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Computer Technology and Literacy
Some educators have said that any college that does not provide students an opportunity to become computer literate is doing its students a disservice. We agree. While there are many computer science courses presently available to our students, this course (updated January, 1998) is for teachers (elementary and high school) who need to know both how to work with word-processing programs and the internet AND how to use these new technologies with their students. Students in this course will be introduced to advanced word-processing programs like Microsoft Word, net browsers like Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, and the uses of e-mail and listserves.
But the course will go well beyond the simple how to's of running programs and using software. Like all my courses, students will be using the equipment and programs in order to learn them, but they will also be exploring complex, fascinating pedagogical and ethical and theoretical issues related to these new technologies: beyond simply being gimmicky, how can this new technology help our students from kindergarten through college become more literate, better readers and writers (and viewers and listeners?). How does one decide if the information on the web is accurate and dependable? What are the pitfalls of falling in love with the internet? To what extent will e-mail and the rhetoric (netoric) of the web interfere with fully developed, extended exposition and argumentation. What are teachers doing in classrooms to help their students become sophisticated users of (rather than victims of) this technological revolution?
The list of questions goes on and on, offering exciting intellectual explorations. And learning to use these technologies and find some answers to these questions is what this course is all about.
One final note: I don't believe that the new technologies "solve" our educational problems (though they may help), but I do believe that teachers must know enough to be in charge of the technologies rather than have the technologies control them.
An exciting addition to the course is the opportunity for the college students to work with elementary and high school students, via e-mail, to assist them in their writing processes. While offering the college students an opportunity to hone their skills as "peer" editors, this project should also help the younger students improve their writing skills as well as help them to become more proficient in the electronic medium.
Sample Activities:
Students will:
- Work in small groups peer-editing one another's writing;
- Work in small groups to create a collaboratively-written piece of fiction;
- Participate in a class listserv on which they post selected writings as well as "reader-response" notes on the asigned readings;
- Read relevant articles published on the WWW;
[See:
- Technology Counts articles on technology and the schools
Schools and Technology
and
- The Online Journal KAIROS: an excellent scholarly journal on computers in education
KAIROS
- Learn to create their own basic web pages;
- Create computer-related lesson plans and projects that they might use in their own classrooms;
- And, although I cannot guarantee that this will always be a part of the course, I expect to be able to create an e-mail relationship with a local school, which will allow my students to act as "peer-editors" for a group of students, providing written feedback to help younger students improve their writing. Student Essay
Those of you who are interested in accessing some of the kinds of websites presently available (January 1999) that afford further web addresses or electronic journals related to this course might wish to check out
Lotsa Links
My office is Fenton Hall 236. Phone: 716 673 3450.
You can reach me by e-mail at:
courts@fredonia.edu
Other courses I teach regularly are:
Language, Literacy, and Learning Theory>
Adolescent Literature>
Senior Seminar for Teachers of English>
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Last revised, January 1999.