The Digital Divide: It's a Long Way Across

This morning I was listening to an NPR segment on the Ebola epidemic that has now affected more than 1200 people and it looks like it has spread into Lagos, Nigeria's most heavily populated city.   (They don't have transcripts online yet, so I can't link it for you) As I was listening, the discussion moved to literacy and that, of those who are literate - they quoted 50%, the vast majority of those are only functionally literate. This means that nearly all of the people affected do not have the level of literacy to understand a print source discussing what a virus is and how to decrease the spread of one.

It brings us back to this divide in literacy and involves the digital divide as Aleph Molinari's and Sugata Mitra's Ted Talks. Some might ask, "How does this involve the digital divide?" It has to do with speed, interconnectedness, and resources that can provide accurate information. If, as Molinari and RIS have done in Mexico, there were spaces where people could gather to increase their levels of literacy and obtain digital literacy, a virus could be researched, information disseminated, and doctors could be contacted through the speed of the internet. The chances that this epidemic could have been slowed by earlier by more understanding are great because while Ebola cannot be cured, it can be treated. Because of a lack of understanding, families were hiding their sick relatives and attacking health care workers who were trying to save the sick; because of cultural tradition, people were falling on and crying on the dead bodies of their loved ones, not knowing that at the time of death the Ebola virus is at its most dangerous.

I take for granted that when I hear a word I don't know, I can look it up online and find resources that are as basic or complex as I need them to be. Before this morning's news and my searches that are concurrent with writing this blog, I knew very little about Ebola beyond that it's a virus and that it sounds really scary. With a few clicks, I've learned a lot - but I have access - and that is what this digital divide is about.

The digital divide doesn't just happen in areas outside of North America and Europe. In my classes I have student who are on the newest iPhones, bring in laptops from home, share their latest mixes with me created with professional-grade software, and teach me how to use Prezi. I have other students without cell phones and/or internet at home who need help signing into Google Docs and still don't know how to get into Campus to check their missing assignments. This isn't the socioeconomic divide that was occurring in the suburbs when I was in 7th grade and thought/hoped/was pathetically certain that if only I had a pair of Guess? jeans that the popular (rich) kids would invite me to sit with them in the cafeteria (I got the jeans. They didn't.). This is a divide that keeps knowledge, power, economic potential, and more out of the hands of billions.

Digital Divide

Using Animoto was a good challenge for me in forcing me to edit and be very selective. I think that it would be a great tool for my students who ramble and a fun way to deliver a message primarily using visuals.

I don't have an iPad, but we are going 1:1 next year, so I need to start looking at how I want to use them in my classroom. Here is an article I found that wasn't nearly as overwhelming as "THE BEST TOP iPAD APPS THAT ARE MUST HAVES FOR EVERY CLASSROOM EVER" articles that kept popping up - I would love advice from those of you who have used iPads/tablets in class.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/07/07/10-incredible-ipad-apps-for-education/

We Are What We Consume? I Hope Not.

Sarah Silverman, Wil Wheaton, the National Parks Service, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan, Jon Stewart, Dr. Cornel West, Simon Pegg and Elizabeth Warren. These are some of the people I follow on Twitter. I have only tweeted to my friend in England and only then because she is utterly unreachable in most any medium other than Twitter, other than that, radio silence from my end. Tonight, most of my feed right now is centered on Sharknado. Deep, I know.

I haven't used Facebook or Twitter with my students besides in general conversation or telling them to get off Twitter while we're having class. There is no real philosophical reason that I haven't used either one in school. In my previous school, I taught students who were too young to be on the platforms, and at Central, I have some students who don't have smartphones (this year we'll all be on iPads, so that will alleviate most of the accessibility issue). Additionally, I haven't used them in school because Facebook is part of my out-of-school life - a place where I connect with friends around the world; honestly, I like having time and spaces away from school. 

This past spring my students in Feminist Lit were doing presentations in lit circles, and one of my groups read I Am Malala. In response to the reading, our discussions in class, and their relationships with social media, part of their lesson included taking and posting a class photo for the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Some of these organizers were the same young women who told me they couldn't really call themselves feminists because they didn't involve themselves in rallies or make public proclamations. They felt proud and I loved seeing themselves thinking about a more global community and building confidence as activists. 

Potholes? Nothing catastrophic that I can think of now that both are so mainstream, although you may get students whose parents object. I could see falling off as a moderator simply because other things take priority. A lot of my students seem to be real experts in the Twitterverse (Ugh - did I really just use that? I'm so sorry.), so putting them in charge could help me and empower them. 

Possibilities: In perusing articles and classmates' blogs, there are many. It seems like there are a lot of ways we could use Twitter in class conversation where students could link other tweets, visuals, articles, etc. to enrich the dialogue. In terms of simply using the format to help students in their writing, the 140-character format can help students to tighten up their ideas, summarize an idea/character/etc, and Twitter or Facebook certainly could be used in character development and story telling.... 

