Transforming Learning with Unique, Powerful Technology

UNIQUE.

POWERFUL.

TRANSFORMATIVE.

These three words describe how digital technology can impact educators and their students in the academic world. This chapter of TNLT discusses how technology can assist teachers and students in five areas: critical thinking and problem solving, new literacies, online communication and collaboration, creativity, and digital citizenship. All of which are based on the ISTE Standards and can be seen in the image below. In this blog, I will be focusing on two out of the five areas that technology can transform learning. But before we begin, it’s a side note really, what I think is amazing about technology is how it’s not necessarily grade-specific; technology can apply to every subject area at every grade level and can allow every student to develop new literacies and can create a new learning experience for them. OK, now we can resume:

New Digital Literacies

If I asked Joe Shmoe on the street what they think literacy is, I believe most will say reading and writing. But as time passed, literacy has expanded, there are multiple forms of literacy. Think about it, you can be literate in reading, writing, math, science, history, but now in the 21^st century “digital age,” new literacies need to be developed. In order for students to be successful in this digital age,  “students need new literacies to help them understand the Internet, mass media, digital information, and the dynamics of visual learning” (Maloy, Verok, Ruth-Ellen, Sharon, & Woolf, 2017, p. 58).  

For instance, information literacy allows students to recognize differences among information sources - paper and digital. TNLT gives an example of information literacy as distinguishing the intention of commercials, news broadcasts, Saturday Night Live skits, etc. Although these examples are given with digital sources, it reminds me of the Common Core State reading standards that assess point of view or purpose shaping the content and style of a text. For me, it seems that the ISTE Standards and the CCSS can intersect.

Multiple Expressions of Creative Thinking

What do you think of when you hear the word creativity?

IMAGINATION

ORIGINALITY

INNOVATION

VALUABLE

EXPRESSION

The technology of the digital age can provide teachers and students with ways to express themselves, their knowledge and thinking creatively. Something that stood out to me in this section of the TNLT chapter was the following quote:

“To be creative, children do not need to design, compose, or develop something no one has done before; they may need only to say or do things they have not thought or done before in quite the same way or style. The creative act can be what is new to the individual, not new to the world” (Maloy, et al., 2017, p. 65).

This quote is powerful, and I feel I may even say this to my students when they are required to be “creative” in my classroom. There is this pressure placed on an individual when they are asked to be creative. Too often, people associate creativity with originality – that if someone already has done it, and you think of it, you are not creative. BUT, creativity is tailored to the individual – not to the world. 

Here are some of tools and apps that TNLT lists to support the process of creative thinking:

·      Creative and expository writing, storytelling, and poetry.

·      Desktop publishing and online publishing of individual or classroom projects.

·      Designing, coding, and model building.

·      Photo and imaging projects.

·      Art, music, graphics, and photo editing.

·      Animation and movie making.

·      Podcasts and digital movies (Maloy, et al., 2017, p. 66).

If I were to apply this to me 7^th grade student teaching placement, I would:

·      -   Have students create a digital movie depicting the Trail of Tears

·      -   Have a year-long podcast project where students work together to create a series of podcasts commenting on controversial historical events.

·      -   Have students either create art, music, poems, etc. about a topic in history and then hold a Gallery Walk to exhibit their work.

The possibilities are endless, and that is because of the powerful, transformative and unique nature technology provides.