The New Literacies articles...Task 1 week 3

The first  article left me exhilarated and excited about teaching.  Todd’s quote clearly defines, to me, why the new literacies are necessary .

“What makes today's kids really sit up and fires their neural fibers? Technology. Kids don't see laptops, MP3 players, cell phones, PDAs, DVD players, and video games as technology, it's just life. Schools need to connect education to their students' lives with technology.”

I agree that the present paper pencil state mandated assessment may not perfectly align with the new literacies . Yet, it was encouraging to read that despite this fact, the students immersed in this computer rich classroom are performing well on the tests.

The most significant points made in the reading association position statement regarding the new technologies pertained to professional development and training for teachers.  When I was completing my undergraduate education degree in the late 1990s, technology integration in education consisted of using the internet for research, word processing programs and Powerpoint.   Therefore, educators, for the most part, who studied teacher education prior to the year 2000,  must rely heavily upon professional development. 

I enjoyed reading about the history of literacy and its integration with technology.   

The  following definition of the new literacies, as stated in the third article, pulled it all together for me.

The new literacies of the Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives. These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others.