The notion of literacy is expanded even more in ch 2 of New Literacies 2.0. Knobel and Lankshear explicate the different mindsets prevalent in 2007: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. The most important point of this chapter is that "We are presently at a point in the historical- cultural development of literacy where we don’t really know how to deal educationally with these new literacies." School-sanctioned activities/lessons indeed seem to be separate entities when compared to students' home lives and the literacy activities that engage them in their private lives.
The biggest challenge is that our Web 2.0 students are mostly being taught by Web 1.0 teachers. Even though the chapter mentions that anyone 35 or under would be classified as Web 2.0 (me!), I still feel like a Web 1.0 teacher. Instead of writing Do Nows on the chalkboard, I project the images onto the Smartboard. Instead of handing out Xeroxes of a poem or photo, I use the laptop and Smartboard. Instead of having students always create posters for group projects, they use Powerpoint and Clipart. It's just a different means to address the same end. In other words, I am really not doing anything different than I have previously done.
The "old wine in new bottle" metaphor is perfect for the current challenge in education, in connection to new literacies and teaching to those new literacy forms. In the study within chapter 2, students were given laptops for supposed productive class activities. The teacher seemed to conclude that the laptops were for notetaking. While she analyzed a poem and occasionally sought student input, most students were Iming each other or reading blogs. While the multitasking is "okay," perhaps the teacher could have included multitasking elements into her lesson (example: giving students lists of Robert Frost links, giving students links to other related poems, etc in order to let them multitask in connection to the task at hand). My above idea is best summarized with the phrase, "Easier said than done."
I think the issue for teachers nowadays is the "fear factor." There are a lot of productive activities that students could do online and through use of technology, but there's always that fear that they might Google an inappropriate site or image. As said in chapter 2, filtering does not always work because you might be restricting students' searches too much, resulting in students being frustrated.
Additionally, although today's students may be able to multitask well, as teachers it is uncomfortable to think they text message friends and fully hear us at the same time. I know when I teach and see a student drawing or doodling, many times (despite having read articles that say this is fine so long as the student is also managing the task at hand) I tell the student to put the pen/pencil down. How do I monitor whether he/she is addressing the task at hand each second that he/she is also drawing? I also feel like a hypocrite sometimes. While I chastise students who are drawing while I am teaching, here I am typing out this homework assignment. At the same time, I am listening to music and going to Webpages every few minutes. Yet, I am still on task.
Web 2.0 members are part of "collective intelligence." As literacy teachers (all of us, no matter what core subject we teach), it is difficult to know how to handle the Web 2.0 generation. We obviously aren't going to handle all the reins over to the students, but how do we let go of our we-are-the-expert/authority mentality and mix in opportunities for students to show collective intelligence?
This chapter especially influenced me through the examples of Amazon.com and how that company has changed the shopping experience. Experts on entertainment value of particular titles are now not only New York Times reviewers; the experts are also the general public. I can't even count how many times I have gone to sites like Amazon and had the experience of user reviews either persuading or dissuading me from buying a product. This is a different experience from previous generations because instead of relying on "experts" (for example, professional book reviewers), we are relying on each other. If I could somehow convert this experience to the classroom—where I wouldn't feel the need to show MY expertise on topics, but instead would allow my knowledge to combine with students' knowledge (knowledge from their own background experiences and knowledge from Web resources that they find).
This chapter makes literacy seem like an even more complicated maze than I ever thought. I am looking forward to reading chapter 3 because even though I have seen the word "new literacies" over and over, I still do not know if I "get it." My Web 2.0 mind (I'm a little of column A, a little of column B--- in connection to Web mindsets) is telling me to Google "new literacies" and get some more knowledge.
'Til I write again…
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