Learning & Leading Through Technology - September_October

The onslaught of stimuli in a variety of formats, platforms, and social media has changed. It is a multidimensional world of 3D and 4G information. The nonstatic nature of learning on a variety of devices allows for this. From an educational standpoint, this means designing complex information (bit. ly/1bpjlSl), both as teachers and students, as viable forms of communication. Transliteracy is the process of changing ways of seeing and a method of demonstrating facets of meaning beyond traditional approaches.

—Patricia Russac is co-founder of the American Society For Innovation Design in Education with Mercer Hall. She is also a 13-year K– 8 educator at Buckley Country Day School in Roslyn, New York, USA.

To say that transliteral skills should replace language arts is to virtually say there is no value in the reading of classic or modern texts as a foundation of our literacy. In essence, that would mean there is no context upon which students can subsequently exercise transliteral skills. I dare say I would not have been able to write this very response had I not been taught to value the plain old reading of both classical and modern texts.

—A former high school English teacher, Jody Lambert is currently the assistant principal at Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA. She facilitates professional development for teachers to promote the use of technology in the development of literacy skills.

Here’s what other ISTE members had to say about this topic.

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Time for a Makeover

Given the vast changes in technology and communication at the turn of the 21st century, traditional language arts are in need of a facelift. What educators need is an upgrade of written platforms that work within the framework of written and oral production.

Troy M.

Teacher, Shanghai Maritime University Shanghai, China

Don’t Pick on Language Arts

Transliteracy is simply an awkward term for what in many cases is already happening in contemporary language arts curricula. The term does nothing to further discourse and could be off-putting to teachers who are beleaguered by Common Core, high-stakes testing, and a focus on STEM education to the feared neglect of the humanities.

Steve Taffee Consultant, Educational Collaborators San Francisco, California, USA

Incorporate Transliteracy with ELA

Educators must take the skills our students are using successfully outside of the classroom and incorporate them within the curriculum. Our goals should be to encourage and assist our students to successfully develop transliteracy skills in order to synthesize and disseminate new information using new media.

Julie K. Marsh PhD student Richmond, Virginia, USA

The Concept’s Not Big Enough

The concept of transliteracy simply isn’t big enough to contain the full scope of the competen-cies required to be an effective communicator today. Instead of another new term, it’s time for a simpler and more radical solution: Let’s bring all the literacies together by redefining literacy as the sharing of meaning through symbolic form.

Renee Hobbs Director, Harrington School of Communication and Media Rhode Island, USA

Formalize the Skills

STEM. STEAM. Transliteracy. These are all just buzzwords and phrases designed to indicate something that’s already happening in education.

And they tend to create controversy for people who somehow feel threatened by them. I would say, though, that educators and educational institutions do need to call out these realities and name them.

Brad Lakritz Director of Technology, San Domenico School San Francisco, California, USA

Harness the Skills for Learning

Transliteracy is something that is not limited to language arts. The key interactive skills and tools needed to be a part of the interactive culture— reading and writing—are traditional domains of language arts. The challenge in K– 12 education lies in harnessing the interactive culture’s skills and tools for a curricular purpose.

Mark Dilley Professional Educator Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Link Literacy and Media Skills

Using this lens to identify modal redesign in students’ literacy practices will open up new, previously inaccessible ways of seeing how they learn as they combine cognitive and embodied practices. It will enrich situated teaching and learning practice, particularly as it links literacy and media studies as forms of communication temporally instantiated in time.

Michelle Tomlinson PhD Student, Education Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Augment ELA with Transliteracy

If an ELA teacher 50 years ago was responsible for ensuring students could use a library, today that teacher is responsible for ensuring that students understand the complexities of the internet. It’s in the ELA classroom that students should learn to choose between using PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, and Explain Everything to create a presentation.