Digital Texts In and Out of School

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices

Introduction: “Some of these new technologies, particularly ones used at home or for social interaction, rest somewhat uncomfortably in schools and are still not universally assured of a place in classroom practice” (2009, p.3).

I completely agree with this quote. Our school only allows phones and other personal technologies during lunch, the remaining school time they are supposed to be put away. Some of our AP courses have iPads for the students, but phone use is not allowed unless the teacher allows it for class use.  I think that there are interactive ways that we can bring cell phones into the classroom but we would have to monitor the students to make sure that they are staying on task.

Chapter 1: “ Gee argues that learning through game play is effective because skills are acquired in the context of the activity rather than through abstract exercises” (Willett, p.14).

Looking at games today there are certain ones that kids love to play that are educational as well. A lot of kids don’t know that they are learning new skills while they are having fun. I think finding educational games is a great way to help students learn new skills and apply them as well. I always try to bring different games into my math classroom when my lab students are reviewing for a quiz. I have found jeopardy games that are online and they absolutely love playing it. I want to try and make learning as much fun as possible while engaging my students in math skills that they need to have.

Chapter 2: “This is a highly valuable resource for teachers of all subjects and can provide much discussion material” (Davies, p.34).

This quote is talking about Flickr. I have never used this tool before, but from the description and this chapter it sounds like something great to use in the classroom. It is safe for students and teacher to interact and it is a great resource for teachers.  Students can post things and comment on others posts as well which is great. I like that the teacher can watch over the site and delete things that are not appropriate for the students to view.  In the future, I would like to try and use this tool with my students.

Chapter 3: “The interconnectedness of the online textual and school worlds acts as a realty-checking mechanism” (Dowdall, p.55).

I strongly agree with this quote, because some people don’t understand that what they post on social media sites also is being seen in reality and affects how others view them. I hear so many students talk about pictures that another student posted online that were a little too revealing but they never thought anything about it. Everything people post is always going to be out there and someone is always going to talk about it. Employers are starting to look at social media sites to see what you are posting and people should know that once something is sent out it is out there forever. I know I see a lot of partying pictures of my students even though we are not friends on any social media sites.

Reading the introduction in our book, it explains how and why we need to start integrating more technology into our schools. Our students need to have technology tools available to them and we need to help them learn the best practices to efficiently use them. Some of the challenges that our text has given is safety with our students using the internet and another is if they don’t have the resources at home. In chapter 1, it talks about the case studies and looking at students that have technology available to them at home to develop skills they can use to make video productions. We need to see what our students have available to them in both home and school environments and see what background knowledge they have as well. Some barriers that we have are just looking at paper-based curriculum compared to the use of digital texts. In chapter 2, Gee tells us that schooling needs to be more collaborative based rather than isolating students by having them work on their own. By using collaborative based learning and digital texts, students are able to be more interactive and take part in the activities compared to working on their own. Students like working with their peers and feel more comfortable working with others and sharing ideas and practices that way. Bringing in digital text to the classroom will help students feel more comfortable because they are familiar with using technological tools outside of the classroom. 

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