Small group without the small group

In "Examining Literate Lives as Students Engage with Multiple Literacies," Tierney, Bond, and Bresler further our discussion of educational technology, and offer relevant points of view related to both the benefits of integration and the obstacles preventing it. For me, the most intriguing elements of their article are the student excerpts, and the manners by which students responded to new forms of communication and collaboration. Although group projects take many forms, I was drawn to the flexibility and range afforded by engaging in multiple literacies within the small group framework. Yet I was reminded of the difficulty in maximizing such potential within a language arts curriculum, and consequently sought an article offering examples of the utilization of technology as a catalyst for writing instruction. In Making Thinking Visible: Writing in the Center, Mary Nicolini describes the writing-as-thinking focus of Penn High School (Mishawaka, IN), and outlines several manners by which technology can facilitate learning.

Nicolini writes that "the best use of technology to teach writing is that of a "nudge." The obvious implication is that pushing students toward discovery, as opposed to the "production of essays," enables students to learn how to think, as well. Speaking as a classroom teacher, the hard part always seems to be coming up with ways to inspire students to look beyond what they "know" of reading and writing- that it is boring and unnecessarily time-consuming, and they'd rather be sending text messages to their friends. In a way, my favorite example from the article offers the best of both worlds. This process involves the formation of literature circles, with a writing-center chat room serving as the "small group" of collaborative learning. Students adhered to groups which had been initiated in the traditional classroom, but in this case a "moderator" led the discussion by writing as opposed to speaking, and the "connector" and "summarizer" followed suit. This reminded me of the Tierney article, and the range of roles evident within the context of multiple literacies, and seems to be the most significant educational advantage of technological integration. Whether it be through a frequency of communication or the variety of responsibilities, such learner-centered and collaborative tasks not only improve achievement, but also motivate students to stay involved. In this case the chat rooms model text-messaging, and offer students a domain that they are accustomed to. In addition to Daedalus, the chat program, Nicolini also cites Inspiration, a graphic organizer, and PowerPoint as tools that can be employed in a technology-supported curriculum. The "nudge" characteristic (as applied to tech-based learning) is certainly at work here, and one which teachers should focus on in order to truly move beyond the "show-and-tell" quality that we have previously discussed. It is important to be able to supply students with skills relative to the modern world (without overwhelming them), and both this piece and the Tierney article offer positive methods for doing so.