The Changing Nature of Literacy in the Twenty-first century by Janet Evan

This introduction by Janet Evan's would have been amazing to read in regards to my MGRP paper and genres pieces. At the school at which I am observing I am seeing this transition of literacy in the 21st century becoming multimodal and teachers bridging the gaps between children's popular culture interests and school requirements. The past couple weeks at my school the students have been discussing Star Wars and videotaping the circle discussions and translating it into stories and pictures during writer's workshop. I enjoy seeing the students completely engaged in the discussion and their writing because it pertains directly to their personal interests. The main concerns that Lambirth (2003) points out is the ethical struggle that former teachers have with encompassing popular culture in class becasue of the linear model of education is highly focused on the past methods of teaching. A teacher might "say they get enough of that at home; why should I use it in my classroom?" But if you look at it in the eyes of a nonlinear model of education and as a student centered learning model - one would recognize that this opportunity will open educational doors for a student who typically might not engage in the learning activity. By using these digital literacy or technology literacy frameworks teachers will begin to see the curiosity to return to their students thinking and classroom engagement, will increase their ability reach the 21st century learner through multimodal texts, and will prepare their student for their future career paths that will involve technology!
I also like Gunther Kress's explanation of "different reading pathways between designed or displayed text and continuous print as the different between showing and telling," which highlights the use of and ability to navigate technology without proper instruction and experience (Kress 2003, 152). Students, teachers, and 21st century readers in general are experiencing the lack of continuous print and a need to read flexibly in a variety of texts as information is becoming so diversity in its representations and forms. By teaching students how to navigate the 21st century literacy model using a nonlinear approach, you as a teacher will see remarkable understanding and transformation of students confidence and ability to communicate. Students will formulate thoughts, ask questions, and begin to discover their own prefer forms of communicate in this diversity selection of options in today technological advanced literacy world!