New Literacies Are Deictic

In Chapter 4 of the TPCK Handbook for Educators Hughes and Scharber present two cases studies of English teachers and examine these against the TPCK model. They also suggest that the TPCK model can be further understood through the multiliteracies framework proposed by the New London Group. In this work they support the claim from Leu et al that new literacies are deictic, meaning they have context that is important in understanding.

Additionally in this chapter Hughes and Scarber argue that preservice teachers need to exposed to teaching within the TPCK model in school so that they will be able to apply this mode to their future classroom. An example given reminds me of the project that we did this fall with EDU 302 and EDU 388 students in developing the HeartBeat units. However I can now see that the way we approached this project was in using technology as a vehicle to present learning and not as a way to approach learning. In the future better application of the TPCK model could help to strengthen these preservice teachers conceptions of teaching with technology. I am excited to share these ideas with my colleagues.

Context, through all this reading seems to be rising to the surface as an important consideration for learning and using technology - social contexts and the context of the schools where learning is happening. I plan on continuing to follow this idea to see how others interpret the importance of context.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deixis

Linguistic definition http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsDeixis.htm