Multiliteracy in the Classroom

I am a big fan of multiliteracy used in teaching, because I once taught classes which were suitable to employ multi-media. PowerPoint is just one of them.

In my listening classes, I used a very expensive system with numerous functions, which looks like the one above. All the computers are linked in the system and there is electronic blackboard, where both the teacher and students can type to communicate, and it is usually used for examinations; any type of listening materials can be shared among students; there could be group discussions of two or four divided by the teacher's computer and the teacher can spy and join any group; interpretation can be carried out; students can speak to the mic and record their answers during exam; the students can finish written test and the system can help to correct and get the score, etc. A lot of functions and the teacher's computer is a complicated one, filled with a lot of resources. So many activities can carry out and listening is never boring.

While in some other classes, it may not be a good idea to use the system. Multiliteracy is used to carry meanings and contents to learners effectively. So the core is that learners can really benefit. There is no harm to make students learn knowledge and touch new technology at the same time.

As stated by the New London Group, our working lives, public lives and private lives are changing by technology everyday, so is pedagogy. But the more multiliteracies you use in classroom, the more cautious you will be, because you will know where and when to use it and how to make it beneficial.

Several words on E-learning

It's the first time that I have experienced the E-learning and I did not know how it went like. I wondered if we were supposed to sit in front of the computers, discussing online or something.

No matter what the format is, the learning goal has been achieved. Since there is a task assigned, I assume everyone of us read the articles seriously or more seriously than usual, or we will not be able to finish the job successfully. So with the aim, we read, got the meanings and applied them in the task. That is learning.

Well, the Wiki is used probably for communicating as we could not see each other, however, as a first time user, I was the first one to create a new page, being afraid of destroying others' work.

Anyway, I like it.

How the Web Can Be Used as a Tool in Language Teaching and Learning?

This is a question raised by Dr. Towndrow in his book and a question every educator needs to explore in the modern society.

In order to answer this question, we should know clearly what the Web is to learners, which is to say, what the Web means to individuals. Is it a pond of resources that we just simply jump into and grab anyone without a second thought or a shop of inspiring learning materials that learners should make efforts to use wisely?

With the correct attitude to the Web, learners need to follow the steps to search and use learning materials. We have focused on locating digital information online in week 3, when searching engines and choosing key words were introduced. However, evaluation of a website seems more complicated. Having experienced evaluating three websites using the framework, I deeply feel the responsibilities of being an educator for the first time. Before I would just tell my students to source online by themselves, assuming that as adult learners, they should be capable to do so, without realizing that they lack of evaluation strategies, which are actually what I myself need to learn.

Evaluating the website is the process to choose a tool for our language learning. Just as when you want to do some woodwork, there are many tools available, hammer, chisel, axe, spanner and stabber, etc. however, there will be one which suits a certain job most. In front of numerous websites, learners should choose those could be tools to help get the learning job done efficiently.

Whether the Web could be a tool in language learning depends on the users,who should have the sense and ability to make it a tool.

How True Is It?

The first idea came to my mind after watching the short show was that:"Can they speak for all the children or most of the children at least?"

Frankly speaking, it's quite a shock when we look at the faces of the children. They seem very disappointed, sad, and desperate to the current education. They keep saying:"Engage me; Create; To think & apply and We are digital learners." On the first sight, you may feel very frustrated as educators, who seem not providing qualified education in the digital era. While on the second thought, I personally doubt if the situation is that bad as shown on the video. How many kids are aware that they are DN and do they really know what they can do with digital technologies besides games? Maybe because it's based on American context, the kids there are really advanced with the demands of digital learning.

With the doubt, what we need to do is to evaluate the real situation and know exactly what our students need most. We cannot make everything in digital and present every class in digital means just because students want it in this way. Just as PowerPoint, which is a digital means of teaching but we cannot use it anytime anywhere. There is no doubt that with the development of technologies and the society, education should be improved accordingly. But still, technology is just a format or tool, the content is always most important. No matter what method you use, make yourselves understood and students benefit. At the same time, use digital technologies provided it's suitable to use them.

