Kelly+McD.+for+Oct.+30

Kelly E. McDaniels EDU 498—Tinelli Critical Commentary for 10/30/08 __ From Larson and Marsh (2005): __ “This dichotomy, enrichment or transformation, is an important one to consider, given the very real constraints on practice in many classrooms, with limited budgets and lack of teacher expertise or confidence in technologies. However, if technology is viewed simply as an ‘add-on’ by teachers, a means to enhance what is a traditional model of literacy pedagogy, then children will not develop the range of skills and knowledge they need in contemporary societies.” (p. 74-75) __ From Lankshear and Knobel (2006): __ “Rather than simple cause-effect relationships between a technology (e.g., literacy as writing system) and outcomes (e.g., new skills, new kinds of knowledge and thinking processes, economic and social development), a concept and theory of practice sees //all// of these—technologies, knowledges, and skills—as inter-related, dynamically connected to one another, and mutually evolving in conjunction with people’s changing ideas about purposes and tasks.” (p. 65) __ From Kress (2003): __ “Our approach calls for a context where teachers across several subjects—e.g. English, geography, modern history, social education, environmental studies—agree to work cooperatively and in an integrated way to explore texts critically through their disciplines.” (p. 52) __ Discussion: __ The topic for this week’s readings was “Multiple and Expanding Spaces for Literacy.” The Larson and Marsh and Lankshear and Knobel articles focused more on integrating technology into the classroom and Kress focused on incorporating critical literacy skills across the curriculum. Larson and Marsh state that it may not always be easy for teachers, especially teachers who have not kept up with new technology developments or teachers who teach in schools that do not have many readily available computers and other modes of technology, to transform their classroom in such a way that will help children to “develop the skills and knowledge they need in contemporary societies.” But both Larson and Marsh’s book and Lankshear and Knobel’s book offer many ideas of how to incorporate technology in just about every facet of classroom education (and even outside of the classroom). And I think that what these authors stated above is key to the relationship between technology and education, that education should be transformed as a result of the inclusion of technology in order to best prepare students for a technology-based society and that “technologies, knowledges, and skills” should all be interrelated. I think that not doing so would be the same as withholding the education that students really need in order to successfully function in the modern society in which we live. Kress’s article defines, describes, and gives examples of critical literacy in education. He states, though, that it is key for teachers across the curriculum to collaboratively work toward the goal of teaching students critical literacy skills. The example of “The Face of Starving Africa” was an amazing example of how to apply critical literacy to all subjects, across the curriculum. The point is to teach students to critically examine the world in which they live, or to critically examine Discourses. And these critical literacy skills are not intended to be limited to just the classroom; rather, students take these skills and use them in every aspect of their lives. Both teaching students to critically think and teaching students how to use technologies are extremely important jobs for teachers and teacher educators. This shows that a teacher’s job is so much more intricate and important than simply teaching students reading, writing and arithmetic or even making sure that students pass their tests. Unfortunately, I do not feel that our government leaders realize the extent of a teacher’s importance (which is why adequate funding and programs for practicing teachers to continue their learning are lacking), but I do hope that most teachers understand that our world is changing rapidly and that it is our job to teach children the skills (like technologies and critical literacy) to keep up with the changes and to critically think about every aspect of our rapidly changing world. __ Questions: __ · What might be some advantages or disadvantages for the children in a special education classroom if the teachers replace traditional modes of learning with technologies like computers, smart boards, etc.? · How can teachers incorporate critical literacy education on the elementary level? What are some specific examples? · In what ways do the use of modern technologies in the classroom and critical literacy education work together? Do you think that one without the other would be successful or effective?