ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to our tutor, Vicky Saumell and our colleagues, who have really contributed to make this technological dream come true.

The author of this site!

UNIT 7: Innovative Learning Environments

Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL) for Language Learning:

I personally love games for both learning and teaching. When I was a child I remember using diagrams, drawings, hangman and a game we called ‘STOP’ to recall vocabulary and content I needed for different subjects. In my leisure time I loved to play ‘Atari’ which was the newest technological advance concerning video games at that time. I still use some of those strategies to review and teach topics to my own children. For my English classes, I always try to include a game (traditional or invented) each time I introduce a new topic. Learners seem to enjoy this kind of teaching, because they have fun making gestures, imitating movements, creating their own, proposing new alternatives, and the content is taught and learned in a faster and meaningful way. Now, turning to DGBL, the task is more complex but it is indeed a great and interesting challenge. According to Prensky (2009), there are some positive as well as negative aspects to take into account.

Positive aspects of DGBL	Negative aspects of DGBL
-Learner-centered, based on likes and enjoyment. -Motivating. -Engages many audiences. -Fast learning. -Addresses various types of intelligences. -Less expensive than other types of media (e.g. T.V. programs, movies). -Develops critical thinking and problem solving skills when games are well-designed, properly approached, challenging, and provide rules. -Promotes scaffolding (from simpler tasks to more complex ones). -Tools for games’ creation are available, reusable, repurposed. -Promotes teamwork and social groups development (for players, designers, sellers). -It has short-term and long-term positive effects. -Infrastructure for DGBL is being feasible thanks to broadband connections that will progressively allow users have access to more games each time. -Enhances human needs such as self-motivation, ego-gratification, power, self-actualization, winning, pleasure and fun (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954), cited by Prensky, 2009, pp. 100-104).	-It can be addictive. -Reading and writing skills as not been practiced can cause literacy rates diminish considerably. -It can cause anxiety, fear or frustration when not succeeding (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954), cited by Prensky, 2009, pp. 100-104).
ADVANTAGES OF GAMES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING: -Train and teach people on what they want and need to do. - Develop physical and cerebral/thinking skills. - Offer players different options to approach content according to own learning styles. - Players learn implicitly by having fun. - Provide spaces of reflection (change of strategies) for trying different ways until succeeding.

Definitely, using digital games in education demand lots of creativity first, -and here I will use analogies- to engage the ‘player’, in our case client (student), to use the game for a long time, feeling that she/he is learning each time, facing even more challenges in each phase, making the time, money and effort worthwhile. Secondly, for us teachers to become the ‘designers’, requires us being innovative and keeping our clients satisfied, engaged, motivated, by giving them the chance to decide and interact with the game as they wish, but including ‘stealth learning’ (Prensky, 2009, pg. 96), or implicit learning. Thirdly, as ‘seller(s)’, we as innovative tutors need a broader view, as to open new markets in which to offer the product. The audience’s needs and desire to experience new challenges, people who dare to take different risks, are finally the ones who accept or reject the learning that is embedded in the game. Therefore, a learner-focused approach characterizes DGBL. There are many variables to keep in mind, but these are worth thinking and repaid.

Of course, there is a long and difficult way to go if we decide to create games. In the meantime we can train ourselves and explore the already existing ones to see if they match our learners’ population needs and likes, and adapt them. Our decision must be based in reliable sites, the games must include meaningful content taught through enjoyable activities that really engage students in trying, maintaining focus and explore beyond accomplishment. Detailed evaluation must be made concerning all the benefits and also disadvantages of games for our learners. Training to carry out this evaluation and be able to choose the best options is a serious and committed task.

References

Prensky, M. (2009). Digital Game-Based Learning. Paragon House.

Coping with emerging technologies

Coping with emerging technologies and keeping up-to-date with them implies, as a first step to take, to get rid off fear of technological tools, devices, software, internet sites such as blogs, wikis, social and community building tools, augmented reality, networking, podcasting, etc, which are here to stay, to be increased and improved.

Instead of being afraid, teachers must accompany digital learners in the process of making the most of technology for educational purposes and positive personal enjoyment, at the same time. As discussed in previous units, ‘informal learning’ has imposed its features over ‘formal learning’, and this is the battle teachers must fight to meet students’ current needs, and to be respected, admired, and understood as well as to understand learners in their new language and behaviors. This change requires constant updating with technological issues that will never end. This is all about an ongoing process resulting from the proper nature of humankind: Being connected, as social entities, although we are not F2F.

