Why Reading Matters Even More in the Digital Age

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Why Reading Matters Even More in the Digital Age

• Clare Brett, OISE/UT,
• Educational Computing Organization of Ontario
  Annual Conference, Toronto, May 5, 2006

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Vision unique learning opportunities of new
technologies for literacy

• Requirements for successful online learners
• Autonomous and flexible skills for navigating the
  web searches, assessing validity of sites
  navigation and reading comprehension
• Autonomous skills are critical because the
  environment is constantly changing and students
  need to be adaptive, so they need deep, flexible
  skills. Reliance on blocking or attenuating web
  content is not a useful long term strategy.

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Vision (2)

• 2. Models and experiences of interactive reading
  and writing that lead to deeper understanding of
  ideas.
• Different than the offline experience because the
  possibility of audience is ever-present,
  providing more authentic contexts
• Social networking tools like RSS feeds and
  tagging of content allows distributed
  interactivity around interests at an individual
  and small group level, not just the class level
  like webquests or learning circles offer.

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Overview of presentation

• How can we prepare students effectively for
  learning from and with the internet?
• What does current research and theory say about
  digital literacy and instructional strategies for
  supporting reading and writing online?
• What can teachers do to support students in
  developing literacy skills for reading success
  both online and offline?
• Examples of online literacy development
• Weblogs and wikis as reading and writing
  environments.

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Background and Research What do we know?

• Multiliteracies
• Differences between traditional reading and
  online literacy experiences multimedia agency
  beyond the Net Nanny
• Variance in online experience of
  information--websites and content non-standard.
• Online Reading
• Requires even more critical awareness greater
  information, more need for evaluation of
  material.
• Students know they need help in learning critical
  evaluation of web info (Media Awareness Network)
• Good reading comprehension strategies support
  sophisticated reading and learning

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Multiliteracies

• As a theory multiliteracies approaches texts in a
  way that recognizes
• A) text is increasingly presented in conjunction
  with many other representations of
  meaning--video, audio and so onmaking it
  important to deal explicitly with those learning
  context differences.
• B) the increasing linguistic and cultural
  diversity represented on the internet that
  impacts how we make meaning.

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Instructional Implications

• New literacies are especially important to the
  effective use of content area information on the
  Internet. They allow us to identify important
  questions, navigate complex information networks
  to locate appropriate information, critically
  evaluate that information, synthesize it to
  address those questions, and then communicate the
  answers to others. These five functions help
  define the new literacies that your students need
  to be successful with the Internet and other
  information and communication technologies
  (ICTs). (from Leu, D.J ,Leu, D. D. Coiro, J.
  Teaching with the Internet K-12 New Literacies
  for New Times)

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Online reading issues

• 1. Amount of information
• Selective choice of sites
• Coping with inconsistency in online material
• 2. Validity of information
• Hoax sites
• Web site evaluation skills
• Assessing relevancy and currency
• 3. Agendas of online information
  political,social, economic etc.
• Critical evaluation of material
• 4. Depth of reading comprehension skills

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• Supporting students in developing reading
  strategies for both online and offline contexts.

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Strategies for coping with amount of information

• Using appropriate search engines and learning how
  to construct searches e.g. http//www.ivyjoy.com/r
  ayne/kidssearch.html
• http//www.learnwebskills.com/search/main.html
• Ask Jeeves For Kids http//www.ajkids.com/
• Yahoo for kids http//yahooligans.yahoo.com/
• Google scholar for academic work
  http//scholar.google.com
• Coping with inconsistency in online material
• Practice looking at and deconstructing
  siteswhere is the important information, what do
  commonly occurring terms mean?

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Strategies for assessing validity of sites and
information

• Understanding the meta-web
• How to deconstruct URLs (e.g. Alan November on
  Information Literacy http//www.novemberlearning.c
  om/Default.aspx?tabid160
• Evaluation criteria for websites
  http//school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
  
• Software and lessons for teachers
  http//www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/wa_
  teachers/index.cfm

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Strategies for critical reading of content

• Reading and evaluating search results

From Coiro, J, (October 2005). Making sense of
online text, Educational Leadership, 30-35.
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Strategies for critical reading of content II
Self-questioning and strategies for being
critically aware
From Coiro, J, (October 2005). Making sense of
online text, Educational Leadership, 30-35.
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Strategies for taking advantage of Hypertext

• Skills unique to hyperreading need development.
  These include (Schmar-Dobler, 2003).
• Skills related to skimming and scanning to manage
  the sheer volume of text.
• Reading with guiding questions in mind to avoid
  getting sidetracked or lost in linked material.
• Effective navigation of linked materials (what
  kind of link is this?)
• Student collaboration and immediate feedback as
  means for checking ?comprehension with hypertext
  documents (Coiro, 2003).

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Online writing environments that support
application of reading skills

• Weblogs Individual writing and reading
  environment plus comments
• Wikis Collaborative writing environments plus
  individual revision history and recent changes.
• Both can have collaborative and individual
  elements.
• Both can support deeper levels of reading and
  writing.

