Week #9

Quote:  "The new genres and new literacies are not confined to youth and personal and recreational spaces, but have infiltrated society, commerce and government. (Asselin & Moayeri, 2011)."

Response:  The majority of the curriculum for this degree has focused on primary and secondary education, as it should.  I have approached this coursework from the perspective of adult and community education.  I've questioned and explored how information literacy relates to non-traditional students.  It is often a challenge to relate the coursework to this environment.  This quote reinforces, to me, that I am on the right track.

Resource:
I thought I would be able to go online, pop in a few key words, and bam, there would be exactly what I wanted.  Surely, in the world of the WWW there is an easy to find, online, interactive museum that appeals to adults.  But, alas, that wasn't the case.  In 2010 I visited the Alaska State Museum, where they had just premiered a Smithsonian exhibit on the native tribes.  The exhibit was high-tech, interactive, and appealed to all ages.  Unfortunately, it is not available on-line.  This brings home to me, that there is a need for application of new technology and information literacy.  If the Smithsonian Institute is not taking advantage of new literacies, yet..... the world is my oyster. 



1. What makes a literacy practice a "new literacy"?  The definition in the article is complicated.  I believe I can summarize it by saying that new literacy is about the "we generation" not the "me generation."  New literacies focus of community, not on individuality.

2. How does might Citizen Journalism support the development of "new literacies"?  Throughout the article the authors identify some new literacies such as the use of wikis, video sharing, and social networking.  They look at the use of critical thinking skills in developing the community content.  Citizen Journalism is about telling the story from a community perspective.  Citizen Journalism is sharing the story from the point of a multitude of people, not just one person which has a strong potential to show bias.

 

3. What is critical literacy and how does your Citizen Journalism project encourage critical literacy? How might you change your project to encourage critical literacy?

Critical literacy is the ability to review, analyze, and interpret information for bias and authenticity.  That said, my Citizen Journalism project is set up to look at labor issues in the 21st Century which are making national news from right here in West Virginia.  The Patriot Coal Company is attempting to have their financial obligation to retirees, which was negotiated through the UMWA over the past 50 years, relieved through Federal Bankruptcy.  My CJ project is heavily focused upon the UMWA perspective.  If I were to add more research into the company statistics and the company bias I could more fairly balance the project.  I could add additional elements to the Track Star that would provide analysis of the financial obligations from the company perspective.

 

4. What problems may arise when students use Web 2.0 tools for learning in school and how might teachers capitalize on these opportunities to promote information literacy? 

A trap of of Web 2.0 tools is not fully utilizing their potential.  By limiting the scope of their use teachers can actually discourage the critical literacy skills that they are trying to develop.  By encouraging students to think of their Web 2.0 tools as being powerful outlets for critical thinking students can empower students. 

 

Asselin, M. & Moayeri, M. (2011). Practical Strategies: The Participatory Classroom: Web 2.0 in the Classroom. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years 19(2).