{"id":63,"date":"2013-07-06T13:31:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-06T20:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/?p=63"},"modified":"2013-07-14T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T22:25:08","slug":"reading-assignment-blog-post-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/2013\/07\/06\/reading-assignment-blog-post-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Assignment Blog Post 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terminology!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This past week has led me to question the definitions that I had previously taken for granted.
\n‘Technology’ is no longer a tool, it is a medium, a process, and system in which we are learning.
\nThere are many types of ‘literacies’ evolving as we challenge our understanding of ‘competencies in various concepts’; is literacy therefore ‘communicating an understanding’ about something?
\nI am wondering what it would have been like to have these conversations back in the 60s when Marshall McCluhen coined the phrase, “The medium is the message”. If Google had been around back then, I wonder how people would have discussed this radical thought to describe the pervasive forms of technologies of that time. <\/p>\n

I searched a few websites (through the ‘suggested readings’ link in our course blog) and thought I would share the following:<\/p>\n

According to William Kist, in Global Education (1), the concept of \u2018literacy\u2019 includes a broad range of definitions: new literacies, multiliteracies, multimodalities, media literacy, information and communication technology (ICT).<\/p>\n

In his book, Kist offers a list of defining characteristics for classrooms that practice these new literacies.
\nCharacteristics of New Literacies Classrooms:<\/p>\n

Daily work in multiple forms of representations
\nExplicit discussions of the merits of using various symbol systems
\nThink alouds by the teacher, who models problem solving using various symbol systems
\nCollaborative and individual activities
\nStudent engagement
\nInterestingly, the list does not mention digital literacy specifically, but judging by the 21st Century Learning focus of his book, it is inherent.<\/p>\n

A US based organization, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills(2), stresses the inclusion of several interdisciplinary literacies (financial, economic, business, entrepreneurship, civic, health and environmental) in it\u2019s call for curriculum reform. I found the discussion of these literacies to be quite comprehensive, for example the \u2018Environmental Literacy\u2019 strand included several headings that describe competence in understanding and engaging in environmental issues. <\/p>\n

In our 21st Century Global Village, it is not surprising that various regional and national levels of government are calling for educational reform. BC\u2019s Education Plan and Digital Literacy Standards (3) address the need for change in our educational institutions. Graduates of our system will need to be literate across many forms. <\/p>\n

1.\tKist, William. Global Education. Solution Tree Press, IL. 2013. Global Education<\/a> site visited on July 6, 2013.<\/p>\n

2.\tPartnership for 21st Century Skills, DC. P21<\/a>
\nsite visited July 6, 2013. <\/p>\n

3.\tBCs Digital Literacy Standards (draft form) Digital Literacy Standards <\/a> site visited July 6, 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terminology! This past week has led me to question the definitions that I had previously taken for granted. ‘Technology’ is no longer a tool, it is a medium, a process, and system in which we are learning. There are many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignment-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dgratton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}