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Weblogs- what are they?

• Individual writing environments close reading
• Leveraging location between public and private.
• A weblog is always both for oneself and for
  one's readers. If it were only for oneself, a
  private diary would be more useful. If it were
  only for readers, and not a tool for oneself, a
  more polished and finished form of publication
  would probably be more appropriate. Blogs exist
  right on this border between what's private and
  what's private.. p256, Mortensen, Walker, 2004)

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Weblogs--Background

• Good for individual reflection with an intended
  audience.
• Development of student voice.
• Supported by collaborative comments, not
  directed. Potential for social networking beyond
  the course through tools like aggregators (RSS
  feeds) and social tagging in Technorati
  http//www.technorati.com/ and Delicious
  http//del.icio.us/.
• Lots of free web-based blogging environments
  http//www.blogger.com
• http//www.blogscanada.ca/
• Educational Links http//www.downes.ca/
• A bit of weblog history http//www.rebeccablood.n
  et/essays/weblog_history.html

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Del.icio.us Social Tagging
You see the popular sites, weblogs and links
other people are connecting with. You also see
the author, and can follow links to look at other
writing this person may have contributed.
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Del.icio.us Tag Cloud
Folksonomyconnections being developed by users
through tagging the sites they visit. Over time
creates networks of interconnections. The larger
the text in the cloud the more people have used
that tag. Can track how ideas spread over time.
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Weblogs aggregated to provide models for graduate
students at different stages of their program
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Reading othersWeblogs
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Early experiences of graduate weblog users (from
Freeman, 2005)

• Reflection was viewed as personal
• Privacy of journal writing inhibits making these
  links
• Aggregation choices change perception of privacy
• Not everything is private

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Instructionally (Freeman, 2005)

• Weblog technology supports
• Filtering and annotating resources
• Notetaking
• Personal reflection
• Establishing a suitable environment for mutual
  personal publication and reading may require
• More than a semester
• Appropriate activities
• A broader and more established community

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Weblogsexamples from schools

• As a tool to support student writing the public
  nature of blogging creates a sense of authentic
  audience. http//www.cesa12.k12.wi.us/teach/write/
  blogs.html
• Example of literature class http//weblogs.hcrhs.
  k12.nj.us/beesbook/
• Weblogs in middle school science class
  http//science7.saschinaonline.org/
• Elementary teachers blogging about their
  teaching http//epgaga.blogspot.com/

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Weblogs potential

• Beyond individual online journaling
• Bridge between public and private, between
  reading and writing Encourage focus on what the
  text saysclose reading of other blogs.
• Students can choose their focusreview and
  response to others weblogs, linking, creating
  connections and distributed communities of shared
  interest.

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Teaching scenario

• Could work with a wide age range
• Provide students with a list of weblogs, or ask
  students to locate their own and check them
• Selected weblogs should be about something either
  being studied in class or reflecting a students
  interest.
• Students could put RSS feeds to these weblogs on
  their own site and monitor them regularly.
• Students would read and generate responses
  regularly to content on these Weblogs-close
  reading, linking, reflection and writing.

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Wikis-technical affordances

• Collaborative writing environments
• Support modelling through revision histories
• Collaborative text editing
• History
• Recent Changes
• Linking

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Writely wysiwyg Wiki
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Reading with wikis

• Shared editing requires sophisticated reading
  skills
• Orienting to specific learning goals
• Reading others contributions and assessing
  relation between that content and goals of the
  activity
• To provide a social context for modelling tacit
  aspects of various genres of writing practice

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Wikis in a university context

• Many different kinds of writing and authoring
  activities that could be supported through
  modelling and collaborative work, e.g
• reviews,
• journal articles
• course design
• research proposals
• annotated bibliographies
• Each has particular requirements e.g. formatting
  for bibliographies and reference lists sections
  of typical research proposals etc.

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Wikis in school

• High School science http//www-mariachi.physics.s
  unysb.edu/wiki/index.php/High_School_Research
• Using wikipedia in schools http//meta.wikimedia.o
  rg/wiki/Wikipedia_in_schools
• Distributed writing and reading administrative
  uses school website councils and groups
• Collaborative writing example with students and
  teachers. http//www.nycwp.org/paulallison/2005/12
  /04

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Where are we going?

