Assignment Week3

Pick a topic or issue from the readings that struck you as interesting and reflect on it by responding to the following prompts:

I was a little confused by the three-dimensionality of Green's 3-D model of literacy so I chose to focus on the journal article by Durrant and Green (2000) (Literacy and the New Technologies in School Education: Meeting the L(IT)eracy Challenge?)  I chose the Green article so I could learn more about the 3-D literacy model and how it could be applied in a literacy context.

After reading the New York Times (Rich) article, I was very intrigued by the question Durrant and Green (2000) asked: "Just how do we go about shifting our strategies for teaching more or less print-bound literacy to helping our students meet the fresh demands and challenges of literacies that spring from living in such technologised and seamless `new times'?”

1.      What is/are the tools and techniques (or new skills) being put into practice)?

Durrant and Green (2000) say that traditional literacy tools are still very important.  There are new technologies and “new cultures” that teachers and students must learn.  Durrant and Green focus on an overall future vision of literacy that student learners need to have rather than just having individual skills. 

Durrant and Green present their 3-D model of literacy to help achieve a more integrated and contextual literacy approach and result.  The 3-D model brings together three dimensions or aspects of learning and practice: the operational, the cultural and the critical (Durrant and Greene, 2000).  This model “derives from an integrated, sociocultural view of both language learning and technology learning” (Durrant and Green, 2000).

Durrant and Green (2000) state that “a comprehensive school program in literacy and IT needs to include, in both policy and practice, appropriate engagements with all three dimensions.”  This should be done at the curriculum-planning level.  Therefore, an effective technology curriculum “is one that emphasizes equally learning technology (i.e. how to use technology), learning through technology, and learning about technology.  Literacy in ‘this context is best understood as bringing together considerations of language, technology and learning’” (Durrant and Green, 2000).  Durrant and Green think that there is a need to adopt “a holistic, cultural-critical view of literacy-technology learning that takes explicitly into account contexts, contextuality and contextualization” (Durrant and Green, 2000).  The Green 3-D approach begins with an “authentic context of situated social practice” and not with focusing on student’s technical skillsets (Durrant and Greene, 2000).  Durrant and Greene believe that “this basic principle holds for all learning.”

Durrant and Green state that it is important for students to be immersed in a learning environment that integrates “literacy processes for comprehending and composing a range of texts” (Green diagram).  This corresponds to the current literacy concept of students learning how to understand and compose multimodal texts on the Internet in the context of an educational environment.

2. The question raised by Durrant and Green to meet the current literacy challenges ("Just how do we go about shifting our strategies for teaching more or less print-bound literacy to helping our students meet the fresh demands and challenges of literacies that spring from living in such technologised and seamless `new times'?”) is answered by their presentation of their 3-D model -- that basically has social practice and social context at the core of this model.  Durrant and Green (2000) refer to their literacy approach as a "`situated social practice' model of language, literacy and technology learning."  Durrant and Green also combine literacy and technology learning as part of their IT challenge. 

As mentioned previously, the Green 3-D literacy model brings together three dimensions of learning and practice: the operational, the cultural and the critical. An important concept underlying the Green 3-D model is that only one dimension of the model focuses on the operational `how-to' knowledge, which includes “technical competence.” This operational dimension deals with using language to properly “decode” and “encode” in a variety of different “contexts.”  The operational dimension also involves computer literacy in the L(IT)eracy context -- in order to make using the computer operational.  The cultural dimension of the 3-D model focuses on using “texts and technology” in a cultural (or world) context.  It further involves “developing an understanding of content and context” (Green diagram). In other words, the local, social or cultural context is just as important as the content (or text).  The critical dimension of the 3-D model deals with the social context of power.  The critical dimension also involves “asking critical questions” and “constructing alternative ‘perspectives” (Green diagram)

Durrant and Green believe that this 3-D model can be applied to all learning situations and environments.  For example, I found that Nixon and Kerin (2001) applied the Green 3-D model of literacy to their research, which examined the resources used by teachers and students during the design and implementation stage of a literacy English curriculum that also integrated educational technology (at http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2001/nix01095.pdf). 

