WHY HAVEN’T THESE ARTICLES BEEN MADE INTO A VIDEO GAME? Maybe then I would enjoy reading them!

Prensky, P. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky, P. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, Part II. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Chase, Z., & Laufenberg, D. (2011). Digital literacies: Embracing the squishiness of digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 535-537.

O'Brien, D., & Scharber, C. (2008). Digital literacies go to school: Potholes and possibilities. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 66-68.

Gough, P. B. (1995). The new literacy: caveat emptor. Journal of research in Reading, 18(2), 79-86.

"Did you see the way she was looking at me?"

"She's a Nazi, George, a Nazi!"

"I know, I know. Kind of a cute Nazi, though."

- George and Jerry, in "The Limo"

George may have thought the neo-Nazi was cute but Jerry was right, she was still a Nazi.

I think I agree with Gough from last week’s reading more now after reading about digital literacy. Gough seems to have the same sentiments towards literacy that Jerry does towards George’s attraction to the Nazi. Gough would argue that digital, visual, interpretive dance, it doesn’t matter, kids need to be able to read and write, PERIOD! Similarly Jerry doesn’t care how good looking the woman is, she is still a Nazi, PERIOD!

After reading the two articles on digital literacy (Digital literacies and Digital literacies go to school) followed by the Prensky articles I realized that there may be a fundamental error with the objectives that seems to be emphasized in all this literacy teaching stuff.

The problem is that as we attempt to teach kids to read all the different types of “texts” that are out there we are diminishing their ability to adapt and learn on their own. No one ever taught me how to read a webpage, a newspaper, a calendar, a cookbook. I was taught how to read books. I’m pretty sure I figured out the rest on my own. This is important in my opinion because we need to make the children of tomorrow more self-reliant and less dependent on others to get what they need (This is not a welfare government politics argument by the way).

There are more “texts” out there than a teacher could ever hope to expose their students to in a lifetime. Rather by focusing on making sure children are experts at the basics, reading and writing, they can and will figure out how to read all the other “texts” out there.

I mean if we as teachers give everything to the student we will never get them to figure out anything for themselves. It would also be a crime for their parents to sit down and teach them how to read a website or a newspaper or the town hall minutes.

I do see the need to use authentic texts in the classroom as were described in the articles and I do this is a good idea. But it also seems like a no brainer to me. Authenticity makes for meaningful learning.

Now it’s time for me to destroy the Prensky articles.

Prensky, I think you may have a good point, but for the class of 2013 you have no relevancy, even for someone like me who was supposed to be in the class of 2009!

I hate to break it to ya’ dude but the majority of people taking classes in the COE at UGA are digital natives.

That’s a big LOL ROFL!!!!! ;-P

Maybe this article is better for the teachers of the baby boomer generation who are about to retire. It would be relevant if the natives were not the students but the teachers and the immigrants were low SES students who have no access to technology.

Once again I revert back to Gough’s thoughts on literacy (notice the lowercase L), those being that the most important and ultimately the most crucial, fundamental backbone of all these articles and this class and this whole content area in itself is reading and writing. So I say that instead of adapting lesson into video games so students will actually pay attention to them, get the students to relearn how to enjoy a regular book or print article. I mean we have learned that brains can adapt right? So can’t they adapt back from their digital world to the print one?

If ferrets can do it so can kids!

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