Digital Texts In and Out Of School

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices Introduction:
"In contemporary societies, we must now include texts created via digital technologies when we speak of the texts that cocoon us in our everyday lives and allow us to make our way through the city as we navigate our various social, political, cultural and economic obligations." (Carrington & Robinson, p.1).
As we move through today's society, we are incorporating technology into our everyday lives.  Digital literacy becomes a more important aspect of our education because we see more technology in places that you wouldn't have seen it 20 years ago.  As the introduction pointed out, New York City is a great example of digital texts and technology.  If you look at Times Square, almost all of the buildings have an electronic sign on them that is promoting some type of product or production.  We need to ensure that our youth has the ability to understand these digital technologies so that they can navigate their way through society.

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices Chapter 1:
"Media education, therefore, needs to draw on the cultural experiences of young people, recognize the barriers to participation, and provide students with skills to analyze and produce media in ways which extend and build on their existing knowledge." (Willett, p.16).
This is what we have been discussing for awhile now.  It is vital to build upon existing knowledge rather than to start from scratch.  The idea of using iMovies in the classroom is wonderful.  My colleagues used iMovies as a supplemental activity in ELA and the students really took to it.  I think that exposing students to these forms of technology is beneficial to them because they are learning digital literacy and using background knowledge.  I hope that I will be able to incorporate these types of learning modes into my classroom next year.

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices Chapter 2:
"Further, in exploring meanings, we can take into account not just the written word, but also images, layout, font, sound, gesture, movement and so on." (Davies, p. 30).
The written language goes so much further than just words.  When I think of written language I think of books.  When I read a book I want to be able to imagine the characters in my mind; what do they sound like? What do they look like? What are their mannerisms? To be an effective writer you need to be able to give the reader these types of feelings.  The written word does not give the mood that the reader is looking for.  It is the images, the sounds, the moods, the layout, and so forth that make the story flow.

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices Chapter 3:
"In order to succeed socially, as well as academically, across the myriad opportunities for text production available in the early twenty-first century, children must possess the ability to interrogate and recognize the power relations and forces that play upon and around their text production." (Dowdall, p. 51).
This particular chapter was devoted to a study of two children and the development of a profile page. Social media is a huge thing in today's society and more children are signing up for Facebook and Instagram.  The children need to know how to handle being on these social media sites and what is expected of them.  They should understand what type of text is appropriate for these sites and what type is not appropriate.  It is up to us as educators to ensure that they have the skills needed to recognize the forces that play upon their text production.


I believe that technology in the classroom is a wonderful thing if it is used appropriately.  I have used the classroom iPads many times in math as a supplemental activity for the students.  I also think that using age appropriate apps and games should be used whenever possible in the classroom.  We need to be building upon the background knowledge of our students and introducing them to technology that they may not be familiar with.  The only downfall to using the technology is that you cannot 100% prevent the students from straying away from the assignment and getting onto the Internet and looking up other things or playing other games.  I ran into that problem in my classroom a few times and often had to confiscate the student's iPad.  There has to be rules and consequences set before any type of activity begins.  That was the problem that I had with my class.  I learned that I had to give my rules and consequences up front before allowing  the students to participate.  Monitoring is also a key to using technology in the classroom.  You always need to be watching and walking around to ensure that everyone is on topic and doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Illuminated Text
I chose to create my illuminated text using the quote from the Introduction.