Journal Post: in this course we view new literacies as a social practice, just as we will consider visual grammar a social resource for meaning. Reflecting on your own literacy practices while connecting to the readings, respond in your first journal post to the following quote: "The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).
When I think about literacies these days, I tend to lean heavily toward digital literacies. As an educator of future programmers, developers, system designers and network architects, I not only have to be careful to frame the discussion, notes, projects and journals in a way that encourages assimilation of the knowledge being presented, but also evokes past knowledge and experiences into a realization of connection between the topics. It is essential that they make the connection on the importance of previous learning as relevant to the current topic and its application to the overall solution. In that regard, the texts the I place before my students - through the use of Learning Management Systems (Blackboard) and blog tools like WordPress - are crafted to be direct, relevant, content-rich and full of easy to digest examples and visual aids that reinforce the abstract concepts being demonstrated.
When it comes to texts, I am not the only author in my classroom. I agree with Gillen and Barton's idea of “text-making as important as text-receiving”. This is not however, the notion of students simply writing papers and regurgitating facts. Rather, this is now the third semester that I am requiring my students to write journals. These are private, reflective journals (in Blackboard) in which they are to tell me what they are learning and how they are learning it. Did they use my resources? Was there a need to augment with online searches or other content? How successful were they in applying the concepts learned toward the project outcome? What might they have done differently if they understood the problem a little better before they began working toward the solution? This then encourages a form of blog without the complications of FERPA.
Huffaker states that “blogs represent a perfect medium for literacy” and “stories help in understanding the world around them". The purpose of the journal is to have them write in their own words the story of their experiences using the vernacular of our classroom where they have access to the resources they need and the power to institute change in their understanding. As a person who lives in the datacenter and instructs part-time, I can easily bring my life to the classroom and put on display, warts and all, everything there is about me and my world. The goal is by being open, honest and forthcoming they will feel compelled to engage in a similar way.
By giving careful attention to what I do with texts, my students may be encouraged to give the same attention in their journals. If am really lucky I may even get a glimpse of whether it is making sense to them and if they are applying it to their learning lives.
References
Gillen, Barton. (2010). DIgital Literacies. Retrieved January 20, 2015 from http://www.tlrp.org/docs/DigitalLiteracies.pdf
Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.
