Stephanie Branson

Assistant Professor of Reading and Literacy, Northern Arizona University

stephanie.branson@nau.edu

Essential question exploration

The challenges:

How to develop digital literacy skills and dispositions in preservice teachers

The Idea:

Develop a Tier 1 Preservice teacher strand

International Literacy Association Children's Rights to Read (2018)- Children have a right to access texts in print and digital formats. Children have a right to share and communicate what they are reading, writing and thinking.
There is a demand for teachers to know the complexities of literacy, including a range of text formats and spaces.
The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP 2022) expects teacher candidates will have the pedagogy, dispositions, and content knowledge to effectively model effective use of technologies to "engage and improve learning for all students."
Preservice teachers do not possess the same pedagogical, content knowledge of practicing teachers, requiring some additional considerations to reconceptualize the design based product, mentoring, and facilitator.

Essential questions:

How do we as an institute develop a digital literacy professional learning experience for preservice teachers?
- What's the most important take away for preservice teachers after a 40-hour digital literacy professional learning institute?
How do PSTs develop a digital literacy identity?
How do we as faculty and practicing teachers and educational professionals support PST, and also acknowledge their skills and expertise (value what they bring while also acknowledging developmental considerations)?
- What type of mentorship would be beneficial for preservice teachers?

Logistics:

What are different funding methods and supports for preservice teachers traveling to and staying at the institute?
What course credits or course substitutions would be most appropriate?

Action Plan:

Action step 1 - Organizational Plan, funding, recruitment (Fall-Spring)
- Reach out to Amy Broemmel (Associate Dean) Possible credit or class for PST participants
  - Could this count as coursework towards a degree program? Summer term
  - What other NE universities partners would be a good fit? (BU, Champlain)
- Grants or scholarships for attendees and travel
- Recruitment Ideas
Action step 2- Curriculum (Spring-Summer) and Inquiry approach/framework (Spring)
- Accessible Framework
- Scaffolds for Design Studio/more on "reflection" as part of the process
- Possibilities:
  - Reimagine a lesson using what you have learned this week- with aspects of digital literacy
  - Inquiry and wondering about in the here and now (what problems do they see? what do they wonder? what would the like to explore?). Design studio projects would focus lesson on lesson planning and more on something that is personally relevant and meaningful in the here and now- Example, I want to know more about balance and wellness in the age of digital tools and technology. or I want to know more about advocacy and elevating voice in online spaces.
  - Curation- how to collect, analyze, and curate a list of useful resources and ideas to take into future jobs
- Syllabus?
Action step 3- Pre-institute session and Implementation (Summer)
- Zoom meeting(s) to front-load and prepare PSTs for experience and logistics
- Team building and reflective exercises for a PST cohort/tier group

Project development

Tier 1 Concepts and Skills:

Planning and Curating Resources- collection, curation, synthesis, and application
- Intentionally develop the skills of curation (Sawyer et al., 2020)
- Intentional planning practices
Dispositions- (e.g., resilience, failure/fail forward, fear, patience, humility, listen, creative thinking, critical thinking, etc.)
- Working through new and sometimes uncomfortable formats and texts
- Persevering through problems and failures
- Listening and having an open mind about possibilities
Pedagogical Practices
- How do you build connections with students and what's the importance of starting off the year with connections? What's the importance of student identity and curiosity?
- Intentional classroom practices versus novelty or "fun" curriculum void of purpose and intent

Framework and Scaffolds

Does the existing framework need any modifications?

Supporting Literature and References:

In Progress....(newer lit and foundational lit across teacher ed, digital literacy best practice, and PD)

Cochran-Smith, M., Craig, C. J., Orland-Barak, L., Cole, C., & Hill-Jackson, V. (2022). Agents, agency, and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(5), 445–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871221123724

Gill, L., & Dalgarno, B. (2017). A qualitative analysis of pre-service primary school teachers’ TPACK development over the four years of their teacher preparation programme. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 26(4), 439-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2017.1287124

Langub, L. W., & Lokey-Vega, A. (2017). Rethinking instructional technology to improve pedagogy for digital literacy: A design case in a graduate early childhood education course. TechTrends, 61(4), 322-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0185-1

List, A. (2019). Defining digital literacy development: An examination of pre-service teachers’ beliefs. Computers & Education, 138, 146-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.03.009

Sawyer, A. G., Dredger, K., Myers, J., Barnes, S., Wilson, R., Sullivan, J., & Sawyer, D. (2020). Developing Teachers as Critical Curators: Investigating Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Inspirations for Lesson Planning. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(5), 518–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119879894

Acknowledgements:

My thought partners and mentors at the digital literacy institute who continue to push my ideas and thinking.

My students who push me to be a better instructor and mentor.