Digital Iliteracy Applied in Singapore

Frankly speaking, I now have problems thinking of the technologies being used and can be used in Singapore based on my short period of living here. However, I can feel strongly how people rely on technologies here and how much people love them. Most importantly, I can clearly feel the convience that technologies provide in Singapore when I went back to China. The items I can figure out are as follows: i-phone (being widely used currently), figure print IC (maybe possible in future).

I still remember how Cellphone changed people's lives when it first became popular and there was a movie in 2003 named Cellphone in China, which tells the real stories that how cellphone changed people's lives in a humorous way. And that movie became my favourite and made me think a lot. In the movie, marriage broke up, because the wife could get the long calling list of her husband and find out who he is always speaking to. A famous Host of a TV show loses his job as his girl out of marriage takes a picture of them and bribes him. People in the countryside would feel they are superior only because they own cellphones. And everything happens in the movie is because of cellphone. Well now people will not think too much of it as it's been a part of people's life. And to me, i-phone is a developed version of common cellphone. I can see people reading emails, listening to music, watching TV, playing games and chatting with friends using an i-phone everywhere, however, I don't see these many i-phone users in China, which may explain the fast-paced living style of Singapore and also the high price of an i-phone counts here too.

I don't know if it makes any sense to call it fingerprint IC. What I mean is that someday our fingerprint will be stored in a system and it's the IC of us. We don't need to carry the real plastic IC everyday, and whenever our identity is upon request, just get our thumb scanned, thus the EZ-link card can be replaced too. It's actually not a new idea, but I think it's more practical in Singapore rather than in a bigger country.

Well my short list is obviously too short, however, I would like get better ideas of our local friends.

What Can We Do with the Framework?

The history of Digital Literacy is relatively short, as the phase began to be applied from the 1990s. The concept of digital literacy was developed from information literacy and computer literacy, and with the development of digital technology, especially the usage of Internet, the theme of digital literacy was broadened. However, how can we understand digital literacy today and how could we test one's digital literacy ability seem to be important issues, as computers have been use widely and it seems that everybody is digital iterated, but the fact shows that a large number of computer and Internet users are not really qualified of being ICT iterated. Thus a ICT framework came into being.

There is no doubt that it's a well organized and well written report, as it's easy to understand with very clear structure. However, frankly speaking, I had expected more than I could read from it. When I went through the members of the International ICT Literacy Panel from USA, Brazil, France, Canada and Britain, I was kinda of "wow". Well maybe I seldom read those international reports and I expected too much.

To me the useful information of the report is as follows: 1. The definition of ICT, which makes us know clearly what they are going to talk about. 2. The importance of both cognitive proficiency and technical proficiency in ICT literacy. And these two points are emphasized repeatedly. As for the recommendations, I personally think it's not concrete and practical enough. After reading the report, I talked about it with my roommate, questioning what it was for and how much they spent on it, which actually are not of my business.

So there shuld have been more to be done, by others in future maybe.

Why Google?

We talked about the search engines in the first lecture of DL, especially on why people were googling everyday and how google worked, and just now, Google came back to the classroom again.

"Why Google" here means why we are searching online, either by google, yahoo or Daidu. Most people will answer:"For information" And when do we need to search? People will go:"when we need some information that we don't have on hand". That may sound funny but it's really the fact. I am not going to talk about which searching engine is better, as the engines will serve different people. As long as your searching purposes are fulfilled, it will be a good searching tool. It's true that there is always fake stories and unauthorised information online, however, the benefits of searching are deniable. What if someone is alone at home and he/she needs to know what movies are on show, or a student of International Relations wants to get some latest news on the Middle East, GOOGLE, which may not be the only and the best way, but a direct and fast way to solve problems.

If google is recognized as a good means for information and learning, some will argue that search engines are making today's students number. My point of view again on this kind of issue is that who should be blamed, the technology or the people who are using it. We reckon searching is a skill because not everybody can do it or do it well, which means the searching skills and tragedies should be emphasized, as some people haven't mastered the real nature of googling. It is not simply to key in some random words, click the first several web pages and copy down whatever there is on the web page. We have seen how to fully understand Digital Literacy(4 steps)in David Bawden's work and discussed the skills and tragedies of using digital information. It is clear that some google searchers haven't acquired essential skills, let alone tragedies. That is to say, it's not the searching tools that make students number but students themselves will not make efforts to make full use of the engines wisely.