Today’s children are growing up in a world where the dominant way of making meaning has shifted from print on the page to image on the screen. Increasingly, young children read and write on screens, and not just on computers but also with mobile technologies, such as cell phones and iPods. Carly Shuler reports that “more than half of the world’s population now owns a cell phone and children under 12 constitute one of the fastest growing segments of mobile technology users in the U.S.” What does this mean for teachers who want to teach children to use the literacies that fill modern childhoods? Are we recognizing the literacy practices that children already know? Are we making space for texting and blogging in our classrooms?
Here's a great classroom blog and a set of individual blogs that allow each student to post and comment on other blogs. It also includes video tips for starting up blogs in your own classroom…
A teacher's blog: http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/mrskolbert/
Kids' blogs: http://kidblog.org/mrskolbertsclass/
I think in some ways we are recognizing some of the literacy practices children currently know and use. I have seen some classroom use video-making, morning announcements posted on a school blog, or evening students' work on their own blog shared with the class. It is a great question to ask: are we making space for texting or blogging in the classroom? I think that answer is no, because of the legal, social, environmental, emotional, physical, and many other concerns. But, as an educator we are made to think about how we can bring this tool to the classroom without harming the intent of the project. While still protecting the students and teacher's rights, well being, and learning atmosphere. Possibly the smart-board will get smarter and have smaller boards for a classroom set. This way you can distribute a smarter board to each student allowing for all to have access to technology that could have some form of blogging and text only for the classroom. Maybe someday : )
ReplyDelete