Portable Magic

Understanding Digital Literacy

On March 13, 2024

Reflect on your understanding of digital literacy.

My understanding of digital literacy is clarifying somewhat, as I read my way through the modules in this course. Literacy and being literate is about making meaning, and communicating it, through signs and symbols – the semiotic system. Digital literacy seems to be all this, but in a digital realm – but this definition is also questioned, say Bacalja et al (2022, p. 254). The authors explain why digital literacy, and the teaching of it, is so complicated, especially because it changes so rapidly. I feel you.

Unlike other eras perhaps, we are in a self-conscious phase where we are already defining and labelling our times (rather than leaving that to a far-future generation). ‘Anthropocene’ has done the rounds, but also ‘information age’ and ‘digital age’. It depends on what people want to focus on, and use as the ‘defining’ quality of our time (hence why it’s usually left till much later!).

It seems like we will need more than one label, in the end, as everything is so much more, now. More information, more destruction, more extinctions, more mining, more consumerism, more technology. And yet also, we have stagnated: we seem to have flatlined in our understanding of what we do, including – especially – digital technologies.

I knew that the ‘digital native’ was a myth from my studies in an earlier unit, which aligned with my observations teaching students ages 16-18 for the last 10 years. Reading Fraillon’s (2019) round-up of the data was both vindicating and a bit depressing. But while Fraillon shared the stats for students performing at Level 1 or below, he didn’t say where the rest of students were sitting. For instance, in 2017, 3% of year 10 students were at Level 1 or below – which is actually pretty good, isn’t it? And an improvement on year 8 results. What are the other 97% achieving in year 10? Regardless, in my experience students are digitally comfortable – with scrolling apps.

It also didn’t surprise me to learn that the way we use technology in the classroom is pretty limited (PowerPoint presentations and Word documents, mostly!). What teacher has the time to a) learn a new technology and b) teach it to their students? I use Padlet sometimes in class, but that’s an easy one. I used Diigo with my Literature class last year, when they were researching for their Independent Study folio. Some of them liked it. I have tried, in past years, blogging – it’s all so much work and teachers are already overworked and stretched thin. So many digital technologies don’t actually make life easier, they actually complicate it.

There are some that I need to be more across, though, especially those digital tools that help students with learning needs like dyslexia, or vision impairment.

One of the things that stood out to me in the article by Bacalja et al (2022) is their acknowledgement that schools are being told to emphasise the teaching of a ‘narrow’ understanding of literacy, and to ‘get back to basics’ (p. 255). This results in a focus on what is assessable in a test, which in turn ‘deprofessionalises’ the teacher. I definitely feel this, and see it and hear in the media and political discourse. The more people focus on how ‘badly’ Australian students are ‘performing’ against other countries, the more they point at teachers and say ‘you’re not doing it right’. They simultaneously cram too much into the curriculum while insisting that we focus only on ‘core’ subjects.

Digital literacy is, of course, one of the first things to be squeezed out, along with learning how to touch type (I’m so saddened that this isn’t taught anymore! I type this with my eyes on the screen or on the paper, my fingers flying across the keyboard – such ease! I can keep up with my thoughts this way – what joy!). Yet of course we are also expected to somehow teach these things?

Digital citizenship or digital literacy isn’t covered in teacher training courses at university, of course.

References

Bacalja, A., Beavis, C., & O’brien, A. (2022). Correction to: Shifting landscapes of digital literacy. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 45(3), 389-389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44020-022-00027-x

Fraillon, J. (2019, August 05). Digital literacy: Myths and realities [Paper presentation]. Research Conference 2019 – Preparing students for life in the 21st century: Identifying, developing and assessing what matters. https://research.acer.edu.au/research_conference/RC2019/5august/7

Common Sense Resources

By Shannon Badcock

On March 5, 2024

In Discussion post, ETL523

Register with Common Sense Media and explore their lessons. In a blog post, describe how you could apply one of the lessons to your own context. Share your blog post to Discussion Forum 2.1.

I narrowed my search to Years 11 & 12, and the Wellbeing tab caught my eye, as it’s an ongoing focus for Tasmanian government schools.

The lesson plan and resources for “Can Media be Addictive?” is designed to get students thinking about their phone ‘addiction’; the resources are really good and pitched well for senior secondary.

