What Should and Could Be

"Combining our vision of what students "should" do when they're writing with what they could do is incredibly important"  -Hicks, 2013, p. 157.

This week's readings really resonated with me because I have found myself in a grey area that I also believe plagues digital literacy, online texts, and multimodal projects.  Upon completion of my masters degree, I had believed I would upgrade my Georgia teaching certificate.  Currently, my T-4 renewable certificate is in Middle Grades Social Studies (as my undergrad degree is in History), so I knew there would be some hoops as my degree will be in reading.  But, and here is the grey area, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission does not recognize a masters in reading - new and digital literacies focused, as a certifiable field of reading.  This is from their response -

"This particular program is not state-approved and does not lead to certification in Reading or in any other field."  

See? Just like digital literacy, I am stuck in the grey area of the present not embracing the future.  The Common Core "fails to do enough to acknowledge the changing nature of literacy and the Internet as a central text" (Drew, 2012, p. 321). Why wouldn't a program focused on new and digital literacies lead to a reading certification? The Georgia Professional Standards Commission isn't able to answer this question, but here is my best reply. 

Most in education are reactive and not proactive.  We make changes to standards when the current set fails.  Educators "[have] been beleaguered by a number of challenges, including…..increased scrutiny from consortia creating new standards and assessments" (Hicks, 2013, p. 155). But these aren’t new; they are a still based in the same skills just redefined to be “fewer, clearer; higher” (Drew, 2012, p. 321).  They are a reaction to ever widening gap between our students’ potential and academic success.  But without being proactive and writing standards and curriculum that are geared at welding outside school discourse with those used in school, we will continue to produce underprepared students. “Educators cannot continue to ignore online literacy demands or our students may continue to fall further behind in college and career readiness and preparation for a global workplace” (Drew, 2012, p. 328).

Drew (2012), Gura (2014), and Hicks (2013) all present ways to shed light on this grey area.  Drew (2012) highlights what states can to do to include online texts in the Common Core, by adding and editing the 15% allotted for change (Drew, 2012, p. 325).  Gura’s (2014) entire book is comprised of authentic activities that utilize new literacies and multimodal projects to engage and assess our students.  He presents instructional practices “as vehicles by which the goals of the Common Core standards may be met” (Gura, 2014, p. 5).  Finally, Hicks’ (2013) book, Crafting Digital Writing, screams of ways we can teach our students to craft writing in intentional ways “so they can be thoughtful and respectful communicators throughout their lives” not just at school (Hicks, 2013, pp. 177, 155). 

Maybe this isn't a grey area…maybe we are at a tipping point.  Maybe, we, those of us in programs that embrace new and digital literacy, are the lone nuts, and first followers. 

A Constructed World

You are what you like (Frontline, 2014).  And what you like, and the more you like it, becomes part of the current culture.  This culture provides students with a sense of empowerment where their voices count and no one tells them, “You can’t say that” (Frontline, 2014).  Students can touch on taboos of our day in a critical way that gets people listening.  This is why social media like Facebook and YouTube appeal to children and teens (Hobbs, 2011, p. 130).  Social media and the Internet provides a place where students construct the world in which they want to live and be a member of. 

Tweets and online expressions cerate data that identifies you as the user, which is valuable because producers and audiences are mutually dependent on each other (Frontline, 2014 &Hobbs, 2011, p. 135).  By constructing a profile, a student is generating interactions between themselves and the world.  They are responding critically to what are viewing, reading and liking.  Social media, as digital writing, is focused “on amusement or centered on building relationships” (Hicks, 2014, p. 140).  As teachers, we can harness this to help students develop reasoning skills and reflect on decision-making skills, all while students are articulating themselves in a constructed but not fabricated way (Hobbs, 2011, p. 136). 

“Simply reading a single tweet or even a series of tweets isn’t nearly as important as a conversation” (Hicks, 2013, p. 137).  A digital conversation on Facebook, Twitter or an educational platform like Edmodo documents the construction of thoughts and ideas

by our students.  We can watch their brains work as they read and respond to each other.  Those responses don’t have to be long winded or streams of consciousness (like some blogs I have read).  The possibilities are endless as children analyze, discern, inform and participate in digital writing (Hicks, 2014, p. 144).  Short comments or brief tweets build upon each other and accumulate into rhetoric that seamlessly blends into digital texts.

“Depending on what youth aim to do online…they are constructing identities, building (or destroying) relationships, creating new opportunities for learning, and remixing various digital media” (Hicks, 2014, p.139).  We are not telling students what to do anymore; they are not waiting to be directed or guided into paths chosen for them.  They are out there creating and generating worlds in which they rely on each other to get ahead (Frontline, 2014).  How amazing! Students from the Generation of Like will not ask what can be done for them, but instead, will craft a world where their thoughts, feelings and ideas are original and distinctive. 

My husband subscribes to an app for funny text message “fails.” I wanted to include some of my favorites on this post because I think they show how the digital reconstruction of the written word can make for interesting dialogues. They just happen to all be from moms  J