IM, Hypertext, PowerPoint, Etc.

Contemporary education is living in the past. We are not taking advantage of all the new literacies that so engage our students in their daily lives. Lewis' and Fabos' study of IM helps to prove this. I was astounded at the complex ways these teens were using language to IM each other. Children today are truly digital natives and we must adjust our teaching practices to fit this. As I read this article, I often thought back to when I was teaching third grade a couple of years ago and how I taught writing. I remembered my struggle to teach such vague concepts as audience and voice. Although I'm not sure many of my third graders were actively involved in IM'ing each other, I wish I had thought to use more their social literacy to teach those concepts. Another point this article brought up for me was internet filters. They abound in today's schools and I'm not entirely sure they should be there at all, especially at middle and high school. The article mentioned reading and creating blogs as a way to teach writing concepts in the classroom. Here I am in graduate level courses keeping blogs and making wikis, and these have been wonderful, engaging learning experiences for me. But, in a public school, filters often get in the way of doing these types of things. I really think that if teachers actively teach kids how to use and navigate the internet and what to do if they do come across an inappropriate site, that filters aren't needed. I think they hinder more than they help.

I really enjoyed the Power Point article as well. In fact, I just attended a training on using Power Point more effectively. The trainer said more than once that we must return the focus to the presenter and not the ppt, and I totally agree. I have a class this semester that relies heavily on ppt and it's, frankly, boring. As a teacher, I didn't use it much to teach, especially since I taught elementary school and 8 year olds don't do well with lectures. But, my kids used it all the time and I certainly think it has a place in the classroom if it is used well. The author mentioned several times that ppt constricts information to a linear, organized nature. However, through the use of action buttons, links, hypertext, video, and pictures, one can create a ppt much like the hypertext article we had to read for this week, or the modern children's literature that Hammerberg cites: a non-linear composition where the reader can decide where to go, what pathways to take. Teachers using ppt for lectures can certainly do this, too. As with anything, I think that teachers should use ppt in moderation to deliver lessons. No teaching method I've encountered advocates doing the same thing for every single situation and every single lesson. It should all depend on the students and the content. If the students are creating their own ppt (or other type of presentation) for a specific audience using their own creativity about what they have discovered through exploration in the classroom, they are certainly engaged in a powerful learning opportunity.