Running head: ONLINE LIT ASSIGNMENT WC

Online Literacy Assignment- Written Component

Codi Judd

LITR 630: 21st Century Literacies and Technology

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Online Literacy Assignment- Written Component

The online literacy assignment I created was designed for a group of 4th grade

students based on the students I taught when I was in the classroom and the ones I have

subbed for over the last year. One of the 4th grade Common Core standards is W.4.2b

Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information

and examples related to the topic, which students typically find their facts by researching on

the internet rather than using encyclopedias or provided texts. The way the Internet has

changed over the years, information can be edited by anyone and not always trustworthy. It is

part of our job as educators, even though it is not stated in our standards, to teach children

how to properly research using the Internet.

The lesson I created is teaching students how to independently search the Internet to

determine if a website is trustworthy or not. In the lessons leading up to the one described in

my lesson plan, the class has been doing a whole group lesson/ class research on the Great

Wall of China. We have organized our information to decide what we wanted to research.

Based on what the class decided, we then began our research after learning about RTU

(readable, trustworthy, useful) (Baildon & Baildon, 2008) and the 5 Ws (who, what, when,

where, why) (Castek, n.d.) in regards to the Internet. The lesson described has the students

working on iPads or Desktops to research a given topic and respond accordingly on a Google

Doc. They will be working on the Google Doc with their group to determine if the 3 sites

they have found are trustworthy or not and if they would use it for their research. The topics

they are researching are not the topics they will be using for their own information pieces for

their writing portfolios.

The International Literacy Academy Standard (ILA) that this lesson addresses is 5.1

Candidates design the physical environment to optimize students use of traditional print,

digital, and online resources in reading and writing instruction. Students are mainly using
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digital and online resources to do their research for this part of the lesson. This is raising their

awareness of how they can better search the Internet and learn how to tell if a website is

trustworthy or not. When the students go to write their own information piece, I would have

them use traditional print. I would require them to check out a book pertaining to their topic

from the school library. If the library did not carry any book relevant to what they were

researching, I would pull books from them at the local library. It is important that students

understand how to research using traditional print as well as digital print for their research.

Due to the amount of collaboration and technology that is needed to complete this

lesson, the International Society of Technology in Education Standards (ISTE) that are met

are 2a Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of

digital environments and media, 3b Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and

ethically use information from a variety of sources and media and 3c Evaluate and select

information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. It meets

standard 2a because students are interacting and collaborating with their peers utilizing

different sources of technology. They are also locating information and evaluating the

sources to see if they are trustworthy sites to be used. Finally, based on the lesson objectives,

students are

This lesson meets the Kentucky Teacher Standard (KTS) 6.2 Uses available

technology to implement instruction that facilitates student learning. Each classroom that I

previously taught in had 7 iPads for student use, 4 desktop computers and teachers were also

allowed to check out additional laptops or iPads from the computer lab. By having access to

this amount of iPads or computers, each group will be able to use the available technology to

achieve the objectives of this lesson. Weebly, Google Docs and Forms are compatible with

the iPads so the students should not have any problems collaborating with their peers to finish

the task for the day. With parent and school permission, I may also allow students to bring
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their own phones or tablets to complete this assignment and their research for their writing

piece. This would allow more students to have access to technology without having to share

the piece of technology with a peer.

The term literacy has been changing as technology advances. Students need to know

how to read but they also need to be literate in use of technology in instruction, such as social

media, search engines, blogs, wikis, and synchronous and asynchronous websites (Leu et al.,

2011). Technology is constantly changing and our students have grown up with it so they

sometimes know more than their teachers but we have to teach them how to use it. It is a

struggle at times to their teachers because it is not something we have grown up with

(Prensky, 2001) and we already have so much we have to incorporate in our daily lessons,

that using technology can sometimes feel a burden to use.

Having been out of the regular classroom for quite some time, I do feel a bit

disconnected to everything that has changed and is changing with content and technology.

When I was in the classroom, I felt I had a good understanding of the content I was teaching

and for the most part how to teach the content. I did my best to understand technology and

incorporate where I could. So I thought. After being in this course and learning how

technology is changing, I am learning that I did not utilize technology the best way I could to

benefit my students learning. According to the TPACK model (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), I

had PCK (pedagogical and content knowledge) and I was at the praxis level of TK

(technology knowledge). If I do go back in the classroom or to work in a school, I feel that

now I will be more on the phronesis level of TPACK.

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References

Baildon, R., & Baildon, M. (2008). Guiding Independence: Developing a Research Tool to

Support Student Decision Making in Selecting Online Information Sources. The

Reading Teacher,61(8), 636-647. doi:10.1598/rt.61.8.5

Castek, J. (n.d.). If you want students to evaluate online resources and other new media-

teach them how. In Exemplary instruction in the middle grades (pp. 105-123).

Leu, D., McVerry.G., OByrne, I., Killi, C., Zawilinski, L., & Everett-Cacopardo, H. (2011).

The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and

learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55 (1), 5-14. doi: 1-

.1598/JAAL.55.1.1

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A new

framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, NCB University

Press Vol. 9 (5).