Resource:

I really like the idea of #edchat but wasn't sure I understood how it really worked even after reading the NY Times article, so I found an article by one of the founders that talks specifics about how it works. It's a massive network!

http://blog.web20classroom.org/2012/03/brief-history-of-edchat.html

The (Changing) Definition of Literacy

I don’t think I have ever questioned my definition of literacy before, and my first thought after reading the question is that literacy is being able to read and write. Then I started wondering if simply knowing the phonemes and characters is enough – isn’t there a sort of an understanding (perhaps unspoken/unwritten) that literacy involves a level of comprehension? And that’s when I thought about the chapter from Gee and Hayes that discusses the movement from oral language to reading to writing and how that was used to lord power over those who couldn’t use it. It seems like a mean game that as soon as many people have gained a skill or are moving towards it, that we change the definition – now literacy’s definition seems to be heading in the direction of including the abilities to analyze, criticize, and synthesize.

Leu et al state, “Individuals, groups, and societies who can identify the most important problems, locate useful information the fastest, critically evaluate information most effectively, synthesize information most appropriately to develop the best solutions, and then communicate these solutions to others most clearly will succeed in the challenging times that await us.

When I put all of these ideas together, the picture that pops into my head is a person with a dollar on a string; as soon as another person gets close, the dollar is yanked away. I’m not sure if I’m on a track here or not. Or just cynical or a little despairing; Leu and friends do mention the dissemination of solutions to others rather than hoarding or selling to the top bidder. It does make me know that I need to increase my use of digital literacies in my classroom. Then my kids can band together and kick the ass of that trickster who’s trying to keep them from the power.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing for stasis in our culture or in our levels of understanding, but I am arguing that we move forward as a group – looking at the collective rather than the sole winner as Gee and Hayes get at in the chapter 1 reading.

O’Brien and Scharber use images in their conclusion that I will take with me as I continue to sort through the hows of digital literacy. “The perspective we…take…is one of bridging and mediating the best practices…with the most promising changes enabled by digital literacies….It behooves each of us to seriously consider how best to weave together old, new, and future literacies so that young people leave school literate in the ways of school* and in the ways of the world” (68). I’m not interested in throwing away literature or tools that those who want to turn schools into businesses seem to focus on, so I like the ideas of bridges and weaving to create a harmonious existence for school, literacy, digital literacies, etc.

*This “literate in the ways of school” is an interesting phrase to me – I think that it’s meaning is very dependent on the reader and context….

Questions for you:

How do we reconcile the push for “workplace skills” (which a lot of the digital literacy information seems to connect to) with other principles that are vital in an English classroom? Sort of the general education people vs specialized education argument….

What are you most nervous about in this increasingly digital culture? Or are you 100% on board and only psyched for it?

Resource:

Here is are current articles that discuss English departments, literature, and the swing towards digital literacies. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/28/pulling-the-plug-on-english-departments.html

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118025/advent-digital-humanities-will-make-english-departments-pointless

Same Task, New Tool

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robison, Margaret Weigel 

“The same task can be performed with a range of different technologies, and the same technology can be deployed toward a variety of different ends. Some tasks may be easier with some technologies than with others, and thus the introduction of a new technology may inspire certain uses…It matters what tools are available to a culture, but it matters more what that culture chooses to do with those tools.

Participatory culture is emerging as the culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways” (8).

I've worked in three schools, none of which has been particularly focused on technology or been decked out with the latest and greatest. I've never had a real white board (this year I bought my room some shower tile boards, and my dear colleague sneaked in with a drill, avoiding the custodial crew and admin) much less a Smartboard or its equivalents. I've never had any student computer stations in my room, and count myself lucky that, most of the time, my ancient desktops would generally work; I've always used my personal laptop for most of my school work and about dropped over when our tech guy dropped off a school MacBook for me this spring. 

As I was reading the Jenkins article, I was thinking about the idea that "[t]he same task can be performed with a range of different technologies" and my classroom.  This year is supposed to be different in the St Paul schools because we are getting 1:1 iPads. Like most teachers, I require that my students have a notebook for class for notes and journal responses and am wondering if, instead of that notebook, I can have my students establish blogs like we are for this course where they will write reader responses and put class notes. I think this would be great in terms of encouraging responding to others' writing, hearing from those students who are reticent to participate, and making it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways."In addition, I love that I could spare my back the burden of 150+ notebooks being lugged from school to home (and back and back again because I didn't do them the first night)!

This is about as far as I've moved in my thinking in the last couple of hours between a visit from my sister, harvesting some veggies, cooking dinner, calling about getting my bike to the shop, etc. I'm hoping that some of you who have more blog experience than I do (um - this is pretty much my blog experience other than reading them) can give me some ideas. I'm wondering if there can be some posts that they make public to the class and if there are some entries that they could keep private or only share with me. Other tips or possible pitfalls welcome!

I know that we are supposed to include a resource that we have used successfully with students. This one was a big hit during the media literacy unit I did with my English 10 kids: Uncle Drew Part 1  

We laughed together really hard, which always feels like a success, and then we had a lot of discussions about whether or not this was a successful ad campaign. It was a big debate with my students and a lot of fun.

I haven't done more than glance through this website, but it has a lot of links and is appropriate to this blog possibility. If I don't put it here I'll probably lose it forever:

http://blog.web20classroom.org/2013/04/soyou-wanna-use-blogs-in-classroom.html