M3 analog and digital learning

The best way to engage students in new literacies is to try new things. One thing I have learned this year is just because it works for one teacher doesn't mean it will for everyone. I think trying out new techniques until you find what engages your own students is the key. When deciding what to do a key factor for me is engagement. This is why it helps to do something you know is engaging in a hands-on approach and then enhancing it with digital literacies. 

Analog and digital learning experiences can be powerfully combined in a first-grade classroom to tackle complex learning goals. In my classroom, we are getting started on a butterfly life cycle unit. This is a unit in which I have planned activities that align both analog learning and digital learning. 

The analog component would involve students observing live caterpillars in a classroom habitat, drawing daily observations in a paper journal, and creating a physical life cycle wheel with drawings representing each stage. This hands-on experience builds foundational knowledge and fine motor skills. Digitally, students could use a tablet app to watch time-lapse videos of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, compare their drawings to high-quality images, and even create a digital "story" of their caterpillar's journey using a simple presentation tool. This allows for exposure to detailed visuals and different perspectives, addressing the tension of access to varied resources. This activity is similar to the idea that Coggin et. al included about play-based filmmaking being successful way to integrate technology into younger students' work.  I do think that by doing a digital activity like this in my classroom with 1st grade students I will be partnering them up as their skills to create a digital story will be starting at very minimal knowledge. With an activity like this, some tensions can occur like, not receiving real-time feedback, not having enough scaffolding or research to support it, and having very open guidelines and access. (Magnifico, p. 149, 2018). I would definitely provide my students with a sample digital story and walk them through which tools we were using before sending them off.  To help with providing the scaffolding still I might have students do their research and put it onto a graphic organizer first before creating a digital story. I think the biggest challenge when implementing this in my classroom will be having students not getting enough feedback. "For instance, younger creators are more likely to revise when given formal feedback" (Magnifico, p.146, 2018). This is something challenging when doing online creation using affinity spaces. The way I would avoid this is by using Google Classroom and Google Slides and then seeing if we could create a class blog where all finished products get uploaded and shared out to other classes rather than sharing it out on a different kind of platform.  The quote "In the end, we see a need for greater diversity and nuance in calls to bring technological environments such as UGC affinity spaces into literacy classsrooms to provide external validation and motivation for student work" resonates with me (Magnifico, p. 151, 2018). 

I will leave this meme with you all as I feel it is sometimes a real struggle to use new technology in the classroom and I am sure many of you agree. 

References: 

Coggin, Linda & Buchholz, Beth & Wessel Powell, Christy & Husbye, Nicholas & Wohlwend, Karen. (2014). Expanding Early childhood Literacy Curriculum through Play-Based Film-making and Popular Media. 

Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., & Fields, D. A. (2018). Affinity spaces, literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities. Literacy, 52(3), 145–152. https://doi-org.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/lit.12133

New Media and New Literacies: M2.2 How New Literacies are Relevant to Us

After reading the article from Vanek and the International Literacy Association I had a lot of takeaways. As a first-year teacher in a lower elementary school, it is sometimes hard to decide when to use technology and what to use it for. After these readings, I feel that I had a major takeaway of why we use digital literacy and the importance of it but also that the digital age we are in doesn't need to replace anything just enhance it. 

Throughout the reading in this module, I had some major takeaways. Digital literacy is something I was intrigued by reading in the article by Vanek. Digital literacy is defined as the skills to use technology to find, evaluate, organize, create, and communicate information responsibly. It goes beyond basic computer use to include context-based applications and creative use. This idea goes a lot deeper and encompasses multiple literacies, not a single skill set (Vanek, 2019). I never thought of a lot of skills I use on a day-to-day basis as digital literacy until reading this. "Digital literacy proficiency is needed to fully participate in economic, civic, work, and daily life in the United States" (Vanek, 2019,p. 4). So many skills we all use every day are in fact Digital Literacy. Below I have listed a bunch of skills Vanek explained to be digital literacy.

• Critical thinking

• Communication

• Processing and analyzing information

• Self-awareness

• Problem-solving

• Navigating systems

  
  

Information that I use in my work is thinking through how to make technology accessible to my students. In my classroom, we have 10 Chromebooks and 19 students which makes it difficult. A lot of my students have limited access to technology at home. A quote from Vanek that hit home for me was " Make use of the devices that learners own so that they can develop comfort using them in new ways. Teachers must attend to issues of Internet access" (Vanek, 2019, 6). It is so important to make it in a way that learners are comfortable with and children are very technologically advanced these days which does help with this. I do find it challenging and am always intrigued to hear about how. others use tech in a lower elementary classroom. 

 

After reading the International Literacy Association article from 2018 I was surprised. As someone who went to school during the digital age but before technology was as advanced as it is now I am always surprised to see the amount of tools that are out there. Learning in a digital age means "classrooms must facilitate authentic learning goals for students; these goals will lead to instructional practices that may find support through digital resources" (International Literacy Association, 2018, P. 2). 

