Melissa Cole New Media & New Literacies

Perhaps our students know how to close a tab on a web browser or maybe they can conduct a cursory Google search to help them discover answers to burning questions like whether Frida Kahlo is still alive (a real and recent question from my second-grade class during our Hispanic Heritage Month celebration), but as Jacobson (2017) explains, our students’ digital literacy aren’t necessarily transferrable skills, namely when they are asked to look “beyond the screen.”  Citing research out of Stanford, Jacobson (2017) shares about students: “…when it comes to evaluating information that flows through social media channels, they are easily duped.” This means that for our precious “digital natives” (Philip & Garcia, 2013), their ability to gauge that someone’s Instagram profile only shows the world a glamorized “highlights reel” version of their life or that the “breaking news” they just read on some blogger’s X account is actually “fake news” isn’t something that comes natural to them...

These days, if you’re talking about New York City public schools, then rumblings of a potential cellphone ban will inevitably “enter the chat.” While New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks ultimately decided against moving forward with a ban for the current school year, in an interview with CBS News, he acknowledges that the issue is “complicated” (Kramer, 2019) yet still, he continues to echo his stance that phones are a “real distraction.” Banks also tells CBS that he has yet to hear "anybody make the case for why cellphones have a benefit in our classrooms."  But the International Literacy Association (ILA, 2018) did make a case for cellphones in classrooms. They cited an example of an ELA class where once-quiet students emerged as “literacy leaders and experts within the classroom community” (p. 4) when cellphones were allowed (and even integrated) within instruction. In the Digital Age we live in, I think fashioning cellphones into this sort of “Boogeyman” would on...

Gone are the days when we could simply define literacy as “the ability of people to read and write” (UNESCO, 2017, as cited in Beecher, 2023). In today’s Digital Age, technological advances and societal changes demand that we expand our “conventional view of literacy” (Sang, 2017).  As our world evolves, so must our definition of what it means to be literate. Enter new literacies.  Beecher (2023) succinctly affirms that today, “literacy includes technology.” Sang (2016) broadens the scope of that definition, adding that new literacies call for us to abandon “standardized forms of language that only reflects the dominant language and culture.” The National Council of Teacher of English’s (NCTE, 2019) idea of new literacies is laid out by way of their comprehensive framework. Adding to our definition of new literacies, NCTE maintains that “active, successful participants in a global society” should “promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privileg...

"Misfeed at R2" "Reload Tray 3"

Good day! My name is Melissa, and I am a second-grade associate teacher at a charter school in New York City. I hold a bachelor's degree in journalism and politics from New York University, and I have been studying early childhood education as a non-matriculated student at Empire State University for the last two semesters. I am so excited to begin my studies in the M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction program at Empire, and apply what I learn here within my own classroom. When I'm not busy studying, I like spending my extra time with my nieces and nephews. We like to go to the park, Dave & Busters, and to the New York Public Library. I also love watching van life YouTubers live our their dreams by traveling around the country. I'm not sure if I would ever try something like that, but I do know that I would like to try a cross-country road trip. I can't wait to share my ideas with you all, and I welcome your feedback and insights! Melissa