I could see a place for this lesson (and others) as an opt-in activity for Home Group (which is once a week, for an hour and a half). I would probably have to rewrite the instructions and tweak them a bit (but keep the attribution!) only because you can’t teach someone else’s lesson, you have to do the thinking yourself or it doesn’t work.

Digital Citizenship: Who’s responsible for teaching it?

By Shannon Badcock

On March 3, 2024

In Discussion post, ETL523

Credit: Steveriot1

It’s me, isn’t it.

No but seriously, digital citizenship must be embedded in our teaching, not just because it is one of the General Capabilities (ACARA, 2023).

In my role as a TL (though not yet qualified to call myself one!), I teach sessions on academic integrity
(which includes research and referencing) for other classes – today I did one with a Sport Science class; last week I taught an Accounting class. Part of my lesson is to stress the ‘integrity’ part, which is I believe key to being a digital citizen. Not plagiarising is part self-protection, part digital literacy and communication, and part self-respect and respect for others. My school is taking this even more seriously due to the increase in students who are submitting assignments that are completely or partly written by ChatGPT.

As more teachers are starting to take it seriously, so too I hope they consider integrating digital literacy and digital citizenship into their classes, throughout the year. Krueger (2022) states that digital citizenship needs to be integrated across all subject areas, all year, in order to be effective. Her suggestion regarding research projects, of teaching students how to curate sources, would work well in the senior secondary context I work in – the challenge is finding the time in a tightly-packed curriculum to do this.

Which brings me to the Smithsonian Museum’s Learning Lab, which has designed resources for teaching students to curate sources, respect copyright and correctly reference – I will park this link to Darren Milligan’s article here so I can find it again later!

In the video interview with Dr Mike Ribble (Learning Technology Center, 2023), he talked about a teacher who got her students to put the assignment into ChatGPT and then work out where its responses were lacking or wrong, and redo it. That’s an excellent way to develop strong literacy skills while also teaching them not to trust everything they read online. As Dr Ribble says, ChatGPT can make things up, including references. That I didn’t know; I had however heard that it can’t really tell the difference between information and misinformation. So part of my job is to teach students how to assess sources of information – all part of digital citizenship.

I am currently reading Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future by Tracey Spicer which adds another layer to Ribble’s point that you can’t actually trust AI. I might have had some suspicions, but I didn’t know. I didn’t realise the extent of the problem: that when technologies are designed and programmed by a select few, who are all mostly the same (Spicer identifies them as primarily white and Asian men, usually young), all sorts of gender and race biases are built into the technology. She mentions one early experiment, an AI ‘bot’ released on Twitter called ‘Tay’, that – through machine learning (otherwise known as artificial intelligence) – became an anti-feminist neo-Nazi in just 24 hours. That is, it learned this from other Twitter uses. You can read more about it here.

The other part of the video that I felt myself nodding along to, is the role of parents – the vast majority of parents in Australia give their young children mobile devices to play on and watch videos on, from a very young age. It’s become ‘normal’, it’s normalised, and as a parent I totally understand the motivation for it. But I think parents forget that they’ve just added another layer of teaching to their role, one they themselves might not be so knowledgeable in (we use devices all the time but that doesn’t mean we’re good digital citizens). I don’t know what the answer is there, but if we can teach out students to be digital citizens, throughout their schooling, then hopefully when they become parents themselves they’ll be able to impart some of that wisdom before their children even start school.

All of this aligns with Bombardelli’s (2021) point about life-long learning, active citizenship and discrimination – that our (very human) prejudices are being built into our technology (which we are encouraged to think of as ‘neutral’), and that this needs to be taken into consideration when promoting active online participation, as discussed by Bombardelli. It’s basically an extension of the idea that we can’t believe everything we read online. There are so many benefits, but if we (schools) aren’t teaching people from a young age not only how to be a responsible online citizen, but also teach them the tools they need to navigate this vast and tumultuous space, the problems of the present will only continue – and worsen.

References

ACARA. (2023). Digital Literacy. Australian Curriculum, v9. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-general-capability/digital-literacy

Bombardelli, O. (2021). Digital Citizenship and Life Long Learning. In: Auer, M., May, D. (eds) Cross Reality and Data Science in Engineering. REV 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1231. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org/10.1007/978-3-030-52575-0_67

Learning Technology Center. (2023, November 28). A.I. and Digital Citizenship with Dr. Mike Ribble [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzTEwQr8T88

Krueger, N. (2022, September 27). 3 Ways To Weave Digital Citizenship Into Your Curriculum. ISTE. https://iste.org/blog/3-ways-to-weave-digital-citizenship-into-your-curriculum

The Smithsonian. (n.d.). Welcome to the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab. Smithsonian Learning Lab. https://learninglab.si.edu/

Spicer, T. (2023). Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future. Simon & Schuster.

