New Literacy Project

• My  conceptual understanding of literacy hasn't necessarily changed  since the beginning of this class (given in a WRA class I took we focused a lot on literacy and what it meant to be literate in all forms), but I have definitely deepened my understanding of just how many "literacy's" there are and how they are all interconnected. Before  this project I tended to think about literacy as one big idea, when in reality, literacy covers way more areas than just knowing how and being able to read and write. I realized that through every area that you can be "literate" in, there are a different set of "rules" that will deem you literate within each category. For example what a person needs to have/demonstrate/understand to have strong emotional literacy is far different from visual literacy. The commonality or overarching theme I found between all of the literacy's was this idea or basis  of comprehension or understanding. 
• Although what it means to be literate depends on a specific area of literacy (emotional, visual, geo..etc), I learned there are many digital technologies out there that can incorporate multiple literacy's and build upon them. Something I learned specifically about digital literacy's that was explored was that these new technologies such as prezi, google earth, etc, take time to learn how to work with. The capabilities of most of these digital technologies, and the amount of information that you can gather, show and create from are endless. But it does take a while to learn your way around the new digital technology. In comparison to  traditional literacy's, I think that if known how to use properly, these digital technologies are far superior to the traditional methods on the sheer fact of amount of information teachers are able let the students explore.  Looking specifically at the new technology our group used, Google Earth, I learned far more than I thought about the different functions, and the implications of these functions that could be used in  teaching. No longer will I see Google earth as just a means to find my house. There are premade lessons and tours that other teachers have made available to use, and there is also a way to create your own tour. Basically the functions of Google Earth allow you to utilize it for whatever purpose you choose it to. For example I learned a lot more about the "filters" you can look through on Google Earth. You can look at pictures people took places, specific foundations and what those foundations are doing in locations, there are tons of valuable information through out Google earth, as I said prior, you just have to take the time to find it.   One of the most interesting things I found using Google Earth were lesson plans and tours that followed specific book routes. For example there was one dealing with "The Watsons' Go to Birmingham" that showed the route and asked questions at each of the stops and specific landmarks in the book. This not only elaborates on students "traditional literacy" but also builds upon this using the digital technology focusing in on such areas as visual literacy and geo literacy.  The only problem that we had with our digital technology was there were issues with being able to share tours.
• Based upon my understanding of literacy, " Effective literacy instruction" to diverse learners  means being able to recognize that there are so many different areas of "literacy". As teachers we want to learn ways to incorporate as many of these literacy's into  our lessons, so that we are not only teaching students how to read and write, but provide them with the ability to "comprehend" and make sense of their world around them. By spending the time engaging in new digital literacy and technologies I broadened my abilities and the types of lessons and activities that I am able to use within my own classroom one day.  This project has shown me that in order to develop digital literacy, you have to be exposed and explore in it in order to "figure it out" and actually use it.  By using programs such as Google Earth, students can build upon their visual literacy and "read" the pictures and places around Google earth to make meaning about the world around them. Students can also investigate human/environmental interactions and make sense of what factors impact our environment and our lives.