March 21-Notes on New Literacy Project

1) What am I learning about the new literacy I am researching?

• Review the definitions of literacy (see sidebar) that you and your colleagues posted.  How does becoming 'literate' in the area you are investigating compare and contrast with these definitions? My colleagues and myself posted definitions of literacy mainly concerning the action of learning to read, write and comprehend the two.  I am investigating visual literacy, which also requires one to learn to read and write, but it goes beyond this basic definition.  Visual literacy is the ability to make meaning from pictures.  It requires comprehension and thinking skills to sort ones thoughts to be able to identify what he/she is viewing in pictures and therefore what message is being conveyed.  Both literacy and visual literacy definitions rely heavily on comprehension and thought process skills.
• What part, if any, do the traditional literacies (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing) play in becoming literate in the area you are investigating? To become literate in visual literacy one must be able to interpret messages from pictures as well as make meaning based on what they are seeing as a communication tool with others.  Reading plays a part in visual literacy because one will have the ability to interpret pictures more clear if they are able to read the words on objects in the pictures.  Writing plays a part in visual literacy because once someone has interpreted pictures they should be able to explain their thoughts to others in writing as well as through verbal communication.  Having listening skills when focusing on visual literacy will help one to not only think of their own ideas and thoughts when interpreting pictures, but also others giving them a wider variety of ideas to think about when making meaning from the visualization.  Clearly, viewing plays the highest role in visual literacy because one must be able to view pictures and interpret them carefully to make sure they are looking at everything in the picture before interpreting the concept from the print.
• What new content are you learning as you become more familiar with this literacy? I am learning that visual literacy is not only being able to interpret pictures, but also the ability to interpret the environment around you based on what you are viewing.  By seeing things and using ones senses they are developing skills to communicate based on visual literacy.
• What new skills and strategies are you learning as you become more familiar with this literacy? I have learned the importance of encouraging children to be critical thinkers.  Not only does being a critical thinker connect to literacy in general, but it plays an important role in visual literacy.  When looking at pictures children need to be taught to ask themselves questions before interpreting the meaning.  For example, students must ask themselves questions related to the picture based on what issues, information, who's involved, persuasion attempts and assumptions that are being conveyed in the image.
• What surprises have you experienced during your exploration?  Many people believe that visual literacy is where education is headed due to the increase in technology that continues daily.
• Think about the students in your field placement.  If they were exploring this new literacy, what support would they need in order to become literate in this area?  Is this type of literacy already present in the curriculum at that grade level, or would this be a new learning area for the students?  Being in kindergarten visual literacy is very present in the curriculum.  Reading first begins with children telling what they see in pictures instead of actually reading the sentences.  Pictures are also displayed to show children where materials in the classroom are and to give children clear explanations of what is expected of them before completing a task.  I believe the main support children would need when working on visual literacy is the constant reminder to ask themselves questions about the pictures they are viewing to help interpret the message as well as to help them to become a critical thinker, which will then help them to become good readers.
• What else are you learning about your new literacy?  I am learning that it is not important for teachers to be technology experts, but rather allow time for their students to work with technology programs such as adobe and photoshop.   

2) What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?

• Are you using reading, writing, speaking, listening and/or viewing in new or different ways when you use this technology? If so, how?  When creating a scrapblog I am using my reading skills to follow directions on how to use the software.  I am viewing the technology on the program repeatedly to see which way I prefer setting up my scrapblog, since there are many ways to do so and each create a different image.  This is different than how I would use my reading and viewing skills when doing 'literacy' because I am setting up a format of pictures for others to view and comprehend and instead of following a word format to write a paper I am following directions.
• What do you find especially challenging and why? I find it challenging to create a scrapblog, because there is so many options of how you can set up your visual images.  I find myself setting up the images and then realizing that it could possibly be interpreted differently than I wanted it to be.  Although I find this the challenging part about using this program I also find that the endless number of possibilities is the best part about this program.
• How well do you think you are able to use this technology as a medium to teach about your new literacy? How are you able to take advantage of its features to communicate your ideas? What limitations does this technology have in helping you communicate your ideas? I believe that this technology is perfect to teach about visual literacy-its composed of all images.  The features allow you to set up pictures in any order you want allowing for the person using the program to create one image based upon multiple images.  A possible limitation of using this technology would be if your students were viewing the blog at home instead of in class the importance of asking questions based on what they're viewing may be lost.
• Which aspects are the same as when you use more traditional forms of print such as reading books or writing papers to communicate your ideas?  With this program I believe your 'readers' will still be looking from left to right and you will still have to have your audience in mind when creating and your audience will have to think about the author when viewing it.
• What else are you noticing as you work with this technology? Not only are the possibilities endless because everyone is different creatively than others, but it gives you a lot of experience with working on the computer in general. 
• If students in your field placement classroom were learning to use the technology you explored, either as content readers or authors, what knowledge, skills, and strategies in reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing would they need to develop in order to be successful? How would you incorporate that learning in your language arts curriculum and instruction?  Being in kindergarten I think the students would first have to learn how to use the technology as readers.  This could be incorporated in the language arts currirculum and instruction simply based on the importance of creating critical thinkers and explaining the importance of asking yourself questions to help interpret meaning from print.  Not only can the teacher example this to the class by explaining what questions she asked herself, but also answering the questions and then allowing for children to think of questions they would ask themselves.  To be successful students would have to continue working on their listening skills to make sure they're following directions correctly, their speaking skills to make sure they are able to convey the message they see to others and their viewing skills to make sure they are looking at everything being shown on the scrapblog and not just one specific image.
• What else are you learning about your literacy knowledge, skills and dispositions as you use this new technology?  I am learning that the most important thing to remember as a teacher is that literacy is continually developing.  With technology ever changing I find it important to keep testing my literacy skills and exploring new things to make sure I continue to gain new skills to add upon the old, but never replacing them since I find that everything can build upon each other.