“I don’t think English is being dumbed down, it’s evolving and changing to suit people today, ultimately it’s about communicating ideas, it’s quite cool I can text a friend and I can read some Shakespeare and exactly the same sorts of ideas can be communicated in an entirely different way but ultimately they can all be effective if they are done well” ( Maria English, Student).
This statement from student Maria English caught my attention when she was interviewed a few weeks ago on TV3 ( see full interview ). In conjunction with some other current conversations in education, I have been wondering about what it means to be literate in 2010 in the context of teaching and learning?
• What are our beliefs about the impact of emerging communication technologies?
• Do our actions acknowledge changing perceptions of literacy? How are these reflected in our practice?
• What are we doing that demonstrates pedagogy in a participatory culture?
• If we want our students to be able to read, write and do maths in order to access the New Zealand Curriculum, how are we acknowledging the value of the a fore mentioned? (NZC, p.36, 2007)
What would be our expectations of a literate student (at any level) if, as teachers, we recognise and acknowledge the impact of information and communication technologies? How might this influence the way you teach?
"What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at?" ( NZC, 2007).
Do we need to be asking the question, what does it mean to be multiliterate in 2010?
Just saw this video on a post from Rachel Boyd , "State of the Internet", difficult to ignore the implications!
Also see a related post on this blog by Rochelle Jensen Breathing E-Learning Into The Draft Literacy Progressions.
"Just as reading was made necessary by the printing press and arithmetic by the introduction of money so computer technologies are changing the very ways we think and make sense of the world" (Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Collins and Richard, 2009).
