I am now enrolled in a course called ‘21st
Century Literacies Across the Primary Junior Curriculum’. Throughout the course
I will be blogging to document my learning journey. I look forward to seeing
how these critical reflections will inspire me, as a future teacher, to incorporate 21st
century literacies into the curriculum.
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Word and image. (2012, August 17). Working both sides of the brain. Web. 13. Jan 2016. Retrieved from https://wordandimage.wordpress.com/category/media-literacy/
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During elementary school, I listened as my teachers taught
information that was important to remember in order to perform well on
assessment tasks. Therefore, the majority of my learning involved memorization
and repetition. This method of
transferring information reflects traditional beliefs that teachers/adults must
provide students/children with concrete answers. Throughout High School and now during University,
I have been introduced to the benefits that complement progressive
philosophies of teaching. This shift in how knowledge is obtained links to our lecture
discussion on students driving their own learning and pursuing research on
topics that they find interesting. Moreover, this learning approach instills a
sense of independence for students as teachers help guide and motivate students
toward self-discovery via modern day technologies. This being said, I feel that
encouraging students to research their interests using 21st century technology/resources requires elements of traditional teaching.
In order to appropriately navigate 21st century
resources, such as Youtube, Google searches and social media sites, students
need to be formally taught how to practice critical literacy skills. This
involves students recognizing how societal constructions and political power
imbalances influence the material that they are reading online. Although
traditional methods of teaching are being replaced with progressive teaching
approaches, being critical of different perspectives is a skill that must be formally
taught. I question how teachers can formally teach this information in ways
that remain engaging and creative for students.
In addition to the societal and political issues that
influence online literacy, classroom lessons could also involve conversations
about media advertisements, credibility concerns and contextual factors. These
discussions would help advance students’ critical literacy skills so that they
can make informed decisions about what online texts are reliable to use during independent
student-driven projects. Therefore, I suggest that teacher-driven
instruction will provide a foundation that students need in order to be critically literate
during student-driven projects.
References
Word
and image. (2012, August 17). Working both sides of the brain. Web. 13. Jan
2016.
Retrieved from https://wordandimage.wordpress.com/category/media-literacy/
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