Prior to the 21st century Literate defined a persons ability to read and write, separating the educated from the uneducated, in the 21st century one must possess the skills and digital competencies necessary to navigate a multidimensional and fast digital environment. (Jones and Flannigan, 2006) Thus Literacy teaching and learning in early childhood education is changing alongside improvements in and new technologies being introduced in the 21st century. And its becoming increasingly important that as teachers we are aware of and adapt to the needs of a 21st century learner.Lankshear and Knobel (2003, p59-82) conducted a review of research into new technologies being used within an early childhood setting. They noted that most children's learning of new literacies was occuring in out of school settings and in the home rather than in classroom settings.The Australian early childhood research project titled 'Children of the New Millenium', (Hill 2010), involved teachers undertaking a tour of 4-8 year old children's homes to gain an idea of the sorts of technologies they were using at home, it was found that a level of technology was being used by children that was far in advance of the equipment that existed in many schools and preschools. Through studies such as mentioned above teachers can begin to understand just how developed early years learners are with multiliteracies and plan classes accordingly, remembering to factor in skills students may already possess from their interaction with technologies used at home. The Multiliteracies Map taken from the text 'Developing Early Literacy' (Hill, 2006, p 364) is an excellent framework for identifying what children are already capable of and it is outlined below. FUNCTIONAL USER - Locating, code breaking, using signs and icons - selecting and operating equipment -Moving between mediums: cameras, videos, computers
MEANING MAKER - Understanding Multi-modal meanings - Purpose of text and text form -Connecting to prior knowledge
CRITICAL ANALYSER - Discourse analysis -equity -power and position -appropriate software/hardware
TRANSFORMER -Using skills and knowledge in new ways -Designing texts -producing new texts
Through our own exploration during our Early years learner profiles in Assignment 1, it was indeed found that students did already have access to many different technologies including but not limited to:- Ipads- Iphones -Ipod touches-Mac computers-Laptops- Video-game consoles- Pcs-Digital Cameras(Internet access was possible for many of the children using these technologies)
Through the use of some or all of these technologies within the home, evidence was found that children were developing their media literacy skills as functional users, meaning makers and critical analysers.A child's interest in video-games for instance allowed them to develop the idea of directionality, reading signs and symbols related to a specific goal, understanding multimodal meanings eg./ the use of music to convey a mood/setting, and understanding the idea of power and position eg. (A child told me he used to come last in the game but now he comes first and he think's coming first is good).
REFERENCES:
Jones.B and Flannigan.S 2006, 'Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century', Educause quarterly, vol 29, issue 2, page 1
Lankshear. C and Knoebel. M 2003, 'New technologies in early childhood literacy research', Journal of early childhood literacy, vol 3, iss 1, p 59-82
Hill, S 2010. 'The millenium generation: teacher researchers exploring new forms of literacy', Journal of early childhood literacy', vol 10, iss 3, p 314-340
Hill, A 2006, Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching, eleanor curtain publishing, South Yarra
Prior to the 21st century Literate defined a persons ability to read and write, separating the educated from the uneducated, in the 21st century one must possess the skills and digital competencies necessary to navigate a multidimensional and fast digital environment. (Jones and Flannigan, 2006) Thus Literacy teaching and learning in early childhood education is changing alongside improvements in and new technologies being introduced in the 21st century. And its becoming increasingly important that as teachers we are aware of and adapt to the needs of a 21st century learner.Lankshear and Knobel (2003, p59-82) conducted a review of research into new technologies being used within an early childhood setting. They noted that most children's learning of new literacies was occuring in out of school settings and in the home rather than in classroom settings.The Australian early childhood research project titled 'Children of the New Millenium', (Hill 2010), involved teachers undertaking a tour of 4-8 year old children's homes to gain an idea of the sorts of technologies they were using at home, it was found that a level of technology was being used by children that was far in advance of the equipment that existed in many schools and preschools.
Through studies such as mentioned above teachers can begin to understand just how developed early years learners are with multiliteracies and plan classes accordingly, remembering to factor in skills students may already possess from their interaction with technologies used at home. The Multiliteracies Map taken from the text 'Developing Early Literacy' (Hill, 2006, p 364) is an excellent framework for identifying what children are already capable of and it is outlined below.
FUNCTIONAL USER
- Locating, code breaking, using signs and icons
- selecting and operating equipment
-Moving between mediums: cameras, videos, computers
MEANING MAKER
- Understanding Multi-modal meanings
- Purpose of text and text form
-Connecting to prior knowledge
CRITICAL ANALYSER
- Discourse analysis
-equity
-power and position
-appropriate software/hardware
TRANSFORMER
-Using skills and knowledge in new ways
-Designing texts
-producing new texts
Through our own exploration during our Early years learner profiles in Assignment 1, it was indeed found that students did already have access to many different technologies including but not limited to:- Ipads- Iphones -Ipod touches-Mac computers-Laptops- Video-game consoles- Pcs-Digital Cameras(Internet access was possible for many of the children using these technologies)
Through the use of some or all of these technologies within the home, evidence was found that children were developing their media literacy skills as functional users, meaning makers and critical analysers.A child's interest in video-games for instance allowed them to develop the idea of directionality, reading signs and symbols related to a specific goal, understanding multimodal meanings eg./ the use of music to convey a mood/setting, and understanding the idea of power and position eg. (A child told me he used to come last in the game but now he comes first and he think's coming first is good).
REFERENCES:
Jones.B and Flannigan.S 2006, 'Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century', Educause quarterly, vol 29, issue 2, page 1
Lankshear. C and Knoebel. M 2003, 'New technologies in early childhood literacy research', Journal of early childhood literacy, vol 3, iss 1, p 59-82
Hill, S 2010. 'The millenium generation: teacher researchers exploring new forms of literacy', Journal of early childhood literacy', vol 10, iss 3, p 314-340
Hill, A 2006, Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching, eleanor curtain publishing, South Yarra