EMPTY RHETORIC: Mr. Antero Garcia, DML chair for Innovations for Public Education, notes in this video that the difficulty in using technology to engage students does not reflect on the kids but instead it comes from “trying to get through the rhetoric that adults use to cloud pedagogical practice in classrooms.” Whoa. Tell it like it is, Mr. Garcia!
In a clever display of pedagogical practice, Mr. Garcia confronts and sidesteps that rhetoric by having students craft their own stories around their community. By facilitating dialogue between students and the mythical, wise (and now digitally literate) African spider, Anansi, Mr. Garcia empowers students to send text messages, create QR codes, and take photos (mostly available on mobile phones) as a means of acquiring critical literacy skills.
Not avid about arachnids? You can still share, learn, and teach pedagogy for digital literacy acquisition with Mr. Garcia and others on the Digital Is website, sponsored by the National Writing Project.
