What are New Literacies?
After my readings, I found that this is a hard question to define. According to Leu. O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, Everett-Cacopardo (2009) "New Literacies means many different things to many different people" (p.265). New Literacies are hard to define because they are always changing. http://ctell.uconn.edu/canter/canter_video.cfm?movie=la_new_technolgies.mov
To me, New Literacies refers to new forms of literacy through the use of technolgy. Some of the New Literacies include: instant messaging, blogging (what I'm doing right now), social networking like facebook.com, and emailing. What are NETS for Students and NETS for Teachers?
To me, NETS is intergrateing technology into the classroom in order to transform how our students learn and to give them the skills they'll need to learn effectively in the digital world.
I can develop nets in my classroom by having my students take their written stories and give them a voice through a site like ,www.voicethread.com which allows them to choose how to tell their stories, whether it be through video, voice, or text commenting.
I can help cultivate and develop New Literacies in my classroom by setting up a classroom blog. In this blog, students can respond to an assigned to read piece of literature via the internet and get feedback from their classmates, as well as, other 2nd grade classrooms in the building and myself.
In your post you mention a variety of tools as examples of new literacies, however, new literacies should be viewed more as "skills" rather than "tools." This is a common mistake. New literacies are the skills necessary to use those tools efficiently and effectively. VoiceThread is an excellent tool that I've seen many teachers integrate into their own classroom. It's also a great way to get other students' involved and commenting on their peers' work.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clarification. I will try to edit and link voice thread again.
ReplyDeleteThanks:)
Viviana, I love that you want to start a blog with your second graders! I am excited for you to introduce this to your young students, because when then get to junior high school, they will already know how to blog! Good for you! Are you going to try introducing it to them after the holidays? Let me know how it goes in your classroom. I think we should have a district-wide professional development on blogging so that every teacher will be able to have the "tools" to teach every student the "skills".
ReplyDeleteTy Paula,
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure when I'll start the blog with my second graders. A lot of my students are below reading level and I need to figure out how to differentiate for all needs.