Literacy for a Digital World Part One

I teach Language Arts and Social Studies to seventh grade students at South Asheboro Middle School in Asheboro, NC. Our school is a medium-sized (approximately 600 students) middle school located in a small town. We have approximately half of our students currently receiving free or reduced lunch. As a public school teacher charged with teaching literacy to the future citizens of our community, I'm very concerned about the juxtaposition of expectations for our students. We must adhere to a curriculum that expects children to read, analyze, and write fluently; however, society demands that these students (as citizens) also be technologically literate. As a result, I am challenged with finding ways to teach my students to be literate in a digital society. Never before in our history as educators have we been expected to prepare students for a future that we cannot possibly imagine. Our technology changes so quickly, the sky is the limit as to what we will be reading and writing on in the next ten years. Unfortunately, public school funding cannot possibly keep up with current technology. It is impossible to teach children to create digital multimedia projects (an expectation in the workplace), when we are still sharing VCRs and using outdated hardware and software. My proposed project will bring the digital world into our classroom and give my students the hands on experience that they will need to succeed in a variety of workplace situations. The growth of the internet has created an audience for student work that a six-page, double-spaced, typed essay could never see. Digital essays and digital storytelling are a medium that will prepare our students to communicate with the real world--beyond our classroom walls, beyond our building, beyond our small town, and beyond our hemisphere! This medium will allow students to explore the world around them, analyze and evaluate real-world problems, create powerful representations of what they learn, and to create oral histories for future generations. This project would require a great deal of equipment that our school presently does not own, nor can provide budgetary assistance for. There are both hardware and software considerations including: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, AudioMixer, and a Digital Camcorder. While the list seems extensive, the payoff is well worth it. This project will allow children to learn and create in a medium they understand. We are teaching a generation raised on television, video games and the internet. Digital essays and storytelling allows them to take charge of their learning and create products that they actually love. Indeed, it is very difficult to arouse even the slightest interest in lengthy research papers and poster projects are far too elementary. My students live in a digital world outside of school, and they deserve to learn in a digital world as well. I thank you for taking the time to read my proposal and hope that you will consider funding a component of it.