By Mirah Dow
Guests who come to visit often say that they are surprised how many chalkboards we have in our house. (They expect to see more computers than chalkboards.) From most any location, it is easy to look around and count four or five antique chalkboards of various sizes and shapes. There are small chalkboards hanging on the wall or sitting on easels for writing: menus in French, Italian, Spanish and English; lists of items to pick up or tasks to complete; schedules; timely quotations; and individualized welcome signs.
One chalkboard in the centre hallway is an 80 pound slate from an old school building. The beautiful, new frame holding the slate was designed and constructed by my husband (who attended a one-room school 1-8th grade and later earned degrees in public administration, political science, and law). Here seasonal landscapes with loads of color and stylized details (even a few musical bars with notes and words from a song) communicate change and anticipation of upcoming events and activities. There are many contributors to the text and imagery on our chalkboards. We all compete for attention. Our guests’ reactions to our chalkboards leads me to reexamine why it is that I love chalkboards so much, and what, if anything, chalkboards have do with rethinking literacy. I think the scenario that follows will help to sort out these two important issues.
A few days ago, a second grader came by to visit. The hall chalkboard was blank. She picked up the chalk and began to communicate. She drew a picture she titled “Happy Birthday, Patrick”. The picture is a boy and cultural artifacts one might expect to see at a mid-western USA birthday celebration. There were packages of various shapes and sizes with a variety of ribbons; decorated birthday cakes; a table with dishes and serving pieces; various foods and decorations; and four different, identifiably accurate game boards. The boy comes to life with eleven different facial features and colorful clothing. At the bottom of the drawing, she wrote, “Illustrated by Jayte Johnson”.
I think this child captured the essences of why I like chalkboards so much. Her work helps me to rethink what is meant by “literacy”. There were chalkboards on the front and back walls of all my elementary classrooms. I never got enough of chalkboards. Unfortunately for me, we could only write when the teacher said to do so. Sometimes we had free time on the chalkboard if it was raining during recess. What was created then was quickly erased when the bell rang for classes to resume. Usually while class was in session, only the teacher wrote on the chalkboard except when students were asked to complete a math problem or spell a word. Teachers at that time (and maybe still do) highly valued workbooks as the ultimate learning tool for students to write on.
I think most typically developing kids are somewhat like me when it comes to using chalkboards and sharing information. We want and need a public means to visually express the learning that is inside our head. Likewise, we learn from others’ displays of visual information. Interestingly enough, the genius expressed by this second grader on my chalkboard has not for the most part grown out of information and technology instruction. She does not have access to the Internet except during very limited opportunities during the school day or year. She has not grown up with other children or adults who have and use computers and the Internet. I know that many children who are educated today are in this same situation. They use available tools and adapt and invent suitable criteria for their own situations.
With access to up-to-date software and the Internet, computers make it possible for today’s children and youth to have unlimited access to public, visual expressions of academic learning and brilliance. Computers made it possible to have and use many forms of media. It is up to teachers to facilitate a safe and productive digital learning process. How will we do it? Many teacher-librarians and classroom teachers in Kansas and beyond ARE doing it.
Elf-Daniel Ehlers writes a European blog called “Quality in E-Learning”. She attended the EDEN Conference in Naples last week where she presented an organizational management model for achieving “quality literacy”. Ehler’s model has four elements/competencies:
quality knowledge (which tools, instruments, strategies are available) ;
quality experiences (how to use available tools, instruments, strategies);
quality innovative ability (how to adapt existing strategies to my needs or how to invent suitable criteria for my situation); and
quality analysis (to be able to develop my own quality objectives and goals).
I know about Ehler’s model because I use the Internet to access information. I can write in more than one language, compose text in various formats including varied points of view, imagine text and images in more than one format, and utilize various media because I search and read the work of many people that is available on the Internet. I use mathematic equations and scientific details each day in my home (and on my chalkboards) and in my school work because I can find useful formulas and details on the Internet. I am aware of various cultural commitments, attitudes, dispositions and values. For example, I know about Ehler’s blog because I have trained (using RSS feed) Internet-based information to come to me when there is a new post using key words “rethinking” and “literacy”.
Even when I am enjoying chalkboards, I think of information as magnetic and without containers (such as chalkboards). But no matter how hard I try, what I write on the chalkboard is still flat and only available to those who physically pass by. To be successful in today’s information world, I need more than that. Why? Because as I write this blog article, I am thinking of myself as a participator in an information society. I must to survive and thieve in today’s global society.
Ehler’s elements of “quality literacy” could be very helpful as a concept to reflect on what, if anything, is missing in the instruction we provide to students in today’s schools. Are we making information move beyond the chalkboards and workbooks of our schools? How are we helping each student to experience quality in e-learning? Think about your expertise in all four quality literacy areas when it comes to teaching. Can you adapt this organizational model for education (with focus on students and schools)? What should we work on so to enable each student to become a participator in a worldwide information society?
Guests who come to visit often say that they are surprised how many chalkboards we have in our house. (They expect to see more computers than chalkboards.) From most any location, it is easy to look around and count four or five antique chalkboards of various sizes and shapes. There are small chalkboards hanging on the wall or sitting on easels for writing: menus in French, Italian, Spanish and English; lists of items to pick up or tasks to complete; schedules; timely quotations; and individualized welcome signs.
