Week 12: The Trials and Tribulations of a Grad Student Trying to Write a 'Literacy Guide'

This week, we were required to write a 'literacy guide' for whatever population of student learner's we wanted to target.  To me, this was the most confusing and difficult concept to master in this class so far because I had no idea what a 'literacy guide' was, or how to write it, or even Why I was supposed to write it.  Frustrated, angry, upset, I researched the topic for hours - to no avail.  It was only when our professor offered some extra resources and gave me some encouragement that I calmed down, went back to the research, and then, after about two more hours of grueling research, I formulated a plan. 

In the end, I wrote a literacy guide...and I loved it.  I loved not just writing of it, but what I had to say, and the amazing resources I found (a great written piece and a video I starred in the resources section).  

For those still unaware, a 'Literacy Guide' is just an outline for the ideas you value (and want to teach), and how you can help your students (or whomever) go about gaining that knowledge.  We are in a New Media and New Literacies class, so obviously I had to include Research.  Now, I've never been a real stickler about students research skills, but by creating this guide I realized, "Wait! I really need to be clearer with my students about research, and give them more structure for these assignments, and talk about things like plagiarism and how to cite and perform Effective online research."  

Once I realized that a literacy guide is just a tool to help myself plan and structure the ideas that I personally value and want to present (to help my students become 'literate') it all came together.  Now, as we all know, the idea of 'literacy' has changed drastically throughout the years.  To me, 'literacy' is more about resourcefulness, or being able to move through different areas of schooling and life with ease.  I guess it's part information literacy, where "we need to know how to think critically..how to maintain that critical stance, how to employ it, and then how to stay open to new ideas," (1) as well as part transliteracy, or "the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms tools, and media from signing to orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks,"(2)  and then maybe a tad of metacognition, or, reflecting on how we think in order to make adjustments and grow. 

For my Literacy Guide, the three topics I chose to focus on were all aspects I felt my 6th grade humanities students could benefit from not just in my class, but throughout their entire lives: collaboration, self-assessment and research.   Collaboration is essential in my class, as students are constantly working on team assignments and collaborative written projects.  In fact, when I identified this as a major aspect of my class, it reminded me a lot of Henry Jenkins and his 'Participatory Culture' exercise where he made all of his students work on a Wikipedia posting, and it helped the students feel empowered and united as a team.   Self-assessment - both for teachers and students - is yet another way we learn and grow.  In fact, it's only when we can be honest with ourselves about our performance as both as individuals and within a group that we can adjust and adapt.  Lastly, I chose research.  At first I felt like I put it in here just to appease my new media and new literacies class, but on reflection I realized just how important it is to research, cite and avoid plagiarism, and that I need to be even more vigilant about teaching my students these essential skills. 

My literacy guide, once created, really stood out to me as something I not only want to give my students at the start of every year, but something I want to constantly add to and reinforce.  It was a great way to collect my thoughts and figure out what I value most about literacy, and despite my initial grumblings, it was truly a beneficial assignment      

Resources:

"Information Transliteracy in the 21st Century." National Louis University.  YouTube video.  Uploaded on 26, January, 2012.  Retrieved at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1JjcmGJb2A&feature=youtu.be

Thomas, Sue, Chris Joseph, Jess Laccetti, Bruce Mason, Simon Mills, Simon Perril and Kate Pulinger. "Transliteracy: Crossing Divides."  What is Transliteracy? First Monday.  3, December.  Retrieved at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2060/1908/

*"Understanding the Importance of Information Literacy." Education News. 25, March, 2013.  Retrieved at: http://www.educationnews.org/uncategorized/understanding-the-importance-of-information-literacy/

*"Information Literacy." Suffolk County Community College.  Web Video. nd.  Retrieved at: http://libguides.sunysuffolk.edu/content.php?pid=215710&sid=1794616

Week 11: How My Students (and the Internet) Illuminated the Cracks in Public Education

As Sugatra Mitra says in his illuminating Ted Talk Build a School in the Clouds, "schools as we know them are obsolete." This phrase resounded in my mind again and again as I interviewed not one, but nearly twenty young students at my middle schools, ranging from ages 10-14 and grades 6-8.  Each of them (and sometimes a group of them) received a series of questions (many of which were provided by my peers in this course), and I was not only shocked at how similar many of their answers were, but by their overall level of boredom and disenchantment with school.  

