The iClassroom

Literacy: 21st Century Definition

Setting on the Thanksgiving dinner table with her parents, grannies, and siblings, Emma found herself in a round table of rich discussions where she was excepted to fully participate for he first time as she’s a college student now and fully an adult.

Emma’s grandma kept asking her about college life, affirming to her that education is a very important stage of one’s life because being able “to read books and write things are what make you a successful citizen.”

but is it really? …

Literacy as known by older generations seems to have a narrow definition that is restricted to reading and writing.

However, being 21st century generations, we can easily tell that this is no longer the case because our contemporary world is so different than that of our grandparents and therefore, what makes us literate citizens today goes way beyond our ability to read books and write letters.

According to Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan’s article Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, literacy has assumed new complex meanings because of the “rapidity with which digital technology has changed our society”.

To be literate is to be fully functional in society, according to Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan, and in a society where digital media and digital technologies are a seamless part of the daily life, literacy has to change too.

The National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) agrees confirms this concept with their position statement on The Definition of 21st Century Literacies.

In this statement, they argue that ” Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies.” These literacies, they argue, ought to be “multiple, dynamic, and malleable,” as “Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to:

•  Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;

• Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;

• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;

• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;

• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;

•  Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.”

DifferUnity

Every single human is different than the other. Just like we all have a different combination of genes that form our DNAs, we also all have a different combination of experiences that has shaped us into who we are and continues to do so. The combination of ancestors we each have is different, the families that brought us up, the schools we attended, the classmates we had, the books we read, the places we visited, shopped at, and took a walk in, the people we encountered or befriended, the media we watched, the discourses we exchanged, and all the times we spent doing what we do, with whoever we chose to do it with…. all those are pivotal in shaping who we are as individuals.

We each have different experiences and backgrounds that shape the way we do things and the way we view the world. They determine what we classify to be “correct” or incorrect, what is “normal” and what is abnormal or even weird.

Kenneth Burke, a literary theorist and rhetorician, has a theory called the identification theory. This theory argues that we as humans are naturally divided (different) but we, by our human nature, keep trying to identify with other individuals who share the same interests, hobbies, material possessions, or anything basically so that we can form societies and sub communities.

We then get normalized into our sub communities, who might share our race, skin color, religious affiliation, cultural or historical heritage, to the point that we start seeing our experiences as the norm with anybody different from us being the other. This view is the main drive that leads to prejudice as one group assumes supremacy over the other.

Our education systems need to pay attention to such things and address them adequately because we need to make sure that the personalities we are shaping are not just ready to be good citizens of our individual nations but rather good citizens of our world. They need to receive the diverse and culturally inclusive education, an education that encourages tolerance and respect to all as core values, an education that would turn our young innovators into peaceful, productive global citizens.

because the realities of our world today require us to stand united with all our differences equally celebrated……

and because in our differunity lies the real beauty of our world.

Integrating Technology

Embracing electronic devices, rather than forbidding them in the classroom (and consequently making the students use them behind your back for texting and distracting activities), can be a great addition to the classroom and a way to get students engaged, be more active participants, and use the devices they love to use in a productive manner.

Whether it is an elementary classroom or even a college classroom, technology can be a great addition to your classroom if integrated in a seamless manner.

Blogger and Tech teacher, Mary Beth Hertz, explains in her blog that seamless integration of technology is where “Students employ technology daily in the classroom using a variety of tools to complete assignments and create projects that show a deep understanding of content.”

The question here becomes for many teachers about the practical way that they can seamlessly integrate students’ electronic devices in the classroom. It is hard to find one definite answer to this question because smart devices have so many, and ever increasing, features and things you can do with them but some ideas may be to use apps that are already available in the android and Apple application stores.

Among those, is a very cool student response system called Kahoot! Using this online resource, the teacher can create some questions for a quiz, class participation, a review session, or any classroom activity that can be completed with a question-multiple choice answer format, before asking the students to take out their smart devices, go to the Kahoot.it website to enter the game pin, and let the fun begin.

Another idea is to have the students use their devices to create Quizletsto use them as a practice for an exam or when prepping for standardized tests; or take collective notes and come up with their own study guides in aGoogle doc.

Other resources may include using gaming such as the ones found in theedugames.com to transform a boring math class into a fun, interactive learning environment. Languages classes can also have that gaming option with the cool gaming options that mind snacks.com provides.

Really! There are tons of free apps, websites, and resources that can help you as a teacher integrate technology in your classroom to get your students to use their devices productively while maintaining an interactive, fun, and content focused class session.

Technology in the classroom, a useful resource or a source of distraction?

As citizens of the 21st century, where things change fast and new technologies evolve on the tick of an hour, we find electronic devices of all sizes invading our daily routines and re-shaping almost everything in our lives, education being one of them.

According to Jane Wakerfield from bbc.com, children spend an average of six hours or more in front of screens, such as TV, tablets, and smartphones. With such statistics, we find ourselves obligated to wonder about the role that technology should or should not plays in the education of our kids, assessing whether it would be a useful asset and a tool to reinforce the educational process, or a source of major distraction.

Supporters of technology argue that technology is needed in the classroom because it can be a handy resource for quick searches, interactive activities, and most importantly, to avoid having a gap between the students’ daily lives and the real world, where technology is and will be taking a big place, and their school experiences.

Those who stand against the use of technology, however, say that it can be a source of major distraction because having such a small, handy device like a smartphone would definitely get many students “tempted to take a moment and “peek” at sports scores, the latest headlines, or the number of “likes” [they’ve] accumulated on [their] latest Facebook or Instagram posts.”

Between the proponents and the opponents stands the neutral group that sees much value in the use of technology but argues for regulations to strict the distractions and get the most value out of the technology-in-the-classroom experience.

Ruth Starkman from Stanford university is one of those who are advocating both sides, claiming a semi-neutal position on the use of technology in the classroom. According to an op-ed she posted in the Huffington Post, Starkman speaks about an experiment she has conducted on a classroom in Shanghai and argues that a social contract of usage might be a good solution to allow but regulate the use of technology in the classroom. 

“if the teacher can find some collectively positive method of maintaining the classroom social contract, monitoring technology usage while using the Internet and student devices to disseminate new materials and expand discussion, class time will become both more enjoyable and valuable.”

because according to her, technology is useful but also very distracting, and a simple, agreed upon regulation can get us the benefit with very little harm.