New Media & New Literacies

Digital tools in contemporary K–12 education actually are no longer supplementary but rather core elements of teaching, learning, and communication. This blog post goes through two such platforms through the perspective of user engagement, communication, information consumption, and digital literacy. Both platforms represent how digital media can empower students, support their educators, and provide avenues for family engagement but they also raise literacy, equity, and safety concerns in the digital age.   Case Study 1: ClassDojo  Overview ClassDojo operates as a communication platform for the classroom, bringing teachers, students, and parents together. Teachers can post updates, assign behavior points, or share multimedia content. Parents can check on their child's progress and communicate with teachers. Its time of greatest popularity is in elementary and middle school but is also applicable to high school classrooms. User Engagement Teachers use ClassDojo to reinforce be...

As a high school global history teacher, I often ask students to think about how citizens throughout history have participated in shaping their societies. But in today’s world, participation looks very different. Social media platforms, online campaigns, digital petitions, and real-time information sharing have become powerful tools for civic engagement. That’s why I’ve decided to focus my final project on Digital Civic Literacy and Youth Participation in the Age of Social Media . This topic interests me because it intersects with the digital lives of students and the historical content I teach. More importantly, it speaks to the kind of informed, critical, and engaged citizens we hope to cultivate. Many of my students use platforms like TikTok and Instagram daily, but don’t always recognize these as spaces of political discourse, activism, or even misinformation. Exploring this topic will allow me to investigate how educators can help students not just consume content passively but cr...

As a 9th and 10th grade global history teacher, I have always strived to establish connections between the past and the present in a student's life. These readings have challenged me to think critically about the ways classroom design might further extend learning beyond digital screens. As Philip and Garcia (2013) suggest, although our students are deeply immersed in the technology, they still require purposeful pedagogy to critically navigate these digital spaces. Technology is not transformative by itself but relies on our intents for instruction. Designing "across spaces" means realizing that learning is not confined to a device. According to Hernandez (2017), educators must "reframe the medium" to consider digital tools as part of a more holistic learning environment that also includes hands-on activities, collaboration, and reflection. Thus, in the design of learning experiences, I look to balance the students' engagement with digital literacies with...

     Within this module, we have explored the need for incorporating digital literacy within our classrooms and curriculum.  This week I chose to read and reflect on I mproving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice  by the International Literacy Association (2022) and  Teaching Skills That Matter: Digital Literacy Brief  from the American Institutes for Research (2022).  These two texts provide a comprehensive view of the crucial role of digital literacy within education.  As a high school global history teacher, it is a priority of mine to apply my learning and experiences with digital literacy into my curriculum for the overall benefit of my students.        I mproving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice  by the International Literacy Association (2022) emphasizes critical digital literacy as essential for social justice and democratic participation.  This brief argues that edu...

As a high school teacher of global history, I am continually working out the most efficient ways for my students to access, interpret, and communicate information. New literacies, as defined by Knobel and Lankshear (2007), challenge the limited view of skills that have been traditionally framed within narrow bounds of academic reading and writing by actually recognizing literacy as socially situated practices for making meaning through "encoded texts" in participatory Discourses (p. 24). That move from the theoretical into real social practices makes things of equity, engagement, and relevance with my classroom. In global history, students explore diverse narratives, cultures, and power structures. Yet, if I only value literacy as formal reading and writing, I unintentionally silence the varied ways students already make and share meaning through memes, TikToks, YouTube, fan fiction, and even Discord discussions. As the NCTE’s Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age argues, ...

Hi everyone, My name is Victoria Ferrara.  I am a first year 9th and 10th grade Global History Teacher in Queens, NY.  I live on Long Island and commute via train 4 hours each day to my high school as I was desperate to start teaching.  I have grown to love my school and can see a long career here with the wonderful staff, admin, and students I work with every day.  I got my bachelors degree in 2022 at St. Joseph's University in History Adolescent Education.  I was a building sub, coach, and medical assistant for a few years until I landed my first full time position last fall.  I started SUNY Empire in the spring as I am on track to achieve my masters by summer of 2027.   New Media & New Literacies is a course I am very excited to be a part of as our world has evolved around media and technology.  I am hoping to learn how to effectively incorporate technology and media in the classroom and as an aid to the development of my students' lit...