New Literacies

This is a lot to assimilate but so on target! I teach in a Pre K through 6 school and my classroom is a library/computer lab, otherwise known as the Media Center. I am fortunate in that I have the resources to apply the "stuff" of new literacies every day - but it is a daily learning experience for myself and my students. It is a lot to keep up with but I wouldn't trade it for any other position. The excitement and self confidence I see in my students when they are able to apply/explore these new literacies makes it a pleasure to be an educator. I feel better able to reach all of my students - each with their own"literacy" specialty - no one feels out of the loop. When they leave me at the end of our 40 minute period I know I have reached each of them in some way. New literacies better enables us as teachers to explore new ways to reach children that may not be reachable if we were teaching in a traditional manner. I collaborate a lot with other teachers in my school, for the benefit of the children, to bring everything together for the best learning experience. When my class comes into the Media Center and I tell them we will be working exclusively on computers, it is always a success. Learning should be exciting and if our students are savvy at these new literacies then let's use this skill to it's best advantage.
However, what about kids that attend a school that doesn't have the latest technology? I do think they also learn "new literacies" on their own through video games but probably without supervision. How will these different groups of kids come together at some point and be able to blend what skills they each own? I don't think it will be much different from life as we have known it - the things we grew up comfortably with in the same way my daughters are so in touch with all this technological literacy. I can make a lunch date with a cousin and her children (who my girls have never met) and in an hour my girls have facebooked their children and have become "friends." As parents and educators we have to be involved. My daughters know that if I cannot access their facebook then the laptops are mine. I'm sure when my girls are a bit older I can afford them more privacy, but not yet.