New+Literacy+Practice

New Literacy Practice

There were a number of interesting things found when examining the different classroom and student write-ups. The main one of this is that there was little or no technology or digital media, and if there was, the use was very limited. While in a few of the classrooms observed, there were interactive whiteboards; the teachers used them in only limited capacity – such as viewing text or websites. Meanwhile, most classrooms contained a few computers each; yet again their use was limited to free time activities or rotation activities which usually included a follow-up worksheet. The use of technology within the classrooms was often used to enhance the early learners learning by use of visual aids such as movies, pictures or stories. The interactive whiteboards specifically were used as a whole group session a majority of the time in order to get information across quickly rather than allow the students to interact and use it as a visual aid to engage them in their own learning. We found that while the students enjoyed their free time or allocated time on the computer, it was never used appropriately as a way to encourage learning or enhance a literacy session. There was very little use of the students using the interactive whiteboard which often was used as a creative white board at most, rather than a visual learning aid that it //could// be.

In one observation there was the use of a voice enhancer for a student who had difficulty hearing. While the student wasn't deaf, she had problems clarifying between who was talking, so the teacher had a gadget connected to a microphone which allowed her to hear the teacher clearly. This was moved to a buddy student when working in pairs so the student didn't have to strain over the classroom chatter that often comes with working in small groups.

While the students themselves that were interviewed showed interest in computers, video consoles and digital media such as iPhones, iPads or similar products, very few seemed to comprehend what a significant role these took in their learning. Computers or laptops were seen as what parents use to read school newsletters and 'work on' but the students never associated it as the same technology that they use in class. When asked about what the students do when they use certain technology at home (if they were allowed), the often played a game with little educational value.

Below are a few examples of what technology was used within the literacy classroom observations.

The classroom I was in is a new portable and unfortunately does not have an interactive whiteboard. The teacher informed me that they are getting one in the school holidays but for the time being they have access to one once a week. The teacher uses the interactive whiteboard to facilitate group language experiences for cloze exercises and phonics games. The students are able to use this technology a group whole or individually in rotations. It provides them with another way to link reading and writing by visual means. In rotations I observed students using the 6 classroom computers. The students were working on the text for their ‘Communicator’ newspaper. These pieces of writing allowed students to write about technology and ways they use technology to communicate, whilst using technology to record their ideas. The students were also reading texts on the computer. By using computers to record their ideas, it is teaching the students other ways to communicate language as well as teaching them basics of typing paragraphs and print layout and it also ‘raises literacy achievement for children in a technology rich society’ (Deakin University, 2011). Joshua attends a local primary school in which he has just moved into grade 3. Joshua enjoys playing sports, drawing, watching TV and playing interactive computer games.
 * Example 1: **

Students are seeing literacy learning in an interactive way through the use of programs used on the interactive whiteboard. For example, in this particular classroom the teacher used a program informing the class about the beach to relate the class’ recent excursion to the beach back into her literacy teaching. This program titled //The Waves// was used to educate the class about how waves are formed, while identifying key aspects of their own literacy learning including compound words, punctuation and synonyms. This was undertaken as a whole class activity where each member of the class got a chance to identify a compound word or describe a synonym from the examples the class teacher had identified in //The Waves// information texts within the program they used on the interactive whiteboard.
 * Example 2: **

Unfortunately due to the school being only roughly four years old, the technology in the classrooms was limited. In each classroom and portable there were four computers. Each portable is in the process of receiving an interactive whiteboard to the delight of many of the teachers. The students had plenty of access to use the computers once they had finished their required work (if completed ahead of the others) or certain groups were allocated computer time if it was their turn for the week. The teacher explained that most of the computer time she spent teaching the use of programs such as Microsoft Word (I.e. how to make borders, how to make a heading).
 * Example 3: **

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