Expression First

I wonder if Jason Ohler considered placing the last paragraph of his essay, "Orchestrating the Media Collage", in a more prominent spot...say, in the beginning? He writes that his "advice to teachers concerned with digital literacy is to focus on expression first and technology second--and everything will fall into place."

I found this advice to be comforting in that it connected to what I already felt and that common understanding, in turn, offered me a jumping off point to a less wary view of digital literacy.

Ohler states that we formerly defined literacy as being able to consume and produce words through reading, writing and, to a lesser extent, listening and speaking. He lists digital expression as changing this definition in three respects: new media demand new literacies, new media coalesce into a collage, and new media are largely participatory, social media.

Mr. Ohler offers eight guidelines for teachers who choose to promote the crucial skills associated with digital literacy. (Though he does note that the descriptor "digital" is probably no longer necessary.) The eight guidelines are as follows:

1. Shift from text centrism to media collage.--Experiment fearlessly.

2. Value writing and reading now more than ever.--Digital stories, movies, documentaries, and many new media narrative forms require clear, concise, and often highly creative writing as a foundation.

3. Adopt art as the next R.--These skills fit best into an art curriculum where concepts of color, form, and collage are part of the everyday narrative.

4. Blend traditional and emerging literacies.--Don't make room for the new at the expense of the old.

5. Harness report and story.--The report-story continuum is rich with opportunity to blend research and storytelling in interesting, effective ways within the domain of new media.

6. Practice private and participatory social literacy.--Crafting a collaborative media collage project and contributing to international wikis and collective research projects with colleagues you have never seen are now "normal" kinds of expression.

7. Develop literacy with digital tools and about digital tools.--We want our students to use technology effectively and creatively AND to be concerned with not just how to use digital tools, but also when to use them and why.

8. Pursue fluency.--The fluent will lead, the literate will follow, and the rest will get left behind.

Ohler wraps with a section titled "Teachers as Guides". In it, he worries that some teachers are leaving the field due to a lack of digital skills. His pertinent message is to remind us that we don't have to be "advanced technicians and that now more than ever, students need teachers who can help them sort through choices, apply technology wisely, and tell their stories clearly and with humanity."

TERRY'S TWO TAKE-AWAYS:

1. First of all, I took away the feeling that this is very do-able--as long as we focus on expression first and technology second. The joyful part of this order is that the technology is so varied that we eventually end up working side-by-side with our students, pushing one another in a way that blurs our roles.

2. My second take-a-way is an almost overwhelming concern for the new illiterate that get left out. In many towns in Maine, there are groups of young people who passed through our schools before the laptop initiative became widespread. Some are parents of my students. They are the small number each year who request a hard copy of our school newsletters and/or blog entries. What can we do for them so that they aren't left behind?