Abstract:
This article argues that editing in the era of digital literacies is a complex, collaborative endeavor that requires a sophisticated awareness of audience and purpose and a knowledge of multiple conventions for conveying meaning and ensuring accuracy. It compares group editing of an article about the New York Yankees baseball team on Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, to the decontextualized proofreading task required of seventh graders on a state-level examination. It concludes that literacy instruction in schools needs to prepare students for the multiple dimensions of editing in both print and online environments, which means teaching them to negotiate meanings with others, not merely to correct surface-feature errors.

Let’s Hear from You:

Digital Disconnect

A report funded by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and conducted by  the American Institutes for Research entitled The Widening gap Between Internet-savvy Students and Their Schools (Levin and Arafeh (2002) was eye opening.  Most of the students in the survey reported that they did their homework using the Internet, that they shared web sties with friends, and they used the web to collaborate on projects.  Of course this trend of internet use has only escalated since 2002.  A key finding was that students reported a disconnect between how they used the Internet to complete schoolwork, outside of school without teacher direction, and assignments completed in school.   While they used the Internet more and more to do school work, they reported little use of the Internet under teacher direction in school.  When asked to explain this digital disconnect, among other things, the student respondents noted that even in well-connected schools, Internet use policies varied widely based on either individual administrators and the use policies typically resulted in assignments in which the Internet was not used or used in a not-so-engaging way.  A disconnect problem cited by the students was that even in schools that were well connected access policies significantly limited students use of the Internet.

In the November 2008 issue of JAAL, Bill Kist wrote about a “fear factor” that permeates many schools and school systems resulting in an inhibition or prohibition of the use of Web 2.0 tools and other applications.   But the most remarkable point he makes focuses on the case of “Ellen”–a preservice teacher who noted that because of the warnings of her state department of education and the state teachers’ association, that teachers themselves should be wary of participating in social networking sites.   Kist grounded the fear factor historically by noting how other media like film and television precipitated similar fears when they emerged.  But here we are, with only a ripple of revolution in education against the backdrop of a huge revolution in the broader world culture and global economy.

Change is slow in education.  But the elephant in the room is not the digital divide, which educators have discussed, critiqued, and considered in the use of teaching and learning technologies in depth for at least a decade:  it is the digital disconnect that separates generations of teachers, separates digital natives (students who have grown up with the technologies)  from digital immigrants (people, some of whom are teachers, who are not natives but have embraced the technologies and learned about them) and, perhaps most significantly, separates non natives and non immigrants who hold power from the rest of their peers.  The disconnect is meant to characterize teachers, administrators, and, to some extent parents and other stakeholders, who either wittingly or unwittingly maintain a gap between what youth do with technologies outside of school and what they do with the technologies in school.  (See Marc Prensky’s oft-cited discussion digital natives and immigrants).  The youth studied by Levin and Arafeh  brought up the possibility that some teachers were not using available tools because of their own unfamiliarity with them or reluctance in learning new applications.  But the other interesting indictment from the youth is this:  The digital divide argument was being used as the rationale, or part of the rationale, in keeping the technologies out of the classroom or in stifling progress in the application of such technologies.  In short, the digital divide argument, according to surveyed youth,  served the purposes of some educators with power to shape curriculum content and make budgetary decisions that affected the lack of proliferation of the technologies.  These powerful educators could muster a less-than-enthusiastic response and then offer that the technologies are not, are too expensive to purchase and maintain, and fail to help students meet standards and expected achievement (look at how school laptop programs met their demise).  

One of the big “potholes” that we referred to in the inaugural Digital Literacies department column was the institutionalized educational practices and organizational schemes that move students to higher levels of achievement while dismissing innovations that don’t fit the efficiency/production model.   My discussion here just offers a more blunt perspective on how the disconnect is perpetuated by educators among us whose best interest in maintaining the status quo is served by not moving forward and using a host of what appear to be reasonable arguments to serve the institution.  In the spirit of taking action and making a difference with digital literacies I offer some ways to address the disconnect:  

•  Change the institutionalize practices that do not accommodate digital literacies and can be used to as a rationale to discontinue them
•  Hire digital native teachers and administrators who are much more likely to embrace the technologies that enable digital literacies.  This, of course, is a given as the more junior faculty entering the profession are now digital natives.
•  Work with the more senior educators to facilitate an understanding of the technologies and ways that they may enhance traditional literacy practices while helping students develop new practices–all of which potentially make learning more engaging
•  Do financial analyses of district budgets and examine the feasibility of shifting or reallocating funds from typical textbook budgets to purchasing computers, net books, or other devices that provide online access
•  Develop and document new assessments that are particularly sensitive to digital literacies practices and can be used to augment or replace traditional assessments that do not tap into the skills and processes students use in creating and reading digital texts

To reiterate, I realize that the digital divide, and all other divides that privilege some children and youth over others, are real and apply to access and use of technologies the same as in any other area.  I also want to emphasize, after many discussions with colleagues I respect, that embracing digital technologies without providing more basic literacy opportunities will not solve deep-rooted problems.  We develop technologies tunnel vision and forget that many children and youth in the US and many other countries often cast as technology rich and savvy do not have access to these technologies and relatively few children and youth in the world as a whole have such access.  But if  your students do have access, or could have access, and you could make a difference by critiquing the divide argument, then it is worth tackling.

In this column, Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear discuss the role of wikis in education and in facilitating professional development. 

Abstract: The Internet is becoming an interactive and collaborative experience. Popular social software used to interact with the Internet includes blogs and microblogs for keeping track of things that interest you or for letting others know what you’re up to (www.blogger.com,www.livejournal.com, twitter.com) and sites like Facebook for bringing together online networks, announcement spaces, group members, and interest affinities in one online location (www.facebook.com). In this Digital Literacies column, the authors focus on one of these Web resources: the wiki.

Visit and Contribute to NewLits.org!

Share your experiences here (successes and frustrations) using wikis in your K12 classrooms!

The third digital literacies column was just published in the February 2009 issue of JAAL.

In this column, Cassandra Scharber proposes one way to bridge “old” and “new” literacy practices in the classroom: online book clubs. Online book clubs can capitalize on kids’ interest in new literacy practices while complementing and encouraging traditional reading practices.

• What possibilities do online book clubs offer classrooms and libraries? 
• What other bridges exist in classrooms today?
• Share your experiences with online book clubs and author chats!  

Check it out!

The second digital literacies column was just published in the November 2008 issue of JAAL.

William Kist, an associate professor at Kent State University, contributed a column entitled, “I Gave Up MySpace for Lent: New Teachers and Social Networking Sites.” He discusses the potential “pothole” that social networking sites present in education, especially for new teachers.

Let’s extend Kist’s ideas — We want to hear from you: 

• Should social networking sites be used within educational contexts? Why or why not?
• What are the possible applications of social networking sites within classrooms (for teachers and students)?
• In what ways can social networking sites transform teaching and learning?
• How should teachers juggle wanting to have an online personal space with their professional lives? 
• How can teachers work through the “fear factor” so that they can use Web 2.0 technologies?

For a list of social networking sites, as well as other Web 2.0 technologies, please visit the Web 2.0 Tools page of this blog.

We would LOVE to hear/see what you think about using digital literacies in schools. Please post your comments! 

• What other possibilities do you envision in using digital tools in reading and writing?
• What other “potholes” exist?
• How do teachers avoid the potholes?
• What is your reaction to the idea that learners today are different because of technology? (View YouTube video here)
• Do you have any suggestions for additional Web 2.0 resources?