scholarly journals Literacy Uses and Practices of Schoolchildren Living in a Contemporary Malaysian Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (10) ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Syerina Syahrin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
21St Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
Primary Schoolchildren ◽  
English Subject ◽  
Out Of School

This paper reports the uses and practices of literacy in English of primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. Data was gathered from two children, their parents and the English subject teacher. The results reveal four major findings. First, the results reveal that the students’ experience with out-of-school literacies in English were largely afforded by new technologies Second, popular culture played a considerable role in the students’ out-of-school lives. Third, the students’ engagement with out-of-school texts was influenced by cultural artefacts and social discourses, and fourth, there were also complementing and contrasting literacy practices reflected in both environments. This paper argues that awareness of the students’ uses and practices of English as they participated in different communities may enable teachers to incorporate aspects of out-of-school literacy into the school to facilitate the students’ learning. Additionally, it may also help teachers prepare the students to face the growing challenges of using English in the 21st century.

scholarly journals The Role and Value of Out-of-School Environments in Science Education for 21st Century Skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bjørneboe Berg ◽  
Marianne Achiam ◽  
Kristian Mandrup Poulsen ◽  
Lene Bech Sanderhoff ◽  
Anders P. Tøttrup
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Natural History ◽  
21St Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Alternative Pathway ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
School Environments ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Out Of School

The global “wicked” problems we face in the 21st century call for 21st century competencies. The formal education system is hard pressed to foster these competencies within the science curriculum. Accordingly, we argue that out-of-school science education can function as an alternative pathway to 21st century competencies among learners. We present four distinct community case stories on teaching science in out-of-school environments and link them to a number of key challenges linked to achieving 21st century competencies. Natural history museums have been the foundation of science for four centuries and have served as the basis upon which nomenclature of all living species and the concept of evolution has been developed, hence our first case takes place within this frame. Without fieldwork natural history museums would not have any collections and Case 2 takes us out there where it all begins. Humans affect the entire globe and all living matters. Case 3 tells the story of how waste becomes authentic and debatable during a visit to a wastewater plant. Finally, new technologies in the service of natural science is the scope for Case 4 where students collect and analyze their samples of eDNA at university lab facilities in collaboration with scientists, generating valuable real data for research projects. We summarize by discussing how, to meet the challenges of the future, there is a need to strengthen the content and context of curriculums as well as the skills of the learners within natural sciences. The four cases address different themes and skills connected to the highly complex problems like climate change and loss of biodiversity, that may be difficult to comprehend for the greater public but are urgent to teach the adults of tomorrow.

scholarly journals Affinity Spaces and Ecologies of Practice: Digital Composing Processes of Pre-service English Teachers

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Howard
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
English Education ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cultural Literacy ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Unique Experience

English educators are responsible for preparing pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the ways in which people engage in meaning making by using a variety of representation, interpretive and communication systems. Today new technologies are radically changing the types of texts people create and interpret even as they are influencing the social, political and cultural contexts in which texts are shared. This research project was designed to immerse pre-service English education students in the creation of multimodal, multimedia texts as part of a digital composing workshop. For the purposes of this paper, three student experiences were drawn from a group of twelve pre-service English education students participating in the project. Each student represents a unique experience from which we may draw insight and direction as English educators. Despite the ever present barriers to integrating afterschool (Prensky, 2010) literacy practices into traditional schools and to ensure what we are teaching has the important element of “life validity” ( Mills, 2010) and reflects the evolving socio cultural literacy practices of contemporary society, English educators  must provide authentic, engaging opportunities for pre-service teachers to learn about and through multimedia, multimodal digital technologies.

The Golden Age of Stealing: An Analysis of Queer Appropriation and Exploitation in 21st Century Popular Culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Deveau
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Queer Art

Popular media is a series of appropriations and citations of cultural productions, refurbishing past ideas to fit the mold of the present. Representation of art works and cultural products influence the visibility of the groups who produce for popular culture. While social media and contemporary art allow for the rapid spread of ideas through the internet and advertisements, too often are ideas stolen for profit for large companies by exploiting the artistic integrity of uninitiated groups. Queer culture often appropriates historical methodologies for a reclamation of the past to create representation for the future. Queer artists produce landmark aesthetics in visual culture, shaping contemporary fashion trends and artistic movements in the 21st Century. While appropriation as a methodology is not inherently problematic, exploitation develops when artists are neglected credit for works which are exploited for capitalist gain.The research paper The Golden Age of Stealing: An Analysis of Queer Appropriation and Exploitation in 21st Century Popular Culture analyzes the relationship between the appropriation and exploitation of Queer art, using the 1980’s and 90’s club kids as a platform for queer aesthetic production. The paper outlines the dichotomy between representation of queer peoples in the 1990’s and the aesthetics produced to question popular representations and roles within a western consumer society. Using queer performative theories including utopianism, performativity, and disidentification, the paper distinguishes why the stealing of queer art for profit is inherently dangerous and regressive for the queer community, silencing queer voices and perpetrating a heteronormative narrative of cultural production.

