LLED459: Trends and Issues in Literacy Instruction, 2014

Post #4 Four - What I learned from the Course - Blog post to The Ardent Librarian (my “professional” blog)

I delved into modules one to six for this course, and though I would have loved to have covered more module themes, even within the six I chose, I did not cover every reading despite putting hours into enjoying numerous articles and sources - I bet you all can relate.  Thanks Karen for the abundance of reading and learning opportunities.  I chose to share my post four in blog format: the blog I created for the Web 2.0 course I took with Aaron Mueller (Fall, 2013, I highly recommended it to any and all).  Within the blog context, “we” are not limited to the UBC Connect login and have the potential to dialog with a larger audience (nevertheless, my “Ardent Librarian” blog is just a pin prick in the blogging options and I don’t consistently update it at this time [unlike my school library blog [http://parkviewelementarylibrary.blogspot.ca/]).  But “we” can return to it (the themes, resources, and dialog) with ease compared to having the discussion held within UBC parameters and vanishing once the course ends.  Plus give me some creative formatting UBC Connect - ugh!

And so my LLED 459 Trends and Issues in Literacy Instruction learning summation.  I must preface that my contextual reading and learning lens was filtered through my teacher-librarian role; thus, my responses will reflect this viewpoint.  Short and sweet - not.

Within the six themes I explored, technology wove its way through everything.  Technology in our learning and everyday experiences is obviously here to stay and, right or wrong, gaining importance.  In Module One, “Taking Stock of Literacy Today,” the CORE Education’s Ten Trends 2014 information source I found to be a dense but compelling journey.  Technology was/is a large theme throughout CORE’s discussion.  As a teacher-librarian in a fish-bowl type position, knowing about educational trends is very important.  Thus, the “CORE Education’s Ten Trends 2014” offers a  New Zealand and possibly a world opinion of current changes and possible future movement of education.  I invite you to click and explore.  Despite the circular enter-at-any-point graphic portal, I would suggest starting with the center “Ten Trends 2014 Overview” (5:09) by Derek Wenmoth, CORE e-learning research and development person.  

Overall, the CORE New Zealand group organized their trends into five main headings - cultural, technology, structural, economic, and process - and then expanded these ideas further by looking at two trends for each of these five main themes.  Cultural looks at Living in the Digital now, and Learner Agency; Technology looks at the singularity and Learning Analytics.  Structural looks at the trends of learner orientation and networked organizations.  Process looks at educational gamification and new approaches to assessment, and so on.  See below diagram.

Overall, CORE discusses the huge changes in technology and how traditional structural buildings and organizations, the process of how we get things done, economic, and cultural factors (the inner core of the circle) are all being changed by technology.  The themes that knowledge no longer comes from traditional places and experts and no longer is being disseminated to passive learners was the focus.  Contemporary knowledge consumers (who have access to on-demand technology) can get information from a variety of sources and not only consume it when and where they want, but also have begun creating, defining, and redefining information (similar to Cope and Kalantzis’ theorizing of multiliteracies and designing and redesigning information, module three, multiliteracies).  Derek Wenmoth and CORE writers aim to add to this portal as the year unfolds.  They have begun to flesh out the “Cultural” sub theme and the two trends - learner agency (Feb., 2014) and living in the digital now (March, 2014).   Learner agency is the development of one’s ability for independent thought and action.  To me “agency” parallels late 90’s, early 2000 global citizenry, with the new additions of the buzzwords self regulation and personal initiative.  The new breed of learner, thus, is encouraged or rather unleashed from his or her [traditional teacher/educational] constraints to be active consumers and creators (similar to “designers” and “redesigners,” Cope and Kalantzis), and further encouraged and/or trained to be self evaluators (self assessment).  Living in The Digital Now is more or less the digital revolution that is taking place; the shift from finding information from traditional places and people to going online to find information from a variety of authors and not only consuming that information, but storing, synthesizing, and recreating it: “Where traditionally we might have looked to institutions of long standing or to well established experts to solve problems for us, increasingly now we're sourcing information online, we're curating it, we're finding solutions, we're doing things digitally.”  Because of this process, and the inevitable coming together of knowledge, minds, and people (often keyed as globalization) this in turn is creating new cultures.  CORE argues that these new cultures have different sets of rules and principles for being positive contributing members.  CORE prescribes that these new and emerging principles are what educators really need to assist students with.  Goodness, there was so much more covered, but I will cease the summary of this one complex info. source here.

