I’m the other Sherpa for this week. Since Marc did an excellent job of summarizing and discussing the readings, I thought I would focus on the online discussion. As I reread the posts, a few themes emerged:
Many people saw connections between Alvermann’s argument that there is a disconnect between traditional and digital literacy and Finn’s argument that there is a disconnect between involuntary minorities and mainstream culture. Some people questioned the relevancy of Finn’s article to issues of literacy, and others saw a deep connection between the educational achievement gap and the alienation of involuntary minorities.
Several people pointed out that the technology gap will be easier to address than the racial, cultural, and socioeconomic gaps Finn discusses. Anita, Jill, and others suggested that new technology may be a way of engaging students who are not succeeding using traditional print media. As Anita put it: “Can multimodal literacy help solve the achievement gap—can it be a path to success for some of the children Finn describes?”
Other class members wondered if economic disparities will widen the gap between educational haves and have-nots. Jennifer asked: “Will there be a greater and ever-increasing achievement gap between involuntary minorities and the dominant culture because of socioeconomic inequalities?" Dani pointed out some of these practical concerns: “If technology really works for a better education, what about these immigrants who don’t really have money? How they will be able to buy them?? Only use them in school? How they will be able to do homework from home? I think that these can be even bigger problems.”
It occurred to me that in some ways, print media is more “democratic” than digital media—anyone can have access to a public library. While computers are certainly available in libraries, too, real “digital literacy” requires people to own their own computers, where they can store their own files.
The question of how to motivate students also emerged as a theme. Katie posted a disturbing story about a minority student in a class she observed who was obviously not engaged in the class, yet was ignored by the teacher. That is just unacceptable! It is the teacher’s and the school’s responsibility to find out why the student isn’t engaged, and to find ways to solve the problem.
The issue of testing is also a concern running through this discussion. As Gina put it: “If different groups of students are literate in such a wide variety of things, how can a school possibly devise a system that will test them all, fairly?” Joe saw a disconnect between testing theory and practice: “Everything is advertised as being more concerned with authentic learning—genuine understanding and appreciation of ideas, concepts, and precision of skills. You are, however, ultimately judged by your performance on a black and white, typed paper with 100 multiple-choice questions and possibly a writing section. If the message is to gear education towards a more hands-on, real-world applicable approach, why does that disappear when it's time to assess students?”
Miriam brought up the issue bilingual education and identity. As we learn in ED 632, “Language and Global Perspectives,” there is a huge debate on this topic right now, focusing on the questions: How should speakers of languages other than English be taught English in schools? One of the several bilingual models? Or English-only immersion?
Looking ahead to next week’s readings, the Finn selection, “Class, Control, Language, and Identity,” continues the theme of social class, but explicitly relates this theme to issues of literacy and power. “The Silenced Dialogue,” by Lisa Delpit, also discusses issues of literacy and power, specifically what she calls “the culture of power,” and how it operates in the classroom and in the school environment as a whole.
The essential question that emerged for me as a result of this discussion is: “What can we as educators do to bridge both the achievement gap and the gap between traditional and digital literacy, to ensure success for all of our students?”
I nominate Eric to be one of the next sherpas.
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4 comments:
Dear Laura, What a great summary - showing deep and patient reading of all our long posts and comments.
Now that we're reading Lisa Delpit, I wanted to say that Paul's post about the student, Marcus, in his Spanish class, was very moving and in the spirit of Delpit.
Laura- thank you for this sensitive and wonderful post that captures so many ways that the divergent comments went ... really in a way that moved us all towards greater understanding and valued all the voices and perspectives here. Thanks for this excellent sherpa work! The essential question you pose is an excellent one and is probably the UBER - essential question (if I may create that formulation) of the entire course.
Anita, I appreciated your comments about Paul's post here.
Laura, you brought up such excellent points in your post! Bridging gaps on any level is so challenging, however our attitude can never be one of defeat. We don't need to be the same race, gender or culture as our students, but we do need to understand them and find ways to make our lessons relevant, interesting and motivating to the students. It is so sad to think about a student just wasting time away in class because he has no investment in what he's learning, and on top of that being ignored by his own teacher! Last semester we read a few case studies about teachers who were trying to find ways to motivate students and get the to pass...in the third quarter!! We really need to know our students and form a personal relationship with them based on trust and understanding of one another. Bilingual education is another huge challenge for schools. I was in ESL where it was an English only curriculum filled with students of many different nationalities taught by teachers who had no connection to any of the cultures in the class. However, all the cultures were embraced and displayed throughout the room. At home I was only speaking Russian so I think full English emersion was the only way I would have truly learned the language, and in fact I was out of ESL within six months. I think it would have only set me back to be in a class where my native language was incorporated.
Alena,
Thanks for sharing your personal experiences with English-immersion. Did it work as well for everyone else as it did for you?
On the topic of technical literacy, his Edweek.org article, on testing for tech literacy skills, correlates with our discussion of different types of literacy, and when, how, and if they should be tested:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/01/30/21techtests.h27.html?tmp=1384373350
Learning.com is the for-profit company mentioned in the article, that has developed "TechLiteracy Assessment," to "authentically measure and report technology proficiency."
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