Digital Citizenship: is this term still relevant?

By Shannon Badcock

On February 29, 2024

In Discussion post, ETL523

“In a world where the online and offline are increasingly blending, to what extend should we emphasise the role of the ‘digital’ in ‘digital citizenship’?” (Cortesi et al 2020, p. 4)

Write a blog post using the prompt: Is digital citizenship still the best terminology to use?

Two students sit together absorbed by their mobile phones.

Credit: Natureaddict

Before exploring the term ‘digital citizenship’, it is prudent to consider what we mean by citizenship and why it’s important.

To be a citizen is to bear certain rights and responsibilities – it is the ‘responsibilities’ – or boundaries (Öztürk, 2021, p. 32) – part that people tend to forget, or overlook, while focusing on their ‘rights’, or privileges, as citizens. These include “being respectful and polite, responsible and making positive contributions to the society” (Öztürk, 2021, p. 32). Öztürk points out that it is the community that is at the heart of citizenship, not the individual.

Kershaw (2004) points out that the concept of citizenship became a focus in the 1990s – which coincides with the home computer and the early mobile phones, then the ‘arrival’ of the world wide web – including Google, email, online chat forums and, later, Facebook. He refers to an “alleged decline” in “civic-spiritedness” (2004, p. 1) which aligns with Ribble’s ideas of digital citizenship: treating others “with empathy and understanding both on and offline” (2015, p. 13). I don’t mean to suggest that the advent of digital technology in the home and school caused a decline in being of good character, but that the decline in good character which Kershaw (2004) refers to was – and is – felt in the online sphere, too. However, it can easily be seen that digital technologies, and the apps and programs accessed with them, have exacerbated the problem.

Ribble (2004) argues for the need to teach ‘character’: that is, being a good person who treats others well, and kindly. Their ‘nine elements’ (pp. 15-17) go further than just being ‘good’ and ‘kind’: they embrace the full scope of what it means to be a citizen of a society, in this case an online one. For instance, Element 1: Digital Access, is about equity, which in our intensely capitalist world is sorely lacking. Reading the list of nine elements, I can see that each one is relevant and necessary.

We used to learn how to write a letter with ‘correct’ formatting, salutations, structure and form, to ensure smooth, open and respectful dialogue. Digital technologies are here to stay but somehow, in our increasingly crowded curriculum, the teaching of how to use it ethically, responsibly and with kindness, didn’t eventuate. It’s not the same as passively watching the telly; as Ribble (2004) points out, digital technologies allow us to be producers, as well as consumers, of information, and the ‘real’ world and the online one have become the same (p. 12).

The Covid-19 pandemic puts digital citizenship into a new, stark context: as Buchholz, Dehart & Moorman (2020) point out, the lockdowns both showed the importance of citizenry – acting with responsibility for a greater good – as well as the need for digital literacy – finding the authentic, accurate information in a sea of online misinformation. Digital citizenship is more than digital etiquette (as important as that is); it is also the ability to use technology wisely (Öztürk, 2021, p.34). The pandemic showed us many things, including the sad reality that we were unprepared technologically, and that we have issues of equitable access. As more and more Australians succumb to online shopping scams (okay so I will put my own hand up here, as embarrassing as that is!), it is clear that there are serious gaps in our knowledge and ability to use technology safely, as well as respectfully. As I read more in Module 1, I find myself surprised at how we are not even taking this seriously, as a society, in Australia – for adults as much as young people.

Like language, we’re not born knowing politeness, understanding or respect, but as with language, we are born with the capacity to learn it. Parents know they have to teach their children to be polite and respectful, and they have to model it – it is the same with digital technology. I don’t think the term is out-of-date at all. ‘Digital’ still encompasses a broad range of things, from the technological tools themselves – from the cloud to a tablet to a mobile phone, its camera and microphone – to the online platforms accessed with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if a new term emerges in the next 5-10 years, because language evolves, but ‘digital’ still seems to cast a wide-enough net.

