Digital media opens the door to literacy

Reading and writing are at the heart of the curriculum. But what does it mean to be literate in a world that includes YouTube and Facebook? Sarah Jones talks to some educators who are changing the way they teach literacy.

Televising their talents

Three years ago, Manaia View School went looking for ways to lift the literacy achievement of their students. The biggest challenge facing the school was deficit theorising. “Both the professional and local community thought this is as good as our children can be. Our children and whānau had taken that on, and we wanted to turn it around”, says Marilyn Small, Acting Principal.
Today, Manaia View’s students are effective communicators who believe they have something valuable to share with their peers, whānau and community. “The change has been huge. Our children can stand up in assembly and share a poem. We are winning more kapa haka awards. Our students know they have something worth contributing.”

The catalyst for this change is Pūkeko Echo: a children’s programme that screens daily on Whangarei’s Regional Television Station Channel North. The students script, film and produce a programme showcasing their learning in te reo Māori, science, cooking, dance and so on. They are developing new literacy knowledge and practices in a professional, multimedia environment.
Redefining literacy

Living and learning in the 21st century means taking a much broader view of literacy. “Being literate is about being able to use the total set of tools available to communicate with the world,” says Marilyn. “It is all of these things: visual language, movement, interpretation - everything that creates a possibility of us communicating with other people. It’s not just reading a book, writing a letter or talking on the phone.” 

“It’s no longer sufficient to be able to read and write print texts,” agrees Sue McDowall, Senior Researcher at NZCER.

She points out that many of the texts young people are using are multimodal - containing combinations of graphics, animation, video, audio and text. Reading, creating and using these texts require different skills. “It’s particularly important how different modes work together - how sound and image supports text, for example,” she says.

Being literate also goes beyond mastery of standard English. Students may be skilled in other languages and in less formal ways of using those languages. Young people need to be able to contribute and participate in a range of diverse communities both inside and outside the school.

All of this doesn't mean that we don't teach standard English or work with print texts, emphasises Sue. "Reading and writing print texts are still very important. It's more a case of framing print as one of many forms of language, and reading and writing them as two of the many different ways of using language."

Switching back on

Marion Lumley, a year 7 and 8 teacher at Otaki College, is another educator testing the boundaries of literacy. Last year, her students embarked on an ambitious project to explore leadership through the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Students worked in groups to retell part of the story by making a movie using acting, animation or claymation.

“I had a group of boys who were pretty switched off from learning. The hook was using animation and plasticine!” says Marion. She says the students had to know the story thoroughly, identify the main points and prepare their ideas before they could even attempt to make the movie. “They had to persist to get there - and persisting is not something that they normally do well.”

She observed positive changes in the students’ attitude towards their work and increased levels of engagement. The writing they did at the end of the unit was in much more depth and to a higher standard than they'd done previously.

“Because his group’s production was looking so good, the least literate of my students wanted to read the voice over. He wanted to be part of it, and he got a lot of kudos from the other students for doing it.”

Co-constructing learning

Marion, Marilyn and Sue were part of a research project in 2009 led by CORE Education and NZCER. Researchers worked with 10 teachers on classroom literacy projects using ICT.

The study confirmed that working with ICTs re-engaged children, particularly those with a history of underachievement, with literacy in general. One reason is that students co-constructed their learning.

"Students worked from their strengths. They worked in teams where they had different roles, which meant they worked across modes. If you’re working on a film, as in the case of Marion’s students, the script writer had to work with the sound engineer. You have to talk about what the sound effects will do because they have to work with the script," says Sue.

The students stepped off from their strengths and learnt from each other, in many instances becoming better at all the roles, as well as at their own.

Building meta-knowledge

Students in the study also showed an increased ability to read and write print texts. Rather than neglecting print literacy, working across a range of modes may in fact support reading and writing in print.

“This is because e-learning contexts can support the development of meta-knowledge,” says Sue. "We think that working with multimodal texts provides opportunities to compare meaning-making processes in many different modes and so helps students build an understanding of the principles of meaning-making in a way that is not possible when focusing on only one mode," she explains.

When technologies are new, the systems of meaning making are more visible. It’s as if the underlying principles or systems of language are amplified. Students can apply these principles to all texts. “Learning the conventions of existing text types has its place, but students also need a meta-knowledge which they can apply to new text forms, languages and technologies that will emerge in future,” she adds.

Spreading the word

You’ll find little reference to this broader notion of literacy in the materials and handbooks used by teachers. The National Standards, for example, focus on reading and writing in print.

“Colleges are expected to focus on the traditional literacies,” says Marilyn. “We’ve had students leave our school inspired by their learning and get to college to find that they have to present their work as posters and essays.” Manaia View is now working with local colleges to set up their own version of Pūkeko Echo.

In an education system aiming to prepare our children for the 21st century, it’s perplexing that the new literacies aren’t higher on the Ministry of Education’s agenda. We need more evidence from the classroom to build our understanding of what students are learning in digital environments, as well as more time for teachers to share their ideas and experiences.

Are there any disadvantages to this more complex view of literacy? “I’ve turned 60 this year,” says Marilyn, “and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened in the years I’ve been teaching. The new literacies reinforce, extend and improve our ability to communicate with each other.”

Links

e-Fellows report: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ict/77144

Marion’s project: http://e-fellow-musings-of-marion.wikispaces.com/

Shackleton movies: http://web.me.com/gondwana/http___web.me.com_gondwana_Site_Podcast_/Movies/Movies.html

Marilyn’s project: http://dpnews.wikispaces.com/

Pukeko Echo clips: http://pukekoecho.wikispaces.com/Stuff+to+Watch

Sue McDowall, “Literacy teaching and learning for the 21st century: Bridging the theory to practice gap”, set no.2, 2010, NZCER Press.

Young people are writing more

Last year’s Stanford Study of Writing analysed 14,672 student writing examples from 2001 to 2006. This included everything from class assignments, formal essays and journals to emails, blog posts and chat sessions.

The study found that young people today write far more than any other generation. This is because so much socialising takes place online, and it almost always involves text. 38% of student writing took place out of the classroom.

http://ssw.stanford.edu/