Erica's Reflection

I chose to explore social literacy through podcasting technology.    Social literacy is actually a very broad terms that generally refers to the literacy skills that a person needs in different social contexts.  Due to social literacy referring to so much, I decided to approach one aspect of it-literacy skills needed for written communication through technology (such as contributing to a wiki page or using an instant messenger.  Traditionally, writing skills referred to a person actually writing with a pen and paper.  Now, this terms refers to so much more because of the large use of computers.  

I used a podcast as my technological means for sharing my newly gained knowledge of social literacy.  A podcast is where someone records a conversation, posts it to the internet, and then allows people to access the .wav or .mp3 file so that they can listen to the conversation.  

Before I began doing research for this project, I had an idea of social literacy was based upon just knowing what the word "social" and "literacy" meant.  However, the details and if I was completely right was where I was still unsure.  After researching the topic, I learned a great deal about social literacy and that it includes more than I had thought.  I know realize that it has to do with peoples'  body language, spoken word, written (pen and paper, internet, etc.) and reading ability in different social contexts.  I was very surprised to learn that this term referred to so much! 

Also, before  I began researching information about podcasts, I already had experience in listening to them.   However, the reason why I chose to use podcast was because I had absolutely no idea of how to even make one.  Actually, making the podcast took up more time than actually the researching of social literacy.  I had a very difficult time finding a website that would allow me to post my podcast without paying money.   In the end, because I had such a challenging time, I now feel more confident and experienced with podcasts and how to get them posted so that people can access them.

I created a lesson plan for Kindergarten students.  I believe that creating a podcast is something that they could do as in providing the spoken part.  The students have the ability to write down or draw pictures of what they know or have learned about.  If not, the teacher could even prompt the student with questions and he/she could respond verbally directly to the audio recording for the podcast.  As long as the students are able to talk about any topic I believe that they could create an actual podcast.  However, when it comes time to actually put the podcast on the internet, I believe that they would not have the skills to do so and would need assistance from the teacher.  It has many steps including registering, uploading files, etc.   After this project, I now see more than ever, the importance of including technology into literacy.  Technology and literacy go hand-in-hand in so many ways in terms of why we use it (to communicate for example), how it can be used (sharing written or spoken information on the internet) and why (in order to communicate).  By incorporating technology into literacy as soon as possible, I think that students will learn to feel more comfortable with technology thus allowing them to have access to many more resources to further their own knowledge and understanding.