"being able to read means that you can follow words across a page, getting generally what's superficially there [improper literacy}; By contrast,being literate means you can bring your knowledge and your experience to bear on what passes before you [proper literacy]" (Lankshear 39).
My sixth grade students are right in the middle of their big research project. They are each researching a chosen career. They are answering questions on various aspects of their careers, and they are using the Internet to search for the information. I assumed that I would be answering a few questions here and there but that students would work independently for the first part. I was mistaken.
The first day of research, I have never walked so many laps around my room. Constant hands in the air..."Mrs. Long, what website should I go to?", "Mrs. Long, what should I type into Google?", and so many more questions. Then, I cam across a student who did not have his hand in the air, but I could tell he was stumped. I came up and asked him what he needed. His response--"I can't find anything, can you just tell me the answer?" I looked at his screen, thinking maybe he was just on a site that was above his level, but I found his screen on a blank Google screen. After talking to him for a few minutes, I discovered he had only tried one website. This was not a student on an IEP, and he is typically a very good student.
I gave him a few suggestion websites to start with, but I did make sure to explain that I was not going to give him answers. After our conversation, he seemed to begin working. This made me wonder...as Lankshear stated in the quote above, is this student able to read without being literate? Maybe he is able to read what is on a page and pick up the general information, but when a website provided more description or information, he may not be literate enough to decipher the information. I think this is an issue of Digital Competence. He seemed to struggle with finding information and deciphering information.
Case 2
ReplyDeleteChapter 7, pgs. 134-135, state that "...alarming numbers of young Americans are ill-equipped to work in, contribute to, profit from, and enjoy our increasignly technological society." With the attention economy, the information economy increasing, students like the one you speak about in your case, who don't know how to use the internet to find information, may get left behind.
"We remix language every time we draw on it, and we remix meanings every time we take an idea or an artifact or a word and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time." Lankshear, p. 313.
ReplyDeleteMy students have also required a lot of scaffolding in terms of learning how to research and how to evaluate credibility. I have found letting them collaborate, and using some direct instruction in tricks like putting " " around specific search terms, to help. Critical Media Analysis also helped them figure out how to deconstruct websites to help determine validity. This case seems like one where you want your students to remix what they find into an individual, original product, and they are struggling to get there.
Boy, have I been there! Last school year, our county was thinking of not requiring high school students to have a technology credit to graduate (this was not a state requirement at the time) because, they argued, students were getting enough technology exposure through other classes. When I work with high schoolers, they can adapt and learn technology easily, but there is a lot they do not know.
ReplyDeleteI also quoted in my response, Ch. 7 p. 134-135 "... alarming numbers of young Americans are ill equipped to work in, contribute to, profit from, and enjoy our increasingly technological society."