One chalkboard in the centre hallway is an 80 pound slate from an old school building. The beautiful, new frame holding the slate was designed and constructed by my husband (who attended a one-room school 1-8th grade and later earned degrees in public administration, political science, and law). Here seasonal landscapes with loads of color and stylized details (even a few musical bars with notes and words from a song) communicate change and anticipation of upcoming events and activities. There are many contributors to the text and imagery on our chalkboards. We all compete for attention. Our guests’ reactions to our chalkboards leads me to reexamine why it is that I love chalkboards so much, and what, if anything, chalkboards have do with rethinking literacy. I think the scenario that follows will help to sort out these two important issues.
A few days ago, a second grader came by to visit. The hall chalkboard was blank. She picked up the chalk and began to communicate. She drew a picture she titled “Happy Birthday, Patrick”. The picture is a boy and cultural artifacts one might expect to see at a mid-western USA birthday celebration. There were packages of various shapes and sizes with a variety of ribbons; decorated birthday cakes; a table with dishes and serving pieces; various foods and decorations; and four different, identifiably accurate game boards. The boy comes to life with eleven different facial features and colorful clothing. At the bottom of the drawing, she wrote, “Illustrated by Jayte Johnson”.
I think this child captured the essences of why I like chalkboards so much. Her work helps me to rethink what is meant by “literacy”. There were chalkboards on the front and back walls of all my elementary classrooms. I never got enough of chalkboards. Unfortunately for me, we could only write when the teacher said to do so. Sometimes we had free time on the chalkboard if it was raining during recess. What was created then was quickly erased when the bell rang for classes to resume. Usually while class was in session, only the teacher wrote on the chalkboard except when students were asked to complete a math problem or spell a word. Teachers at that time (and maybe still do) highly valued workbooks as the ultimate learning tool for students to write on.
I think most typically developing kids are somewhat like me when it comes to using chalkboards and sharing information. We want and need a public means to visually express the learning that is inside our head. Likewise, we learn from others’ displays of visual information. Interestingly enough, the genius expressed by this second grader on my chalkboard has not for the most part grown out of information and technology instruction. She does not have access to the Internet except during very limited opportunities during the school day or year. She has not grown up with other children or adults who have and use computers and the Internet. I know that many children who are educated today are in this same situation. They use available tools and adapt and invent suitable criteria for their own situations.
With access to up-to-date software and the Internet, computers make it possible for today’s children and youth to have unlimited access to public, visual expressions of academic learning and brilliance. Computers made it possible to have and use many forms of media. It is up to teachers to facilitate a safe and productive digital learning process. How will we do it? Many teacher-librarians and classroom teachers in Kansas and beyond ARE doing it.
Elf-Daniel Ehlers writes a European blog called “Quality in E-Learning”. She attended the EDEN Conference in Naples last week where she presented an organizational management model for achieving “quality literacy”. Ehler’s model has four elements/competencies:
quality knowledge (which tools, instruments, strategies are available) ;
quality experiences (how to use available tools, instruments, strategies);
quality innovative ability (how to adapt existing strategies to my needs or how to invent suitable criteria for my situation); and
quality analysis (to be able to develop my own quality objectives and goals).
I know about Ehler’s model because I use the Internet to access information. I can write in more than one language, compose text in various formats including varied points of view, imagine text and images in more than one format, and utilize various media because I search and read the work of many people that is available on the Internet. I use mathematic equations and scientific details each day in my home (and on my chalkboards) and in my school work because I can find useful formulas and details on the Internet. I am aware of various cultural commitments, attitudes, dispositions and values. For example, I know about Ehler’s blog because I have trained (using RSS feed) Internet-based information to come to me when there is a new post using key words “rethinking” and “literacy”.
Even when I am enjoying chalkboards, I think of information as magnetic and without containers (such as chalkboards). But no matter how hard I try, what I write on the chalkboard is still flat and only available to those who physically pass by. To be successful in today’s information world, I need more than that. Why? Because as I write this blog article, I am thinking of myself as a participator in an information society. I must to survive and thieve in today’s global society.
Ehler’s elements of “quality literacy” could be very helpful as a concept to reflect on what, if anything, is missing in the instruction we provide to students in today’s schools. Are we making information move beyond the chalkboards and workbooks of our schools? How are we helping each student to experience quality in e-learning? Think about your expertise in all four quality literacy areas when it comes to teaching. Can you adapt this organizational model for education (with focus on students and schools)? What should we work on so to enable each student to become a participator in a worldwide information society?
7 comments:
This rethinking literacy is difficult. For some it is like teaching an old dog new tricks, but I still think it is possible. At my schools I think we are slowly moving information behond the chalkboards and workbooks. Some examples that I am thinking of I would like to share and see if others agree. At our high school the math teacher uses a SmartBoard to help with lecture and examples. He interacts with his textbook which is there on his computer(online or CD). He can work problems there in the margins, highlite important words and then print it out for the whole class or for students that are absent.
