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EDCI 410
RESEARCH SEMINAR: LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Spring, 2001   University of Connecticut

Overview
This course is designed to engage advanced graduate students in critical reading, thinking, writing, and discussion about the central issues and theoretical perspectives in research on literacy and technology, especially the new literacies of Internet technologies. It is specifically designed to develop the ability to critically analyze, synthesize, and conduct research in these areas. During the course, students will explore central research in the area of literacy and technology with a special emphasis on the new literacies of Internet technologies in the K-12 classroom. We will explore this work within a seminar format. In addition, students will be expected to write an 8-10 page paper analyzing and synthesizing the research works for a minimum of 4 different weeks. The purpose of these experiences is to develop the critical skills of analysis and synthesis essential for success in the research community.

In addition, we will conduct a study of literacy events represented at classroom web pages of K-12 teachers. This will be a collaborative research project with me setting the general purpose and methods of the study and each of us contributing to refining the methods, gathering data, analyzing the results, and reporting the research. This study will be submitted for publication immediately following our course with each person listed as a co-author. We will use this experience as a means to understand the many different aspects of conducting and reporting research through an emic perspective.

The course will assume prior experience with reading/language instruction, graduate standing, a university computer account, an email account, and access to the World Wide Web of the Internet. As much as possible, individual needs will be taken into account when meeting course requirements.

Requirements

  1. Read the required articles each week, attend each class session, and participate in seminar debates and discussions. (I reserve the right to modify your grade based on your attendance and participation.)
  2. Write a critical analysis and synthesis of the works for at least 4 different weeks. You may do more.
  3. Participation in a listserv discussion, sharing responses to weekly readings, raising critical questions, and exchanging ideas about the study we are conducting together.
  4. Complete the following major assignment:
    A research paper providing descriptive information about the literacy events appearing on classroom home pages. We will work together to develop the specific research questions, review of the literature, methodology, analysis, results, and discussion sections. Each participant will receive authorship on this study. To give you a general framework for this study, consider the preliminary abstract below.
 

New literacies in the classroom: A study of literacy events appearing on classroom web pages

Donald J. Leu, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX
University of Connecticut

Abstract

Literacy is rapidly and continuously changing as new information and communication technologies (ICT) repeatedly appear and new envisionments for exploiting these technologies are continuously crafted by users (Reinking, Labbo, McKenna, & Kieffer, 1998). Literacy instruction is also changing as it converges with ICT such as the Internet (Leu & Kinzer, 2000). These changes are altering the epistemology of effective literacy instruction; teachers' envisionments, tested in the realities of actual classroom practice, are becoming even more important in defining effective instructional practice. This paper explores some of the changes in literacy and in literacy instruction that appear as the Internet enters the classroom. It does this through a qualitative analysis of literacy events published at K-12 classroom web pages. 227 classroom web sites were identified from several sources: Miss Rumphius Award Winners, Milken Award Winners, nominations from a previous study, and randomly selected classrooms listed at Web66. In addition, a web-linking strategy was employed, an Internet strategy analogous to snowball sampling. Web pages were included if they were current as of this school year and appeared to be in active use. Common patterns in both the nature and content of literacy events at these sites were developed using a constant-comparative approach (Glaser & Straus, 1967). Results indicate that while central aspects of reading and writing instruction remain, these are being fundamentally altered with the integration of Internet resources in the classroom. The results provide useful insights for both staff development and teacher education and help us to more thoughtfully evaluate claims that constructivist beliefs often are required for Internet adoption (Becker, 1998).

References

Becker, H. (1998) Computer technology and instructional reform. Available at: http://www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/html/tlc_home.html

Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.

Leu, D. J., Jr. & Leu, D. D. (2000). Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the classroom. 3rd Ed. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Portions available at: http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/third.html

Leu, D. J., Jr. (in press). The new literacies: Research on reading instruction with the Internet and other digital technologies. In J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Leu, D. J., Jr. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an information age. In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, and R. Barr (Eds.) Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 743-70.

Leu, D. J., Jr. & Kinzer, C. K. (2000). The convergence of literacy instruction and networked technologies for information and communication. Reading Research Quarterly. 35. 108-27.

Leu, D. J., Jr. (2000). Our children's future: Changing the focus of literacy and literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher. 53. 424-31. Also available at: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/RT/focus/

Reinking, D., McKenna, M., Labbo, L. & Kieffer, R. (Eds.) (1998). Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.


Evaluation
We will conduct evaluation using an emic-etic approach. In the final week of our work together, you will complete a self evaluation. This will be shared with all members of our research group who will then provide you with anonymous narrative feedback and a letter grade. Your final grade will be comprised of the average of these grades. (I reserve the right to change your final grade to ensure fairness.)

Texts
There will not be a textbook used in this class. Instead, we will be reading articles and book chapters in a packet of readings and articles on the web. Following our first class session, and when I better understand the backgrounds of all students in the class, a class packet will be developed and made available for you.