Module 2

                When I was reading the beginning of this chapter, particularly the description of a student who meets the ELA CCR standards, I found myself wondering how they would test and teach these abilities. Being tested on the skills described would be so easy for me to accomplish, and probably much easier to the generations after me, but I don’t actually have a full skill set of how to utilize the internet; especially since all my digital skills were self-taught. So, how would all of this new information be taught and tested in a way that would be sure to impact future generations and their relationship with the digital world? Then I started thinking of how hard it must be for teachers to learn how to teach something that they don’t know that much about; because these huge technological advances are still pretty new, many teachers, and other adults, have no idea how to apply it to the classrooms and their lives. It makes you wonder how many teachers are so confused about technology, and the internet, that they decide to leave it out of their classroom completely and pretend it doesn’t exist. A lot of teachers I know have definitely done that, they have even preached the evils of new technology, instead of trying to find good uses for it. I imagine that teachers who have been teaching literacy for years will have trouble catching up with the new and complex digital age, but this should not mean that it is ignored, even if they are not strictly teaching the subject of computer skills. As the text states, “to teach a strategy for reading, writing, and communicating in both a traditional and digital environments, teachers must be aware of the process that few adult readers possess and then make the invisible process visible to students.” (19) This is definitely an intimidating idea, especially because literacy is always changing, even literacy 2.0 is already changing! And I am interested to read further into the text to see its suggestions to new teachers and old teachers on integrating new literacies into their lessons in a fun and interactive way. I know that I was very interested to read the frameworks that they laid out in this chapter!

            My favorite teaching framework was the internet reciprocal teaching method. I think that an open dialogue between the teachers and the students, as well as an open dialogue among the students, is extremely important in a child’s life. Children must be taught that they are equals to authority figures, and their peers, and that there must always be a mutual respect between them. The set up of the internet reciprocal teaching method does exactly that, while teaching them important literacy 2.0 skills. The teacher teaches his/her students the basics, then guides them as they learn to be independent and help themselves through more information, and finally the students teaching other students; this is exactly what they are going to encounter as they grow older, and it will help them feel more independent and respected. They will not always have everything handed to them and they will have to figure a lot of stuff out on their own, so being taught how to help themselves and help others, as well as working together with their teachers and fellow classmates, is a great idea and a great approach to teaching literacy 2.0. I am excited to read further into the book! And I am starting to really like blogging!