you find Dean Shareski's graphic so intriguing.
You are right, initially creating a blog didn't seem to me a way that enhanced literacy (especially since it is not something I have done before). I am so used to a one way relationship by extracting information from the internet rather than using it to collaborate. I appreciate that the literacy landscape continues to be shaped by technology and that I have a better understanding of it.
DeleteAs for the picture, Dean Shareski's graphic is appealing to me because I am a visual learner. Pictures and bullet points help me organize the linear letters that we use to communicate. It's not that the graphic is in any way a artistic masterpiece, it is just one more way that I can "see" what the article was about. Sensory stimulation is important for me to connect with what the writer is trying to convey. This is why we teach text marking. Our linear letters become their own masterpiece and colors and symbols give us additional meaning for a text. Good question!
Maybe I should change my comment from "I absolutely loved the graphic..." to "I absolutely loved that they attached a graphic for visual learners..."
ReplyDeleteBrandy-
ReplyDeleteI liked the graphic for many of the same reasons you did. I am a visual learner also and the colors really helped me organize the information.