I know that now most all text books come in an electronic format. I hope we can make this available to all students. I hope economic issues do not stand in the way to make this equally available to students no matter their economic status.
At the elementary level I worked with two different teachers and students that created Powerpoint presentations. They are moving from making posters to creating presentations with pictures, sound, and video clips. Now, as I learned this past week they can go beyond Powerpoint and create interactive blogs and wikis.
I think to help students have a quality e-learning experience is going to be our jobs in the future. We can do it. We are going to have to create assignments that push them to do more than just chat on MSN. Teachers are going to have to push to catch up with the electronic times. We have to be willing to step out of our comfort zone and experiment and use technology to make lessons and teach students in innovative ways.
I also think about the old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" Well, I think if he is thirsty and it's there he will drink. In the same way teachers and students need to be thirsty, ready to "drink". If the technology and the information is there they will use it. Let's just make sure it is clean and safe and of good quality.
Hi Mirah!
Literacy is still literacy – regardless of the changes of time and technology. The love for reading and writing is nurtured through the use of many tools.
We, too, have a chalkboard in our home. Notes are written along one side (who went where, who called, who needs money, etc.) and a make-shift calendar is drawn along the other side. Everyone contributes to the family calendar (in fact, my three kids have come to favor their own certain colors – Samantha blue, Katie purple, Robert red, and the parents, of course, reliable black). Pictures are drawn to emphasize moods; symbols denote urgencies. For the past seven years the chalkboard has become an integral part of our communication-command-post.
I didn’t realize how much our family valued such a communication tool for the comings and goings of our busy household until I happened to notice my oldest daughter’s myspace page. Along the side of her frontpage is … yes, you guessed it: a type of calendar. She now updates her own personal calendar so friends know when she works and when it’s best to IM or call. This also allows her fiancée in Germany to read of events and to plan accordingly.
From chalkboards to myspace, literacy thrives within the minds of the beholder. The tools we use just make it happen.
~Loretta *smiles*
I get kind of frustrated with this, because I'm sold on it. I do think that literacy is different and it needs to be rethought by many. People get scared by change though, so it makes our job even more important!
Hello everyone!
Rethinking literacy. I have read all the post and agree with all. Change is hard (shelly said: teaching an old dog new tricks) and yet we embrace change (and (?)...said: From chalkboards to myspace, literacy thrives within the minds of the beholder.) I am some of both. We need change to grow but sometimes I feel that I am always a step behind. :)
My husband just suggested this morning we get personal digital memo devices to remind ourselves of appointments, lists, things to do, etc. My comment was, "Why not just use paper and pencil to write a note?", and believe me, if one of us is a technophobe, it's him! Guess I'll just have to be a little more open to his suggestions, and not as judgemental on his capacity to change!
Skimming texts in an electronic format for information gathering is something I've tried to help my students with this past school year, as well as evaluating that information. Getting them beyond the bells and whistles can be a challenge.
Hi Mirah.
I greatly enjoyed the class this weekend, and it made me think about some of the things we are trying to do in my library- and it is quite challenging.
At our library, Washburn School of Law, we have created washlaw.edu to educate the public and attorneys about the various laws throughout the world. It is a massive electronic resource that gives access to about every available free legal resource on the internet. So we librarians have to do a little html and a lot of web research.
Our instructors might use the Smart Technologies Sympodium, (its like a Smartboard, but built into the lcd monitor)in conjunction with lesson plans they have stored on TWEN. Twen is a Westlaw product that has all legal information at the users fingertips. One instructor creates a course outline on the fly in front of the class, and hyperlinks everything to the relevant web pages. She even loads relevant music onto her computer and plays it at the beginning of each class. To do that we have to subscribe to Itunes and have licenses for playing the music publicly- it was a nightmare for me, a librarian, getting that all set up right.
We even digitally record class sessions and broadcast them on the web.
http://washburnlaw.edu/videos/
And at my school, it is librarians that do it all. Me.
As a law librarian, it is either embrace the digital or go extinct. Virtually all (95%?)legal research is done on the internet through free or paid services, and today lawyers conduct all aspects of their cases electronically, from organizing their practices or a piece of litigation, to research, to communications and filings.
My lesson plan will be for an actual class I am preparing to teach, about teaching an aspect of digital lawyering called CaseMap. CaseMap enables lawyers to organize a case visually and digitally.
Law Librarians have to be tech savvy. Literacy is barely about books at all in the legal world.
The addition of three SmartBoards this past year and five new ones this coming year has changed the face of literacy at our middle school. The three teachers chosen last year to receive the SmartBoards in their room were excellent choices to stimulate a hunger for the possibilities of technology in our classrooms. It is critical to put this type of technology in the hands of educators who are fervent about technology as well as literacy. The added bonus of being talented, patient mentors is only a plus when working toward an educator community which earnestly endorses a new way of thinking about literacy. When teachers are enthusiastic about new ways of addressing literacy, students and then parents join in that enthusiasm.
Students get excited about using technology and yet they still need to be able to read the ideas of others and write their ideas in such a way as others will be able to understand the heart of what they want to say. Literacy is still literacy whether using technology or not.
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