Incorporating New Literacies into the Curriculum

The addition of digital literacies to our culture and the instructional process is causing a shift in what are and will be deemed best instructional practices in our schools. Many educators participated in a school system based on the printed text and have had to adjust their own learning as well as teaching practices to incorporate the “new literacies” that are a part of the learning, employment and social realms of the students in our classrooms. Add to this that new forms communication continue to develop and enter mainstream society and we see a real need to prepare our students to be literate in a wide array of forums from the traditional textbook to accessing and analyzing online content to participating in Twitter chats, Snap Chats, Instagram and discussion boards as well as wikis and blogs.. It is therefore necessary to instill traditional literacy skills in our students as well as newer digital information and communication literacy and the ability to adapt to and use yet to be developed literacies.

The question arises, “How do we provide on-going systemic professional development that allows teachers and school administrators to stay current with continually developing literacies and incorporate these into the content of the curriculum?” The need for an open mind set ,as characterized by Carol Dweck in her book Mind Set, and job embedded professional development have taken on a new level of importance. Consider that students entering preschool this year will be retiring around 2080. The skills these students will need to navigate jobs that may not even exist yet are challenging to imagine. We can however work with the business industry to stay knowledgeable about the types of literacies skills they are looking for in their employees. It is also important that as we teach our students to be good digital citizens, we teach them how to use social digital literacies in a way that reflect the individual as being of a sound quality character.