Blog 4 - Web 2.0 and New Literacies in the Classroom

During our seminar session, I was given the opportunity to engage with Web 2.0 technologies and new literacies, including ‘Jigzone’, ‘Wordle’, ‘Storybird’ and ‘Tagzedo’. Due to this, I feel more confident that I have the skills and knowledge on how to use these forms of technologies in my own practice. This relates to my second blog which discussed an issue regarding teacher’s ability and confidence to use new literacies and technologies in the classroom, as Dean (2010) argues that teachers need opportunities to explore and discover new literacies & have access to training and the technology (Marsh et al 2005).

The use of Web 2.0 and new literacies in the classroom, is an important aspect of education and should therefore, play a role in my future practice.  Hague and Payton (2010) state that education systems need to help young people to understand and benefit from their engagement with digital technology and digital cultures. Fostering digital literacy in the classroom provides ways to make subject learning relevant to a society in which growing technology use, is changing the way that both adults and children represent and communicate information and meaning and participate in cultural life (Hague and Payton: 2010). This therefore, stresses the importance for teachers to integrate this into the primary classroom.

Through exploring and experimenting with Web 2.0 and new literacies in our seminar session, I became familiar with how literacy and technology can support each other in helping children to progress in their learning (Merchant, 2009). The Primary Framework (DCFS, 2006), provides opportunities for teachers to incorporate digital literacy into their practice. However, a limitation of this is that teachers may be faced with a challenge of being unsure if some forms of technology actually constitute literacy and are therefore, driven back to print literacy (Merchant, 2009). This shows the importance of teachers having the knowledge and confidence of using new literacies.

From looking at Web 2.0 and new literacies, I also became aware that they are not only educational for children but fun, interactive and engaging. This can benefit children’s learning as Williams and Chinn (2009) determined that the use of familiar Web 2.0 tools allowed for increased active learning and excitement in children because they mirrored their real-life scenarios of using technology at home. Meanwhile, Shaohua and Peilin (2008) agreed that integrating Web 2.0 technologies into the classroom can increase learners' satisfaction and interaction levels.

On the other hand, an issue that needs to be considered when introducing children to new literacies and Web 2.0 is that, it is easy to assume that all children are brought up with a wealth of skills about digital technology; however, this may not be the case (Hague and Payton: 2010). This puts pressure on teachers to not assume that all children come into school with these skills. However, it is important that children learn skills to become digital literature as the National Curriculum (DfEs: 2013) states that pupils need to become digitally literate and be able to use and express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology, as active participants in a digital world.

To conclude, I feel more experience is needed with children in a classroom setting in order to continue improving my own practice in supporting children in this area. Merchant (2009) argues that the challenge for the classroom is how to make educational use of the new literacy practices.

 

Dean, G. 'Rethinking Literacy' in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London: SAGE

DCFS (2006). Primary framework for literacy and mathematics. Available :http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/14160/1/15f5c50f1b2f78d6af258a0bbdd23951.pdf [ACCESSED: 15/02/2014)


Hague, C, & Payton, S (2010) Digital Literacy across the Curriculum, Futurelab

Merchant, G (2009, Literacy in virtual worlds, Volume 32, Issue 1, Journal of Research in Reading: Sheffield Hallam University, pp 38-56

 Marsh, J. et al, (2005) ‘Digital beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies’ Literacy Research Centre, University of Sheffield

Shaohua, H. & Peilin, W. (2008). Web 2.0 and social learning in a digital economy. Proceedings of the

IEEE Knowledge Acquisition and Modeling Workshop, Wuhan, China, Dec 21-22, 2008 doi: 10.1109/KAMW.2008.4810691

Williams, J. & Chinn, S. (2009). Using Web 2.0 to support the active learning experience. Journal of

Information Systems Education, 20(2).