Considerations of Digital Learning (For Now and the Future)

  As Mirra (2020) pointed out (in a very meta tweet), education must move away from “training youth to accept a dysfunctional civic life that is built upon + perpetuates INEQUITY” and move toward a view of digital citizenship where schools support “youth to use their LITERACIES to dream of and design LIBERATING CIVIC FUTURES!”  -- Buchholz & DeHart, 2020 In this response to this week’s text, I drew a particular connection between the work of the researchers, the students’ experiences, and one of the identified skills and competencies highlighted in NCTE’s “ Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age”:   “Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives;”  The collage below highlights and captures my thoughts in response to this week’s readings. Thinglink Here From Left to Right:  Group of Pictures in Row 1 “I Voted” & “Child with Books” Critical Digital literacy practices hi...

Overcoming challenges to literacy learning through Critical Literacy  This week, w e explored definitions and examples of “digital literacies” in elementary education. The highlighted studies exemplified cases where students explored social and civic participation and communication through digital literacy development. There was an overwhelming presence of implementing and integrating Critical literacy pedagogy in shaping curriculum to accommodate students’ cultural experiences and needs. Montgomery (2014) engaged critical literacy to support the development of critical democracy learning via podcasting, and Price-Dennis et al (2015) explored digital literacy and social justice pedagogy as a means of supporting literacy skill development in a student with a specialized education plan. The students' success and learning demonstrated in these articles prove that deficits and labels of the ideal learners are “subjective” and align with a very specific perspective on what is expected i...