I think there is a whole subtext to literacy learning.... what some call a hidden curriculum to it that derives from the historical needs that 'being literate' was supposed to resolve. I'm much more into the hidden curriculum of the liberal arts i think. Literacy is supposed to produce literate people, people who are capable of following instructions and performing well in basic situations. I think we probably need to reaffirm a bit more than that, literacy, I think, is not good enough. Don't get me wrong, it is great to have literate people, but... for instance, people seem to lack the historical context for things they take for granted, like why some countries have laws against child labor, or laws against working 80 hours a week, laws against certain forms of financial arbitrage, etc. Now I'm not saying that everyone needs a big dose of history, but it wouldn't really be included on a literacy oriented curriculum, similarly some people graduate without understanding that there is little difference between balancing their checkbooks and first year algebra, because many tend to teach mathematics in abstraction, and when we don't teach it in abstraction, we don't teach people how to abstract it. Digital literacy to me is just 'literacy'.... if you have the right skills to be 'literate' you should have the right skills to be digitally literate, but the argument is frequently made that it isn't so, thus we have digital literacy, we also have informational literacy, which is a different thing also apparently, there is internet literacy, and webbed literacies and multimodal media literacies. It worries me somewhat that there is a plurality of literacies So I dunno, I think as I mentioned below that there are things that we can teach at K-12 that are immensely worthwhile investments as the basis of life-long learning and life-long multiple technical literacies, but I don't think teaching literacy accomplishes it because at a certain point in literacy... we say you are literate, and that implies you are finished and I think the 'finished' is a huge part of the problem in education today. perhaps I am wrong with tying literacy to states of completion, but that's my current reading. I find that to be part of the larger problem of knowledge being compartmentalized, specialized, and complete-able. For instance, algebra.... you never stop using it once you've understood what it is, it is a life long pursuit, sure you don't have to be a mathematician, but you can recognize patterns, methods, ideas, etc. from algebra and it can make your life immensely simpler, but I bet, like my algebra training... it was for 1/3 of the class, 'i have completed algebra, it is all the math that is required, and now i can forget it'... for the other 2/3, 1/3 were going on to advanced algebra and then calculus which requires algebra and the other 1/3 were going on to accounting which is somewhat algebra by other means. I think what I'm pointing to is a larger scale problem in education and it is the one that leads our students to think that the material in a college class is... unrelated to other classes and finished/forgetable when completed..... anyway i think i'm ranting to avoid writing on commodity-forms. On Apr 15, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Nick Lalone wrote:
I believe that this line or argument would be akin to agreeing with the message while not agreeing with the method. You seem to be pointing at trying to awaken consciousness through teaching critical thinking. I don't know that what you want to see is something that can really be done on a massive scale. Tailoring learning to meet the need for each student's blossoming consciousness would be staggeringly difficult given the current resources we use for education. I've always felt that general literacy learning (and the unintended things it tries to teach), despite it's problems, would be the best answer to the general problem of conscious behavior. I'm not saying I disagree with you; just that I want to see a solution that can be implemented without a radical overhaul of a complex system.
Nick
On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 11:24 AM, jeremy hunsinger <jhuns@vt.edu> wrote:
I tend to think that the whole... literacy issue is actually not what we need. Literacy is to make people 'literate' and from my perspective being literate in any given set of technology is not really what we need for the future, we need people who have the skills to achieve literacy on their own on any given new technology or old technology they are confronted with, and to after they achieve literacy, which we might equate with apprentice level skill, they should be able to move through higher levels of skills until they become masters. Literacy, to me, has always been problematic as it become the goal instead of the goal being adaptable learners that can become literate should they need to be. Here I tend to say that instead of literacy we need to develop judgment in our students and in relation to judgment what Aristotle termed practical wisdom, which is related to the performance of skills, but as it is developed is translated into other things. Other people describe what i'm talking about as a form of creativity and adaptability, here is a fun talk about it http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity...
On Apr 15, 2009, at 11:40 AM, Pam Brewer wrote:
Elaine and all--
I, too, think that digital literacy is of primary importance for K-12 but with emphasis on "literacy." I would also add critical thinking with regards to digital literacy. As to the discussion of individual vs. group pedagogy, I will speak to my own experience as a teacher. In the classroom, I have found that I have to teach to the group in order to accomplish goals, but the classroom is not the beginning and end of teaching; the individual student is. In order to be truly effective, I have to open channels of communication with individuals, and the challenges to doing this are different when the contact is digital rather than face to face. Recognizing the roles of group and individual experience, I think, are the greatest challenge to great teaching. I'm still working on it.
Best! P
Pamela Estes Brewer Assistant Professor Department of English Appalachian State University phone 828-262-2351 fax 828-262-2133 email brewerpe@appstate.edu
Elaine Studnicki wrote:
Colleagues, I have hovered in the background for quite some time reading your extremely rich and diverse areas of interest/research. As a K-12 educator/ doctoral student I am interested in the connections between higher ed. research and the daily classroom instruction/environment that composes our national educational system. I am compelled to ask this question:
In your opinion what do you currently think is the most important area of research or perhaps the most important area "needing" research for our K-12 educational system?
Thank you for your help and time,
Elaine
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-- Nick LaLone 512.633.0207 _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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