Digital Literacy

From ETS

Contents 1 Summary 2 Implications for Teaching and Learning 3 Resources, Related Blog Posts, Miscellaneous Thinking 3.1 Blog Posts 3.2 Magazine, Journal Articles, Research

Summary

What is meant by the term "Digital Literacy"? Are we talking about the ability to use the tools of Web 2.0 in a strictly technical sense? Or are we talking about the broader issue of "Literacy in a Digital Age" which encompasses understanding how to use digital tools effectively in the teaching/learning/work process?

Before we start...

This presentation may say it more succinctly than my ramblings below :)- By Dr. Renee Hobbs of Temple U. - on Media Literacy http://www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/oklahoma-sept-08-presentation/

Think about how the way we learn is changing, Take a look at an interesting view of the classroom of the future... a 20-minute video by Canadian Professor, Dr. Alec Couros, a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=310

Now think about the impact of digital media when it is brought into the classroom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Qx9dIr-68 - This was shown today in a 400 level lit class on African American poets - getting students to consider poetry as protest - an incredible conversation ensued, spurred on by the video.

And then... when students are doing the creating....

Now a few questions to consider....

Is this notion of traditional literacy changing with the advent of Web 2.0 and digital media? and How might this impact intellectual development? What might be some of the unintended consequences of this shift?

What does it mean "to read" and "to write" for a college student?

Is this notion of traditional literacy changing with the advent of Web 2.0 and digital media? Should it change, and if so, how? If we asked different stakeholders, would we get different answers? Would faculty, students, and future employers look at this differently?

In the broadest sense of the word, reading (and I would extend that to writing as well) can be defined as the act of “meaning-making” (Wilson, 2002, Goodman, 1968, Smith, 2004, & Gee, 2001). How does this definition then compare to traditional college expectations for reading and writing, and how might this broad definition allow us to re-envision what reading and writing COULD look like with the addition of new tools used in a digital age?

The preface, written by P. David Pearson in Lorraine Wilson's text, Reading to Live (2002) writes, "...reading and writing are tools for communication, learning, enjoyment, and personal insight, the means to help us live our lives more productively, more honestly, more graciously, and with greater personal satisfaction....Food may be the fuel for our bodies, but reading - and the ideas, emotions, and insights we encounter in the process - is the fuel for our hearts, souls, and minds."

In the same text, Kenneth Goodman's classic 1968 description of the reading process is described as a combination of systems (pg. 3)…

• graphophonic (letters and sounds) - visual cue
• syntactic (sentence structure or syntax) - brain cues
• semantic (using experiential knowledge on life meanings) - brain cues

So what constitutes TEXT in the digital AGE?

According to Goodman (1969), the reader looks at text - sees the letters/words and the brain becomes engaged to make connections to what the reader already knows about language and life and then creates "meaning".

Interpretation of the text is always situated then with the reader + text - what the reader knows, what they understand about the world - so no 2 people will interpret text the same way - so no "right" answers only plausible ones... Can we expand upon the notion of text?

What are Readers Actually Doing when they Interact with Text?

Luke and Freebody (1992)describe the Four Resources Model which articulates four possible sets of reader practices as they seek to make meaning from text:

1. Code breaker – reader is outside the text, using strategies to get in

2. Text Participant – reader is now inside text

3. Text User - reading with a purpose - reads to understand, participate, and make use of text

4. Text Analyst - steps back to analyze through social critical literacy lens – What may the author's motives for writing be? How is the author trying to shape the reader?

How might these practices look (or need to be modified) with Web 2.0 & digital tools?

Goodman, Watson, & Burke in their text, Reading for Comprehension (1996) discuss four assumptions that we should consider when we think about language, thinking, & learners (pg. 20):

1. Reading is an active process

2. Reading is a language process

3. Readers have knowledge about language

4. Authors have knowledge about language

Both readers and the author are active in constructing meaning, therefore reading is always transactional in nature. As readers transact with text, they use different cueing systems to build meaning (pg. 25):

• graphophonic - sounds & written form
• syntactic - the way human organize the sentences of a language in relation to other sentences - whether for purposes of reading, writing, speaking, listening - is its syntax
• semantic - meaning - therefore influenced by culture & beliefs
• pragmatic – the context helps to determine meaning. All of these cueing systems work within the socio-cultural context of reader/author - pragmatic system - language occurs in a context - how we use it or interpret it, depends on context

Is any of this altered (and if so how) when we substitute digital media and/or Web 2.0 tools for traditional forms of literacy practice?

What are the Connections between Reading, Writing, Learning, and Intellectual Development?Otherwise - none of this would really come into question...

Academic Literacy - Zwiers section - Connection between language use and intellectual development...from http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/FA08newsletter/FA085.html#supportingacademicliteracyacquisition

What do we Know about the Connection between Literacy and Intellectual Development?

