Digital Literacy

I focused most this week on the Buckingham article about digital literacy because Mike and I are presenting on that tomorrow with Michele. Buckingham talked about the evolution of literacy and how as the world advances there are many new media that could be looked at as a literacy. As computers and the Internet have come to dominate society more and more, the idea of digital literacy was born.

Buckingham argues that computers and everything that encompasses digital literacy need to be taught differently. He writes that digital literacy "cannot be adequately understood if we persist in regarding them simply as a matter of machines and techniques, or as 'hardware' and 'software'." (p. 1) This means getting beyond teaching the basic functions of the computer and digital technology, and instead critically looking at the substance of this media. To do this Buckingham points to four aspects of the media that should be analyzed. These are representation, language, production, and audience. Within each aspect, Buckingham has questions that one should ask in relation to the piece of media in order to determine its validity and understand the media on a deeper level. For example, under audience, one should try to figure out who the piece of media is intended for and whether that results in any kind of bias. This critical analysis of digital literacy seems to me to be an obvious benefit to students and their learning. I would take this idea a step further and argue that a critical analysis is important for any type of literacy if students are going to come to a more complete understanding of what they are studying. For example, just as it is helpful to analyze a website for bias and deeper meaning, it could be just as helpful to critically analyze a book in the same manner.

From the other readings this week, I thought that the Tompkins chapter on the alphabetic code was very helpful. Lots of what was in the chapter was a refresher from what we had learned in TE 301, which is always nice to review. In addition to that, there are many potential quick resources that could prove beneficial to me in my education to become a teacher and then during my career. The list of wordplay books for phonemic awareness on page 119 could prove valuable my classroom if I am working on that skill with students. On pages 128 and 129 there are two good charts for rimes and general rules taught in phonics. Also, I really like the chart on page 131 that details the sequence of phonics instruction. We talked about phonics in TE 301, but did not get into the details about when to teach what skills. Looking at this chart and the GLCEs for the corresponding grade levels will give me a better sense about how to teach phonics. Overall, this was a chapter that I am sure I will use in the future as a resource.