As a prospective English teacher, I am passionate about children mastering reading and writing skills. Being technologically illiterate myself, I prefer books to their digital counter parts. I fear that an extreme dependence on digital means of gaining literacy would make the act of reading books obsolete and unreachable. However this article discusses the benefits that technology brings into the classroom setting. It made me rethink how we should utilize technology; perhaps I am too traditional in my ideal literacy. My duty as a teacher is create an enriched learning environment. Technology is just one of many outlets that can be used in class more. The article also suggests that classrooms should do more in the realms of the other intelligences. I think learning would be more conducive if we strayed away from the core and incorporated other aspects into our classrooms.
http://opensource.com/education/13/10/prepare-future-digital-tech-creativity
I think that digital literacy is great for children who are super into technology, but I myself personally would prefer to sit and read a bit. Like you I am pretty traditional, however I think there are some really cool reading apps and digital literacy is another outlet for getting children to read who otherwise would not open a traditional book.
ReplyDeleteI think that it would be really cool to have a mixture of both technology reading and traditional books! For some kids, it would be a cool incentive to get them to read more. For example, I have a neighbor around middle school age who is really into sports, but he also loves computers and technology. So his parents got him a nook and he loves it and is constantly reading. I think it so cool that technology can get kids interested in reading or learning when they might not have before. Obviously, it would still be important to keep around regular books as well for children who enjoy that too!
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