3. Why do you think Green used the visual model to represent his ideas of the three dimensions of Literacy?

Durrant and Green (2000) say that: "the crucial point to emphasise here is that none of these dimensions of discourse and practice has any necessary priority over the others. All dimensions need to be addressed simultaneously, in an integrated view of literate practice and literacy pedagogy.”  A 3-D diagram enables Durrant and Green to present their ideas “simultaneously” as an integrated concept map in the form of a Venn diagram.  This type of diagram shows that all three dimensions overlap each other -- and so are related to and linked to each other with the same “priority.” In addition, each of the three dimensions has the same size and space in the diagram.  The non-overlapping parts of the diagram indicate the differences in dimension, but the overall diagram illustrates that each dimension cannot be considered in isolation, but must be considered simultaneously with the other two dimensions in drawing any conclusions about literacy or devising any literacy strategies.

Interestingly, Nixon and Kerin (2001) re-created Green's 3-D model in a table or matrix format to help in their study of teachers’ integration into an English/literacy curriculum regarding an Electronic writing’ project.  Nixon and Kerin also used the operational, cultural and critical dimensions of l(IT)erate practice in their own study.  Nixon and Kerin said that “we use the three dimensions of the model to interrogate the dimensions of research ‘literacy’ at work in this project.”

When viewed in a table format, the viewer could not immediately see that all three literacy dimensions were inextricably linked and related.  Each dimension appeared to be conceptually independent of the other two dimensions.    

How does the relational visual "hierarchical structure" serve the taxonomy of levels?

“The hierarchical structure represents the world in terms of a hierarchical order….Its main concern is the ranking or ordering of phenomena from the perspective of a single unifying term” (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 84).  The hierarchical structure serves the taxonomy of levels by classifying participants by hierarchy -- in terms of being superordinates and subordinates. (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 79)  Subordinates at the same level are equally distant from each other.

Greene's hierarchical structure is non-hierarchical.  Durrant and Greene (2000) say (as aforementioned): “The crucial point to emphasise here is that none of these dimensions of discourse and practice has any necessary priority over the others.  All dimensions need to be addressed simultaneously, in an integrated view of literate practice and literacy pedagogy.

Green's visual model could be categorized in terms of hierarchies of concepts (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 82).  The more general idea is represented as similar to greater power. (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 82).  Green's model could also be categorized as a conceptual classification.

How might you visually structure Jenkins’ “New Digital Literacies?”

The new skills listed by Jenkins are: Play, Performance, Simulation, Appropriation, Multitasking, Distributed Cognition, Collective Intelligence, Judgment, Transmedia Navigation, Networking, and Negotiation (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4).  Jenkins (2006) says that “the new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking” (p. 4).  I created a diagram that illustrates that these 11 new literacies are dependent on social skills.

How many times have you laid out information in a relational conceptual schema?

I have produced a few flow charts to figure out how a work process flows in my work department.  I created this diagram to actually visualize how the work would actually flow from one person or department to another (person or department).  I have also created some organizational charts (for myself) to clarify position responsibilities and reporting relationships (in my department).

References

Durrant, C. & Green, B. (2000). Literacy and the New Technologies in School Education: Meeting the L(IT)eracy Challenge?  Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/literacy+and+the+new+technologies+in+school+education%3a+meeting+the...-a063132991

Jenkins, H.J. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.  Chicago, IL: The MacArthur Foundation.  Retrieved from http://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006).  Reading images: The grammar of visual design.  London and New York: Routledge.  

Nixon, H., & Kerin, R. (2001, 2-6, December).   Paper presented at AARE annual conference, Fremantle WA December 2-6, 2001.  Retrieved from http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2001/nix01095.pdf