Our digital natives feel more comfortable, self-confident with emerging technologies, firstly, because they are used to master them even before most of their parents and teachers. Secondly, because these learners know that the future is based on technology. Here again, meaning and usefulness converge in NLE.

Mastering NLE for us, as adults, teachers, or parents that belong to another generation is not just to learn how to manage certain tools perfectly. It is a matter of passion, involvement, commitment, eagerness to learn from learners as well, because everything seems to be easy for them; nowadays, their profiles and rapid learning speed is different from ours. And we must not feel ashamed that they do want us to master tech tools as they do. On the contrary, we must feel proud they want us to know about the topic and include us as part of their learning process.

One thing is true: unless we devote much of our time to update with emerging technologies we are far beyond to reach our students’ mastering. What is recommended for teachers (Prensky, 2007) is to evaluate how students use these technologies, for what purposes, and how they learn through using them. There is no need to achieve expertise in each tool’s usage. Based on these premises, I would say that these technologies are the medium for students to access knowledge, select what they really need (relevant information), and apply it as tasks or assignments require. And here is where the teachers play the most important roles: being facilitators, monitors of progress, questioners (to raise critical thinking and problem solving skills), promoters of how to get real, factual, quality, meaningful, and reliable information responsibly, defenders of intellectual property, and promoters of creation, communication, reflection and self-evaluation.

When exploring some of the existing and upcoming web tools, which include more sites for the creation of blogs, podcasting, creation of hard drives online, photo editing, feeds, wikis, and video conferencing through SightSpeed, for example, I found out an interesting site related to BECTA, http://www.nwlg.org/digitalliteracy/ in which learners, including us, can get started or evaluate on Internet usage, and how digital literate they are. Some quizzes are provided to check up to what extent one knows how to use the different options, and very interactive and appealing just to know about tech skills.

The following diagram shows the components of Digital Literacy, according to Hague, & Payton (2010), which I think summarizes the topics I have talked about.

Retrieved on June 5^th, 2010 from

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/handbooks/digital_literacy.pdf

Finally, the best recommendation is ‘let students do, create the practical and ‘physical’ part (product) with the corresponding analysis,’ using the emerging technologies at hand. The how -meaning the methods, strategies, procedures- can be suggested by us, especially if we decide to belong to a social collaborative network, in which we can exchange ideas and propose new learning/teaching approaches. Keeping up-to-date also implies understanding learners’ new ways of communication, collaboration, expression and learning acquisition, as I said above. We add value to what they know about this ongoing world.

References

BECTA, (2008). Emerging technologies for learning. Retrieved June 5th, 2010 from http://partners.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/page_documents/research/emerging_technologies08-2.pdf

Hague, C. & Payton, S. (2010). Digital Literacy across the Curriculum: a Futurelab handbook. United Kingdom: Futurelab. Retrieved June 5th, 2010 from http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/handbooks/digital_literacy.pdf

Prensky, M. (2008). The role of technology. Retrieved June 5th, 2010 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Role_of_Technology-ET-11-12-08.pdf

UNIT 6: Social Networking

Microblogging and Social Networking

The advantages

Tools for microblogging such as Twitter, according to readings and its real usage, are useful and effective means of instant messaging, that allow users to send and receive information through their mobile phones or computers. Directly relating this advantage to language learning, the fact of having to read or write the messages enhances these skills, according to their level because students decide to use what they know to be understood, and consequently, make communication flow. The possibility of this instant communication supports learners who cannot attend classes physically.

The disadvantages

When microblogging, as learners are given the opportunity to actively use the language, they tend to use the language in an appropriate way, using ‘informal’ ways of writing, as if they were communicating orally. As a language teacher, I was taught to write formally, in any situation, always trying to be as accurate as possible, following grammar rules, assuring cohesion and coherence along the writing to come up with a solid product. It is then, the role of teachers or tutors to lead these students/users to improve their writing skills, which in turn make the reading ones be exercised as well (for comprehension).

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE – CoPs

Usefulness for professional development:

· They offer opportunities to improve performance through passion and engagement.

· Member shared domain, identity and competence through mutual exchanges of experiences and talents, recognized internally (within the community).

· Collective learning through projects, making discoveries, solving common problems, carrying out joint activities, having discussions, reusing assets.

