As Troy Hicks mentions in his book, "There is no question that students are influenced by a variety of variety of texts that they encounter in the world, and learning how to compose in multimedia environments is a critical skill, and not just because the curriculum says it is." (Hicks, 2009, p. 59) Students are constantly surrounded and often inundated with a vast array of helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) technologies. In this new generation waiting for a dial up, looking through a dictionary, and call someone from a pay phone are all out of date activities. Kids have the world at their fingertips when they turn on their Smartphones, iPADs, laptops, and E-Readers. So it is only right that they learn how to compose themselves and express their thoughts in an appropriate manner. Something that I worry about is that many children do not have the notion to think about once they publish something on the internet it is there forever and can be seen by anyone and everyone.
Who's responsibility is it to teach these students how to communicate in this growing technological world? Parents? Teachers? Peers?
Hicks suggests that students take their own photos for digital stories and recommends using photo sharing sites such as Flickr. I think these are wonderful suggestions...but I have some hesitations. With safety being a concern should children be posting their own photos in digital stories? Again, who should be the deciding factor in this? Parents, teachers, or maybe someone else?
Sam, you bring up some excellent points that are likely on the minds of many educators. I do think teachers have a responsibility to educate students on the tenants of digital citizenship because many parents are not familiar with social media and/or digital platforms, so this becomes another sort of literacy that we need to incorporate into the curriculum. As always, the million dollar question is...how do we find the time? I do think we need to make a concerted effort to have conversations with students, parents, and fellow educators on how to appropriately and meaningfully integrate these technologies with instruction. Easier said than done, right?
ReplyDeleteThis is an insightful and very provocative post. Ultimately, all of the parties you cite are responsible for guiding the youngsters in their growth and development as writers and in their use of social media but each is not responsible in the same proportion. As a high school teacher I spend 40 minutes a day in the regular classroom environment with my students so my contribution, while worthy, cannot compare to that of the parents and other adult family members. Additionally, the students I instruct, mainly seniors, are pretty much formed with regard to their values and beliefs. Someone like yourself who teaches a primary grade spends the entire day with a group of young people who are very impressionable so your contribution to this process will be much more significant. Regardless of what grade we teach, however, the fact remains that we are minor players in the whole process; we cannot replace the parents.
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