References

Buchholz, B. A., Dehart, J., & Moorman, G. (2020). Digital citizenship During a global pandemic: Moving beyond digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 64(1), 11-17. https://primo.csu.edu.au/permalink/61CSU_INST/15aovd3/cdi_pubmedcentral_primary_oai_pubmedcentral_nih_gov_7405058

Cortesi, S., Hasse, A., Lombana-Bermudez, A., Kim, S., & Gasser, U. (2020). Youth and digital citizenship+ (plus): Understanding skills for a digital world. Youth and Media, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3557518

Kershaw, P. (2004). Carefair: Rethinking the responsibilities and rights of citizenship. UBC Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=3412035&ppg=1

Öztürk, G. (2021). Digital citizenship and its teaching: A literature review. Journal of Educational Technology and Online Learning, 4(1), 31-45. https://primo.csu.edu.au/permalink/61CSU_INST/15aovd3/cdi_proquest_journals_2844067431

Ribble, M. (2015). A brief history of digital citizenship. In Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know (3rd ed., pp. 9-14). International Society for Technology in Education. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1072357&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_17

Education 4.0?

By Shannon Badcock

On February 26, 2024

In ETL523, Reflection Post

Informal thoughts on Tomasz Huk’s article.

It is a good time to reflect on the rapid changes in technology and its impact on education. I consider myself to be Gen Y (scraping through by old parameters) which is now called ‘Millenial’ and the goal posts have changed, pushing me back into Gen X, which I don’t identify with (but I don’t identify with Millenial either – sounds too young for my 44-year-old bones!). As someone who was a child in the 80s, a tween-and-teenager in the 90s, and a uni student at the turn of the century, I’ve experienced education pre-technology and post-. I grew up with it slowly inching its way further into the classroom by small degrees, and it was always just an appliance. A computer was like a microwave – not in functionality, but in how people interacted with it: it was designed for a purpose, you used it for that purpose, and otherwise you left it alone. It didn’t do much else.

And then I was in a weird tech cocoon for three years, living in Japan where I had a ‘fancy’ flip phone – in colour! – but used technology only to email home occasionally. I was still watching films on VHS. I felt sheltered, isolated, from changes and advancements in digital technology, and I still feel those gaps today. Like waking from a coma to find several years had gone by and things don’t quite make sense.

But working as a teacher now, it’s clear just how much has changed. Technology is still a tool, but it’s used in a different way – and for many of our students, they are incapable of ‘leaving it alone’. Integrating digital technology into the classroom means you can do all sorts of fun little things, or get them to work in more interactive ways, but it can’t replace the core essence of what teachers do. In that sense, it’s still just a tool. What’s really good about it is as an aide for students (and staff) who have things like dyslexia, ADHD, dysphraxia etc.

There is a persistent idea, which is present in the article, that teachers merely ‘facilitate’ learning, and ‘monitor’ it, but don’t actually teach (or rather, that this is an ideal model). It makes me laugh. Such ideas are always presented by people who don’t actually teach. Huk talks about an interview with a principal during COVID about the benefits of online learning – having experienced it myself, I and my colleagues know it isn’t as effective. Our students struggled, with motivation but also in understanding. As a teacher, my job is to translate content, break it down, explain it, present it, discuss it etc. This theory reminds me of SOLE, and of Gonski 2.0 – the idea that anyone can teach themselves anything. There are very few people who can do that, and usually only in one or two select areas (with a great deal of persistence!). But what they can’t really teach themselves is critical thinking, and so we now have the reality of millions of people ‘teaching themselves’ (“doing their own research” without the skills) about things and creating a whole whack of misinformation online.

It’s okay to see teachers as ‘gatekeepers’ of knowledge. Things have changed, and teachers aren’t autocratic dictators prepping students to work in the factory – which brings me to Industry/Education 4.0. Australia’s universities have already shifted from education to training, prioritising courses that skill students for a specific job, and not ones that teach them to think or encourage ideas. This is of great concern, and also marks a shift away from ‘experts’ in their field (e.g. scientists, medical researchers and academics) to individuals with an online platform and a camera.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a frightening, invasive and unethical dystopian vision!

“computer applications used at schools could allow for automatic substitution
for absent teachers and planning of education for each student.” (p. 44) Again, COVID taught us that you can’t replace real teachers.