• Students acquire more sophisticated language as they interact in meaningful ways with more skilled language users
• As students acquire more sophisticated language, they gain access to more sophisticated thought. This then becomes almost a double-helix of spiraling development - language and intellect together grow with modeling and support.
• By helping them to increase their literacy skills, we help them have the tools they need to increase their intellectual development, because this happens in and through language use.
• Reading supports writing. The more students read, the stronger their vocabularies become and the more they can recognize more sophisticated language patterns which they can then use in their own writing and thinking. Reading is the gateway...
• What you do in the classroom matters. For some very few gifted students, this kind of growth can happen simply by osmosis over time. But the majority of our students need a helping hand. With just a few adjustments to how you present material, how you design activities, and how you hold students accountable, you can make a major impact in their ability to acquire the academic literacy skills by providing opportunities for them to use academic language in real contexts in your class.

How can we design into our digital media projects or Web 2.0 use supports to also help students develop their literacy skills and their intellectual prowess?

Of all of the sections so far, I believe this is the place where digital media/Web 2.0 tools may have the highest impact and therefore need the most scrutiny...

References

Gee, J. P. (2001). Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 44 (714-725), 116-132.

Goodman, K. S. (1968). The psycholinguistic nature of the reading process. Wayne State University Press.

Goodman, Y. M., Watson, D. J., & Burke, C. L. (1996). Reading strategies: Focus on comprehension (2nd Edition ed.). Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.

Freebody, P. (1992). A socio-cultural approach: Resourcing four roles as a literacy learner. In A. Watson & A. Badenhop (Eds.), Prevention of reading failure (pp. 48-60). Sydney: Ashton-Scholastic.

Smith, F. (2004). Understanding reading (6th Edition ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Wilson, L. (2002). Reading to live: How to teach reading for today’s world. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Implications for Teaching and Learning

Should we start with a Cool Tool to jump start the discussion??

Has anyone seen VoiceThread yet? It is an online visual tool that you can use to capture a conversation - the comments to the initial presentation can be found around the central image. I just tried a really rough demo - http://voicethread.com/#q+digital+media.b235170.i1223630 - you can add comments in 5 different ways - the phone option is amazing - you just type in the phone number and it calls you and records your comments - play around with it and add you comments to any of the 4 different pages. It's free to join - costs a little to have private conversations - but the basic open tool is free.

What is Significant Learning? L. Dee Fink describes an approach to designing college courses that is "significant" and I keep coming back to this model of design as one that might really make sense with the incorporation of digital media. Go to page 3 of the document to see the taxonomy http://www.ou.edu/pii/significant/WHAT%20IS.pdf for the design.

What strikes me most about digital media is its visceral effect - which can tap into Fink's "Caring, Human Dimension, and Integration elements of the taxonomy. Today, I was asked to observe a teacher in a 400 level lit course and they were doing the poetry of Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni (who recited one of her poems to the university after the attack at VA Tech)... the instructor used a combination of YouTube videos to communicate some very powerful ideas present in the poems...I was reminded of the power of literature, poetry, music,and art to capture what Fink is calling "Significant learning experiences" - those things that digital media can help students to access more readily, more fundamentally, and perhaps more deeply... Then when we ask them to not only view, but create... what an opportunity to yet again, make what we all do in the classroom more significant...

If you didn't get a chance yet, take 20 minutes to watch a presentation by Canadian professor, Dr. Alec Couros, a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=310

If our definition of literacy is changing, then do we need to teach new skills - If so - what? What are the new skills that students will need?

In his occasional paper for the The MacArthur Foundation’s initiative called, Building the Field of Digital Media and Learning, Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes a new culture of learning and learners, which he calls, a participatory culture (2006). He defines a participatory culture as: A culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expressions and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creation, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is one where members believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another (pg 3).

Students who emerge from this culture, also emerge with new skill sets and new approaches to and expectations about learning. Jenkins stresses that this new culture of participation also comes with three types of challenges, which may have pedagogical implications: (a) The Participation Gap, or unequal access to skills or opportunities that will prevent students from becoming full participants in their world, (b) The Transparency Problem, or students’ inability to see clearly the ways that media shape their perceptions about the world, and (c)The Ethics Challenge, to which this focus study will invite students to explore further.

What is Connectivism? http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html

George Siemens work on Connectivism - http://www.elearnspace.org/media/Connectivism_IOC/player.html

More about the need to teach students to be "literate" in more than just traditional ways Need for critical literacy approach - Students need to use tools in academic ways and in critical ways... http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/Reading/literacydevelopment.pdf

Other thoughts/questions...

Storyboarding process can help students to improve their writing.... they get a visual of how to logically let a "story" unfold... Faculty can build the literacy bridge to show how this same process can help in writing papers, planning presentations, etc...

