Literacy meets technology

Learning to read and write in Sharon Sinclair's "multiage" classroom at Elrod School involves much more than simple books, alphabet charts and fat pencils.

Students type their spelling words into Microsoft Word or PowerPoint files, and then jazz up the fonts to create word art. Older students - second-graders - who are more tech-savvy than their first-grade peers animate their spelling words with Adobe Flash.

They read plays into a microphone, and a software program records their productions. Those podcasts may end up on the class Web site, which is a jumble of kid-created Flash art, photos and videos. From the site, students can link to educational cartoon videos that cover subjects from similes to migration to chocolate.

Sinclair's "multiage munchkins" do read books, and they do practice printing. But incorporating technology helps keep students excited about literacy, Sinclair said.

"It fits in so well," she said, "and they're so motivated."

They're already using technology at home, she explained. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 20 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds were Internet users in October 2003. Forty-two percent of kids between the ages of 5 and 9 were online.

Many children in Sinclair's class access the class Web page from home.

"From there, they end up doing educational games at night," she said.

Like Sinclair, teachers across the country are embracing technology to help their students learn. Some educators, however, worry about the habits kids are learning when they use their high-tech toys.

Consider text messaging, critics say. Students used to texting as rapidly as possible, often with little regard for spelling and grammar, may incorporate their abbreviated writing into class assignments. In text speak, "R U" is an acceptable substitute for "are you," and "2" can stand for "to," "two" or "too."

But teachers can successfully use technology to teach kids good habits. In fact, they may have to adapt to the new tools, because the wiring in students' brains is changing, Michele Paine, Kalispell Public Schools' language arts facilitator said.

Before writing was widespread, brains were wired for learning in an oral society, she said. That changed after books became common. Now, Paine said, the Internet and other virtual texts are creating a new "digital brain."

Technology has caused some educators and researchers to redefine literacy, she added.

"What we're calling a text does not necessarily mean to read a book," she said.

The way people read and comprehend printed text is different from the way they absorb information off a computer screen, she explained.

"When a kid is a struggling reader, they're sometimes super-proficient at finding things on the Internet," she said.

If children learn to read and write with books and computers, they may become proficient in both. Sinclair often sets up literacy "stations" in her classroom that allow her students to improve their literacy skills using a variety of technological and traditional methods.

During a recent literacy station session, students recorded a podcast of "Chicken Little," with several students reading the play's different parts. Other students turned their spelling words into word art, wrote photo captions, watched online educational videos and read books aloud with partners.

Incorporating technology into literacy curricula isn't difficult, Sinclair said. She has been doing it for about 13 years.

"The hardest thing to get other teachers to realize is they don't have to know the technology," she said. "The kids already know it."

Students can help one another with the gadgets and programs and can teach their instructors, she added.

Sinclair does understand teachers' hesitation, however. She recalled her experience with her first school computer, an Apple IIe, in the 1980s.

"I told my principal at the time that I didn't want to use it, because they're dehumanizing," she said, laughing.

She thought computers were a one-way medium, like television, and was pleasantly surprised to learn there were interactive programs.

"That's what I want the kids to do with it is create stuff," she said, "not just be the passive observers."

On the 'Net:

www.sd5.k12.mt.us/elrod/multiage/2007-2008/index.html

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com