This image of jumbled letters is representative of how I see technology, media, and text as overwhelmingly dominate in our society. Communication via talk, text message, email, and video call etc is so intertwined with our daily lives, that we sometimes become overloaded with text. As a teacher, it is important to be flexible and teach students how to create and interact with many different forms of text. As dominant modes of reading and writing change, so do the skills that we need to teach students to be successful. Teaching students how to use different forms of text technologies will aid them in developing skills to think critically about information that they receive and what they want to communicate. However, with endless forms of text technologies coming into our lives and quickly becoming redundant, it is important that we take the time to continue thinking about why text technologies are important and what we use these forms of text to create and emit to the world.
I am very excited to be taking this course because I have a passion for teaching reading and writing. I am originally from Toronto, Canada, but am currently teaching fifth grade Language Arts and Social Studies in Guatemala. I love to hike, run, and participate in community events in my free time. Living in Guatemala gives me the chance to experience the benefits and challenges of interacting with different text technologies on a daily basis. We have a choice in the ways in which we transmit text to our colleagues, friends, students, and other people we interact with, and I look forward to participating in ETEC 540.
Amanda Bourdon
Photo credit: flickr