Twitter helps us find the nugget on our thoughts and write concisely - definitely a skill students need in traditional writing...

We know the web is read/write intensive - how does this jibe with what we know about the gap between high school and college and students declining skills - especially reading/writing..add links to "gap" section of reading support website

supporting reading/writing in a digital age...If everything is going visual - digital media - will we continue to lose literacy skills - add link to newsletters - sp07 fa08 - why skills are declining... http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/10112007psuindex.html

Supporting readers at the college level - http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/Reading/

Connection between language use and intellectual development...http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/FA08newsletter/FA085.html#supportingacademicliteracyacquisition

Does Media use impact Learning - The Kozma V Clark debate - http://psyelearning.blogspot.com/2008/09/media-and-learning-clark-kozma-debate.html

I'm wondering about the impact of student skills, in addition to literacy skills, on how successful they will be when using Web 2.0 tools for learning. For example, What are the foundation skills students need in order to succeed in a digital age? what skills do students need in order to succeed academically in a Web 2.0 classroom? Are students prepared to learn with Web 2.0 technologies? What do we need to do to prepare them? (Yvonne)

Something to Shoot for????

Tom Brokaw video reflections on the American Presidency... http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/27591495#27591495 Look at how the pictures, narration, storyline, and music combine to make this an incredibly powerful presentation - in about 3.5 minutes only!

Resources, Related Blog Posts, Miscellaneous Thinking

Blog Posts

• Chris Sessums - Media Literacy Education Heuristic: http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/495507.html
• Ellysa Cahoy (PSU University Libraries): http://www.personal.psu.edu/esc10/blogs/E-Tech/2008/08/digital-literacy-and-content-c.html
• Suzanne Shaffer (York Campus) : http://readwritelearn2.blogspot.com/ Using Blogs to Help Write Papers
• Clark V. Kozma debate - Does Media use Impact Learning? - http://psyelearning.blogspot.com/2008/09/media-and-learning-clark-kozma-debate.html
• Papyrus News - UC Irvine blog on Educational Benefits of Social Networking - http://papyrusnews.com/2008/10/23/educational-benefits-of-social-network-sites/
• Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy - Dr. Alec Couros, a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/ - Watch a recent presentation of his...http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=310 on open source and the power of collaboration

Magazine, Journal Articles, Research

• Dr. Renee Hobbs of Temple Presentation on Media Literacy

http://www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/oklahoma-sept-08-presentation/

• Trends in faculty and student use of technology at Penn State: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/surveys/spring2008/2008_Technology_Use.pdf
• “Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies”, Joan Lippincott (2007): http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/StudentContentCreatorsCon/45230
• “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”, Henry Jenkinn: http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029291/k.97E5/Occasional_Papers.htm
• Lawrence Lessig keynote http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/topics/keynote
• Bloom’s revised Taxonomy for the Digital Age - http://www.techlearning.com/shared/printableArticle.php?articleID=196605124
• The Machine is Us/ing Us video -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
• George Siemens work on Connectivism - http://www.elearnspace.org/media/Connectivism_IOC/player.html
• THe Future of Education Conference Resources - http://umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies/conferences/foe/schedule.php
• eLearning Guild 360 report on e-Learning 2.0 (I think this is free for everyone to download) - http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?action=viewonly2&id=134&referer=
• eLearning Guild Webinar recording about the 360 report - https://admin.connectpro.acrobat.com/_a62486834/p90105763
• eLearning Guild members can also access the series of Web 2.0 articles at the eLearning Guild Web site (http://elearningguild.com)
• Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• First-of-its-kind study at the University of Minnesota uncovers the educational benefits of social networking sites. (2008, October 24). Retrieved from University of Minnesota UMN News: http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/news_details.php?release=080619_3591&page=UMNN
• Kealy, W. A. (2004). Media literacy. (J. L. Kincheloe, & D. Weil, Eds.) Critical Thinking and Learning; An Encylclopedia for Parents and Teachers , 287-291.
• Lemke, J. (2006). Toward critical multimedia literacy: Technology, research, and politics. In M. C. McKenna, L. D. Labbo, R. D. Kieffer, & D. Reinking (Eds.), International Handbook of Literacy and Technology (Vol. II, pp. 3-14). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Mitchell, J., & Erickson, G. (2004). Constituting conventions of practice: An analysis of academic literacy and computer mediated communication. Journal of Educational Thought , 38 (1), 19-42.
• Nagy, J., & Bigum, C. (2007). Bounded and unbounded knowledge: Teaching and learning in a web 2 world. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education , 8 (3), 76-86.
• Why are students' reading skills in decline? http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/10112007psuindex.html
• How People Learn - The National Academies - http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=206