21st Century Literacy

What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?


Being literate in the 21st century means being able to successfully access, evaluate, use and participate in the digital world as well as in a non-digital mode. Part of this statement is taken from our LTT capacity five. I think this is a concise way to express an answer to this question. Literacy is not just being able to operate the hardware or soft ware it is the whole package that accompanies that use. If you are literate you will be able to use the equipment to find information. As a 21st centuray learner you must capable of sifting through and evaluating that information to find what is useful to you (Crap Detection). After you have evaluated what you have discovered, the ability to effectively use or apply that knowledge is essential as a literate individual. Finally, being able to share that knowledge or information, collaborate with others, connect with others who can add to your learning (Connectivism), is the final piece of the puzzle.

Value of Research in Teaching Practice

Blog post Feb 1- Value of Research in Teaching Practice

The value of drawing on research to inform my practice has become more evident as a result of my participation in this class. In the past my first source for information would be "teacher books". The author has often already looked to the research and developed ideas based on that current research. Now I find myself caught up in browsing through the sources for research mentioned in the jig-saw exercise. I often end up in a wandering journey that produces a huge amount of information. I find myself beginning a search with one objective in mind and I end up on an equally valuable tangent that is not just applicable to my inquiry but informs my practice in another area that I have been wondering about or looking to improve. I am looking forward to having the time to pursue more of that type of investigation after this course is over. The value of research to me as a teacher is found in discovering solutions to problems or challenges for students, new ideas to pursue or often finding that different perspective that I had not fully considered when making instructional decisions. I have no desire to be a "researcher" or an "academic". Pleasure in my job is found daily in direct interaction with my children. I am glad that someone has the desire to pursue this area in education, and I will willing examine and put into practice what I feel is valuable research material in terms of teaching the little people in my care. Jeanne Jennings

Aug 20 Reflection on practice in light of plan/tech activity/assess

The process of working through a topic from the IRPs has been valuable in terms of looking at all the aspects necessary to develop (ie. knowledge, skills, understanding and attributes) using technology to support learning in all four areas makes learning exciting and relevant.

The value to me of focusing this week on understandings, skills and attributes has helped

to remind me how important the process can be in education. A competent teacher does look at how children learn as part of their assessment. With the addition of technology there is another whole rubric to consider within each subject area. I need to be more mindful of attending to all those details during a lesson rather that falling back to always looking at the content area as the priority.

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Aug 16 Knowledge digital age

The Gilbert article suggests that we need to reexamine some of our old ideas about knowledge. What I pulled out of this article is that how you pursue knowledge in our world is as significant as the content piece itself. Today as we looked at the subject areas and the links between curricular areas, the commonalities were the process pieces. As a primary teachers we tend to integrate and have more opportunities to work on the process to get at the content areas. Technology can be used across all content areas to help collaborate with others to problem solve, share ideas, learn from others, come up with new solutions, discuss, jointly publish, respond to others and have your own ideas looked at critically with further learning in mind. The idea of big buddies is an arrangement that we use regularly in elementary schools. It is meant to be a mutually beneficial relationship, collaborative learning. I see this working in the technological sense, across grades and also with peers.

ISTE Goal for fall term

I have chosen two goals to look at as they are connected

 
 

1. Rubric#5a - participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications to technology to improve student learning
   

    
    

2. Rubric #3b - Collaborate with students, peers , parents and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
   

    
    

    
    

   These goals are important to my practice. My involvement in this course has placed me in a rich and interesting PLC. I have experienced in a new way the value of participating in a effective learning community. I feel I would like to extend that opportunity to my students and also include my parents in a more regular forum as educational partners.
   

Field Study Reflection Number

Field study - Using multimodal formats for demonstrating learning. (Reflection on data)
Providing students with the opportunity to use favoured methods for demonstrating learning appears to be far more significant for students that have difficulty with their learning. Average or high average students seem to be successful no matter what format is used. Children who are struggling, clearly benefit from the opportunity to chose methods that allow them to make use of their strengths.