It's been so long since my last post!

I was starting to have a little bit of blogging withdrawal.

I thought I would start with a quote...

“New literacies are essential in classrooms so that equal opportunities are offered to all students” (Barone & Wright) I thought this quote was interesting because in reality students are not given equal opportunities because some schools do not have the technology that others have… just a thought. I talk about it more below as I am super jealous of this man and his personal set of classroom laptops. 

Technology instruction throughout my own education has been implemented through the grade levels. I went to a poor rural district, but we always had computers in the classroom and the opportunity to go to the computer lab for things like keyboarding instruction. I remember once we had a lesson on how to use WordArt on Microsoft Word. I was in 5^th grade and it was the coolest! Our views of reading and writing are changing due to rapidly growing technology which has led to the need for a shift in instructional practices (Barone & Wright). I understand the significance of incorporating various forms of technology into the classroom to meet the rising demands of students as they come into contact with twenty-first century literacies. Many of us are familiar with the technologies but may not have the background knowledge to implement them in the classroom.

Teachers should effectively work to integrate technology because it will allow students to learn the information they need to be competitive in a global economy. Students need skills they will use in the workplace and many employers currently require their workers to participate in electronic environments consistently throughout the day. (Leu, Zawilinski, Castek, Banerjee, Housand, Liu & O’Neal). Almost everyone I know in the business community carries some type of smart phone (which they usually get for free- again I am having a big of jealousy towards other people and their technologies) and many use social networking sites to promote their company. My dad works for a major food company and they have a number of Facebook pages for their products. He recently had to jump on the Facebook bandwagon in order to stay up to date with the current technologies and changes within his company. My sister and I set up his account the other night and he's been all over it since, including messaging his children when we're sitting in the same room. My entire family, including my Grandma, are constantly using Facebook terminology when we get together. The Social Networking dialogue is everywhere and having the knowledge to navigate through such sites is becoming essential.  

Laptops in the classroom provide scaffolding for many classroom topics, help student build background knowledge, and increase student engagement. I thought it was really great that Todd had the ability to give his class laptops for in and out of school use for an entire year, but in all reality the reality of this is extremely slim. Even though many of us will not have access to our own personal classroom laptops (I wish we did!!) we may be able to sign a class set out from the computer lab. In my experience, anytime I ever needed to sign them out they were available. When planning I think it is really important to look at how we can weave in technology through the curriculum. I tried to bring the laptops to the classroom at least once a week for some type of further inquiry. Laptops can be used to extend traditional literacy and help students with comprehension (Barone & Wright)

As an educator, in a forever changing field, I understand how technology can be used to engage and motivate students. Digital technologies are and will continue to be essential for communication, inquiry in the content area, and literacy instruction. The traditional definitions of literacy will be insufficient when preparing students for the future. Students need to learn to acquire skills in order to evaluate what they read and write online. Within the last few years, I have observed a significant increase in the use of technology, particularly with adolescent students. Teachers need to be prepared to bring new literacies into the classroom.