Literacy 21

Literacy 21 not only looks at reading and writing but it looks as ways to make it interactive and collaborative.  Teachers now have to be well rounded in all aspects of learning.  It is important to have the ability to teach in different environments, settings and with students who have many different abilities and learning styles.  One of the newest and more important aspect of a Literacy Teacher in the 21st century is the ability to be technology proficient. As digital immigrants are slowly decreasing, digital natives are rapidly increasing!

I feel it is extremely important for teachers to teach literacy in the 21st century.  Online learning is becoming more and more popular and comfortable to college students everywhere. But why not use it at a High School or Elementary level as well? It is a great way to get interactive and collaborative learning with students not just from your own classroom, town, state or even country! Online learning now offered the ability to communicate and learn effectively from students and teachers all around the world!

A few techniques that allows this to happen is Video Conferencing, Blogging, Pod-casting, and wikis. It's amazing that these forms of technology allow people to have conversations and learn from one another without ever physically meeting. As we have discussed blogging, pod-casting and wikis before, I want to focus in more to video conferencing. 

Video conferencing s a collaborative technology that allows for breaking news topics to be able to e discussed, reflected on and debated in classrooms today.  Not only have students reflect, discuss and debate on real life events that are happenings around them everyday, they are also provided with the opportunity to look at life and new in other places, other countries.  They are able to understand the world around them a little better. What struggles are other countries facing? What's different about other counties? What's life like somewhere else?  It's an amazing way for students to learn about different cultures of the world.

Soliya is a great way for this video conferencing to happen! It allows students from all over the world to discuss on the same topics and really bond over current issues in the world.  It's a unique way for students to learn from each other, to express their opinions and to debate over their beliefs.
Soliya Video