References

Huk, T. (2021). From education 1.0 to education 4.0 – Challenges for the contemporary school. New Educational Review, 66(4), 36-46. https://doi.org/10.15804/tner.21.66.4.03

Education Paradigms

By Shannon Badcock

On July 25, 2023

In ETL504, Reflection Post

Informed by Robinson’s presentation, think about the influences upon a school – structural, cultural and societal and identify a key driver for change in each area that the teacher librarian could respond to through school library programs.

Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash

The British educational theorist Ken Robinson and his ideas regarding systems and structures of education – and how they fail 21st century children – are well known. Anyone working in a school knows that the disengagement and distractions of students – and the disrespect that seems to come with it – is a problem, and that our educational model doesn’t fit all. In Australia, we have the (probable) consequence that our educational attainment measures – such as NAPLAN and the PISA ranking – show that our students are struggling.

I wonder if, in our desire to embrace so many different pedagogical theories, and in drastically expanding the role and responsibilities of teachers, we have become fragmented and overwhelmed by options and choice. They do say that too much choice is actually a negative (is this a structural, cultural or societal influence? It can be hard to separate them!).

Similarly to Robinson, Paulo Freire famously theorised (and challenged) the concept of ‘banking education’, the idea that teachers/adults possess the knowledge and they deposit it in children’s heads (because, y’know, their heads are empty otherwise). This aligns with the factory structure of schooling that Robinson talks about. To be honest, you can see where the comparison comes from, and why it developed that way: efficiency. Anyone who has taught others would know that it’s pretty straightforward instructing a homogenous group, where the learners are of the same ability level, similar background, and non-neuro-divergent. Though also quite boring. And for the longest time, our schools ignored difference, forced left-handed kids to write with their right hands, and offered little extra support for anyone struggling.

Absolutely the historical traditions of pedagogy still influence schools. There have been plenty of ‘experiments’ led by departments of education in an effort to ‘fix’ the system – especially to engage those students for whom the mainstream school system doesn’t work. Many of these are well-funded and make for good ‘announceables’, meaning that a Minister for Education can look good on the news and then quietly let it all slip into obscurity when the data doesn’t show it’s helping.

Yet the Teacher Librarian (TL) is in an ideal position to support new initiatives precisely because they don’t have a rigid curriculum to follow: they can be more flexible, more adaptable, and offer a more personalised approach to student wellbeing than teachers often can (due to large class sizes, time pressures, expectations etc.). The TL – and the library – are well-placed to help with student wellbeing, which is a current social issue dominating Tasmanian schools.

There are major problems with our school system, and serious challenges. No one really seems to know how to fix them, because they’re bigger than schools. And many schools in Tasmania no longer even have a library, let alone a TL. We are floundering, the education department is adding more to our plates, and one societal influence that is occasionally discussed is the growing anxiety among young people – climate change, job insecurity, housing unaffordability, health concerns etc. With so many anxious young people, it’s really not surprising that they’re educational scores are dropping, the older they get.

Certainly a lot has changed in schools, even since Robinson’s talk (his reference to an ADHD epidemic doesn’t really fit an Australian context, and he doesn’t offer any analysis of the reasons why diagnoses increase across the eastern states – but it aligns fairly well with an increase in parental involvement and ambition, class and wealth. Getting a diagnosis is expensive, after all). In Australia, one of the big influences on schools is the notion of ‘choice’, and the growing class divide. Pasi Sahlberg’s essay “By design: New foundations for teaching and learning” in the Griffith Review is enlightening and brings a lot of strands together. In Australia, structural issues must include this incredible funding divide we have here, which only exacerbates class tensions.

Robinson describes the earlier understanding of people’s abilities as being either academic or non-academic, which is still a polite way of saying ‘dumb’ (but shouldn’t be). Sahlberg’s essay explains how providing parents with choice – and politicians encouraging them to ‘shop around’ (thus treating education/schools like a consumer product) is a major part of the problem. The other is our emphasis on ‘excellence’. We end up having to teach to outcomes, rather than skills – even though our Australian curriculum is skills-oriented. The recent push to collect data, and be ‘data-driven’, only adds to this.

