Connecticut High School Teachers’ Knowledge, Needs, and Expertise in Teaching the New Literacies of the Internet and other Technologies: A Summary of the Connecticut Association for Reading Research Investigation

adina Research

Julia Kara-Soteriou, Catherine Kurkjian
Co-chairs of CARR Research Committee

This Connecticut Association for Reading Research (CARR) investigation focuses on what reading scholars refer to as New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004) of the Internet and other information and communication technologies. Educators in Connecticut are expected to be teaching their students new literacies skills, including how to assess online resources, how to follow copyright and citation rules, how to demonstrate appropriate network etiquette, and how to use technology to conduct research and communicate information and ideas (Connecticut State Board of Education, 2004; Connecticut State Department of Education, 2006). The purpose of this study was to investigate how high school teachers, who teach in the areas of English, reading/language arts, remedial reading, social studies, and technology education, as well as librarians and media specialists, understand and apply the new literacies. The overall goal of the study is to inform public policy in light of the Connecticut State Department of Education’s published position statement on educational technology and information literacy (CSBE, 2004), as well as the Department’s framework on information and technology literacy (CSDE, 2006) and the increased use of technology by students in and out of school (Levin & Arafeh, 2002).

The Approach

To assess teachers’ understanding and implementation of new literacies, a survey was developed by the CARR research committee with the assistance of experts in the field of reading and the new literacies. The survey was posted online and was available to participants in a paper format, as well.

A randomly selected stratified sample of 1476 participants was selected from a population of 3955 Connecticut high school teachers (grades 9-12). The participants were assigned in three groups, based on their areas of expertise: Group 1 consisted of English teachers, reading/language arts consultants, and remedial reading teachers; group 2 consisted of social studies teachers; and group 3 consisted of librarians, media specialists, and technology education teachers. A total of 465 participants (or 31.5% of the sample) returned the survey. Group 1 represented 49.0% of the sample (versus 53.7% of the population), group 2 represented 28.1% of the sample (versus 30% of the population), and group 3 represented 22.8% of the sample (versus 16.3% of the population).

The collected data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures. In particular, the data analysis focused on how proficient teachers felt they were with the use of certain technologies inside and outside their classrooms, how much access to technology teachers had in their schools, what teachers thought about past professional development as it related to the integration of literacy and technology, what teachers expected from future professional development, and what the teachers’ educational background was with respect to literacy, technology, and the new literacies.

Recommendations for Stakeholders

Based on the results of this investigation and the recommendations made by several professional organizations in the field (i.e., International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English, 1996; International Society for Technology in Education, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c), the Connecticut Association for Reading Research offers the following recommendations to the Connecticut State Department of Education and other policymakers, school districts, principals, and other educators, as well as universities that prepare pre- and inservice teachers:

State Department of Education and Other Policymakers

  • Offer complete and varied types of support to help school districts, schools, and teachers to ensure that they meet the expectations of the Connecticut State Department of Education with respect to educational technology and information literacy (CSBE, 2004; CSDE, 2006).
  • Legislate policies and create funding that support rather than deter teaching, learning, and assessing of technological and new literacies. This may involve a rethinking of the curriculum and what it means to be literate in an informational age, as well as a consideration of the impact that high stakes assessment may have in preparing students for their technological literacy futures.
  • Allow for transparent and seamless integration of technology and new literacies in the curriculum through the appropriation of resources and funding. This includes, but goes beyond ready access to computers and technological equipment, and entails securing money for:
    • Sufficient and timely technical support;
    • Management and maintenance of equipment;
    • Support personnel who will engage in collaborative and instructional projects to support the curriculum; and
    • Professional development that addresses ongoing developmental needs during the course of teachers’ careers.

School Districts, Principals, and Other Educators

Curriculum, organizational, and instructional/ assessment structures should be in place or strengthened to support the learning, teaching, and assessment of technology and new literacies. These structures should include a school/district technology plan that is integral to the curriculum and should promote higher academic learning that incorporates new literacies. The development of this plan should comply with federal and state mandates to include key stakeholders and articulate a vision of technology that should include new literacies in a way that is integral to subject areas and overall curriculum. This plan should also incorporate ongoing program evaluation and learning outcome assessments.

