This Week's Readings

I found the readings for this week very interesting. I found the Pew Internet STudy interesting because the number of adolescents that contribute to the web is a very large number. Of course, all of us taking this class are contributing, and I guess I hadn't really thought of that until reading this study, either. I think this study says a lot about our world and what we as teachers really need to realize. I am sure there are many teachers who should probably be given a copy of this so that they understand that it is time to start making the move toward accepting technology and begin to try to incorporate it or allow their students to express themselves through multiliteracies. Which brings me to the other article, Adolescents' anime-inspired "fanfictions": An exploration of Multiliteracies. The part in the article that seemed very important to me was the point that they mentioned about teachers using students fan-fictions as a means for pre-assessing students writing so that they are equipped with the knowledge of what students need to learn in writing. I understand that they mention in the article that the fanfics are perhaps not suited to use in the classroom setting; however, I feel that for a more technologically progressive teacher, fanfics could be a wonderful way to encourage even the most reluctant writer. I am sure the teachers of adolescents probably have a difficult time encouraging reluctant readers and I would think that providing students with every means possible for engaging them in the writing process would be great.