Digital Literacy - Bringing language alive!

Digital Literacy - Tools such as IWB's (interactive whiteboards) and Power Point can be used to add new dimensions to beloved stories and to expand use of traditional literature in examining and developing language.  Below is an example of text innovation using the book Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd.

Children use the delightful story book, Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy by Lynley Dodd to expand their knowledge of adjectives and adverbs.  Using real life photos of each of the six dog characters, students are prompted for words that describe how each dog look ands moves.  Words suggested can be listed in word banks to scaffold children in independently writing descriptive, rich sentences about the dog of their choice.

Copying in the name of education?

Contrary to the belief of many, it is okay to copy! But of course, only with  proper acknowledgment and within certain restricted guidelines.  According to the Australian Copyright Council, one permissable use of others' materials is the pursuit of study and research (virtually interchangeable terms), but only within boundaries.  Use of others' materials for research and study is limited to what is deemed "fair use".  In pragmatic terms, this means copying is permissible, but to the limited extent of 10% of the pages (or 10% of the words if the source is electronic), or 1 chapter (hard copy or electronic), or 1 article from a given journal. 

The use of music in personally constructed videos is a bit less clear, given that the music source can be multi-sourced (CD, DVD, internet?) and multi-layered, often being coupled with video and complicated by the separate ownership of lyrics, music and performance.    Generally speaking, it appears that use of audio tracks as background to videos used for educational purposes would not result in copyright infringement, unless the source used (eg CD rom) specifrically forbade such use via the  license agreement under which the material was downloaded or otherwise acquired.

Interactive Lessons - Great Ideas

Three teaching and learning ideas borrowed from Belmore South's classroom (allstars.edublogs.org). 

1.  HSIE - History perspectives:  Develop a relationship with a school in another country associated with your HSIE studies.  For example, in investigating origins of convicts from the UK, the class can write history reports that are shared via the class blog with the sister school.  The sister school can provide feedback and thoughts from a UK perspective.

2.  Creative writing:  Use developed relationships with students to read and critique in a supportive way creative writing documents.  Older students from the same or different (geographic) areas can provide feedback on clarity, expression, and language construction.  Students from other cultures can provide feedback on the characters and story line from a different cultural perspective. 

3.  HSIE - Geography:  Plot visitors to your class blog site on a ClustrMap (free on http://www.clustrmaps.com/ if visitors are less than 2500).

New Literacies - What are they?

According to Knobel and Lankshear, new literacies have two key features that distinguish them from traditional literacy.  The first feature is its technicality or digital nature.  This generally means some form of electrical apparatus will be used, although it is not a given that computers or the internet are involved.  The second, and more critical feature, is a new ethos of collaboration, sharing and creation where "rules and procedures are flexible and open to change" (Knobel & Lankshear, 2006).

Traditional and new literacies are not mutually exclusive, but in themselves are collaborative.  Traditional literacy skills are still required and greatly important in student education.  These traditional skills are not to be replaced, but to be supplemented by multi-literacy skills and trans-literacy skills, empowering students to critically evaluate and create multiple modes of communication.

Tree Octopi?

Our children are spending many precious hours on the internet, both for pleasure and for work.  Don't they need the skills necessary to ascertain fact from friction?  To ascertain objectives and motivations behind what they are viewing?  In other words, don't they need the skills to critically evaluate what they view and hear on the internet?  This video makes it clear our students are not developing those critical literacy skills.  In the US, money is being spent on the hardware, but not on the teacher training needed to support the development of student skills.  I hope we do better in Australia.