My first adolescent interview left much to be desired.  The answers were obvious, plain and expected. He was an 11-year old boy in 6th grade.  In fact, his answer were so mundane (without the Internet I'd read a book; my parents set a 2-hour limit on games; I'm never on social networking), I quickly started interviewing a bunch of kids at a time. 

I expanded my interview to even more students in my 6th grade humanities class, as well as those I had taught in 7th and 8th grade (who regularly came by around lunch).  One day in particular (as I asked questions all week long) about fifteen boys and girls flocked around me and I offered questions raining from how they spent their day (both online and off), what they did online (specifically what sites they routinely visited), and what skills they had learned online (most took a long, long time to answer that one).  

Some answers really stood out.  For example, when the majority was presented with: "What would you do without the Internet," most yelled out, "I'd die!" or "kill me now."  Curious about their common reaction, I probed further.  "What does that mean?  Explain?"  Again, most of their answers were exactly alike, regardless of age, race, gender or social status: "My life would shut down without the Internet.  I mean…I'd still have schools so I could see my friends, but without text messaging or Instagram [or whatever social networking site they were on] I'd be trapped - I wouldn't know what to do."  I wasn't sure what that mean, so again, I probed further.  "Extrapolate." The answers were again similar. "I guess I'd be forced to look at the world around me."  Not  one, but a number of them replied, "I'd be more…aware…of this class, of outside….I would actually BE with my friends instead of looking down" (one of them pantomimed texting).  

Most of them - with few exceptions - discovered quite on their own that without technology they might learn more about life, read a book, play outside, or maybe even study for a test.  Really? I thought.  This seemed too good to be true: All the world's problems solved without the Internet!?  I wasn't buying it…"Great! I said, "I'll get rid of the class computers tomorrow and shut down the WiFi at school!"  They all looked horrified.  "Don't do that!  Don't do that!  School would suck!" they cried.  "But you just said…" "No!" one of them screamed, "School is boring."  Wait a minute, I thought: Now that makes sense…

At the end of the day, it wasn't the fear of the Internet shutting down that got my students riled up, but the idea that they'd spend most of their lives in school with teachers they didn't like, lessons they called boring and "meaningless assignments" that only wasted their time. "Explain that," I asked.  "Online we can chat with our friends," one of them said, "and do homework and projects together on Google, which is good because I don't always understand the assignments."  They all eagerly agreed, and it reminded me of a quote from Living & Learning with New Media Literacy, which said, "Unlike what young people experience in school, where they are graded by a teacher in a position of authority, feedback in interest-driven groups is from peers and audiences who have a personal interest in their work and opinions." (p. 64).  Another student said, "I learn a lot online, more than in school because I can learn whatever I want." And it reminded me of something Don Tapscott said in his video Growing up Digital, which was, "What has to change in schools?  The model of pedagogy has been around for a long time…drill and kill…test me.  This generation has grown into interacting so this is inappropriate."  

What struck me most about my adolescent interviews was how shockingly out-of-touch schools are with modern life. Any negative the kids brought up about a world with no Internet revolved - not around their daily lives at home or with friends  but around a palpable fear of being left alone in a classroom with a teacher they hated to do assignments they felt were completely unrelated to their lives.  90% of them agreed on this. But this certainly doesn't mean we all need to run out and buy computers for our classrooms.  It just means we need to be more aware of how our students today learn.  They need to be more active, social and engaged.  Everyone should be working in teams, and they should get to choose some of the topics they study.  That's why whenever I start a unit like 'Ancient Rome' I have them research any aspect they want.  They love that, because it's just like the Internet - they get to explore and work with others, and they're constantly moving and jumping from one topic to the next.  

So teachers take note.  The past is gone. No more lazy worksheets and boring lesson plans that take no effort or creativity to design or implement. What did I learn from this assignment on "growing up digital"?  That teachers and schools need to prepare for the future, or they need to prepare to be obsolete.  

Resources:

Mitra, Sugata.  TED (2013).  Build a School in a Cloud. [Online video clip.  YouTube.]  Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud?language=en

Tapscott, Dan, "Growing up Digital" (*Interview no longer available because it says the uploader has closed their YouTube account)

Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lang, P.G., Pascoe, C.J., & Robinson, L. (2009). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. PDF file is included in module.