scholarly journals COMPUTATIONAL AFFORDANCES, CONTEXT COLLAPSES AND OTHER CHALLENGES TO LINGUISTIC STUDIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 583-600
Author(s):  
Vinícius Vargas Vieira dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
21St Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Communication Channels ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Marshall Mcluhan ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Linguistic Practices

ABSTRACT With the increasing incorporation of digital media in 21st century societies, a paradigmatic phenomenon is occurring on the language issue: communicative practices have started being widely mediated by technology. Besides incorporating earlier technologies, such as radio and television, computers have enabled users, who were mere passive recipients, to become information emitters as well. Starting from the principle pointed out by Marshall McLuhan (1964) that the medium controls the scales and actions configured in language, this paper seeks to understand the scalar levels of new technologies contexts and how they reverberate on meditated linguistic practices. Digital media are considered here as their own computational designs, communication channels that, far from being neutral, are previously set by large computational companies and, therefore, present ideologies and already configured forms of interaction, stimulating semiotic and pragmatic dimensions of language, reflecting on aspects of culture and, consequently, on political life.

scholarly journals An Investigation of Sites, Uses and Practices For  Literacy in the Lives of Pasifika Students

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John G Dickie
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
School Students ◽  
Lower Test ◽  
Pasifika Students ◽  
The One ◽  
Out Of School

<p>An investigation of sites, uses and practices for literacy in the lives of Pasifika students Lower test scores on school measures of literacy for Pasifika students than for the majority of students in New Zealand are a cause for concern. As part of a wider attempt to address this problem the Ministry of Education has argued that teachers need to be better informed of out-of-school literacy practices. This thesis considers what can be learned when this guidance is followed and it investigates students' social and cultural uses of literacy in family and community settings. It explores the argument that knowledge of these out-of-school literacies will inform teachers and through incorporation (McNaughton, 2002) teachers may be able to make effective connections for students to school literacy. A sociocultural perspective is used to investigate the social and cultural practices of the students while the study also uses Cremin's (1976) concept of configurations of sites to consider how learning is mediated for students in different settings. Rogoff's (1995) three planes of analysis provide a tool to examine students' practices at the community, interpersonal, and personal levels. The investigation sought the students' own perspective of how they appropriate knowledge about literacy as they collected information with cameras and journals on their own practices. The participants were 14 Pasifika students aged 11 and 12 years (mostly Samoan) as well as three adult Samoan church representatives and teachers from the students' school. Students' photos were used to elicit rich description in semi-structured interviews and interview schedules were also used with students and adult participants. The findings illustrate how the students were socialised into particular practices that are contextualised in the sites of family, church and neighbourhood. They reveal that for the students there was both overlapping of values and conflict between their sites of literacy practice. The complementarities occurred most strongly between family and church and a valued feature of the students' practice was the use of Samoan language. The most common conflicts were those related to popular culture and they occurred between the sites of family, church and school on the one hand and neighbourhood sites on the other as well as within family sites. The thesis argues that awareness of the complementary and conflicting features is essential for teachers in understanding the complexity the students face in choosing their paths among two cultures. This knowledge enables teachers to incorporate aspects of out-of-school literacy into school practice and to draw on those in the students' backgrounds who may facilitate students' literacy acquisition.</p>

The Impact of New Technologies on Professional Development

2013 ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Sarah T. Meltzer
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
21St Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Effective Professional Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Support Students

Professional development in schools is not a new concept; however, the impact of new technologies in the past two decades has shown it is important to incorporate research-based strategies in order to be effective. While strategies for curriculum-focused trainings may have been effective in the past, technology-focused training must take a different approach in the 21st century. Effective professional development will positively impact student achievement and is critical for sustainable school reform. This chapter addresses the importance of developing a new learning environment conducive to supporting professional development in technology. Key strategies necessary to support students’ needs in the 21st century are explained. Without an emphasis on specific activities and opportunities throughout the phases of planning and implementation, professional development will not be sustainable and student achievement will not be impacted.

Fostering Collaboration and Digital Literacy with Mobile Technology

2014 ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Technology ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
21St Century Classroom ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
Collaborative Activities

Multimodal literacies are an essential construct of the 21st century classroom, and mobile technology will serve to facilitate the collaborative creation of multimodal digital content. The mission of this chapter is to highlight the potential of mobile technology as a means for enabling collaborative activities and fostering effective communication. Over the past several decades, there has been a tremendous shift in how educators and students communicate, learn, and share ideas. The proliferation of mobile computing devices to a near-ubiquitous level has amplified this shift and compels educators to seek ways to harness the power of these devices to break down the barriers of the traditional classroom in an effort to make way for a more collaborative, reflective learning experience. Drawing on recent research on the cognitive benefits of multimodal literacy instruction and its potential for increasing opportunities for student engagement, this chapter provides a rationale for and subsequently sketches a practical approach for fostering collaborative, multimodal literacy practices through mobile technology.

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