[Air-L] Your Opinion

Thu Apr 16 07:30:07 PDT 2009

I've been reading about cultural literacy (yet another one).  The ability
for a community/country to communicate, respond to each other, and more,
requires a minimum set of skill sets.  This, I think, would be a basic
definition of literacy.  However, technology has quickly crept into our
culture as a another medium to work, play, and share information and this is
my concern, what is the impact of technology, especially online services, on
our communities and lifestyles? Is it another tool of segregation for
students and people at large?  There are a lot of adults and students who do
not have access. Many that do really don't know how to use it effectively,
never mine how it works. Nick's black box concern is a real one.  Add to
that the inability of teachers and school systems to adjust to teaching and
learning with technology and it becomes mind boggling.

I really am an optimistic person!  Thanks for listening.

BTW:  Couldn't help but go to wikipedia!

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) has drafted the following definition: "'Literacy' is the ability to
identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use
printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy
involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or
her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate
fully in the wider society."[2] In modern times, illiteracy is seen as a
social problem to be solved through education.

Literacy = A life long learner. I like that.

Jeremy - loved the Ken Robinson clip, shared it with my district.

On 4/15/09 2:17 PM, "Nick Lalone" <nick.lalone at gmail.com> wrote:

> I believe that this line or argument would be akin to agreeing with the
> message while not agreeing with the method. You seem to be pointing at
> trying to awaken consciousness through teaching critical thinking. I don't
> know that what you want to see is something that can really be done on a
> massive scale. Tailoring learning to meet the need for each student's
> blossoming consciousness would be staggeringly difficult given the current
> resources we use for education. I've always felt that general literacy
> learning (and the unintended things it tries to teach), despite it's
> problems, would be the best answer to the general problem of conscious
> behavior. I'm not saying I disagree with you; just that I want to see a
> solution that can be implemented without a radical overhaul of a complex
> system.
> 
> Nick
> 
> On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 11:24 AM, jeremy hunsinger <jhuns at vt.edu> wrote:
> 
>> I tend to think that the whole...  literacy issue is actually not what we
>> need.  Literacy is to make people 'literate' and from my perspective being
>> literate in any given set of technology is not really what we need for the
>> future, we need people who have the skills to achieve literacy on their own
>> on any given new technology or old technology they are confronted with, and
>> to after they achieve literacy, which we might equate with apprentice level
>> skill, they should be able to move through higher levels of skills until
>> they become masters.   Literacy, to me, has always been problematic as it
>> become the goal instead of the goal being adaptable learners that can become
>> literate should they need to be.   Here I tend to say that instead of
>> literacy we need to develop judgment in our students and in relation to
>> judgment what Aristotle termed practical wisdom, which is related to the
>> performance of skills, but as it is developed is translated into other
>> things.   Other people describe what i'm talking about as a form of
>> creativity and adaptability, here is a fun talk about it
>> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.
>> html
>> 
>> On Apr 15, 2009, at 11:40 AM, Pam Brewer wrote:
>> 
>>  Elaine and all--
>>> 
>>> I, too, think that digital literacy is of primary importance for K-12 but
>>> with emphasis on "literacy."  I would also add critical thinking with
>>> regards to digital literacy.
>>> As to the discussion of individual vs. group pedagogy, I will speak to my
>>> own experience as a teacher.  In the classroom, I have found that I have to
>>> teach to the group in order to accomplish goals, but the classroom is not
>>> the beginning and end of teaching; the individual student is.  In order to
>>> be truly effective, I have to open channels of communication with
>>> individuals, and the challenges to doing this are different when the contact
>>> is digital rather than face to face.  Recognizing the roles of group and
>>> individual experience, I think, are the greatest challenge to great
>>> teaching.  I'm still working on it.
>>> 
>>> Best!
>>> P
>>> 
>>> Pamela Estes Brewer
>>> Assistant Professor
>>> Department of English
>>> Appalachian State University
>>> phone 828-262-2351
>>> fax  828-262-2133
>>> email  brewerpe at appstate.edu
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Elaine Studnicki wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Colleagues,
>>>> I have hovered in the background for quite some time reading your
>>>> extremely
>>>> rich and diverse areas of interest/research. As a K-12 educator/doctoral
>>>> student I am interested in the connections between higher ed. research
>>>> and
>>>> the daily classroom instruction/environment that composes our national
>>>> educational system.  I am compelled to ask this question:
>>>> 
>>>> In your opinion what do you currently think is the most important area of
>>>> research or perhaps the most important area "needing" research for our
>>>> K-12
>>>> educational system?
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you for your help and time,
>>>> 
>>>> Elaine
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
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> 
> 