As I expected, the themes discussed in this ten trends portal tended to emerge in the other modules.  Module Two, New Technologies in fact expanded on many of the CORE ideas.  Boulos (2006) (Reflections of a Digital Native) had me reflecting on my relationship with the tech department, my digital immigrant status, and my use of technological use and goals.  As educators, I believe we need to confer more with our tech management and find that mutual respect of monetary and safety criteria potential vs limitations and then combine those ideas with what actually works with our clients.  My digital immigrant status has me contextually placed as someone learning about technology (give or take interest) and working at accruing skills versus the digital native who has been born into the technology world and seamlessly uses it daily.  The latter seems to be at an advantage if you’re keeping score.  

Marc Perensky (2012) conveniently challenged this dichotomy, however, and argued that one does not have to fit into either of these camps, but rather can be digitally wise.  He argues one does not have to be born into the current day tech world to be digitally literate.  Nevertheless, I am suspicious.  Prensky looks close to retirement; it makes sense he would make a label he could fit himself into that offers the ability to be part of the “in-the-know” technology group.  Albeit, tech savviness still comes down to hours spent in this area, which younger kids, in my biases, have more disposable free time to put towards that interest.  Nevertheless, it is not impossible to put in those hours and/or gain that knowledge and skill for the non digital native group.

Prensky is a big advocate for educational based games (what CORE referred to as gamification).  In fact, he is creating educational games: Games2Train.  While I love Prensky’s aim to engage learners through this creative means, how often do these games move beyond lower level thinking (recall and comprehension) to higher levels of thinking (synthesis and evaluation)?

The article “Venturing Into Games” by D. Jonassen et al points out that Prensky software tends to be quiz-type games and thus lower level thinking on Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Jonassen states:

“For example, Games2Train (http://www.games2train.com/games) produces a game maker called Pick-it! for teachers to construct quiz games. The game maker resembles the television quiz show Jeopardy, allowing game players to select topics and values and play against others. The degree of meaningfulness of the learning from these games depends on the nature of the responses that are required. More often than not, quiz games require only memorization performance. While memorization of domain content may be important, these games do not readily engage students in deeper-level, meaningful learning activities (e.g., application and synthesis).” Source: (http://www.education.com/reference/article/venturing-into-games/)

           

Jonassen points out that more complex games such as Civilization by Sid Meir (http://www.civilization.com/) takes students to higher levels of thinking through problem solving, analysis, synthesis and application.  Jonassen lists just this one more complex, deeper thinking game. How many more of these types of games are on the market; are educators using them?  Can the education system afford them?  I do not have the answers to these questions yet, but I intuitively know more educational games are coming.

Has your head begun to spin?  The options, the learning curves, the cost, the efficacy?  Within the education context, who  makes decisions of what to buy and use, who helps us learn all of these resources and apps?  In Howard Rheingold’s article (2012) , “Stewards of Digital Literacies,” he argues teacher-librarians (t-ls) should be these stewards (Rheingold, Howard. "Stewards of Digital Literacies." Academic Search Elite. EBSCO, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.).  

I find this argument professionally exciting, but also daunting.  While I think the 21st century t-l should be the stewards of digital literacies, this vast task (and knowledge base) combined with traditional literacies, school and district initiatives (not always the same goals and dynamic in nature), and the administrative and clerical duties of running a learning commons is - goodness - what is the needed meaningful adjective?  Formidable.  

A poem by Shannon Murrells-Allaway

“Stewards of Digital Literacy”

A breath.  

Take stock.  

Forge through.

A task

inspiring respect,

impressively large,

powerful, and intense

Resoundingly beautiful …

Yesssssssssss - Bring It On.  

But

please dear leaders,

open our learning commons

every day of the

school year;

Staff it richly

with professionals;

Train us relentlessly.

Supply us

with

meaningful tools

And resources.  

“We” strive to be formidable.

“We” strive to unravel and reknit

Literacy.

----------------------

Someone please break into song!

I now halt the thematic summation of New Technologies.

Module Three - Multiliteracies

Multiliteracies =’es Literacy on steroids.  It is part of each of the five main themes listed in the CORE Ten Trends: Cultural, Structural, Economic, Process and Technology.  It is the contextual and cultural knowhow and savviness in all that we do, and with everyone we interact with - globally.  I leave it to Wikipedia to sum up this broadening human concept.  Click and absorb - Multiliteracy.

Module Four - Critical Literacy

While I have a background in semiotics or meaning-making, in fact a masters from the University of Waterloo, Allen Luke had me learning more about this concept - awesome.  I had to giggle, but my learning and new synthesis did not come from the course YouTube clip which had me questioning my background scaffolding about critical literacy and even confused me, but rather, once again, particularly, from Wikipedia (and from other course readings too).  I have a new respect building for this often credibility questioned database. Wikipedia describes Luke’s Four Resources Model:

Four Resources Model

In the early 1990s, Luke and Peter Freebody of Griffith University introduced the Four Resources Model in literacy education.^[5] This model seeks to reconcile the debates between Whole Language, Phonics, critical literacy and others. This model postulates that in order to be a fully literate citizen, a person needs:

1.      coding competence (the ability to decode text, i.e. phonics)

2.      semantic competence (the ability to make meaning, i.e. comprehension)

3.      pragmatic competence (every day, functional literacy, i.e. writing a check, reading the newspaper, filling out a job application, etc.)

