Wendy Sutherland-Smith’s piece discusses how teachers should
reconcile their teaching strategies to acknowledge when students shift from
reading print texts to digital texts.
Voices from her middle school study in Australia generally revealed that
digital texts had a quick, “snatch-and-grab philosophy,” which aligns with how the internet
age has impacted our attention span, at least the kind we bring to perusing
information from the interwebs.
The internet has indeed transformed the notion of research from the
traditional book-search that seemed more slow-paced.
Sutherland-Smith brought other considerations to mind, such
that through the process of web literacy, students are also taught how to be
skeptical about information.
Knowing how to conduct internet research efficiently helps students
achieve not only in school but the work force. I highly agree with Leu (1997)’s assertion that “individuals
unable to keep up with the information strategies generated by new information
technologies will quickly be left behind.” With the popularity of smartphones and iPads, however, I
don’t worry that our students won’t be up to speed with certain digital
survival skills. This discussion,
however, reminded me of how my CT last semester modeled conducting “research”
on celebrity gossip to show students how to Google search in an efficient and
quick manner (strategies such as using quotations to search for conjoined
words, etc).
Thus, it’s not so much a matter of “whether technology serves a purpose in aiding student learning,” but how we can leverage students’ interest-driven networks to enhance existing teaching strategies. If we want them to learn how to Google search, we can have them use that medium to look up a topic they are interested in. With this said, what other specific “web literacy” skills are we concerned with honing? Typing? Searching? Associative logic to explain why an image was chosen to pair text bullet points in a presentation?
To paraphrase Sutherland-Smith, web-based reading is not linear – it is interactive, multimedia, and helps students examine relationships. While this is hard to debate, teaching reading strategies for print-based texts has its unique set of vital affordances – more attention to lengthier texts, the ability to physically search for books in a library and to cite books (as opposed to URL links). I would imagine that the preference of one form of text over another would completely be contingent on factors such as book availability of a school’s textbook room and library, the curriculum or topic, the scope of the assignment, etc. Print literacy can also enhance skill sets that Sutherland-Smith attributes to digital literacy (such as accessing and analyzing information), but print literacy’s shortcomings might be that it is not as interactive and multimedia-involved.
Thus, it’s not so much a matter of “whether technology serves a purpose in aiding student learning,” but how we can leverage students’ interest-driven networks to enhance existing teaching strategies. If we want them to learn how to Google search, we can have them use that medium to look up a topic they are interested in. With this said, what other specific “web literacy” skills are we concerned with honing? Typing? Searching? Associative logic to explain why an image was chosen to pair text bullet points in a presentation?
To paraphrase Sutherland-Smith, web-based reading is not linear – it is interactive, multimedia, and helps students examine relationships. While this is hard to debate, teaching reading strategies for print-based texts has its unique set of vital affordances – more attention to lengthier texts, the ability to physically search for books in a library and to cite books (as opposed to URL links). I would imagine that the preference of one form of text over another would completely be contingent on factors such as book availability of a school’s textbook room and library, the curriculum or topic, the scope of the assignment, etc. Print literacy can also enhance skill sets that Sutherland-Smith attributes to digital literacy (such as accessing and analyzing information), but print literacy’s shortcomings might be that it is not as interactive and multimedia-involved.
Thoai,
ReplyDeleteYou raise the question about the appropriateness of web-based texts over print-based text in research. I think this is a great question to reflect on and I don't think one is necessarily more appropriate or "better" than the other. However, I do think that there is a significant element beyond book availability, topic, or scope. And that is standard practice. Both types of research are vital academic skills that should be developed simultaneously, but I think we need to be straightforward about what research in the 21st century looks like. Internet texts are key to practically any research project nowadays. Just think about the readings in all of our classes (and all of our classes from undergrad, as well) - the vast majority are digital texts, pulled from online databases of academic journals. How many of us actually went to the library last semester to find books for our linguistics paper? With this in mind, i think it's important that we prepare our students for modern day research. And, just as you've said, explicitly teaching them how approach internet searches, through modeling and scaffolding, is key. In much the same way we're being trained to teach literacy through metacognition, I think we need to teach web-literacy through reflection. We need to equip students with the skills to reflect on their individual decisions - WHY they've chosen a particular search term or phrase, why they've selected a particular link, why they trust in the authority of a particular website or article. We need to teach them to not only scrutinize the content on the internet, but also scrutinize their own research practices. why why why.