This post was adapted from the first blog post dealing with literacy through photography. I felt the previous version was somewhat technical and I wanted to attempt writing the post again, but instead taking a more subjective view of the issue based on my own experiences.
The word processor is dead, long live the word processor! It seems strange to me that in a world of constant technological evolution, that a tool designed to replace typewriters remains relatively unchanged more than 40 years later. We talk extensively in education about blended learning and integrating technology into the classroom, but there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to the idea of literacy. Assessment too often focuses on the plain written word---creative and persuasive documents alike are encoded to .docx or .pdf formats to be submitted online under the guise of employing technology in the classroom, and student learning styles are quickly forgotten in the process.
Differentiation in the classroom is not a new concept, but the ideas have only started to gain traction recently. I differentiated my own learning experience in high school and university by avoiding essays like the plague, and I haven't written one in over twelve years. That means that since the last time I wrote an essay there have been children that were born and are now writing essays themselves. So how do we reach students like me that would rather have missed an assignment, skipped school, or switched out of a class to avoid assessments they are uncomfortable with? How can we supplement our antiquated word processor in order to help students learn in the 21st century?
The Ontario language curriculum makes frequent mentions of how photo essays might be used in the classroom, however something peculiar happens at the grade eight level: complex text and imagery are suddenly treated as divergent topics, and all mentions of photo essays are dropped entirely. Children grow up first learning to read from picture books, drawing meaning from images and connecting them to the words on the page, but later this practice is abandoned for walls of text of increasing complexity.
But what of more complex images? Encouraging students to analyze and interpret aspects of photographs such as audience, purpose, and perspective will give them the ability to move forward with a more objective view and will translate into a more self aware and responsible environment in which students engage culture and society through images.
Beyond the intellectual practice of analysis, photographs also provide many ways for differentiation in the classroom. Photography is an excellent tool for engaging visual learners and student creativity. It allows a unique opportunity for students to construct meaning in a medium other than text, a practice which could be particularly useful for students that are not native speakers of a language, or that require accommodations on written work.
Too long; didn't read. It is a phrase that has become commonplace online, highlighting our disinterest in the written word. While aliteracy is not something new to our society---Orwell wrote on the subject nearly 70 years ago---there seems to be a collective ignorance about what this means for the future of education. Students may continue to write essays, but for the vast majority of learners there must exist an alternative to the long-form constraints of traditional education.
Here in the digital age, we have access to photographs of almost every person, place, and event that exists in our world. Social media has become inundated with pictures, and platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are now primary channels of communication for many young people. We therefore need to leverage this vast new resource not only to fulfill the expectations of the media literacy strand of the curriculum, but to promote student literacy and the responsible use of technology in all areas of education. Students have taken the initiative to differentiate how they express themselves, and the least we could do is try to meet them halfway.
