Understanding Literacy

When I first heard we would be doing this project, I was not sure what "new literacies" were.  I knew what literacies were, but I did not know how many different types of new literacies were present and how important each of them are in the development of literacy. Students today are surrounded by technology inside and outside of the classroom.  Depending on the resources students have available to them, most spend a considerable amount of time a week around technology.  Some of these exposures to technologies can be negative, but it is important for teachers to make sure that exposures to technology are done in a constructive manner which allows them to learn to the best of their ability.

There are positive atributes of using technology in the classroom.  Allowing students to explore and interact in their own way promotes their creativity.  When students are engaging in a way that they enjoy, they will be able to learn the material better and stay interested in what they are learning.  My group initially wanted to do MuseumBox for our New Literacies project.  Unfortunately the website was changed to only cater to members.  We then decided to create a Popplet for cultural literacy.  The popplet enabled us to make cultural literacy more exciting and interactive.  When beginning to explore the popplet, it looks like a web and it connects ideas.  We included bullet points, videos, and pictures to make the presentation more attention grabbing.  Our goal was to make it look very user friendly and to make it very easy to navigate around the web and learn about new material.

If technology is present in the classroom and is not engaging and does not target the correct learning goal, it can be useless.  With the current generation, it is important that we are able to best support students in learning how to use technology efficiently.  It is also important to encourage the use of technology in bettering one's skills.  There are many different technologies present that can engage students' minds better than something written on the board or lectured to them, may be able to do.  Technologies can empower young minds in the best way to better their learning.