Blog Post Two - How New Literacies are Relevant to Us

     My previous post explored the general applications of new literacies in my professional and personal life as well as the importance of understanding literacy to be more than a narrow view of communication. However, with this post it is my goal to explore in greater depth the components of digital literacies that I will utilize in my workspace this upcoming school year as a middle school mathematics teacher.

    To begin, one of the readings I chose to explore in this topic was the 2018 Literacy Leadership Brief by the International Literacy Association. From this reading, my broad takeaway was the newfound understanding of the expansiveness of new literacy and its implications on society and education. Most importantly, there is an emphasis on the need for our classrooms to “move fluidly between the digital and analog worlds that we simultaneously inhabit.” (International Literacy Association, 2018, 3) From this I have a better understanding of my responsibility, as an educator, to ensure the appropriate representation of new literacies in my classroom as a means of better preparing my students for the reality that they are living in. This being said, with new literacies comes new problems. While educational inequality has persisted through generations as a result of long-standing marginalization of students’ on the basis of race, class, and gender; there is a new concern created by new literacies that schools may widen the achievement gap by overemphasizing technology and further harm marginalized communities (International Literacy Association, 2018). Reading of this concern shocked me as it is not something I initially considered in my pursuit to learn about new literacies. From this point there is the prevalence of a new line for educators to balance, one which requires us to incorporate technology as a means of preparing our students for life after school while also accounting for the possible overemphasis of technology which could harm marginalized groups. 

    This brought me to a point of considering my own anticipated use of digital literacies in my classroom. How can I support my students exploration of new literacy without harming students who come from marginalized groups? While there may be no clear answer, this question does offer me the opportunity to evaluate how I can utilize digital literacy without losing sight of the need to accommodate and support all students. Unfortunately it is clear that technological opportunities are not equally distributed across schools or viable solutions to deeply rooted educational problems (International Literacy Association, 2018). However, this does not close the door for me to adapt my instruction to ensure that my students have the best opportunities in terms of having equitable access to practicing new literacies. From this I must learn to look at the current digital literacy I will be using in my work setting such as tools and applications for research, content access, and instructional messages, and assess them in terms of their accessibility to all of my students. While the school may have computers and internet available inside of the building during the school day, there is no guarded that each of my students goes home and has equal access to these same materials. By acknowledging this real limitation of what digital recourses can do, I can use digital resources for more meaningful, just, and authentic forms of literacy instruction to support the students in my class for civic, academic, and vocational pathways beyond school (International Literacy Association, 2018). It is important that I keep all of this in mind as I aim to create inclusive classroom experiences for student's from diverse backgrounds that may not have equal access to technology and could, in turn, be further marginalized by excessive use of digital literacy.

    Noting my new understanding new literacies and the concerns that I need to keep in mind when educating my students, I continued in my pursuit of learning by reading the issue brief by Vanek titled “Digital Literacy” (2019). When reading and viewing this briefing I was immediately drawn to the following visual which opened my eyes to the true complexity of digital literacy.

Sourced from “Digital Literacy” (2019) by Vanek, this visual highlights the multitude of proficiencies that aer addressed in current research regarding digital literacy. This image brought me to the same conclusion that I keep arriving at as I read and learn about new literacies; I am glad I’m taking CURI 6010: New Media and New Literacies because I clearly did not understand the true importance and vast opportunities that are available when integrating and assessing new literacies into course content prior to starting this course. 

    Furthermore, what may be the most important lesson I gathered from continuing my learning regarding new literacies by reading “Digital Literacy” (2019) by Vanek was the understanding of necessary skills that I need to help my student's to develop so that they can improve their digital literacy. Critical thinking, communication, processing and analyzing information, self-awareness, problem solving, and navigating systems are all deeply necessary skills in the pursuit of achieving proficiency in digital literacy (Vanek, 2019). Understanding these skills is necessary to me because they represent integral components of digital literacy that I must incorporate into my instruction as a means of supporting my students growth and preparation for future endeavors. As a mathematics teacher I would of course love for all of my students to graduate high school and enter field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As a result, I must support these digital literacy skills by using relevant technologies to these fields to ensure my students have a level of comfortability with them as a means of easing the transition to college and careers (Vanek, 2019). Additionally, I can integrate more technology and emphasize access so that I can giving my students ample opportunities in and out of class to explore low-stakes reasons for digital literacy in a way that lessens the resource gap by using and providing technology that they all can have adequate access to (Vanek, 2019). Ensuring the inclusion of these practices and associated skills in my classroom helps me to be a more effective teacher in preparing my students to function after their k-12 education.

    While I have not yet started my position as a middle school mathematics teacher, these resources have provided me the opportunity to reflect upon and critically analyze the expectations I must have for myself as a teacher aiming to incorporate new literacies into my courses. As a teacher I must ensure I am providing a consistently inclusive education that builds on the skills associated with digital literacy in a way that supports students need to one day grow into productive colligent students and members of the workforce. Without consistent and appropriate incorporation of digital literacy in my curriculum I will not be able to achieve this goal. This further affirms my need to continuously reassess and reevaluate my teaching practices in order to provide a high quality educational experience for all of my students.

References

International Literacy Association. (2018). Literacy Leadership Brief: Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice More Than Just Tools. International Literacy Association. 

Vanek, J. (2019). Digital Literacy. The Skills that Matter in Adult Education. American Institutes for Research.