· Offers more possibilities for employment.

· Enriching teaching practices through exchanging innovative methods, activities or tasks.

Usefulness for language learning

“CoPs provide a useful perspective for knowing and learning” (Wenger, 2006).

· Interacting and discussing – orally and in written form- enhancing all language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

· Flexibility for working on its own, and then sharing on the achievement of common goals.

· Identifying own strengths and weaknesses based on peers’ feedback.

After exploring some CoPs, I am interested in joining ‘Webheads in action” in a soon future. I liked the theme song; its lyrics summarize the mission and purposes. It is indeed a good opportunity to exchange knowledge, and I felt the 'human' side when exploring it. Time should be devoted to explore other different CoPs to find the most appropriate according to the specific job and goals, or why not, to actively belong to more than one.

Roles of students and teachers in a CoP:

When belonging to a CoP, participants are faced to both: teaching and learning. Teachers are able to learn and take the most of what serves them through a CoP to apply it, or teach it to their students, including other professionals’ experiences and methodologies. Students, in turn, learn but also teach their tutors better ways to direct their knowledge and resources CoPs and other sources offer, to make the learning process more meaningful and profitable. Learners can also collaborate, as you say, helping their peers to cope with the demands this enriching activity would bring.

In sum, CoPs are a good opportunity for people to grow as professionals and learners, and going back to the ‘collaborative’ aspect, I want to mention McDermott’s view: “A ‘CoP’ or community of practice is a group of people who share knowledge, learn together and create common practices. Communities of practice share information, insights, experience and tools about an area of common interest.” (McDermott, 2002). In teaching and learning, we are constantly sharing, learning (I am sorry for being redundant), and creating…

References

Etienne, W. (2006). Communities of Practice. Retrieved from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

Wenger, E; Dermott, R; & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press: USA. Retrieved May 23^rd, 2010 from http://tiny.cc/5m7et

UNIT 5: Collaboration in Language Learning

“Collaborative English Language Learning”

Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/25t347e

Due to the overwhelming but still positive advances concerning technology and global communication, collaboration is needed to cope with the huge amount of information at hand, but that is necessary to manage, according to each human’s talents. At the same time, intellectual property has turned to be shared due to technology; planning common projects and sharing ideas for solving problems through peer work have become a must. This is what ‘wikinomics’ and collaboration are about.

In general terms, “Wikinomics is a new force or movement that is bringing people together on the net to create a giant brain (mass collaboration)” (Frank, 2009). All around the world there is a large number of sophisticated software development communities, which do not need to hire employees to be physically present in an office, neither to offer supplies, nor use campuses to carry out their jobs. The possibility of having these people connected and giving their knowledge in favor of others without waiting for a reward, seems to be achievable, enriching and of course, motivating towards learning.

“The Internet has been evolving into a global, living, computer that anyone can program.” (Frank, 2009). Collaboration spaces sites like forums, blogs, wikis, mashups, help to do such a challenging task. Let us give a closer look at the principles of wikinomics: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally to better understand the phenomena involved.

Openness refers for companies or individuals to be and feel free for offering upcoming people, which are mostly young with innovative ideas, the opportunity to show their talents. On the other hand, this same openness refers to be conscious enough and understanding as to let talented people go and look for other horizons, in which they feel more engaged and comfortable. This capacity of exchanging talents, at times in own benefit, and at other times against will, is the openness needed to survive and succeed in the global world.

Concerning the second principle, “peering is a new form of horizontal organization (as opposed to hierarchical organization).” (Frank, 2009). This statement is the evidence of the need to gather the best contributions to make a qualified product at the end. No single efforts have sufficient meaning if they are not linked and enriched with others’.

Sharing, as the third wikinomics’ principle, deals with intellectual property. The vision of copyrights, patents, trademarks is no longer taken as mandatory by law. Of course I think that owners of ideas, projects, innovations, or key businesses have the right to be recognized and mentioned for the audience to know about their efforts, but they have to offer this knowledge to the entire world, for being even more acknowledged, and to contribute to the creation of other types of products.

Acting globally then, becomes the best option. Old-fashioned manners to create, propose, and end up with a restricted product belong to the past. Collaboration in co-creation crosses boundaries that affect all human domains: affective, social, political, economical, and of course educational. In this case, as a language teacher, I will state the benefits of such collaborative attitudes and actions that may make learning rich, well-supported and integral for students.

