second blog

Identify a learning or participation issue that you’re struggling with in your tutoring:

I'm actually having a lot of trouble trying to remember what it's like to be a child. Obviously, I don't remember how I thought, what the world was like, how exactly I viewed adults, what I wanted etc. because I was confused and young. This makes it quite difficult to decide how to treat a child, how to address him/her, what is permissible and what is not. This is especially difficult because I don't have too much experience with children.
It is an exciting journey for me, to decipher the world of children. I find myself attempting to view the world on their terms in order to understand them, because I'm a firm believer in that empathy is the most effective tool in teaching.



Thinking together with the others in your in-class groups today, what are some issues of common concern that tie a concept(s) from the readings to practical concerns of beginning tutoring, and/or your own literacy journeys thus far? (an open question to be sure!):

I'd like to first address the role of technology in education today. It is so interesting to see how children interact with incredibly accessible advanced technology and the internet. I have very mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, technology is a fantastic tool to advance the education of youth, especially because our exponentially expanding world economy is based so much on technology. Children need to know how this technology intimately if they are going to survive in the fast paced modern world.
However, I do naturally have a tendency to believe there is some romantic value to "analog education." The circle reading of books instead of internet articles, the creative process of making arts and crafts and poster presentations instead of power points and videos, the beauty in having a field trip to the park for escape from industrialized society instead of to take pictures of everything for education media.
I guess there's necessity in both elements of education, and the most effective way is to have a balance of technology and "analog education."

To come back to the matter at hand, this ties into the ideas of literacy we have been discussing in class because the whole concept of literacy is at question when looking at the types of technology that are available to children today.
One can either see it as lessening the importance of literacy or emphasizing it. For instance, since these days people can't survive without the internet (which is based on literacy) children MUST learn to read and write if they are expected to survive in the world economy.

However, one can also see this form of literacy as not literacy at all, but perhaps "semi-literacy." People don't need to have the proficiency of a novelist if they want to understand most of the media around us. "Semi-literacy" as I define it, is a proficiency within the realm of necessity but not reaching the level of valuable discourse. But since the internet allows people to learn with very limited reading and writing ability, it may prevent people from reaching beyond semi-literacy.

In my opinion, technology is improving literacy because literature and text is so readily available to everyone due to the internet. I've seen it first hand in my very limited volunteer experience thus far, and I believe that it's a great thing.