Fall 2002, Arizona State University, East Campus
A
report on our class presentation by students and an instructor from
TWC5/421:
Computer-Mediated Pedagogy &
Critical Technological Literacies: Emerging Implications for K-12
Education
Microcomputers in Education Conference, March 2003
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Our Featured Roundtable at the Microcomputers in Education Conference:
Erika Aguilar, Arizona State University, East
Marques Elliott, Arizona State University, Tempe
Andrew Guerriero, Arizona State University, East
Michael Moore, Arizona State University, East
Theresa Niemeyer, Arizona State University, East
Patricia O'Shea, Arizona State University, Tempe
Lisa Ramsey, Arizona State University, East
Christine Schares, Arizona State University, East
Alan Vickers, Arizona State University, East
Presentation Overview & Objectives
Our presentation provided contexts and strategies for teachers and administrators who are responsible for planning and delivering curricula in K-12 technology-rich environments.
Our panel participants included an instructor and eight students who worked together in a 15-week online course: Principles of Writing with Technology: From Papyrus to Pixels (ASU East, Fall 2002). Our course materials included contemporary research in early adolescents’ use of computer-mediated communication (CMC), educational uses of technology, and the effects of an increasingly technological society.
Our reading and research materials provided a good foundation for further explorations into the possibilities for -- and the consequences of -- communication-technology use in school, in the workplace, and in our homes.
As the term and our work together progressed, however, certain unplanned and unintended contexts began to emerge in our online discussions and activities. Several of the students in the course turned out to be parents of children who are themselves enrolled in school, for example, and many of our discussions had immediate application for K-12 contexts. In one of our class assignments, students were asked to design a policy document: "Computer-Mediated Communication in Education: A Recommendation Report" for a Phoenix/Mesa-area Middle School. Students considered ethical, social, and educational problems in designing such a document.
Students then analyzed, planned, and collaborated on successful Recommendation Reports, but we found that many of the "unofficial" conversations -- about being parents, about how technology is used in schools, about changing literacy expectations -- were ultimately more interesting than the documents themselves.
We proposed a session based on our work to the MEC Conference in Tempe, where we enjoyed sharing these stories and conversations with MEC2003 participants and we received good feedback during and after our session.
Associated Resources
We provided context and background for understanding children's use of communication technologies (Beach & Lundell); for exploring critical, technological literacies (Selfe), and for encouraging young women's active, decision-making roles in technology-rich environments (Gorriz & Medina).
Beach, Richard and Dana Lundell. "Early Adolescents' Use of Computer-Mediated Communication in Writing and Reading." Handbook of Literacy and Technology: Transformations in a Post-typographic World. David Reinking, et al., eds. Erlbaum, 1998: 93-112.
Gorriz, Cecila and Claudia Medina. "Engaging Girls with Computers through Software Games." The Communications of the ACM. 43(200): 42-49.
Selfe, Cynthia. Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Perils of Not Paying Attention. Carbonale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.