Technology+Integration+and+Literacy+Instruction

Traditionally, being literate is identified by the ability to read and write. Someone who can fluently read a book and then write about it is considered literate. As such, literacy is an important factor of English classes, and it is the job of the English teacher to teach the skills necessary to be literate. In spite of this fact, the never-ending advancement of technology in our techno-centric culture has made a working knowledge of technology ever more useful to have. As such, the definition of literacy has shifted. One who is print-literate can read and write, but there are other forms of literacy, such as digital literacy that allow us to operate within these spheres. Given this information it only makes sense that technology be used to augment literacy instruction; it can be useful to expand on print literacy and is also required to teach digital literacy. As Miller says, “Over the past two decades, technological and cultural contexts have produced a shift in the notion of literacy from the conventional sense of reading and writing //only// print texts //to// an enlarged sense of reading and writing multiple forms of non-print ‘texts,’ as well. In this expanded view, more than ever, literacy is plural” (61).
 * What is literacy? What does it mean to be literate?**

When teaching print literacy, technology can be incorporated in a variety of ways: - Encourage students to be multi-modal by using several different types of texts, such as newspaper articles, novels, poems, and internet articles. - Utilize direct instruction in how to take advantage of different programs to make those skills readily available to students. - Promote different activities that require literacy skills, such as; animoto, photo story, iMovie, Webspiration, and Prezi. - Use technology in my own teaching in order to model proper usages of technology - Educate students on how technological literacy can be useful outside of the classroom - Use technological literacy to augment traditional print literacy (For example, giving technology based assignments to show understanding of traditional print texts).
 * How can I incorporate Technology into my Literacy Instruction?**



There are actually many reasons to incorporate technology into the classroom. As mentioned above, it has become so ingrained in our culture it is difficult and inefficient to ignore. Rather than combating technology, it is far more useful to take advantage of it in a positive and educational manner. Allowing students to use forums like blogspot can expand the educational environment outside of the classroom and into the home. Rather than focusing on taking away cellphones, we should be focusing on how they can be useful to us as educators. For example, teachers can set up a class twitter account to post the homework, which has the added benefit of sending notifications to smartphones.
 * Why is it important to integrate technology into literacy instruction?**

Technology also allows for differentiation in a great number of ways! Technology introduces a variety of new types of assignments that all engage students and allow for different forms of illustrating understanding of the material they are learning. Rather than write a paper, students can put together a presentation, create a video, construct a slide show with text, or any other number of assignments similar to the ones we have done in class that all show a thorough understanding of material while engaging in different types of learning styles.

Furthermore, technology is intrinsically more interesting to students. When given the choice between writing a paper or making a movie, majority of students would rather take the latter option, using technologies they know in their own life to exhibit their creativity rather than focus on the fact retention of an analytical paper. Students today walk around with smartphones, play video games, watch television and movies, blog about their lives, and surf the internet; all of these technologies that students love to use every day have the potential to be incorporated into a classroom. Smartphones can be used to look up information on the fly with the approval of the teacher, video games can have open world settings that encourage decision making or have plotlines not unlike those in books, television and movies can be used as comparison paratexts to books and can be analyzed to examine the messages the media sends out and how this sculpts our lives, blogs can be used educationally, and the entire internet can be harnessed in a webquest. All of these practices and activities are outside the norm, and because they are different from what is expected, spark further interest in a classroom.

Students are also experts in many technologies due to how pervasive technology is in their lives. As a result, this can be a radical way to boost students self-image as a student: a student may hate writing papers and convince themselves that they aren’t good students for it, then can be assigned a creative technology based assignment and flourish and earn an excellent grade, reversing their self image. Technology can pose students as the expert to be asked for help, giving them an example to display their learning, something many students never get an opportunity to do.

Below is a suite of images for students to examine. Students must come up with a short story based on these images in any way they draw inspiration: from colors, mood, or content. The idea is that we are drawing on media literacy to expand on print literacy. For those who would rather not write a story, there is the option to create a Webspiration document or put together a powerpoint to illustrate the pattern of a story.
 * __Class Activity__**

Yansey, Kathleen Blake. “Using Multiple Technologies to Teach Writing.” //Educational Leadership//, October 2004: 38-40. Web. 1 Nov. 2011+