I would say that I’m closer to a digital “native” than “immigrant” but am not, by any means, an expert. I feel comfortably past the emergent phase in my digital literacy because I am pretty confident in my ability to use different technologies, I have been exposed to computer applications, internet resources, blogs, wikis, website creation, making movies, working with photos, etc. in my K-12 education and during college and have moved beyond trying to “decode” the tools and simply understand how to use them. Thompson includes a progression for literacy learners on pg. 84 that discusses a transition from students learning to read and write and observing the ways that literacy is used, to developing the ability to read and write through experiences, and finally students become more active in their literacy progress and develop their own understanding of literacy. I would probably place myself at the second stage because I’m able to use most of the common forms of technology and can easily apply prior knowledge to new and unfamiliar types of technology, but I do not yet feel that confident in my ability to envision effective ways to incorporate technology in my own classroom.
Continuing the comparison to literacy learning, I can decode and comprehend the material, but perhaps not make deeper connections to the text. I do feel comfortable with the “basics,” but the technology presentation in class demonstrated a ton of new programs and tools that I have never seen before and would like to explore…I think the biggest lesson is that technologies change so much and so frequently that one cannot become complacent and think that learning is complete, we must always make a concerted effort to keep up to date and consider new ways to incorporate technology into our lessons.
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Ashleigh,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about your comment that you're not sure how you would use all of the technology, we've been learning, in the classroom. I think not only does all of it seem overwhelming right now, but funding can become a big issue too. I am placed in another school that is lower-income. They have a computer center, but not much else. Therefore, the technologies we have learned about might be effective to organize our own lives and teaching strategies for ourselves, but they would be all but impossible to use in the classroom, because the technology is not there. I do, however, think that technology should be used if possible, because we do need to help develop our students' level of digital literacy. I also agree with you when you said that there is always more to learn about technology, because it is always changing and growing. For example, before this year, I had no idea what google docs were, and I had only briefly heard about people having g-mail accounts. Now, I don't know what I'd do to organize my life without it. It's interesting how much technology can change lives. For example, do you know what you used to do with your spare time before the internet was so accessible? I sure can't remember!