"ISSUE: Educational technology is nudging literacy instruction
beyond its oral and print-based tradition to embrace
online and electronic
texts as well as multimedia. Computers are creating new
opportunities for writing and collaborating. The Internet
is constructing global
bridges for students to communicate, underscoring the
need for rock-solid reading and writing skills. By changing
the way that
information is absorbed, processed, and used, technology
is influencing how people read, write, listen, and communicate.
Although technology promises new ways to promote literacy,
educators' reactions to it have been mixed. Some have embraced
technology
with unbridled enthusiasm while others have held it at
arm's length with a healthy skepticism. Yet the growing influence
of
technology
has caused many educators to acknowledge that they need
information on teaching literacy skills in the Digital Age.
To serve that
need, this Critical Issue offers research, best practices,
and resources
that support integration of new technologies into literacy
instruction."
| Literacy Links |
Balanced
Literacy - Access
resources on Independent Reading, Shared Reading, Guided
Reading, Word Study, Writing to Support Reading Processes |
| |
Teaching
and Learning Strategies for Reading - Here is
a great resource for tips and strategies on instructional reading
approaches. Help prepare your students to learn to read effectively,
or read for comprehension and response. Ideas for reading journals,
guided
reading, and group reading are also included. Find sample guides, assessments,
and questions as well |
| |
Using
Technology to Enhance Literacy Instruction - the
use of interactive media to improve children's story-understanding
skills sparked her ongoing interest in integrating technologies
in K-12 literacy settings |
| |
Reading/Literacy
Resources for Present and Future Teachers - Many of the
categories listed below come from the "Report of the
National Reading Panel" which was released in April
of 2000. Others represent specific aspects of reading and
literacy. |
| |
Reading
Online - This website, provided by the International
Reading Association, offers hundreds of articles on a
range of topics in reading
education. To find articles that match your particular interests,
simply search or browse the author, title, and subject indexes. |
| |
Leveled
Books Database - Plug in your book title, author, reading
strand, and/or key-word to search for the appropriate reading
level for your books. |
| |
The
Journal of Literacy and Technology - An Academic
Journal |
Quotes
Literacy is inseparable from opportunity, and opportunity is inseparable
from
freedom. The freedom promised by literacy is both freedom from- from ignorance,
oppression, poverty – and freedom to – to do new things, to make
choices, to learn.
-Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director General
Children love reading about real things. IT gives them
an understanding of our world and they way things work. And
considering all
the newspapers, brochures,
maps, Internet sites, and how-to manuals we navigate as adults, it’s safe
to say that non-fiction is the genre children will read most often when they
grow up.
– Sharon Taberski
Research indicates that
students who participate in learning activities using integrated
learning systems such as with technology spend more time
actively engaged in the learning tasks than their counterparts
who are engaged in the same offline learning tasks in traditionally
structured classrooms
Worthen, VanDusen,& Sailor, 1994
A consistent finding
from investigations of reading curricula is that brief, but
regular, computer based reading lessons can enhance reading
achievement
Rethinking and Bridwell-Bowles, 1996
There is considerable
research that points to the positive effects of technology
on children's
learning and development
NAEYC, 1996
The full potential of
technology's tools is only realized, however, when they are
used effectively and in ways that connect meaningfully to
the ongoing curriculum of the classroom and support creativity
and critical thinking.
Bergen 2000
