New Literacies for New Times, Chapter 1

EDCI 5760

“Teaching with the Internet K-12:
New Literacies for New Times and Teachers”
Leu, Leu, and Coiro, c 2004

Now is has been shown that “learning how to use the internet becomes a literacy issue, not a technology issue,” 2004, Leu. Children are learning the use of internet technology while researching and writing their reports. This way it comes naturally to them in the excitement of viewing new sites and gathering more information. A criteria can be set up to use three different web sites to find their information. Then as pictures are needed the students are shown examples of how to copy, enlarge, and print photos. Our class had an outline to use to help the student’s search for specific information. They were to take notes to fill in their outline.

Then once all the notes are gathered, the next step is organizing or synthesizing the notes into a well written story. At this point, they can write it on paper and write the story directly onto the computer.

A few years back when I substituted in a fourth grade classroom, they literally did a cut and paste but with using paper only for that process. Now it is much easier to do editing with the computer.

Another idea mentioned in this chapter was a Classroom Web site. This would be difficult to attempt at our school because so few students have computers in their homes. I do know that computers are available at the County Library but there is always a line of people waiting to use them. This has been my experience when my computer has had some down time and been taken in for repair.

Reading this text has given me a new perspective on new literacies for new times.