Reading Assignment Part A
The topic that interests me is how to incorporate the use of technology into literacy learning among primary students. A lot of the inquiry-based learning and resource-based learning qualities seem to aim towards older students who are able to find resources on their own to answer their inquiry questions. I wonder what would this look like for primary students in kindergarten to grade 3 who are beginning to develop their reading and writing skills. They would not be able to type yet because of their developing fine-motor skills and would not know how to spell many words so I would imagine that they would be using the text-to-speech option on an iPad (Flewitt et al., 2015). The part of the curriculum that is of interest to my topic would be English Language Arts particularly with letter formation and phonemic awareness in the kindergarten curriculum. Because my topic of interest is focused on primary grades, play-based learning would be the pedagogy that is most useful to foster student’s engagement. I would also like to incorporate inquiry-based learning elements too. I believe that iPads would be the choice of technology for primary grades because of they are quite easy to use and these students are probably using them at home already (Escoda, 2014; Flewitt et al., 2015).
Image generated by Word Cloud.
Some topics or keywords that I will look into to broaden my understanding will include digital literacy, early literacy, play-based learning, media literacy, and technology in primary grades. This topic is particular of interest to me because my teaching experience has been with every grade at the primary level. As I am learning about all the amazing learning experiences that happen in schools with technology, I have not heard much about how this works with the young grades. Since using technology is an important part of being literate in the 21st century, this should pertain to the primary students too.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.
References
Escoda, A. P. (2014). Media literacy in primary school: new challenges in the digital age. Teoría de la Educación. Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información, 15(1), 43-69.
Flewitt, R., Messer, D., & Kucirkova, N. (2015). New directions for early literacy in a digital age: The iPad. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15(3), 289-310.
This is a good first post. You have explored a wide range of ideas and themes here and have identified strong keywords and topics for further investigation. I am interested to see where your learning takes you. I agree that there are some barriers to using technology in primary grades. Given our current context, and where we might find ourselves in the fall, your work on this topic will be a valuable asset to our cohort. The images you included enhanced your discussion. Great use of a word cloud!