TEACHING IN THE 21ST

CENTURY

Changing

Learning

Practices

Personal reflection: I have experienced two sides of the spectrum teaching ESL Kindergarten students in Egypt to teaching

Year 12 ESL students in Australia. Each and every day I have worked in the profession over the last 5

years I have developed a passion for making a difference and in the classroom my main priority is

engagement and enrichment.

In today’s society there are many facets to incorporate into our teaching programs and there is always

going to be a diverse range of students, situations, welfare concerns and disruptions. It is a time in society

in which technology and the media are beginning to saturate young people and instead of reading a book

they would prefer to chat online with friends.

We try to traditionalise their habits and influence them to put down the iPhone and pick up the book.

This PowerPoint will introduce you to the changing society in terms of changing literacies, social

participation and collaboration as well as the term multiliteracies.

We are going to loose if we are to convince them to replace their treasured technological devices but

instead of total disengagement with reading and writing in English and other subjects, it is important to

learn and adapt our methods of instruction and style of activities to instil a range of practical solutions to

this ever changing and dramatically dynamic society in which we live and teach.

Personal

Visual

Representation-

My past, present and

future

Activities like this create your

own visual identity in which

students can recognise what

their interests and values are

and what they aim for in the

future.

Teaching experiences

Primary Secondary

WHAT IS

MULTILITERACIES? Definition:

Multiliteracies are defined as literacy practices that are colliding with

technology modes of representation… The element of ‘multi’ in

multiliteracies covers many aspects of literacy from visual literacy in images

to the traditional reading and writing performed in both formal and informal

situations (Cole and Pullen, 2010, pp.1-2).

Multiliteracies approach to writing

• The skills required in multiliteracies, “build on the foundation of traditional literacy,”

(Jenkins, 2006, p. 4) extend writing skills in the area of research, technical skills in

the use of technology and critical analysis skills in the evaluation of writing,

produced by both themselves and others as information in digital form. Teachers

must create students who are able to “communicate their conclusions,” (Claro

et.al ,2012, p. 1046) in a wide range of digital environments.

• Students need to take chances with their writing, think uniquely and negotiate

critique to “arrive at those ‘aha’ moments” (Campbell Stephens and Ballast, 2011,

p. 54). As new technologies change how the teacher explicitly teaches writing,

traditional skills founded in the writers cultural and social environment are still the

basis for which all multiliteracies rely on.

Collaborative and social learning through

digital literacies

• The collaborative learning process involves group participation in research,

questioning, critical thinking, challenging and validating members’

understanding through communication and interaction (Campbell Stephens &

Ballast, 2011, p. 57).

• The web 2.0 learning environment is student centred, participatory and active

which requires engagement with peers. Students share, debate and justify

information and knowledge resulting in deeper learning experiences (Sing et

al., 2011, pp. 23-24).

Changing Writing Practices • Teachers are now implementing new writing practices to challenge the

traditional literacy methods in a society experiencing constant technological

and social change as, “literacy instruction has been dominated by the reading

and writing of printed text for a number of years,” (Cole & Pullen, 2010, p. 2).

It is apparent that teachers should extend further from individually using

technological tools to create multiliterate experiences, as students need to

critically design, interpret and reflect using new modes.

• In our dramatically changing technological society, “We can take into account

not just the written word but also images, layout, font, sound, gesture,

movement and so on,” (Davies, 2009, p. 30) to relate to students changing

interests and skills. Educators must adapt and learn new programs to

implement changing literacies into programming.

Practical Implementation

Primary School options:

• Smartboard resources and technology

• Interactive activities using the touch screen

• Alphabet stories and activities

• Ipads for learning

Future School Dahab – Egypt My previous experience working overseas in an International Language school.

Technology use included: personalised computers and Smartboards.

Smartboard: Demonstrating skills

on the board

Smartboard activities

Practical implementation: The following slides highlight the many different options there are in our developing society

to incorporate into both Primary and Secondary schools.

Secondary- • Wikispace

• Blogging

• Wordle – mindmapping

• Video productions

• Magazines online

• Storyboarding

• Facebook

• Flickr

• Avatars

• iMovie

• iPoetry

Blogging • Blogging allows students to engage online both in school and outside school.

• A blog is an interactive website where users can give their opinions, narratives or experiences on a topic. They are typically set up by an individual but are published so they can be read by the public.

Offering students a blog will enable them to openly discuss and share quotes and language techniques from their novel to assist each other in analyzing the text.

Students can also create their own images and mind maps with the concepts and ideas and post on their blog.

A PowerPoint presentation will be able to combine both visual and written text to enable critical and creative thinking and can be uploaded for other students to view.