    A paragraph that really resonated with me when sometimes I feel I don't use enough technology in my classroom was, "Powerful literacy instruction should prepare students today

to produce, communicate, interpret, and socialize with peers,

adults, and the broader world they will enter when they graduate-

ate"....." many people today

move fluidly across digital and nondigital resources: texts and

tweets may be used to coordinate plans, whereas face-to-face

meetings can yield multimodal products like Instagram posts

and Facebook messages. Schedules are coordinated digitally,

and groups of employees meet in person to produce digital texts

for presentation to audiences in multiple formats" (International Literacy Association, 2018, P.2). 

As someone who teaches children who are still just learning to read integrating technology is important but so is paper. I find it hard to balance both in the classroom. Many challenges lay within digital literacy, such as, effectively using technology, and balancing new and old literacy styles. 

I look forward to finding more ways to integrate new literacys into my classroom. 

References: 

International Literacy Association . (2018). LITERACY LEADERSHIP BRIEF Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice More Than Just Tools. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-improving-digital-practices-literacy-learning-justice.pdf

Vanek, J. (n.d.). Digital Literacy This Brief (M. Fedele-McLeode, C. Moore, & M. Movit, Eds.). https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/TSTMDigitalLiteracyBrief-508.pdf

M2.1 Defining New Literacies and Why They Matter

When thinking of literacy what comes to mind first? To me, my initial thoughts are reading writing speaking. But when you dive deeper literacy is the foundation of everything and that is what the term New Literacy refers to. 

New Literacy Meaning:

Literacy is a term that has evolved throughout time. This new literacy refers to reading, writing, and speaking but also involves using technology and other forms of media. When doing the readings this week a line that resonated with the definition of new literacy was "Literacy practices are no longer restricted to reading and writing printed and written texts in one official and standard form but include multiple modes of representation in diverse cultural contexts and in various languages" (Sang 2017). Literacy has evolved to include more collaboration than individual aspects. I find myself utilizing the new literacy practices all the time in both my professional and personal life. 

In my professional life, I am a first-grade special education teacher. I work in an integrated co-teach model. We rely on technology to support a lot of learning. My students listened to songs about topics, watched educational videos, and played educational games all the time. We recently did a polar animal research unit where students read books, watched videos, and listened to audiobooks to make a topic book and documentary on a specific type of polar animal. Using a multimodal approach and these new literacy practices is what made this accessible to all students. With this transition to new literacy does come challenges but it expands students' knowledge in ways the old literacy concepts hindered. 

In my personal life, I use technology and media to support everything I do. I get recipes for dinner on Pinterest or TikTok. I listen to podcasts. I listen to audiobooks. Everything I do in my free time is a new literacy concept. 

New literacy has evolved our knowledge from just reading and writing to so much more. 

Promoting Equity and Access: 

Confining literacy solely to the ability to read and write print texts in a single dialect, such as academic English, presents significant challenges within educational settings aiming for equity and access.  "If we see literacy as “simply reading and writing”—whether in the sense of

encoding and decoding print, as a tool, a set of skills, or a technology, or as some

kind of psychological methodology—we cannot make sense of our literacy 

experience"( Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). This narrow perspective risks marginalizing students whose primary literacies reside in different languages, dialects, or multimodal forms, effectively creating barriers to learning and participation. More expansive views, embracing "new literacies" like digital fluency, visual literacy, and critical media analysis, can address these issues by validating diverse communication methods, leveraging students' existing strengths, and preparing them to navigate the multifaceted textual landscapes of the contemporary world. In educational spaces, there can be problems that occur when focusing on access to things. I work in a Title 1 school that does not have 1:1 computer ratios. For my classroom of 19 students, there are only 10 computers. This makes it difficult to plan activities that involve new literacy and multimodal approaches. With the shift from old literacy to new literacy things like having enough computers for students is soemthing very difficult to access. 

References: 

Knobel, Michele & Lankshear, Colin. (2007). Sampling "the new" in new literacies. 

Sang, Y. (2017). Expanded Territories of “Literacy”: New Literacies and Multiliteracies. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(8), 16–19. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1139059.pdf

New Media and New Literacies Introduction

 Hi everyone! 

My name is Emily Brady. I graduated with my bachelors degree from the College of Saint Rose in may of 2024. I studied childhood and special education while I was there. This year I have been working in a title 1 school in Rensselear County New York. I am currently teaching first grade special education in an inclusion setting. I began pursuing my M.S.ED this past spring semester after taking a few months to get acquainted to the life of being a teacher. 

In my free time I enjoy being outside and exploring. I love playing pickleball, going for walks or hikes, and surrounding myself with fun ways to relax. I have also been recently loving to read as a hobby. 

Learning goals: I am excited for this course as I think there are so many modes of media and enabling in new medias will be enlightening. I love getting to use technology in a way that is useful and helpful both inside and outside of the classroom and I hope to learn about how to implement more media in the classroom. Working with first grade students a lot of technology is inaccessible to them and I really would love more ways to incorporate it.