Blog 4: Harnessing new technologies

After exploring a wide range of new technologies, I have a greater understanding of the use of multimodal texts in the classroom, and am in support of the view that using these technologies provide children with the skills, knowledge and understanding that they will need to become ‘a full and active part in social cultural, economic, civic and intellectual life now and in the future’ (Futurelab, 2010). Leu (2000) has acknowledged that ‘new literacies, whether intentionally or unintentionally, impact literacy instruction in classrooms’ (Halsey, 2007) and so using them to our advantage to engage and motivate children is imperative.

Whilst engaging in the creation of multimodal texts myself, I can understand the apprehension some teachers face, and why they feel they may be constrained by their own limited, print-based understandings of literacy (Halsey, 2007). According to Palfrey and Gasser (2008) I am a ‘Digital Native’ who was born into an era where new technologies were established; however, as Leu (2000) noted, ‘the nature of literacy is rapidly and continuously redefined by changing technologies in this information age (Halsey, 2007) and so, even for those classed as ‘digital natives’, teachers are feeling ‘inadequate or under-prepared’ to incorporate and harness these new technologies in their classrooms. I feel more prepared to integrate these new technologies after having adequate time allocated to exploring and experimenting with them, which supports Dean’s (2010) opinion that teachers need to be provided with the opportunities to develop their use of media in order to build the confidence required to harness the technology growing around us. I created multimodal texts using ‘Tagxedo’ , ‘Wordle’ and ‘Jigzone’. Using these within a classroom would provide children with another context for learning (Futurelab, 2010), and using them alongside existing methods, rather than as a separate body of work, would deepen children’s’ understanding in literacy, whilst at the same time inspiring and motivating them to learn.

Dean, G. 'Rethinking Literacy' in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London: SAGE

Futurelab (2010) Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum: Digital Literacy in Practice [online]http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/handbooks/digital_literacy.pdf [Accessed 12.02.13]

Halsey, S. (2007) ‘Embracing emergent technologies and envisioning new ways of using them for literacy learning in the primary classroom’ English Teaching: Practice and Critique 6 (2) pp99-107

Leu, D. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an information age. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. Pearson & R. Barr, (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 743-770). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. In Halsey, S. (2007) ‘Embracing emergent technologies and envisioning new ways of using them for literacy learning in the primary classroom’ English Teaching: Practice and Critique 6 (2) pp99-107

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives.New York: Basic Books (Introduction pp. 1-15)