Assignment 2 - Page 2
Early in the course, the reading ‘New Times, New Literacies’ provided me a base for why I teach the way I teach. The essential message from this reading was an important one for me and reinforced my position that we need to change our thinking about literacy to cater for changing times when literacy is no longer based on print, pen and paper. This reading resonated well for me because of my context. As a teacher of Distance Education students, this is the message that we try to convey to the parent body as a justification for our adoption of online learning models which integrate mutli-modal texts. However, in spite of the advanced in technologies this reading provided another pertinent side to the story and one that is related to indications that, in Queensland ‘1 in 4 children live in poverty and that increasingly there will be social groups that are excluded from access to the new technologies’ ( Education Qld, Literate Futures, New Times, New Literacies) In terms of my own view of literacy and my enthusiastic adoption of emerging technologies within my own practice and my own context, this illustrated the importance of adopting an inclusive approach to how we, or how I, deliver literacy to all students. Within my context we have students who are also excluded for a variety of reasons including learning style, learning capacity, social issues, technological infrastructure issues and ideological issues.
Upon reflection, within the online learning environment that I operate in, I can see how my approach would position and disadvantage certain students. In other words, I can see that students without strong digital literacy skills would find some learning tasks difficult to complete. Therefore, in an inclusive curriculum, the online mode needs to incorporate multi modal elements.
“ A critical factor is learning styles. Online learning MAJORLY disadvantages all the students who have auditory and kniesthetic styles because it caters to visual learners…The more complex the material the more critical it is that auditories and kinesthetics have hands on and verbal interaction” ( Waterman, 2000, as cited in Taynton, Y., Online Learning: A Student Perspective)
In terms of school related factors of influence, our school has a strong position to promote the Education Qld eLearning agenda, which is to help teachers, ‘embrace digital pedagogy.’ (Education Qld, Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework)
‘Education Queensland has a ‘smart classrooms’ ICT Strategy that aims to connect teachers and students with new technologies and to develop sustainable technology infrastructure in schools and providing more funds for ICT in schools. The Cairns School of Distance Education has embraced technology, and continues to explore and innovate within the challenges of a 300,000 sq km classroom. Our school acknowledges that we live in an increasingly digitised world, and that this growth does impact on the delivery of education’ (Cairns School of Distance Education, Annual Report 2008)