The benefits that collaboration can bring into the language learning class entail, and taking technology as the basis ground, the easiness with which writing online for others to see, participate, give their opinions, add information, in one phrase, ‘construct knowledge’, is available. Web 2.0 tools are here to serve this purpose: through wikis, for example, people around the world can build a site as interesting and complete as they want by just creating a collaborative network. As wikis allow users to edit, modify or delete information, they are great sources for reading and organizational skills to be developed. If someone does not know how to participate in a wiki, then, he/she will feel challenged to discover on his/her own by reading the content, and then, add more information avoiding the repetition of ideas, and placing the information in the right place. Wikis are clue tools for teamwork and project work. Wikis can even widen spaces for discussion, as they can be shared with people with different background but compatible knowledge. Blogs are other tools that perform a similar role, but these are more personalized and especially designed for individual reflections (e.g. journals on projects, research, etc). However, blogs can be followed and given feedback once people have signed up. This is where collaboration and transformative learning appear.

Consequently, strategies from teachers to promote collaboration in the English language learning environment are needed. In first place, setting a comfortable and safe learning atmosphere for learners would break barriers, and lead to positive relationships. Once this is gained, participation will flow. I find planning in second place, and planning with clear objectives, explanatory instructions that are sufficient for students to follow and achieve. In third place, -and the most difficult task for me- it comes the follow-up process. Maintaining students focused will assure their accurate use of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, capacity of self-reflection, quality of contributions, and openness to receive feedback. In fourth place, but requiring the teachers to embed the other three strategies here, there is ‘empowerment’ meaning that teachers must be updated with both: technological resources and educational trends.

As a final remark, I would like to point out the teacher’s role as promoter of projects and activities that engage learners in ‘English Language Collaborative Knowledge Construction.’ It is a challenge but because of the natural like of students to learn while playing, discovering, exploring and actively participating in discussions, forums, etc., enhancing different language skills, positive results could easily emerge. Let’s take the risk…

References
Frank, D. (2009). Wikinomics.The Canadian Veterinarian Journal. June; 50(6): 563–566. Retrieved May 1st, 2010 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684043/

Palloff, Rena and Pratt, K. (2007). Promoting Collaborative Learning. Building Online Learning Communities. San Francisco: Wiley.

Tapscott D, & Williams. AD. (2008). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Toronto: Penguin Group (Canada).

UNIT 4: Humanizing Learning Environments

After watching this video, I started to reflect about the things that parents and teachers must do for our children and young people before it is too late... We need to continue being human...

I would like to start with a statement that summarizes the shift which we as educators must face in the current globalized context we are living, concerning online learning environments:

“As our classes become increasingly computer-mediated, as our students become increasingly computer-literate and willing to take courses online, the dislocations caused by these sea-changes must concern us as teachers.” (Haefner, 2000).

Such dislocations require actions to be arranged by us, to meet students’ needs while allowing them feel we are affectively near, supporting and truly exchanging factual information for their benefit, and acting as if we were face to face (F2F). Either in a synchronous way (e.g. through chats, using skype, twitter, exchanging information with a database, Wiziq sessions/tutorials, video-conferences), or in an asynchronous way (e.g. e-mailing, newsgroups, forums, video-taped classes/ conferences), it is our duty to offer students a sensible and warm atmosphere for learning to take place. It is clear, at least for me, that no machine or external artifact will replace the teacher in a classroom. Humankind needs others’ presence to really interact, enrich and empower themselves. And how to make this presence be tangible, motivating, and balanced in an online learning environment is what follows…

One basic element to keep in mind when humanizing an online learning environment is planning with creativity and flexibility. Giving the students various options and opportunities to interact with the teacher and classmates will surely make the tasks more appealing and enriching. However, the flexible feature must be carefully explained to students: they have to exercise their autonomy in order to manage times and schedules. This refers to the constant ‘presence’ (attendance in a physical sense), and also participation they have to show in their course(s). Otherwise, the connection among students and tutor(s) will be lost, and consequently, the online program or course will not succeed. It is certain that flexibility benefits students’ own work pace, and also, elicits shy students to participate more actively, but again, it is an issue of commitment, responsibility and real involvement.