• Challenges are to
• Link school uses and home uses of computer
  technology in meaningful ways
• As teachers to maintain and extend our knowledge
  of new technologies and help our colleagues
• To champion an approach to technology use that is
  grounded in what is good for learning and not
  always limited by firewalls and fear of lawsuits

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Contact Information

• Prof. Clare Brett cbrett_at_oise.utoronto.ca
• Presentation file can be found at
  http//grail.oise.utoronto.ca/cbrett/archives/2005
  /03/presentations.html
• Weblog and GRAIL Project pages
  http//grail.oise.utoronto.ca/home/

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References

• Teaching Web Literacy
• Bartlett, C. (2005) Reading comprehension on the
  Web. http//www.learnnc.org/articles/bartlett0609-
  1
• Bertelsen, C. Fischer, J. (2002/2003,
  December/January). Mediating expository text
  Scaffolding and the use of multimedia curricula.
  Reading Online, 6(5), n.p. Retrieved December 6,
  2002, from http//www.readingonline.org/articles/b
  ertelsen/
• Brandl, K. (2002). INTEGRATING INTERNET-BASED
  READING MATERIALS INTO THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
  CURRICULUM FROM TEACHER- TO STUDENT-CENTERED
  APPROACHES, Language Learning Technology Vol.
  6, No.3, September 2002, pp. 87-107
• Coiro, J. (2005).Making sense of online text.
  Educational Leadership, 29-35. October.
• http//www.readingonline.org/electronic/rt/2-03_Co
  lumn/index.html
• Guy, M. (2005). Finding Someplace to Go Reading
  and the Internet http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue43/
  guy/
• Scholastic Inc. Strengthening reading and writing
  skillls using the Internet. http//teacher.scholas
  tic.com/professional/teachtech/internetreadwrite.h
  tm
• Alan November on Information Literacy
  http//www.novemberlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid
  160
• Web Literacy http//www3.essdack.org/socialstudies
  /webliteracy.htm
• Media Awareness Network http//www.media-awarenes
  s.ca/english/index.cfm
• Karchmer, R. A. (2001)The Journey Ahead Thirteen
  Teachers Report How the Internet Influences
  Literacy and Literacy Instruction in Their K12
  Classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(4),
  442466. http//www.reading.org/publications/journ
  als/rrq/v36/i4/abstracts/RRQ-36-4-Karchmer.html

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References (2)

• Hanson-Smith, E. (2003). Reading Electronically
  Challenges and Responses to the Reading Puzzle in
  Technologically-Enhanced Environments. The
  Reading Matrix Vol 3, No.3, November
  http//www.readingmatrix.com/articles/hanson-smith
  /index.html
• Kim, H. S. Kamil, M. L. Successful uses of
  Computer Technology for Reading Instruction.
  Temple University Center for Research in Human
  Development and Education http//www.temple.edu/Ls
  s/LivingDocuments/PDF/kimkamil_summary.pdf
• Hypertext related references
• Atchison, B. (2004). Hypertext Literacy Are We
  Teaching Students to Read and Write Hypertext?
  Journal of Educational computing, Design and
  Online Learning (5) Fall. http//coe.ksu.edu/jecdo
  l/Vol_5/html/hypertext.htm
• Coiro, J. (2003). Reading Comprehension on the
  Internet Expanding Our Understanding of
  ReadingComprehension to Encompass New Literacies
  http//www.readingonline.org/electronic/rt/2-03_Co
  lumn/index.html
• Schmar-Dobler, E. (2003). Reading on the
  Internet The link between literacy and
  technology. ?Journal of Adolescent and Adult
  Literacy, 47(1). Retrieved September, 12, 2004,
  from http//www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/ja
  al/9-03_column/
• Multiliteracies
• Leu, D.J ,Leu, D. D. Coiro, J. Teaching with
  the Internet K-12 New Literacies for New Times
  http//www.sp.uconn.edu/djleu/fourth.html
• New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of
  multiliteracies Designing social futures.
  Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.
  http//www-personal.umich.edu/jaylemke/courses/Hi
  stLit/New-London-multiliteracies.htm

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References (3)

• Weblog References
• Edublogger educational weblogs.
  http//www.weblogg-ed.com/best-practices
• Blog of proximal development http//www.teachandl
  earn.ca/blog/2005/09/12/participation-as-competenc
  e/
• Doug (an elementary teachers weblog) 5 Essential
  Strategies for Reading the Web.
  http//borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/23/
  5-essential-strategies-for-reading-the-web/
• Freeman, W. (March, 2006). Reflecting on the
  culture of research using Weblogs. Paper
  presented at SITE, the Society for Information
  Technology and Teacher Education, Orlando,
  Florida.
• Mortensen, Torill and Jill Walker (2002).
  Blogging thoughts personal publication as an
  online research tool, in Researching ICTs in
  Context, ed. Andrew Morrison, InterMedia Report,
  3/2002, Oslo. http//www.intermedia.uio.no/konfera
  nser/skikt-02/docs/Researching_ICTs_in_context-Ch1
  1-Mortensen-Walker.pdf
• Wiki References
• High School science http//www-mariachi.physics.s
  unysb.edu/wiki/index.php/High_School_Research
• Wikipedia in schools http//meta.wikimedia.org/wik
  i/Wikipedia_in_schools
• Collaborative writing example with students and
  teachers. http//www.nycwp.org/paulallison/2005/12
  /04
• Lamb, B. (September/October 2004). Wide open
  spaces Wikis reading or not. Educause Review,
  39-48. http//www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm045
  2.asp