As part of a school-wide technology plan, district/school administrators should actively support teachers in a collaborative endeavor to teach the new literacies by creating supportive forums, such as flexible scheduling for team teaching and shared planning, and structures that facilitate teacher collaboration, including time for teachers to help each other develop the new skills, plan, experiment, and teach/assess new literacies skills. Financial support or other incentives to take graduate or non-credit courses with a focus on new literacies, as well as technology and foundational literacies, should be provided to help teachers acquire the technology or literacy instruction skills they are lacking due to a limited educational background in the areas of concern. More specifically, school districts, principals, and other educators should:

  • Provide access to courses with a focus on the development of technology skills, particularly for English/reading/language arts and social studies teachers whose technology background is not as strong as the librarians/media specialists and the technology education teachers.
  • Provide access to courses on the foundational literacies, as well as the instruction of the new literacies in relation to both technology and the traditional/ foundational literacies, particularly for social studies teachers, librarians, media specialists, and technology education teachers with limited background in literacy instruction.
  • Provide professional development that enhances and that is clearly aligned with the school/district technology plan. Our recommendations for professional development are grouped under general and more specific guidelines:

General Guidelines for Professional Development:

  • Provide professional development that is ongoing, addressing developmental needs of participants, focusing on teaching, and is hands-on and practical.
  • Provide professional development that is supported by learning communities in which participants collaborate on a shared focus that is aligned with their technology plan and is integral to the participants’ content areas and curriculum.
  • Provide professional development that offers time for collaborative planning, experimentation, development of a comfort level, and implementation.

Specific Guidelines for Professional Development:

  • Provide professional development that makes distinctions between online and offline reading/writing, and places new literacies more as a literacy concern and less as a technological issue.
  • Provide professional development that is fine-tuned to address the needs of a variety of marginalized student populations with the goal to differentiate instruction.
  • Provide professional development for English teachers, language arts teachers/ consultants, remedial reading teachers, social studies teachers, technology education teachers, librarians, and media specialists, which offers learning opportunities on the pedagogical aspect of the new literacies, rather than simply the use of a new technology.
  • Provide professional development that helps teachers to use and teach the use of multimedia and visual information on the Internet for constructing meaning from online texts. Particular support should be offered to the English/reading/language arts teachers.
  • Provide professional development that offers opportunities to learn to produce and teach students to produce electronic information that makes use of visuals. Particular support on this skill should be offered to the English/reading/language arts teachers. The social studies teachers will find more useful the learning opportunities that are more focused on the pedagogy of this new literacies skill.
  • Provide professional development that helps educators learn how to publish online and how to teach their students to publish online. Particular support could be offered to the social studies teachers.

Universities

  • Conduct more research and selfassessment to find out how the new literacies are currently addressed and assessed in literacy, technology, and other content area courses, whether new literacies are embedded, and whether they are seen as a literacy issue. Prepare undergraduate and graduate student populations to use hardware, software, and other technologies that are frequently found in schools. Make the connections between technology tools and new literacies.
  • Collaborate with schools to develop field placements that provide best practices in teaching and learning of new literacies.
  • Develop and offer literacy and other content area courses that either embed the new literacies or focus primarily on the instruction of the new literacies as they relate to the foundational literacies and the other content areas (i.e., social studies and technology education).
  • Develop and offer graduate level courses that explicitly and extensively embed the new literacies.
  • Develop and offer graduate level courses that focus on the theoretical underpinnings and the teaching of the new literacies.

References

Connecticut State Board of Education (CSBE). (2004). Position statement on educational technology and information literacy. Hartford, CT: Author.

Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE). (2006). Information and Technology Literacy Framework, PreK-12. Hartford, CT: Author. Available from Connecticut State Department of Education Web site, http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=26 18& q=320870

International Reading Association (IRA) & National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). (1996). Standards for the English language arts. Newark, DE: International Reading Association; Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2000a). Educational technology standards and performance indicators for all teachers. Retrieved October 23, 2006, from http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2000b). Essential conditions for teacher preparation. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_esscond. html

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2000c). Profiles of technologyliterate teachers. Retrieved December 20, 2007, from http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_profiles.html

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2003). New literacies: Changing knowledge in the classroom. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.

Leu, D. J., Jr., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J., & Cammack, D. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies. Retrieved February 26, 2005, from http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp? HREF=/newliteracies/leu

Levin, D. & Arafeh, S. (2002). The digital disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools. Washington, DC. http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf

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The Full Report of the study (126 pages) is available on CD and in print format for $15 (to cover the cost of printing and postage). A hard copy of the Executive Summary is also available to all CARR members for free. For more information on how to obtain any of these documents, please contact Drs. Catherine Kurkjian and Julia Kara-Soteriou.