Taking a Position on Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum

Bridget Dalton
Dana L. Grisham


In December 2001, the International Reading Association (IRA) published a position statement titled “Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum.” (The Association is also publisher of this e-journal.) We are struck by its timeliness and would like to use it as a framework to talk to our readers about the intersections of literacy and technology.

We invite you to read this brief editorial introduction, to view a presentation based on the position statement, to read the position statement itself, and to respond with your comments, questions, and viewpoints via ROL’s Online Communities listserv. We encourage you to use these materials freely with colleagues and preservice teachers. Note that we are providing you different pathways for engaging with this important document -- an example of how new technologies are influencing the ways in which we learn and communicate.


Why is this so important?

The world is changing at an absolutely dizzying rate of intensity that most can hardly comprehend. And those of us on the front lines (so to speak) of education have the awe-inspiring responsibility of preparing today’s young people to be literate in a world we cannot totally envision.

In working with teachers, both of us come into contact with individuals who have educated themselves in technology, labored to find its intersections with literacy, broken new ground in their teaching, and provided all of us with role models. Recently, Reading Online has proudly presented the work of these mentors in technology and media literacy through our Teachers’ Voices series. For example, in our December/January issue, we published “An Interview with Roxie Ahlbrecht about Writing, Technology, and the ‘Apple Bytes’ Project.” Roxie’s work with technology and literacy found an intersection in literature and children’s writing published via a website project called Apple Bytes. In this interview, the reader finds out how this project began and the challenges and rewards of publishing online. As editors of Reading Online, we can relate to what Roxie tells us, and we’d like to use her work as a springboard into a discussion of IRA’s position statement on literacy and technology.

Roxie began her project as an outgrowth of a government-sponsored technology workshop she attended in South Dakota, USA. While others in our Teachers’ Voices series talk about teaching themselves technology, Roxie had some support -- and IRA’s position statement acknowledges that support for teachers must be provided. We believe that quite a lot of work needs to be done in this area, both for new teachers and for the professional growth of veterans who have been teaching for many years.

Roxie created her curriculum project, which integrates technology, children’s literature, and writing, herself. We believe that literacy curricula need to be infused with technology in meaningful ways, and that teachers should not always need to create their own. And while it is important to harness the power of technology to support traditional literacies, it is equally imperative that we learn and teach the new literacies connected with the Internet and other forms of digital communication. Roxie’s assessment processes illustrate what the IRA position statement calls for in terms of using reading and writing (and technology) for learning the new literacies that are so fundamental today.

Of all the statements in “Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum,” one that is in some ways most critical to our children’s futures asserts that access to information and communication technologies (ICT) must be equal. Although increasing numbers of schools in many countries are “wired,” access to technology is still vastly unequal. Some schools have new computers in every classroom, while others struggle with nonexistent, limited, or obsolete hardware. The “digitial divide” extends to the home, and across national boundaries. Although progress in addressing these inequities is well begun, it is not finished. It requires a sustained commitment to ensure that schools keep pace with the ways in which ICT is transforming the workplace and the home.

Recently, the education community lost one of its bright stars with the untimely death of Ann Watts Pailliotet, editor of ROL’s New Literacies department. Here are her thoughts on media and literacy, from her inaugural column for ROL in July 2000:

My my, hey hey. Rock and roll and other, newer media forms are definitely here to stay -- and they offer exciting ways of understanding, teaching, and learning literacy. Over the years, I have discovered many compelling reasons for extending ideas about literacy and for teaching with new technologies and mass media. These include

As members of the literacy community, we find these words hopeful and inspiring as we take on the new responsibilities and promise of integrating technology in our teaching and learning. We invite you to respond to the ideas in this editorial, presentation, and IRA’s position statement on technology and literacy via the Online Communities listserv.


References

Alvermann, D.E., Moon, J.S., & Hagood, M.C. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. [A sample chapter from this book is available at the International Reading Association online bookstore.]
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Buckingham, D. (1993a). Introduction. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Reading audiences: Young people and the media (pp. 1-23). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
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Considine, D.M., & Haley, G.E. (1999). Visual messages: Integrating imagery into instruction (2nd ed.). Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press.
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Dyson, A.H. (1997). Writing superheroes: Contemporary childhood, popular culture and classroom literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.
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Hobbs, R. (1997). Literacy for the information age. In J. Flood, S.B. Heath, & D. Lapp (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts (pp. 7-14). New York: Simon & Schuster/Macmillan.
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Kellner, D. (1990). Television and the crisis of democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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Kellner, D. (1995). Preface. In P. McLaren, R. Hammer, D. Sholle, & S.S. Reilly (Eds.), Rethinking media literacy: A critical pedagogy of representation (vol. 4, pp. xiii-xvii). New York: Peter Lang.
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Leu, D.J., Jr., & Leu, D.D. (1999). Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the classroom (2nd ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon.
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Reinking, D., McKenna, M.C., Labbo, L.D., & Keiffer, R.D. (Eds.). (1998). Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [This book is reviewed in the Reading Online archives.]
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Semali, L., & Hammett, R. (1999). Critical media literacy: Content or process? Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, 20(4), 365-384.
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Steinberg, S.R., & Kincheloe, J.L. (1997). Kinderculture: Corporate constructions of childhood. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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Tyner, K. (1998). Literacy in a digital world: Teaching and learning in the age of information. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Watts Pailliotet, A. (in press). The four I's of media literacy: Identity, intermediality, issues, and innovations. In A. Watts Pailliotet & P.B. Mosenthal (Eds.), Reconceptualizing literacy in the media age (vol. 8). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
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Citation: Dalton, B., & Grisham, D.L. (2002, March). Taking a position on integrating literacy and technology in the curriculum. Reading Online, 5(7). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/editorial/edit_index.asp?HREF=/editorial/march2002/index.html


Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted March 2001
© 2002 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232