Regardless of the type of school, the school library can and should be a neutral space, welcoming to all, not just so-called academic students. It can, through fun and engaging programs and resources, be an inviting space that may help students engage better in school. But to ensure that a school maintains the TL role – and its library – the TL must exercise leadership skills. I see this leadership role as a way of connecting the TL to every facet of the school: to be indispensable. Not as a power-hungry move, but to be able to perform the role as it is intended and to achieve the best outcomes. It’s a win-win, really.

References

Robinson, K. [RSA Animate]. (2010, October 14). Changing education paradigms [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Sahlberg, P. (2022). By design: New foundations for teaching and learning. Griffith Review 75. (pp. 84-97)

Reading From the Screen

By Shannon Badcock

On May 2, 2023

In ETL402, Reflection Post

Reflection: Think about how you process information and read. Are young people any different? Do they use technology differently to older people? Have ebooks ‘taken off’ in your school? What reasons could explain this?

Several years ago our school brought in Mark McCrindle for an all-day PL – repeated a few years later, weirdly. He used selected data to show that teens are ‘digital natives’ – a misleading term that has been widely countered – and thus that they needed a different style of instruction, using lots of short, multimodal texts. Pop Teaching instead of Pop Art, if you will.

Yet all of us listening were all thinking the same thing: that’s not our experience.

I don’t see a lot of difference in how they use technology, or how confident they are with it, only that they’re more engaged with SMS apps like Snapchat, and will be on multiple platforms. ‘Older’ people will probably only use text, Messenger and What’s App, and communicate via Instagram messages. Young people don’t like using email, but then no one uses email to chat anymore – that’s what apps are for.

Our students, aged 16-18, aren’t all that familiar with technology really. They’re just really comfortable with navigating their phones. They don’t know how to use computer programs much, especially Word. They interact, rather than utilise or explore. They’re certainly capable of learning more, but in general, their technology use involves a lot of passive staring.

Our school library had a subscription to Wheelers but hardly anyone borrowed books from it. Certainly the selection wasn’t super great – but even for the texts we did have, it cost over three thousand dollars a year. We ditched it.

Part of its lack of popularity is that a lot of teens aren’t reading much at all – they prefer to watch, and their attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Some do read ebooks but they’re more likely to borrow them from the state library, which has a really good selection. Another issue is browsing; they’re just less likely to do it on an app or the website. Even getting to the Wheelers site seemed too difficult.

I definitely process information in limited ways compared to others. My students are content reading off a screen but I need a print copy or my eyes struggle. Partly due to glare, partly due to the fact that text on screen invites me to skim. I suspect my students too this too, though! Many of the articles for this degree, I have to print in order to read – which enables me to highlight and annotate, which is a good study habit anyway.

Module 5.1 Discussion: digital trends

By Shannon Badcock

On April 27, 2023

In Discussion post, ETL402

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Working in a senior secondary public college, there is limited scope for embracing the latest trend in digital literacy or interactive media. A public school simply doesn’t have the funds, not is there space in the curriculum for much experimentation. With 30 weeks to teach 40 weeks worth of material and prepare students for exams, my experience has been not to get too clever. Working Padlet into my classes is about as inventive as I get.

What I do see is an increasing dependency on the mobile phone – not for learning but for distraction. Avoidance. There’s just so much going on in their lives, from relationship drama to sorting out a lift home to organising shifts at work. It’s hard to cut across that noise, so I’m not averse to integrating some form of digital learning – in the past I’ve tried student blogs, and creating memes, but these don’t have the same benefits of gamification, as described by Briggs (2016).

Their reference to the benefits of Minecraft in the classroom really highlighted for me the difference between what you can do in a primary school (or high school) setting, compared to a college. My son is in grade 6 and his teacher is using Minecraft almost every Friday morning to teach numeracy – but not just numeracy. Teams are given tasks, or challenges, to complete; doing so requires collaboration, maths skills and problem-solving, and then design and implementation followed by a reflection. Not only is my son super excited about being able to ‘play’ Minecraft with his friends in class, but he gets a chance to apply the learning in an engaging way.

Too often ‘engaging’ seems to mean ‘bells and whistles’, in digital device design. (There’s a nice bit of alliteration!) All those custom-made tablet-style devices for children, or the apps designed for them, seem to do little more than keep kids quiet. Some, like the ABC’s Reading Eggs (there’s also a maths version), are quite good at supplementing and consolidating more traditional classroom learning. The digital media mentioned by Springen (2011) are a lot more gimmicky than the publishers would like to admit. Which is why they haven’t ‘taken off’. There’s no substance to them. They’re not satisfying. You don’t get to sit with your thoughts, which we really need – our brains really need.

