Digital Literacy and Technologies: Resources

Futurelab (2010) state that digital literacy is not just about understanding how to use technology, but about “collaborating, staying safe and communicating effectively. It’s about cultural and social awareness and understanding, and it’s about being creative” (2010:19).  This means resources should be understood and used to inhibit these ideologies of using technology and digital literacy.

From personal experiences, resources seem to have benefits for literacy teaching, however lack aspects which are essential, for example resources to reflect upon learning and using these resources. Futurelab (2010) understands this and therefore suggests using such resources alongside traditional literacy, whilst Halsey (2007) reinforces this viewpoint saying it is vital to merge digital skills with other cross curricular subjects other than literacy.

 

Resources that I have found interesting and beneficial include: ‘Storybird’; an interactive resource which enables children to create stories, using page layout techniques, pictures to resemble the story and whole story layout. It was fun, easy to use and gave children opportunities to express, imagine and invent their own stories. However, it is limited in its capacity to let children express their stories as creatively as they may want (for example, the amount of pictures available to use).  Merchant (2007) suggests that using technological resources like this, can hinder children by making them lazy with traditional literacy and sloppy in their written language skills.

Another resource recently used is Tagxedo; a program that lets children create word art pictures. My creation was words involving the theme of snow white in the shape of an apple. It is a great way in which children could maybe show their understanding and comprehension of a story they have read, in a digital and creative way.

To conclude, with reflections on resources I have used, it is beneficial to use digital literacy in the classroom to enhance upon traditional literacy, but caution should be understood that not all digital literacy tools will fully underpin what is needed in literacy and therefore teachers should be understanding of this and able to adapt and suit these to their needs (Merchant, 2007).

 

Bibliography

Futurelab (2010) Digital Literacy across the Curriculum [online]

Halsey, S. (2007) Embracing emergent technologies and envisioning new ways of using them for literacy learning in the primary classroom English Teaching; Practice and Critique 6 (2)

Merchant (2007) Writing the future in the digital age Literacy 41 (3)

Storybird http://storybird.com/

Tagxedo www.tagxedo.com

 

week 4 blog

‘Introducing new digital literacies into classroom settings is an important and challenging task’ (Merchant, 2009:38). Rylands (2013) (Online) claimed that ‘there is a huge, and accessible, range of digital, and analogue, ways to engage, and motivate students of all ages, and abilities’. Before the seminar I had limited knowledge of resources to use when using ICT within Literacy. Turbill’s (2001 cited in Halsey, 2007) research showed that some teachers lacked confidence in using digital text when teaching, and felt they did not have enough time to search for software. I felt the seminar improved my confidence in using computer software packages and it gave me a range of websites and software packages to use in the Primary classroom.

The Future Lab (2010) highlights the importance of giving children time to experiment with different technologies. I feel this is important as the time given in the seminar to experiment with the different technologies developed my understanding and confidence when using the different software packages.

The National Curriculum (QCA, 1999 cited in Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths 2012:196) outlines that ‘children should be taught the skills of reading and writing through ICT’. The separation of ICT and Literacy in the classroom has stood in the way of progression (Merchant, 2009). This highlights the importance of teachers planning cross curricular links for ICT and Literacy. The Future Lab (2010) proposes that using digital technologies can encourage creative thinking and develop the child’s subject knowledge.

The QCA (1999) stated that Key Stage Two pupils should be taught to use a wide range of vocabulary. As a student teacher I would use Tagxedo as a way of encouraging and motivating the children to use adventurous vocabulary to describe their chosen theme. Halsey (2007) describes the advantages of using software similar to Tagxedo in the classroom; the children were excited to find interesting words which could be due to the stimulus.

Children should be taught to write for a range of purposes on paper and on screen (PNS, 2006 cited in Medwell et al, 2012). To improve children’s use of speech in narrative I would use the Seussville story maker as it allows the child to focus on the speech and narrative as the animations are already created. Software packages which children choose options from a pre-established story can encourage children to focus on character development and dialogue (Montague, 1990). When setting the task I would give the children a real audience, by allowing them to share their story with a child from a younger key stage/ class. ‘Writing for a real audience is said to contribute to more thoughtful content and structure of the writing’ (Godwin-Jones, 2003; Oakley, 2003 cited in Hasley, 2007:102).

Futurelab. (2010) Digital literacy across the curriculum. London: Becta.

Halsey, S. (2007) ‘Embracing emergent technologies and envisioning new ways of using them for literacy learning in the primary classroom’ English Teaching; Practice and Critique 6 (2) pp 99-107

Medwell, J. Moore, G. Wray, D. Griffiths, V. (2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters

Merchant, G. (2009) ‘Literacy in virtual worlds’ Journal of Research in Reading 32, (1) 38-56.

Montague. M. (1990) Computers, Cognition, and Writing Instruction New York: State University of New York Press

QCA (1999) The National Curriculum London: DfEE/QCA

Rylands, T. (2013) ICT to inspire (Online) http://www.timrylands.com/ (Accessed: 12.2.13)

Seussville story maker http://www.seussville.com/games_hb/storymaker/story_maker.html (Accessed: 12.2.12)

Tagxedo http://www.tagxedo.com/ (Accessed 12.02.13)

The princess and her unexpected friend!

The gruffalo

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Week 5 - ED

 Week 5 - Rethinking literacy: Multimodal texts

The National Curriculum program of study for English state that children should be taught the skills of reading and writing through ICT-based texts (Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffin (2012:196).  'Rapid changes in digital communication provide facilities for reading and writing to be combined with various and often quite complex aspects of images, music, sound, graphics, photography and film' (Walsh 2010:211) and therefore, within current society, it is important to incorporate multimodal texts within the classroom. Multimodal texts or literacy can be defined as 'meaning-making' that can occur through reading, viewing, producing and interacting with multimedia and digital texts (Walsh 2010:213). 

Making my multimodal text through a Powerpoint movie was a beneficial experience for numerous reasons. Looking from a literacy aspect, it can provide children with a text that differs from the usual books, and allows the children to read the story from a computer screen and make links with the pictures with it. It allows me as 'teacher' to consider the types of pictures and amount of text that would be appropriate for this type of multimodal text. I found that, as it is a movie, it was more appropriate to provide pictures as the most stimulating way to deliver information of the story, and the text allowed children to read if they wanted to but was not overindulged so the child could view it as a movie as well as a story. This process, also enabled me to see how simple the process of making a Powerpoint and including different effects and transitions is, and how this could be easily made accessible to children and part of my own furture practice. I believe that children would enjoy making their own stories and creating different texts in this way, especially as they come out with a finished project at the end that they can sit back, watch and show it off to their friends.

Medwell, J. Moore, G. Wray, D & Griffiths, V. (2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters

Walsh, M. (2010) 'Multimodal literacy: what does it mean for classroom practice?' Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 33 (3) pp211-239