Week 4 - ED

Week 4 – Digital Literacy (Unfortunately I was unable to attend this weeks session, however I have drawn on the relevant readings and reflected on my own practice).

 Children and young people are a different generation; they are ‘Digital Natives’ (Paffrey & Gasser, 2008). As teachers, we must become educated in these technologies (21stCFP) in order for us to be able to effectively teach the new generation.

The inter-relationship between literacy and technology stands out as one of the major strands of educational debate in the early 21st century (Merchant 2009:38); digital literacy ‘is rarely granted status within our education system’ which provides concern as teachers have been educated to stress the importance of enrichment through reading (Millard & Marsh 2001:27). Tim Ryland is an experienced primary school teacher and his blog is designed to assist adults, and children to aspects of ICT and digital literacy, introducing them to how using this can be beneficial to their child’s learning. He states that ‘as more of our life happens online, internet skills are crucial to living responsibly’ (Ryland 2013). Similarly, Merchant (2009) states that ‘the central concern of digital literacy is reading and writing with new technologies’ and therefore teachers must embrace this technology and think of ways to successfully emerge it within their classrooms (Halsey 2007).

 However, teacher’s may feel anxious and have little confidence of doing this as ‘introducing new digital literacies into classroom settings is an important and challenging task’ (Merchant 2009:38). This is something I witnessed on school experience, when the class teacher was nervous that she did not know enough about the computer programme. Therefore, if teachers become secure in their subject knowledge they can incorporate digital literacy effectively. Halsey (2007:102) states that one way teachers could engage children is through writing that is published on the internet as it provides a real audience for authentic purpose. Although, there are concerns with children uploading writing publicly, it can also be beneficial, not only to the child but ‘the local community can be drawn in on something that, without the weblog, would have been isolated within the school’ (O’Hear in BBC News 2004).

To conclude, I believe these issue could reflect on my own practice tremedously because digital literacy is of growing importance to today’s children and teachers should involve this within their teaching to reap numerous benefits; building confidence, develops connection with the journey, and increases a feeling of success when a destination is approached (Rylands 2013).

 Bibliography

BBC News (2004) The seven-year-old bloggers http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3804773.stm (accessed 06/02/13)

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

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

  Millard, E. & Marsh, J. (2001) ‘Sending Minnie the minx home: comics and reading choices’ Cambridge Journal of Education

 Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books

Ryland, T. (2013) http://www.timrylands.com/ (accessed 06/02/13)

 The 21^st century Fluency Project Understanding Digital Kids II