My involvement with Contemporary Literacy began when I became Editor in Chief for Multimedia Schools magazine in July of 1998. As an educator with extensive experience using the Internet in the K-12 environment, I was familiar with the changes required in pedagogy by the introduction of digital learning. However, my preparation did not include many of the aspects provided to Library Media Specialists. So I became a bridge between these two worlds. By 1999 these ideas began to appear in my Direct Connect editorial in each issue, starting with How Library/Media Specialists and Teachers Can Change the World, and continuing with my work as editor of the Big6 newsletter. These experiences culminated in writing a book (The Survivor's Guide for Technology Coordinators in August 2001) which became Information Technology for Learning: No School Left Behind (published by Big6 Associates in June 2003) See http://www.oii.org/IT4L/ In September 2001, I decided the time had come to put these ideas into practice, and signed on as a teacher at EJ Martinez Elementary School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, teaching a program I developed: Contemporary Literacy Through Digital Storytelling (see http://www.oii.org/ferdi/contemplit.html). The result provided me with a wake-up call regarding the distance between the lofty concepts of what students should know and be able to do and the gritty reality of helping teachers to become willing to incorporate these practices within their every day teaching. These ideas were incorporated within my music classes which I taught from 2002 -2004 (see http://www.oii.org/ferdi/Big6Music.html and http://www.oii.org/ferdi/EJStudioLessonsFlow.gif ) Throughout this time, I continued writing about the topic, with The Importance of Contemporary Literacy in the Digital Age: A Response to Digital Transformation: A Framework for Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy in April 2002 (see http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=157) and Contemporary Literacy: Redefining the Basics, which I wrote for the CoSN Compendium in 2004 (see http://theatrain.com/ContemporaryLiteracy.pdf) I also conducted a series of webinars for the Kempster Group at the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy website (see http://www.ictliteracy.info/) I am glad to see that Contemporary Literacy is finally getting traction as a topic, showing up on Blogs, websites, books and trainings. It may be helpful for people to see some of the background that helped provide a foundation for the current efforts. Here are links to resources that you may find useful as you take on the challenges of updating education processes to reflect contemporary life. |
