Assignment 1 - Part C
The
topics that were of interest to me were early digital literacy, the necessity
of digital literacy as a focus on par with numeracy and literacy, and how to
stay at the forefront of technological advances for the sake of preparing
students well. I found that those subjects were well documented and discussed
in the wider world. There were a number of articles pertaining to each of the
subjects, but I chose to narrow them down to the 4 included in part B of
assignment 1 because they were the most focused or impacted my thinking in a
particular way.
Beginning
with the third topic, in Why School? Will Richardson mentions the
superintendent of Dobbs Ferry Union Free School District Lisa Brady. She
advocated for and pushed her district to integrate technology in a more
meaningful way for teachers professionally and students educationally. I chose
to include her brief video “Leadership Fear Based or Future Focused” because
the title itself sums up my current personal feelings and perspective
surrounding keeping up with technology and digital literacy. I understand that
my role as a teacher-librarian is, in part, helping to prepare students to be
successful in their increasingly online life. To do that requires leadership
from me in that arena when I would personally tend more towards the, “fear and
gate-keeping” that Lisa warns against. This short video was a bit of a shock to
the system, but it helped to reframe my thinking. Staying on top of technology
is more about a responsibility to my students than a choice about whether I
want to master it or not.
Image courtesy of Wesley Fryer and
Creative Commons
I
found the Emerling article and document released by MIC (Japanese Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications) really tempered the Brady video. Because
while I found it professionally challenging in an important way, panic was
beginning to rise. I imagined myself already miles behind in my own
understanding of digital literacy, wondering how to implement something to help
bring me and my students up to speed. This article provided a response to my
second and third topics in that it detailed a measured and deliberate approach
to technology integration in education systems. I appreciated the value placed
on doing something, even the simplest thing such as writing on a chalkboard,
with excellence. Part of what impacted me with this article was seeing the
opposite played out in my own school. Receiving technology and being told to
use it, but with no plan in place is stressful for teachers and has mostly
resulted in the tools not being used to their fullest potential or at all. The
statement, “traditional education will be valued
while those parts of it that should be extended, broadened, or deepened will
evolve significantly” was significant to me because it gave me license to value
things like traditional text research and literacy, when those things seem
pushed to the side at times.
The
TED talk I included in my list of resources was connected to the first and
second topics of interest, beginning digital literacy early and making it part
of the foundational systems in education. I was really impacted by Liz’s
statement that we need to raise up digital creators not digital consumers. To
me this links back to Will Richardson’s book and his focus on collaborative
learning. Digital creators will look for and make pathways to the information
that they’re seeking, digital consumers wait for and answer to be presented to
them in a palatable format. For this mental shift to be successful it has to
start early and it has to be an integral part of our learning and teaching
framework.
Works cited:
Emerling, Bradley. "Lessons
Learned from a Chalkboard: Slow and Steady Technology Integration (Bradley
Emerling)." Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice, 25
Apr. 2015, www.larrycuban.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/lessons-learned-from-a-chalkboard-slow-and-steady-technology-integration-bradley-emerling/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2019.
Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications (MIC). (n.d.). Creating the Learning Environment of the
Future. Retrieved from
Richardson, Will. (2012). Why
School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere
[Kindle Single]. TED Conferences.
The Brainwaves Video Anthology.
"Lisa Brady - Leadership: Fear Based or Future Focused?" YouTube,
16 Mar. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=d7ByNU07CCA. Accessed 18 Jan. 2019.
Zacho, Liz. TEDx Talks. "Raising
a Digitally Literate Generation | Lis Zacho | TEDxCopenhagen." YouTube,
10 May 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKYO5ZAzelA. Accessed 19 Jan. 2019.
This is a good post which outlines your thinking, learning, reading and research thus far. The narrative structure of your post helps your reader understand and connect to your thinking. You are considering important concepts here. I appreciate your integration of ideas and they way that you are constructing new understandings. Your next steps might be to think about what you could do with this new learning. Could you use it for the foundation for your Future Vision project?
ReplyDeleteI am a bit afraid too, it seems to go so fast... An younger years, there are still a lot of hands-on projects that personally I find more "connected" than digital ones. For me, there is a need to slowly integrate technology (ies) into the classroom, de-digitalise it a bit while still using it...
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