New Literacies Project:
Reflection on Learning

The new technology that I explored was a PowerPoint presentation. Although this technology may not be new to many students, it is something that I had very little experience with, and have never used as an educational tool in the classroom. I was somewhat familiar with the basic structure of PowerPoint, but I used this project as an opportunity to become more comfortable and confident with this form of technology. I attempted to play with different features, and I was particularly proud of the overall appearance of my final project.
Some of my goals concerning the knowledge, capacities and commitments I needed to develop in order to use this new technology include:
Knowledge Objective (student understanding): I will be able to locate places in the technology where text features are used to enhance the understanding of key and supporting ideas.
Capacity Objective (interpretive skills and strategies): I will be able to use text features appropriate to the literacy information.
Commitment Objective (attitudes): I will be able to engage in conversation concerning the affects of text features in presenting new literacy information.
Learning to use this technology fits with my current conceptual understanding of literacy in many ways. This project has really expanded my understanding of literacy and has introduced me to numerous ways to support literacy learning through technology. After completing this project, I realize that effective literacy instruction involves the incorporation of diverse perspectives and various forms technology/ different ways of presenting the information. I am amazed by how much I have learned about both Literacy, and the various forms of technology used to teach it!

• How has your conceptual understanding of literacy changed since beginning this class and how does the technology you explored inform your thinking? Describe your growth in what you understand to be literacy (or literacies) and how that growth has altered your conception of learning in English language arts. You may choose to offer a reflective commentary or a chronological account of "this is where I was when I started, here is where I am now, and these are the readings, events, or experiences from this course that got me there." Alternatively, you may decide to organize your discussion around themes, issues or other 'big ideas'.
• This project helped me to realize many things about literacy. Before this semester, I didn’t really know or understand the extent of the different types of literacies and how they could be incorporated through the use of technology. Along with all of the readings and class discussions, I was able to learn a lot about the different types of literacy through both my own research throughout the project, as well as learning from my peer’s presentations. Now that I have learned about the many different types of literacy and various forms of technology that can be used to teach literacy, I am very eager to continue my learning by applying this new knowledge and using more forms of technology in my teaching. it was especially interesting and useful for me to be able to compare the different ways of presenting information on Cultural Literacy to my own project. I think I was able to learn the most through the different ideas and insights presented by my fellow classmates.

• What does it mean to provide “effective literacy instruction” to diverse learners and how does the particular technology you explored inform your thinking? To help you think about these questions, review your concept map that you created early in the semester and then updated for week 8. Also access the Grade Level Content Expectations you worked with to plan your language arts lesson. If students at that grade level were learning to use the technology you explored, what knowledge, capacities and commitments in reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing would they need to develop in order to be successful? How could you incorporate that learning in your language arts curriculum and instruction?
• I think this project really opened my eyes to the benefits of using a variety of different techniques and technologies to best reach all learners. As I reflected back on my concept map concerning my thoughts and ideas about literacy, I was amazed to see how far I have come in my thinking about literacy. I realized that I had only considered literacy in terms of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and was completely oblivious to the many types and focuses of Literacy. I really discovered the importance of incorporating each of these different types of literacy and the benefits of using a variety of instructional and technological tools in teaching to diverse learners.
• I think each of the technologies that I have reviewed, as well as the technology used in my project, could be modified to accommodate all learners. I think you could use each of the technologies differently in your classroom depending on the ability level in order to make learning accessible for all students. I realized that these technologies could be incorporated into any language arts classroom and when used appropriately can help make all students successful learners!