4.      critical competence (the ability to critically select and analyze texts, i.e. avoiding scams, determining reliable sources of information, etc.)

Luke and Freebody assert that no one of these resources is sufficient by itself but that each is essential. Further, the resources are not meant to indicate a sequence of instruction. Different resources should be present in instruction in varying amounts, depending upon the needs of the students. Luke has also stated that critical competence, far from being an upper level topic, can begin to be developed in year one of education and before. ^[2]

^{2  Curriculum services of Canada. (2007). "Dr. Allan Luke: the new literacies" webcast. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/may31.html}
In summation, through each of the course modules I explored, literacy is being defined and redefined.  With Luke, the umbrella definition includes four competences: coding (decoding text; learning the alphabet at its earliest stages), semantic (meaning-making; using the alphabet to create words and thus meaning), pragmatic (functional literacy, utilitarian know-how), and critical (analyzing text for currency, relevance, authorship, accuracy, and purpose).  In Luke’s model, we start with our preschoolers and primary students, teaching them the building blocks of literacy.  And then we keep building on those skills each year according to their readiness: culturally, and contextually.  Professionally, this model aligns strongly with me; I see the t-ls as crucial organizers in standardizing benchmarks from kindergarten to grade 12 regarding these competencies.

Module 5 - Literacy

Jodie Howcroft’s article “The Heart of a School” captured my attention for this module.  She writes for ETFO Voice the magazine of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.  In her article she captures the busy day and programming of a modern teacher-librarian.  Howcroft also captures the correlation between strong library programming and increased literacy.  Howcroft interviews full-time teacher-librarian Sue MacLachlan from Cathy Wever Elementary School, Hamilton, Ontario.
    I connected to this article because my job and MacLachlan’s are one of the same.  Further, it was fascinating to compare this full-time Ontario, elementary t-l position with my part-time .4 British Columbia, rural one.  So, I didn’t learn anything new, but connected with a fellow colleague and revisited meaningful literacy research:

1. “School Libraries and Student Achievement in Ontario”

(Howcroft p. 16).
2.  “The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries” by Dr. Ken Haycock.
(Howcroft p. 19).

As stated above, strong library programming tends to increase student achievement.  Open the library full time, staff it with qualified teacher-librarians (t-ls), increase spending on books and resources, provide collaborative time between teachers and t-ls, and the following increase: reading enjoyment, student achievement, and test scores.  With this correlation, the choice to increase funding to libraries should be one of the “Ten Trends,” but in reality, in many regions across Canada, the opposite is happening.

Module 6 - Reading in a New Key: Comics, Graphic Novels and E-books
Gene Yang’s Graphic Novels in the Classroom was the article I chose for Module 6.  This graphic novel style article will be a useful peer, parent, and even student text to define and exemplify this genre.  The resource lists about useful graphic novels for the classroom/library, as well as the pedagogical approach resource listings are very useful as some of the manga graphic novels in particular can be inappropriate for elementary audiences.  As a teacher-librarian this article was more about reaffirming the creative potential of graphic novels, and adding to my current resource list.  It did act as a springboard for finding other online educational comics such as Scott Tingley’s informal, comic-format “how-to” resource about chess: The Chess Comic .  Scott aims to teach young and old the basics of chess and then more advanced skills through the comic medium.  Post responses on his site are very favourable.  I predict we will see many more educational texts - print and digital - in this format.  In fact, World Book and Weigl Educational Publishers are two publishers I’m aware of working with the comic format.

In closing:
And so, just like the seven Prezis I found about LLED 459 summation posts (huge, complex), it is hard to summarize our learning in just a few words.  Literacy has become and will remain a complex, dynamic concept.  Technology has certainly been a profound force in literacy redefinition.  What was left out in many of the articles is the potential for disparity with the addition of technology to our literacies.  Who has access?  Who does not?  And while technological access is becoming less of an issue as prices come down and infrastructure improves, the disparity of multiliteracy strength, the semantic and critical competencies that Luke discusses may be the telling characteristic of the have and have-not literate vs illiterate masses.        

Addendum: this writing was text-heavy and lacking visuals for a "blog post." Once again, my humbling experience that writing/creating in Web 2.0 mediums add potential for creativity (visual and auditory), but need time - a precious commodity and not always available.