EDUC-6712I-5 Reflection Post

New Literacy Skills Reflection


Before beginning this class, my immediate thoughts of literacy consisted of being able to read and write. However, after being educated on new literacy skills by many resources, my views have drastically changed. Eagleton and Dobler (2007) stated that the traditional forms of reading and writing are necessary, but not adequate, for our students to be successful. Although this was an astonishing statement, I am now a firm believer that it is true. In order to prepare students for the information age, we need to provide countless opportunities to manipulate and experiment with a variety of technology applications.


A striking revelation that I had about teaching new literacy skills is that although there are so many skills for students to be proficient in, many of them can be accomplished by creating inquiry based projects using technology based applications. Whereas, if teaching students using traditional methods such as text books, magazines, and other print text, these skills would not be achieved as easily and efficiently. Teachers need to be educating our students the 21st century skills they need to safely and ethically access information throughout their lives so that students can make connections and have conversations with others in a multitude of avenues (Johnson, 2008). By having this special network, students are able to communicate with each other, experts, other classes, as well as the world around them (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). In using inquiry based instruction, teachers are able to tie in many different objectives from various subject areas in order to maintain pacing in their curriculum.


Throughout this course, I have had the pleasure of planning out a unit using the strategy of QUEST. This was a great opportunity to really incorporate 21st century literacy skills using technology. “The QUEST model provides a framework to support and encourage both teachers and students to gather information and transform this information into new ideas” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 277).With the use of technology, my students are able to take responsibility for their own learning, have fun while doing it, and use their creativity to share their findings with others. In using this strategy, “I am letting go of some control in the learning process by stepping aside to be a mentor or guide rather than a person who delivers information” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 281). I am allowing students to create their own questions, find the sources to answer them, and select a way to display their new ideas. By abandoning some of the traditional methods of teaching, my students will be able to “build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally” and “design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes” (Richardson, 2009, p. 28-29).


A professional development goal that I would like to pursue is to attend training sessions for using whiteboards and other types of technology applications. My county constantly offers courses throughout the year for teachers to maintain modern teaching strategies. The more information I gain from these classes and hands on usage of these tools, the more comfortable I will become in implementing these ideas in the classroom. Furthermore, I would like to request the use of SchoolBlog with my upcoming class. As of right now, blogging is restricted from our county. However, if I illustrate ways in which blogging can assist students with 21st century skills, composition, and inquiry skills, my administration may allow me to use this safe site. “We would be doing students a disservice by not preparing them to apply the inquiry process to the world’s most massive source of information, one that will impact their future daily in ways we cannot even imagine” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 281).


References :

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT: Should we establish national web filtering guidelines? (2008, September). Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(2).

Richardson, W. (2009, March). Becoming network-wise. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 26–31.