A second element, derived from the above, is follow-up and feedback. Actually, they are two different processes but they are so closely inter-related that I will refer to them as only one. During and after participating in the tasks proposed, there must be a place for advising each other: student-student, teacher-student, or why not, student-teacher. Through the exchanges of information, thoughts, opinions, ideas, innovations, knowledge starts to be built, in a collaborative way. Collaboration is indeed a key term that I best understand as stated by Agostinho (1997):

“Collaboration is an essential ingredient in the recipe to create an "effective learning environment" as it provides learners with the opportunity to discuss, argue, negotiate and reflect upon existing beliefs and knowledge. The learner is "involved in constructing knowledge through a process of discussion and interaction with learning peers and experts." (Harasim, 1989, p.51, cited by Agostinho, 1997).

Collaboration would then be the third element that arises when participants have had the opportunity to engage in a topic, develop it, reflect upon it, propose other ways to deal with it or to solve it –in case the topic is a problem-, to finally reach consensus about the best options to address it and implement it. This process can be done through synchronous and asynchronous ways, as explained at the beginning of this paper. The clue is maintaining the environment stable, solid, reliable and ‘alive’, at the same time, offering constant support and guidance.

Once the three mentioned elements are clear, then, it comes the most difficult part: making teachers and students aware of the relevance of making the online environment a means of assertive communication, respecting some rules and norms to belong to a community, as it has to be in any human group safe interaction, favoring life-long learning as a value added. Knowledge constructed together will hopefully remain in each person’s life. To make this happen, changes of roles started to be evident and, as a result, the need for adapting already in-use strategies and create new ones became an urgent requirement.

Concerning the changes of roles from the teachers’ side, they essentially needed to empower their students instead of being the ones who controlled everything: the information, the means of instruction, the discourse. Now, students require teachers to be promoters of how to get information, facilitators, presenters of critical questioning, and moderators of various learning styles. Having this in mind, strategies for teachers to create the awareness discussed above could be:

Establish policies of use, rules and norms concerning interaction, supporting openness and honest attitudes.
Support the implementation of the online course by being a model, which guides, trains, and monitors students in the use of the required tools.
Include meaningful and practical contents and goals in the planning, as well as a well-structured agenda/schedule, with the possibility of being flexible whenever it is required.
Assign roles for each individual, according to his/her talents and preferences.
Engage students to be active participants in oral tasks, by listening and seeing each other (e.g. synchronously, through Wiziq sessions, video-conferences).
Encourage learners to explore beyond the given materials in order to appropriate them for their own enrichment and benefit.
Promote spaces for reflection and self-assessment (e.g. asynchronously, to make them deeper).

Turning to the students’ side, they passed from being information gatherers, passive vessels, receivers, outside observers to be active learners, and protagonists of their own learning process: Students act as problem solvers/questioners/researchers; they are contributors, constructors, builders…They are independent learning managers but equally, they are collaborative participants as members of a community. Based on these statements, strategies for students to become aware on how to take part on a human online learning environment would be:

Participate actively in all tasks proposed, although they do not match their learning styles. This could be an opportunity to explore hidden likes and talents.
Manage motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic).
Be aware of responsibility with own work and others’.
Be autonomous.
Encourage partners, tutor and other participants’ discussions.
Be open-minded.
Be sincere (express what you feel –questions, doubts, queries, whenever necessary. No one will blame you or laugh at you; all people are always in a learning process).
Be team-oriented.
Be inquisitive, critical, and reflective.

As a conclusion, humanizing online learning environments entails keeping track of an ongoing process that people involved experience, including constant interaction, peer review for feedback, guidance from tutors, management of tools, that to maintain it alive, it calls for our nature: being human.


REFERENCES
Agostinho, S. (1997). Online Collaboration for Learning: A Case Study of a Post Graduate University Course. Third Australian World Wide Web Conference. etrieved April 16th, 2010 from http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/proceedings/agostinho/paper.html

Haefner, J. (2000). The Importance of Being Synchronous. Academic Writing. Retrieved from http://wac.colostate.edu/aw/teaching/haefner2000.htm

LaBonte, R., Crichton, S, & Allison, D. (2003). Moderating Tips for Synchronous Learning Using Virtual Classroom Technologies. Odyssey Learning Systems Inc. Retrieved from
http://odysseylearn.com/Resrce/text/e-moderating%20tips.pdf

UNIT 1: The 21st Century Curriculum: background concepts and theories

My Wordle Unit 1 - www.wordle.net

The overwhelming technological changes we have been facing in the last decades imply for us teachers to have a great responsibility in raising a cultural sense in our students, to take care of one another since they are beginning their school lives. Nowadays, the prefix ‘inter’ is really showing its powerful meaning: inter-action, inter-national, inter-cultural, inter-net…

Developing critical thinking is definitely a good starting point if learners are meant to interact successfully in a future unknown society and world. Also, promoting the emotional, conversational/communicative, and physical skills –among others- that are already embedded in most educational contexts, combined with new technological trends that risky pioneers have just started to apply and use effectively and creatively, would serve as a solid basis for the upcoming worldwide citizens.

