NEW LITERACIES!

It feels pretty funny to read about new litearcies in an academic context, because the researchers are describing my teenage life: I was always playing around with Photoshop, reading fanfiction (yikes! embarrassing!) and joining forums for things I liked to discuss with other people the things I liked. It was never something I thought about on a metacognitive level - it was just something I did to naturally entertain myself and dive into my interests.

I like new literacies because I am comfortable with them. It seems to be a natural way to teach, because it is the natural way I explore new ideas. If I am curious about a time period, I will watch videos about and from that time period (you know, barring the medieval era). If I am interested in a book, I go to Amazon to read what other people think about a book or watch interpretations of scenes on YouTube. I like to interpret the way music videos change the text of music and how comments on videos or newspaper articles shape the meanings of texts.

HOWEVER! I see two problems with new literacies that I'm sure can be solved in a think tank. First of all, there is a bit of a danger in publishing and interacting on the world wide web (and I know not everything has to be published on the Internet). I know I'm sounding a bit like Mom here, but students need to be taught the way to publish and be safe. My goodness, there's still some things I published as a nine-year-old online because I used my full name.

Second of all, there's the problem with the participation gap. Not everyone has access to the Internet at home, or even stable access at their schools. Some schools do not have enough computers for stable access for each student, much less access to audio or video equipment or editing software. It's good for students, but there are drawbacks we must consider.

LINK OF THE WEEK: http://savedelete.com/10-best-and-free-online-video-editing-software.html

Here are ten links to video editing software for different types of videos from mashups to short films. These videos are usually saved in the cloud so that students can work on them in both the class and at home. This also helps with the lack of access a school may have to video editing software and equipment, because this is editing software and students can create mashups from online videos. Maybe they'll even go viral!