Technology in Classroom ~ Wikispace ~

• Wikis are

another example

of collaborative

social learning

through digital

literacy. This

allows users to

collaborate and

communicate

ideas in an

online

community.

Year 9 – Project online using a Wikispace

Wordle – mind map

• Mindmapping The use of mind mapping is an online

version of brainstorming which is a

valuable tool for students to do at the

start of a topic, unit, or to get started

on an assessment or project.

Teach with Web 2.0 - website

Student Video Productions: Media Studies

• My students created their own news programs by utilising iPads to film and used

scaffolded worksheets to write and produce news articles and interviews live which the

class where then able to view.

Interviews: Students had the task of interviewing William Shakespeare as part

of their Macbeth unit. They used effects, voice overs, sound to add to their previously

written interview script. The use of filming and producing their interview extended students

to move from solely writing and using technology in creative and inventive ways.

Student Online Magazines

• My Year 7 class were thoroughly engaged in our Media – Make your own magazine project. They

chose a topic of interest to them such as surfing or cars and they had a series of things they needed

to accomplish over the 2 weeks. They enjoyed working with technology and created professional

designs as well as wrote informative articles and interviews. I made the decision to allow them to

use technology as it would engage them and give them hands on experience of creating their own

magazine. They all excelled with the task as they already had acquired skills with these tools and

have been saturated with magazines which gave them prior knowledge of expectations.

STORYBOARDING Storyboarding:

A great online resource to create narratives, plan a short film

or create a chronological visual representation.

Students benefit from use this tool to help plan and organise

their projects. It is a strong visual medium which helps assist

literacy learning.

Online social networking

• Facebook Social networking sites such as Facebook or

Myspace consist of personal profiles, blogs, photos, music,

videos and connect to other friends via the network.

Flickr

“Flickr provides all members with an online space where they can manage

their own ‘photostream’; uploaded images are shown in chronological order

and the template includes writing spaces for titles, descriptions and ‘tags’,”

(Davies, 2009,p. 34) which sets up a collaborative space where individuals

can share cultural ideas with people across the world.

Flickr- A photosharing

website where

students can view

and share their

creative photos to

masses of

people. This kind

of publishing

creates an open

space for people

to display their

work. It is easy to

create an account

and you can

discuss your

favourite photos

and artists.

Avatars in Education Definition: a movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality

environment or in cyberspace

Avatars foster visual literacy learning where students can become part of a

virtual world through creating their own character. This gives users the

opportunity to develop writing and communication skills among virtual peers.

http://www.slideshare.net/TanVeron/avatars-in-education-voki-13495690

Video Productions: iMovie & editing

• Implementing video productions into the classroom allows for a

system of education where you learn skills through using

editing programs to visualise an idea.

• The access to technology through the use of devices such as

IPads and video cameras offers students new ways to expand

on their conceptual ideas. Due to the constant saturation of

visual mediums through Youtube and online social media sites,

they are accustomed to this system of learning which allows

them to flourish using new tools.

iMovie and editing

iPoetry

• iPoetry creates the opportunity for group work or partner work which, “encourages an

exchange of viewpoint and verbal elaboration,” (Fleer & Jane, 2004, p. 260). Therefore,

iPoetry is an ideal method to incorporate into the classroom to extend and deliver

different outcomes with the implementation of new technologies to prepare students for a

developing 21st century.

• Therefore, poetry writing tasks need to be extended to push the boundaries and offer

new skills of interpretation as, “After students read, critiqued, and wrote poetry using

traditional print text, they employed digital tools to reinterpret those poems using

multimodal elements”, (Curwood & Cowell, 2011, p. 110). Furthermore, E-Poetry has

been discussed as a new practice where “classic literary devices, such as mood or

imagery, can come alive through sound effects, visual images, and dynamic transitions,”

(Curwood & Cowell, 2011, p. 112). le & Pullen, 2010, p. 2).

iPoetry

• Multimedia based poetry – students are able to bring their poems to

life using sound and images which conveys their message and mood.

Multimedia Projects using moving images

and titles

Conclusion

• According to Anstey & Bull, “The multiliterate person can interpret,

use, and produce electronic, live, and paper texts that employ

linguistic, visual, auditory, gestural, and spatial semiotic systems for

social, cultural, political, civic and economic purposes in socially and

culturally diverse contexts,” (as cited in Plair, 2007, p. 93).

• Both educators and students benefit from the practical applications

demonstrated and it is important to recognise the difference between

solely relying on using ICT tools to furthering the engagement to

integrating a range of multimodal texts and learning opportunities into

the classroom.

REFERENCES: Wordle document

Teach with Web 2.0 website

Mindmapinspiration.com

Avatars: http://www.slideshare.net/TanVeron/avatars-in-education-voki-13495690

Google Images

Youtube -