Photo by zhenzhong liu on Unsplash

Springen quotes several publishers as saying they don’t intend for digital media to replace print books; what’s not acknowledged is that young people are so distracted by shiny shiny, and getting so many dopamine hits from digital media/devices, that they’re not learning how to be present for a traditional book. It’s something that needs to be taught. My son’s primary school newsletter frequently includes messages about the importance of parents reading to their children from a young age, every. single. day. Digital media aims to free parents from this ‘chore’ and create a shortcut. But there isn’t one.

I’m generalising, of course. But that’s how we make a point. And my point is, it can’t be ‘digital media for the sake of digital media’. They’re not all equal. And just plopping a device in front of a kid doesn’t absolve adults from their responsibility to teach. There’s plenty of research on the benefits of print-based reading as opposed to digital, for learning comprehension especially (Delgado et al., 2018), as well as the potential harm caused by devices on children’s creativity (Ruder, 2019). Digital devices have a lot in common with TV shows like Cocomelon, which employs the same techniques to hook toddlers as poker machines do (Kosmas, 2022).

It must surely be about balance, and choosing digital media wisely and carefully. In terms of resourcing the library collection, I can see this being more difficult. Unlike books, Teacher Librarians can’t browse devices and apps with the same ease. And it’s not always obvious how a child will interact with it, or what exactly they will (really) learn. It will take a lot more work to research different digital media – and for teachers, more work to figure out how to integrate it in such a way that students actually learn something. They’re here to stay and so much has already changed; we do have a responsibility to teach children how to safely engage with and navigate digital and online spaces.

References

Briggs, S. (2016, Jan. 16). Using gaming principles to engage students. InformED. https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/using-gaming-principles-to-engage-students/.

Delgado, P., Vargas, C., Ackerman, R. & Salmeron, L. (2018). Don’t throw away your printed books: A meta-analysis on the effects of reading media on reading comprehension. Educational Research Review, 25 (pp. 23-38). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X18300101.

Kosmas, S. (2022, Mar. 17). Cocainemelon: Why toddlers can get addicted to watching Cocomelon. Evie. https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/cocainemelon-why-toddlers-can-get-addicted-to-watching-cocomelon.

Ruder, D.B. (2019, Jun. 19). Screen time and the brain. Harvard Medical School News & Research. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/screen-time-brain.

Springen, K. (2010, Jul. 19). The digital revolution in children’s publishing. Publisher’s Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/43879-the-digital-revolution-in-children-s-publishing.html.

Me & Children’s Literature

By Shannon Badcock

On March 13, 2023

In ETL402, Reflection Post

Conduct a personal stock take of your knowledge of children’s literature. List some strategies you use or could use to increase your professional knowledge of children’s literature.

Hi. I’m Shannon, I’m a bibliophile, and possibly a book hoarder as well.

My nearly 5000 books attests to that (they’re really not all worth keeping!). Of those, quite a lot are picturebooks, children’s novels, and Young Adult novels. Having children of my own was excuse enough to source quality picturebooks and, later, children’s novels. The YA novels are mostly for me haha. I do love having a home library, and I also use a lot of them in my teaching – from professional learning to lesson resources.

I’ve also been an active member of Goodreads since 2007, where (surprisingly) I’m still #25 best reviewer in Australia, but my ‘active’ status has definitely dropped off since I started teaching and I don’t use it to keep abreast of what’s out anymore. I used to review books on my blog (and cross post to GR), but I accidentally deleted my blog a couple of years ago and I don’t visit the book blogging community anymore.

When it comes to genre fiction, I have a longstanding love of speculative fiction – especially fantasy, science fiction and dystopian – and romance. I did my Honours dissertation on fantasy fiction and originally had plans to do my PhD in it! I also enjoy historical fiction, coming-of-age drama stories and some mysteries. I’m not much of a crime/murder mystery reader but I do enjoy them from time to time, and thrillers.

But my ‘knowledge’ of children’s literature could be better. As I work in a senior secondary school, our library doesn’t stock much in what I would call the children’s fiction age range (what the Americans call ‘middle grade fiction, I believe): mid- to upper-primary, especially, which can also cover grades 7 and 8. Some books, like the Nevermoor series, straddle children’s and YA (in that they are written for children but are just as enjoyable for older readers as they’re quite sophisticated. Note, also, that the first Harry Potter books were written for children, while the last ones were definitely more YA).

