I will be honest, throughout this semester I learned a lot about literacies. To be honest again, I had relegated the concept of literacy to academia, words, libraries and books. When I had the choice of courses, the idea of multiple literacies, specifically in regards to the technological age was an interesting idea. Listening to the group presentations, and the readings throughout the course, I learned a little bit about the different kinds of literacies.
Social literacy was the literacy Kamal and I choose to research. Social literacy is an individual’s ability to successfully and deliberately mediate their world as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners (Arthur, 2000). In other terms, social literacy, or social intelligence, is the ability to build relationships and maintain those relationships in any kind of social environment, including digital ones. In other terms, social literacy, or social intelligence, is the ability to build relationships and maintain those relationships in any kind of social environment, including digital ones.
I also read comic books and while completing the project, there was a strange cross over between topic and fantasy. I am always dazzled by the amazing powers some of these characters have. One of these powers is an individual named Doug Ramsey (Grand, 1993). He has the ability to read, or understand, any language. Doug’s power rang through when researching social literacy. To be able to read socially, or to understand body language, would be a wonderful power. With this ability you could understand how to work with people and how to navigate socially, how to better build relationships and deal with potential problems with communication.
I learned from doing our social literacy project was the importance of teaching social skills, specifically in this information age. Cyberbullying is an example of the importance of teaching students how to understand their own feelings and how what they can do can have a disastrous affect on another person (Arthur, 2010).
Through the courses, I learned more about the role of technology and education. Technology in the whole should be used as a supplementary to education. Nothing in education should be used for the sake of using it; the intrinsic value of using technology should be weaved into the lesson and should give students an opportunity to be creative and engaged. Technology offers a wonderful opportunity to snag students, and to get them to “buy in”. But it is a double-edged sword. Without purpose, or clear direction, technology could hamper and confuse.
As a teacher, I find the ease of technology tempting. I also find students tend to enjoy using technology more so than other traditional forms of classroom lesson plans. I have learned of many different types of programs that I can now use in day-to-day teaching like Stormboards, Google docs, and VoiceThread. I have already thought of ways to use the voice summary programs with getting students to log in and do quick plot summaries of short stories for next year.
I enjoy learning and the idea that I can do that and improve being a teacher is an ideal match. Technology is also something I seem to be comfortable enough with that I am always willing to try something new and try to integrate into reaching curriculum goal. Overall I learned a lot through these courses, and I will take this information to strengthen and modify lessons to encourage engagement and help students reach new heights.
Arthur, J., Davison, J., & Stow, W. (2000). Social literacy, citizenship education, and the national curriculum. Routledge.
Grant, P. (1993). Poor Dead Doug, and Other Mutant Memories. Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, 66’69.
carlpeori 