Kristi King-New Literacy Blog Post 3/18

In doing the New Literacies Project, I was happy to have taken the time to learn a new literacy and a new technology. Kidblog.org is a technology that was completely unfamiliar to me. Therefore, in order to get the most out of the technology, I had to take my time and learn the ins and outs of the website. This helped add to my knowledge about technology. As students explore with technology, they should be given time to explore that technology and independently figure out some of the features of the program. No one person has all the answers when encountering something new. Students need to be given instructions on how to use technology after it has been explored. Therefore, as a teacher, knowing the technology I am introducing to my students and knowing it well is important for myself as well as my students.

I enjoyed the affordances of Kidblog. As a teacher using Kidblog, I have the ability to create a safe, user-friendly blog page. I have the ability to approve posts and comments before they are made public. I can also make the blog page public or private in which students would have to have a username in order to view posts or comment. This ensures internet safety, which is important as students access technology. The blog page theme can be changed so that it is usually appealing for students. The organization of the page makes this technology accessible for all users.

Kidblog allows for teachers to provide effective literacy instruction for students in regards to emotional literacy. Emotional literacy is “the ability to recognize, understand, and appropriately express our emotions”. As a teacher, students can use the blog page to respond to prompts focused on developing emotional literact. Through this project, I learned that emotional literacy is imperative in students’ academic performance. I learned that literacy can be taught through technology once students gain basic technology skills such as typing, getting onto the internet, using navigation keys, and basic open/close actions. As a teacher, I would instruct students on how to navigate around the blogpage.

As far as emotional literacy, students will have to know the definition and importance of emotional literacy. This will help motivate students once they learn the benefits of being emotionally literate. Students will have to learn how to appropriate express emotions and respond to the emotions of others. This would be developed through activities, some with the blog. I would provide this support by conducting lessons that will help students understand what emotional literacy is. I would like to do skits or read books that promote emotional literacy before introducing students to the blog.