Which is great for helping kids like my son expand his reading from easy graphic novels (Captain Underpants et al) to more involved narratives that rely more on the reader’s imagination.

So when it comes to what’s available, what’s ‘out there’, what’s being published and emerging trends, I’ve been relying mostly on those delightful occasions when I get to go to Fullers or Dymocks and browse their children’s section. So many books! Gosh it’s come a long way since I was a kid in the 80s, when there was nothing interesting to read and they all had such terrible, terrible ugly covers! (No wonder Roald Dahl was so popular, he really had no competition!)

To complement my browsing, I could

follow more children’s book reviews sites/reviewers – Instagram is my usual haunt these days, but the reviewers I follow all focus mostly on adult books
I don’t know, actually. My brain is so tired. Is there a children’s literature equivalent of Good Reading magazine? I should find out.

What is Children’s Literature?

By Shannon Badcock

On March 7, 2023

In Discussion post, ETL402

Such an interesting topic! Having been through an English degree, the word ‘literature’ is stuck in my brain as meaning something along the lines of canonical, and ‘high brow’ – I don’t agree with it but the word has been used in such a way throughout the 20th century, and that’s the meaning I grew up with. (In short: elitism, often guarded by old white men.)

So some of the definitions of children’s literature rub my feathers the wrong way – especially the definition that includes non-fiction (Ross 2014).

The definitions that resonate with me are ones like Kathy Short’s (2018), who says that literature illuminates “what it means to be human and to make accessible the fundamental experiences of life” (p.291). I can see that a lot of non-fiction can do this as well, which brings me to the sticky part: quality.

Barone (2010) explores the definition of children’s literature as being of ‘good quality’ if it meets “critical analysis” or “readers’ appreciation” (p.7), stressing that this is subjective.

Witchfairy by Brigitte Minne & Carll Cneut

Too often, it is assumed that children’s literature must be ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ because it is often defined by age range – birth to the end of adolescence (variously 16 or 18, depending on the source). But they are far from simplistic – they are often quite complex and deal with sophisticated subject matter. It is the form that creates the illusion of simplicity. Really, ‘simplicity’ is more accurately ‘accessibility’. Like adult literature, children’s literature helps readers access a complex world, shape it, understand it and thus ‘control’ it (Saxby, 1985 in McGregor, n.d.) – i.e. control how it fills their brain and helps them navigate anxiety.

Accidental Heroes: The Rogues 1 by Lian Tanner (9781760528676) - PaperBack - Children's Fiction Older Readers (8-10)

Accidental Heroes by Lian Tanner

The way that we sort literature – into adult and children’s – is by form, which publishers control. Children’s literature is going to look different – larger font, more white space, often illustrations, brightly coloured covers. The style of writing is different from adult fiction – some adult novels seem to be simply, sparsely written yet the ideas are denser, and require broader, deeper cultural knowledge and understanding of society etc.

Some works of literature sit uneasily across manufactured, age-based divides, reminding us that, originally, there was no ‘children’s literature’; children read adult books (Barome, 2010, p.8).

Honeybee - Craig Silvey -- Allen & Unwin - 9781760877224 - Allen & Unwin - Australia

Honeybee by Craig Silvey

Books such as Jasper Jones and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time are novels that I understood to be adult fiction, but which others see as children’s literature because the protagonist is a child. Yet the protagonist of My Absolute Darling is also a child but due to its graphic content I would not feel comfortable recommending it to a child (I don’t say this because I want to censor it, but because it’s most definitely an adult book about a child). So the age of the protagonist cannot be used as a sole definer of what makes a children’s book.

Having read through all these definitions and more, I can see why there’s no one clear understanding. Ultimately, children’s literature serves the same purpose as adult literature: to help us see the world in new ways, create a safe space for us to feel new feelings, and challenge us to think again. The ‘why’ seems to be similar. It’s the way this is done – the ‘how’ – that is a bit different.

"Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.” – Nnedi Okorafor

Understanding Digital Literacy

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Education 4.0?

Education Paradigms

Reading From the Screen

Module 5.1 Discussion: digital trends

Me & Children’s Literature

What is Children’s Literature?

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