Digital Literacies

This week's readings focused on digital literacies in the classroom. Accoding to Beach, educators must teach digital literacy as an issue of equal access in public education. Because some students do not have personal computers or internet access, it is up to educators to close the gap between the technological haves and have-nots.

While this, and other reasons present a compelling arguement for teaching digital literacy in the classroom, I still have trouble seeing its relevancy in the face of low literacy rates and other reading and writing issues facing young people. One arguement that has been made is that by teaching digital litereacy, English Language Arts teachers can improve literacy rates and improve student writing skills. However, in my own experience, allowing students to use instand messaging, and other technology in the classroom did not mean that their skills would improve. In fact, the added technology showed itself to be more of a distraction than an instructional tool. Further, teaching digital literacy may decrease the ownership and access gap in some school disctircts. But at Minneapolis South High School, where I am doing my student teaching, the only technology in my classroom is one computer at the teacher's desk. To say that public schools all have equal access is simply untrue.

One website that I have found to be very helpful when thinking about issues of digital literacy is www.teachingmedialiteracy.pbwiki.com. This site was created in conjunction with Beach's latest book, and is a place for educators to post and access ideas for the classroom. Rather than start a digital literacy unit from scratch, there are some great ideas that others have posted, and used in their classrooms.