Hey guys! After
a nice and relaxing Christmas break, I am back! It is exciting to note that I
am beginning my final semester of my undergraduate program at Brock and next
year I will start at Brock’s Hamilton Campus for teacher’s college. It is even
more exciting to be starting this course on 21st-Century Literacy. I
think it is important that I learn about this stream of education so I can help
my future students become critically literate. It is important that our
students are critically literate so that they can make informed decisions, communicate
effectively and succeed in the ever-changing world! This blog will touch upon
what I already know about 21st-Century Literacy and briefly what I learned
in our introductory class!
What I Know
About 21st-Century Literacy
21st-Century
Literacy simply goes beyond the 3 R’s (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic)! Since the
beginning of history, the concept of “literacy” has meant having the skill to interpret
letters on a piece of paper that form a word that conveys meaning. Teaching young
children to put the words together to understand more complex ideas became the
main goal for teachers over the centuries. With this being said, 21st-Century
Literacy has transferred this to helping us understanding information about our
world not only through printer words on a piece of paper but also through powerful
images and sounds in our multi-media society.
A great
example of this was presented by Dr. Laura Lane in our introductory lecture. As
a class we discussed how a good chunk of newly learned information about the
world we live in comes from media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Buzzfeed.
Critical Literacy - Media Literacy - Moral Literacy - Character Literacy - Environmental Literacy - Financial Literacy - Global Literacy - Multicultural Literacy - Technological Literacy - Mental Health Literacy - Discipline based Literacy
It is amazing to see how many different types
of literacy have developed over the years! I am excited to learn about each of these
literacies in class throughout the semester so I can implement them into my
future classroom. Using these different types of literacy will help students
stay engaged in the classroom and will help them be successful in our overwhelming
changing world.
Everyone Loves a Video!!
The video below is a quick recap of what I briefly mentioned in this introductory blog today! I am excited to share with you what I will be learning throughout this education course based on 21st-Century Literacy. Stay tuned!
