Article Review #2
"Transliteracy - New Library What It Means for Instruction" By Paige Jaeger
In the article we learn about the term transliteracy, which Paige Jaeger defines as "the ability to read, listen to, view, understand, synthesize, and apply what we gather across differing platforms" (p. 44, 2011). I agree with the idea that communication has officially changed, with new technology and forms of communication that weren't around years ago it makes sense. I also thought it was interesting the idea that we have to be more active in our readings, no longer can we read something and take for granted that it is a credible source or actually that it has any real facts at all. With the internet accessibility these days anyone can create a website or post an article without needing to check facts or have any at all.
As the article moves forward to talk about how transliteracy needs to be our new focus, I can see how that would be important because of the use of technology in almost every job. But I feel that its valid to take a step back and focus keep in mind that there is still a large literacy problem in America and that our students aren't reading up to standards in many schools, so you can't always focus on transliteracy if the basic literacy skills aren't present. With that in mind the argument that we need to help students be able to critically evaluate what they are reading to make sure it is worth using and credible, is important. I mentioned above, with so much information you need to be able to tell what is good and what isn't. I also liked how another skill that the students need is direction when searching on the internet, or they could keep searching forever. You need to know what you are looking for, and be able to evaluate the information so that you can know when you to stop looking.
As for the end of the article, where it talks about slogans that help students navigate through internet resources and build transliteracy skills there were a few that really hit me as important (or more so then the others). The first was not to just reiterate what you read but to really understand it. I think its important whenever researching that students know they are looking for understanding and not just for an answer they can write down or give to a teacher. The second one was that they should have a destination, they shouldn't just be looking aimlessly through internet resources, there's simply too much out there. It's easy to get "lost" or distracted so knowing exactly what you want to know or what question you are looking to answer helps keep you on task and heading in the right direction.
As the article moves forward to talk about how transliteracy needs to be our new focus, I can see how that would be important because of the use of technology in almost every job. But I feel that its valid to take a step back and focus keep in mind that there is still a large literacy problem in America and that our students aren't reading up to standards in many schools, so you can't always focus on transliteracy if the basic literacy skills aren't present. With that in mind the argument that we need to help students be able to critically evaluate what they are reading to make sure it is worth using and credible, is important. I mentioned above, with so much information you need to be able to tell what is good and what isn't. I also liked how another skill that the students need is direction when searching on the internet, or they could keep searching forever. You need to know what you are looking for, and be able to evaluate the information so that you can know when you to stop looking.
As for the end of the article, where it talks about slogans that help students navigate through internet resources and build transliteracy skills there were a few that really hit me as important (or more so then the others). The first was not to just reiterate what you read but to really understand it. I think its important whenever researching that students know they are looking for understanding and not just for an answer they can write down or give to a teacher. The second one was that they should have a destination, they shouldn't just be looking aimlessly through internet resources, there's simply too much out there. It's easy to get "lost" or distracted so knowing exactly what you want to know or what question you are looking to answer helps keep you on task and heading in the right direction.
I completely agree that, while transliteracy is definitely important to teach our students, literacy in general should be our first priority. I believe that in our future career as special educators we will often be tackling literacy itself and will be working with many students who are not at standard in reading and writing. Hopefully there are ways that we can integrate general literacy and transliteracy together so our students do not fall behind in either area.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that although it is important to focus on transliteracy, it doesn't mean that we should completely disregard literacy itself. There is a huge discrepancy in lieracy in our schools, and before we can have our students read from a computer, they need to first know how to read from a book. Just because our society is moving forward with technology, doesn't mean that text and literacy is completely gone. We still need to be helping individuals with decoding and comprehending what they are reading, or they are just reading words and not learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we need to still focus on literacy, but it is also important for students to know how to effectively use the internet. In the modern age using the internet for research in school is a very important skill. It is needed in order for students to be prepared for college. This is of course useless is the literacy standards are not being met, but I think that a focus on both is the answer, not just focusing on literacy. I am interested to see how the standards change over time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that literacy in general should be our first priority. I believe that in the future as special educators literacy is a subject that will be a very important piece of our teaching content. Yes, transliteracy is important too and we need to make sure students know how to navigate through the internet safely, but getting the key concepts of literacy and comprehension are first and foremost.
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