New Literacies in the Classroom

After reading "Chapter 3: Designing Space in a Rural Classroom" of Dr. Kist's book New Literacies in Action, I found it interesting that Clarence Fisher was able to bring technology into the classroom of the remote, ghost town of Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada. The way the students were engaged in his class showed that they actually found it interesting and fun. Although the students did not seem to understand the lesson Fisher wanted them to learn about the manipulation of advertising, from their actual projects, one could see that they actually understood a great deal about this subject. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this chapter and found it exciting that students were so technologically advanced in such a remote and rural location.

Upon finishing "Chapter 3," and glancing at "Chapter 4: A Dot-Com with Salsa," I decided that I definitely had to read this chapter; the title did it in for me. Reading more about the classroom Marco Torres and Veronica Marek set up at San Fernando High School showed me that the use of multi-literacies in a setting where there may be a language barrier is extremely helpful! A quote that greatly affected me from this chapter was when Torres stated, "In a poor school, the teachers rule; in a rich school, the parents rule." I thought about this statement for a bit and realized what he stated was absolutely true. For this reason, the teachers want to do all they can to help the community and students. Another interesting point I found in this chapter was the fact that these students lived so near to Hollywood and all of those magnificent sights and famous people, yet they did not care about the fame of those people. They wanted to use what they learned to somehow greater their community rather than be concerned with meeting famous people. I also enjoyed the part where they put on their ican Film Festival. The students basically did all of the work with little help from the instructors. It was amazing how tech savvy these students appeared to be. From reading this chapter, I would love to put on a film festival similar to this one in my classroom because I think it helps the students showcase what they learned. In a way, their film festival will be similar to the one we will have during finals week. (I wonder why? lol)