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Contents contributed and discussions participated by kjroach

kjroach

Can technology improve literacy skills? Yes, if done right - 0 views

  • The ease with which young people communicate, though, can help in advancing literacy in a digital age.
  • "People are often concerned that technology will detract from students' literacy skills, but it is important to look at all the new things we can do to support literacy and learning," said Alyssa Wise, assistant professor in Simon Fraser University's faculty of education, who works with the program on educational technology and learning design.
  • "You can think about it as new forms of literacy," she said. "It is important to think about the ways computers can help students become more literate. Computers enable us to do much more."
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  • As an example, students today can more freely revise their work, not bound by pen and paper that makes revising a tedious and clumsy process. "Computers enable people to be more reflective about their writing," Wise said. "When a student is writing an essay and is not sure it is structured right to make a good argument, the text can be moved around and the different versions can be compared. "Using a computer can help support higher literacy skills."
  • "There are people I know who are doing amazing things with literacy and digital storytelling," said Wejr, who also teaches reading to the Grade 1 students in his school. "Right now I am using conventional methods for teaching reading because that is the culture of our school. "But there are Grade 1 teachers who are using technology in their classrooms, using the iPod touch in reaching, having pens you can speak into. "All these things that are happening are using technology as a way to promote literacy. The idea of a Grade 1 student writing a blog is fascinating to me."
kjroach

Education Update:Leveraging Technology to Improve Literacy:Leveraging Technology to Imp... - 1 views

  • Technology is changing literacy, claim Web 2.0 advocates, university researchers, edgy librarians, pundits of the blogosphere, and the media. The visual is ascendant, text is secondary—and linearity? Forget about it. Web surfers flip from one information wave to another, gathering and synthesizing. Beginning, middle, and end are up for grabs.
  • Now, Kamil notes, newer and better technology is coming out all the time to make the option of classroom technology even stronger, especially for struggling readers and writers. He points to advances in speech recognition technology, such as Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh's research-based Reading Tutor project or programs such as Pearson's Quick Reads, as examples of tools that can improve students' reading fluency.
  • According to MacArthur, word-prediction software, which generates lists of potential words as students type initial letters into the computer, can also help students dramatically improve the legibility and spelling of their writing. In a 2006 article in the Handbook of Writing Research, "The Effects of New Technologies on Writing and Writing Processes," he explains that his series of three studies of 9- and 10-year-olds with severe spelling problems showed that these students' legible words increased from 55 to 85 percent, and their correctly spelled words rose from 42 to 75 percent.
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  • Reading Buddies program, which uses MP3 players to increase the literacy skills of beginning readers at Howard Elementary School in Eugene, Ore.
  • After six weeks of using Reading Buddies, Greig says, "We saw kids who had been operating at the 10th and 20th percentiles moving up to the 40th and 50th percentiles." At the end of the 10-week pilot, Grieg says, "[Students] were at or above the test's benchmark."
  • Greig found that, for these students, the program's benefits included higher test scores as well as increased comprehension and confidence. "These were kids who, in a large or small group, would just as soon not give answers—they'd be in the back making trouble," Greig notes. "In two weeks, they were the kids raising their hands and saying, 'I know that.'"
  • The technology "builds those auditory and language skills" of students, allowing them, generally, to be more receptive to learning because typically 80 percent of the instructional day relies on auditory information, Egli says. "They're better able to make use of classroom instruction because they can understand the language of the instructor better," she explains.
  • Recent summer school data revealed that this combination of technology and direct instruction helped some students improve as much as two grade levels in their word attack skills over six weeks, Egli says.
  • "Using some of the technologies we have now, we can do some things that many of us hoped to achieve for a lot of our special-needs kids—but at a much more efficient rate," she says.
kjroach

Technologies for Acquiring and Making Literacy - 1 views

  • technology as an independent variable, were aimed at kindergarten-age students, included early literacy development, and were published after 2001.
  • There is positive evidence of the role of technology in supporting early literacy acquisition for this age group. In a majority of the studies used in the analysis, there was a lack of attention paid to the role of the teacher. The specific study outcomes may be promising but they may also be more difficult to replicate without this information.
  • First, technologies have affordances and constraints making them more or less useful in different circumstances
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  • More importantly, electronic storybooks impacted literacy skills differently based on the interactivity they afforded and the number of student interactions offered.
  • Technology can positively impact emergent literacy acquisition, however, it does not mean it always will. Some electronic storybooks used in certain ways can positively impact literacy skill development, however, it does not mean all e-books will work all the time, even if they demonstrate success in one environment.
  • In the end, such analyses help us evaluate our current literacy stances. Are we creating new technologies that mirror our pedagogical stances? Are technologies pushing our pedagogical strategies in intended and unintended ways? And/or are we utilizing the technologies outside of literacy to better inform our pedagogical needs in literacy acquisition and instruction?
  • It simply demonstrates a lack of published research on technologies and experiences rooted in student development and production for those age and date ranges. Compare this to the movement of production as literacy as evidenced by the coding movement or the notion that production can lead to literacy gains (e.g. see Jason Ohler’s resources about Digital Storytelling in the Classroom).  Think about the “maker movement” (e.g. http://makerfaire.com/) identified through tools like 3D printers and Lego Mindstorms (http://mindstorms.lego.com).
kjroach

Using Technology to Support Literacy | Scholastic.com - 1 views

  • Before there were cameras, computers, or even books, stories held the knowledge of all civilization
  • In this age of multimedia, a new kind of storytelling has emerged. Digital Storytelling takes the art of storytelling and adds elements of sound, video, and photo images to create a multi-dimensional tale that draws the reader into the story. It's an excellent tool to encourage students to take their writing to a new level as well as a way to bring technology into your curriculum.
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