Throughout this series we have been considering the use of technological devices in our roles as teachers and students to better gauge how these innovations may increase the level of, or even enhance, the literacy of learners and become educational tools, not just glitz. This final post goes in a different direction to examine how technology may be challenging our traditional notions of what literacy is and suggests that we adapt our beliefs to better serve students.
Many of the devices and concepts that our students work with on a daily basis were not available for our use when we were students—although, those of us who return to higher education find podcasts, online shared documents, smart boards, and digital dropboxes as commonplace as mimeographs, punchcards and chalkboards were just a few years ago. These newer implementations may be signs that we must challenge our traditional views of what it means to be literate in a 21st century society.
For many of us, becoming literate meant learning to make sense of printed text characters. Mastery of basic literacy was demonstrated through silent reading, reading aloud, and writing a few sentences. That is a classic, if rather constrained, definition. Over time, we learned to adapt these expectations for people with certain impairments affecting their hearing, speech or vision. With all that students have at their fingertips today, it seems rather dated and dangerous to adhere to the idea that literacy is the same as what it was a century ago whilst ignoring all modes of communication invented after the printing press.
With each generation the amount of information that must be learned and recalled on a daily basis in order to be an average member of society grows exponentially. Among those pieces of information is familiarity and comfort with newer technologies. Thirty years ago I would not expect a 12-year old to know how to use a computer (after all, those keypunch machines were tricky). Today, I would expect the average 12-year old to be able to sit down at a computer, correctly use the mouse, open an application and navigate to a webpage on pretty much any operating system available. Should we include basic computer use as part of literacy? What constitutes basic? In many places it is now possible (and sometimes necessary) to do many common functions such as apply for unemployment insurance or college admissions online making it ever-more important to have these skills.
Edutopia has a (very unscientific) poll asking whether or not the prevalence of text messaging is harming students’ writing abilities; the disappearance of the sentence is a concept brought up James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress and backed up by research. While it is good to be aware that it may degrade their ability to write a standard essay, it is also important to recognize text messaging, IM’ing, e-mailing, or even twittering as different modes of communication that have their own rules and standards—maybe society hasn’t quite yet settled on those agreed-upon styles, but it will. Although the system of repeatedly tapping a button to get to different letters may seem confusing at first (I know I was befuddled for months and refused to use it) it can be learned and watching teens so quickly type abbreviations could signify the formation of a derivative language that compresses data to send the most amount of information using the fewest characters – this all by itself is a skill (one I obviously have yet to master). These habits are in conflict with the style of writing being taught in schools though still appear despite the best efforts of teachers and students. Which brings me to my main point…
If the true purpose of the school system is to prepare students to be successful in the world of tomorrow, why are we using a definition of literacy that was developed yesterday?
I have long had a problem with rejecting change and not adopting technologies into education because it is different from the way that the parent, teacher, or administrator learned. We must always remember in our classrooms, that we are not teaching for own benefits, but for that of our students. Another common issue is that teachers are either not trained properly, have no interest in learning to use newer technologies or simply don’t want to change. Well, any teacher not interested in learning new methods that could potentially reach his or her students more effectively should be removed from the classroom. I refuse to believe that kids pick up technology faster. There is no reason why they would other than everything is new to them, so they don’t reject it before trying it and are clinging to the “old way.”
If all of the stakeholders in education—teachers, administrators, policymakers, parents and students—could agree on what it means to be literate in this millennium, and how they should go about ensuring that students will be literate and have the skills to enhance their own literacy after leaving the classroom, then, and only then, will I feel satisfied that schools are breaking out of the rut they have been in for over a century. Adapting literacy does not just mean swapping a paper-bound book for an eBook. Making this conceptual change would require evolving our entire way of thinking about what being literate means in a digital society whose modes of communication change in under a single generation.
When Will Richardson mentioned the idea that Facebook’s popularity could reach the tipping point of being accepted into the classroom, it received a flurry of responses both for and against. Using popular culture to engage students by helping to blend school life with their personal lives can have a powerful effect. I chuckled recently when a friend said, “I’ll Facebook you”. Of course, I knew what she meant, but it served as an example of how technologies are altering the contemporary lexicon and it got me thinking about all of the technology terms that I run across on a regular basis in relationship to education.
The concept fascinates me that I began compiling a list of technology terms used in education that either had no meaning, or at least a very different one, just twenty years ago. Evidence of the concept of the growing body of knowledge that must be learned by each generation. Take a look, and please feel to add your own via the comments:
Flickr photo courtesy of Julie Lindsay
[...] simply in order to be a functioning member of society is growing (a concept I have written about here). Through my travels I have met people that are lacking the most basic education—adults who [...]