It is our duty to take part in this huge mission. We have to ‘empower’ ourselves before trying to make our students aware of the great technological resources available around them. Besides, we cannot leave emotional factors aside, such as eagerness, motivation, and self-confidence, among others. Therefore, developing our students’ natural curiosity to discover their own talents and strengths, promoting their capacity of adaptation to sudden changes, and building autonomy step by step, are basic processes learners have to go through.

According to Ianni (2005), ICT and TPD (Teacher professional development) are parallel processes. Our teaching must be based on “learner-centered instructional methods, such as project-oriented learning, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning and collaborative learning, since the idea is to offer each student the possibility of covering his/her needs as a multi-tasker” (Ianni, 2005).

“The Eight Net Gen Norms”
“The Eight Net Generation Norms” imply great changes in our minds, capacity of understanding, interacting, and reflecting upon the real needs students have nowadays, and new ways of meeting them.

Sometimes, we blame technology because it facilitates students’ lives by providing them with the information, tools, ideas, every single detail at hand, that no effort seems to be needed. The challenge, then, is for us as teachers to train this generation, and make learners skillful in order to classify the huge amount of information they can freely access thanks to the social networking they are immersed in. Besides, students should be committed to be tolerant, collaborative, since it is their own sense of community that has empowered them with affective and academic skills gained through technology.

At last, the capacity of innovation, self-organization and collaboration these Net Geners do have enables them to cope with an ongoing world that will hopefully set a brighter horizon… And communicating in a language that is global only demonstrates that learning it is a must.

I truly believe that this challenge involves all of us as educators in general, but especially -of course-, as responsible for our own students' language learning process. We are here looking forward to meeting their needs, every day with a deeper sense of making our labor productive, reflective, collaborative, assertive… Letting students play the role of actors/actresses in such process is the goal. In sum, we must give our students opportunities to live an enriching life-long learning experience, which in fact, they have already started on their own.

“The relevance of multiliteracies”
The following is a sequence of processes to develop in our learners, which I believe are key in this complex but achievable duty as teachers. Besides, these processes embed the concepts and necessary inter-actions of the different literacies (visual, media, digital, critical literacies), aimed to develop skills and abilities for students to learn:

Identifying --> recognizing --> exploring --> interpreting --> connecting
--> contextualizing --> understanding --> analyzing --> critical thinking
(questioning/reasoning) -->interacting --> sharing --> communicating
--> negotiating --> reflecting --> evaluating --> criticizing --> proposing
-->creating
-->CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE

This task is not easy as I said before. However, through another complementary basic process, we could be ready to comply with this mission: Empowerment. I will cite a description and a real example from the USC Rossier School of Education, which despite its 100 years since its foundation, has always been in the cutting edge concerning meeting students’ needs and forming committed citizens ‘to strengthen urban education locally, nationally and globally.’ This information is given in the document The New Media Consortium (2005, p.6):

“This program prepares educators not only to become fully multimedia literate, but also to integrate these abilities with their instructional visions, objectives, strategies, and classroom practices.”
This means that the direct responsibility relies on us, as teachers of this digital generation, and we must embrace it with no fear, but with eagerness and positivism.

References
Bamford, A. (2003). The Visual Literacy White Paper. Adobe Systems. Retrieved from http://www.adobe.com/uk/education/pdf/adobe_visual_literacy_paper.pdf

Daley, E. (2003). Expanding the Concept of Literacy. Educause Review. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0322.pdf

Lima, C. (2006). A Brief Introduction to Critical Literacy in English Language Education. British Council Brazil. Retrieved from http://www.criticalliteracy.org.uk/images/cleltbooklet.pdf

Tapscott, D (2009) Grown Up Digital. How the Net Generation is Changing your World. MacGraw Hill.

The New Media Consortium (2005). A Global Imperative: The Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Global_Imperative.pdf