Do it first, or do it right?

I have chosen to read “How to Teach Students to Read the World” by Jim Burke (2001) for this blog. Over the next six entries I will review chapters of this book and tie what I’ve read to some of the framing questions for this course. One of the questions that aligns directly with Chapter 1 – Introduction: Reading the World is “How do new technologies influence reading and writing in our subject area classrooms?”

To put things in perspective, this book was published in 2001 so there is some dated information found here. However, the general idea of paying attention to the way in which technology affects teaching and literacy is still one that is pertinent, even though the scope may have changed a bit. In Burke’s introduction, he begins by discussing the access to technology that students have and the lack of ability that they may have in deciphering truth from fiction. The argument here is that many students will believe anything that they see on the internet, simply because it’s on the internet. As a teacher, how then can students be taught how to analyze reputable web-sites and decipher truth, fact, and fiction online?

As we have all probably heard, there is a new trend of “alternative facts” circulating about. We can look at the media’s interpretation of some information as a silly nod to this alternative. Burke discusses the media’s race to be first in reporting a story, versus being accurate. He also discusses the publication of stories online vs in print as a way of making sure that the reporting agency can change and update information (basically knowing that not everything is accurate on the first go around).

I think that a lot of people are used to hearing stories on the news and then getting “new and updated” information a little later on, and then again, and then again. “Updates” are ubiquitous with news stories now. So based on this knowledge, and knowing that information from the media is pretty inaccurate prior to all of these updates, how can students be taught to navigate this kind of world? Perhaps this is where becoming fluent and literate in a Discourse comes into play. If students are fluent in the Discourse of media and online information manipulation, then they can begin to consider ways to evaluate reputable and accurate information.

Burke talks about the ways that we should be different types of readers, and that we should not consider English class to be the only discipline in which reading and writing are important. I agree, and I am well aware that there is a common misconception in K-12 and college education that English class is where students learn how to read and write. Why this myth carries over when there is academic discipline specific vocabulary and ways of writing is a mystery to me.

So, I agree with Burke; we should approach reading in a different way. We should be thoughtful and interested in what we read. Technology, sound bites, video clips, tweets, and other social media updates have shortened our attention spans and increased our need for pretty immediate information, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be wrong information. And in making this decision, we can help students understand how to effectively use technology in reading and writing for their academic disciplines.