Schools Need to Incorporate Computer, Information, and Integration Literacies

Computer literacy and information literacy seem to be two of the critical skill areas for students to learn in order to navigate and function in today’s world.  These two kinds of literacy embody the shift that has taken place in the concept of literacy in the United States.

The technological advances that have taken shape in the recent past have created a shared environment that collectively relies upon ever increasing uses of technology.  Traditionally schools have designed and followed curriculums that teach many of the skills that are needed in the adult workplace to enable citizens to lead productive and rich lives.  In many ways then schools have been like mirrors of the larger national environment.  The increasing use of technology has created a demand for schools to teach new literacies that relate to computers and information.  Both computer literacy, the ability to understand and use computers, and information literacy, the ability to understand and use sources of information, are needed for students to learn how to function and prosper in the current national environment.

Computer literacy instills students with skills that enable them to use the computer to access and work with relevant information.  In many ways, learning to use the computer is like learning to use a pencil or pen in the past.  It is a basic and fundamental tool that enables students to express themselves and to take in others’ ideas and factual knowledge. 

Information literacy of today is an evolved form of earlier forms of information literacy that may best be embodied by the term “research”.  Except today’s information literacy reflects the need for students to navigate an abundance of information that is readily available and constantly changing.  This information is no longer found in books but also in various internet sources and the literacy framework for this has changed accordingly. 

In order to help students learn and develop capacities for acting productively and leading rich lives as adults, teachers need to become literate in their own way. They need to become masters in integration literacy, which is the ability to act as an interface between learning standards and goals and technological resources.

In my own quest for becoming an effective elementary school teacher, I will need to concentrate my efforts towards expanding my understanding and use of integration literacy.  I will do this by locating and subscribing to professional resources that will extend beyond the timeframe of my current course in Literacy and Technology. I will also employ various technological tools and applications on a routine basis to increase my skills.  

These efforts will reflect my new commitment to immersing myself into the new literacies of the 21^st century and embracing them in order to benefit my students.