(1837)NAMING THE WORLD: SCAFFOLDING DIGITAL LITERACIES THROUGH LABELING ACTIVITIES

摘要

The fields of composition and literacy studies have been rife with conversations on the affordances and constraints of new digital literacies, especially as far as student prior knowledge is concerned [1, 2. 3]. As everyone recognizes that students engage in very different literate practices than previous generations, professional practices are also changing, triggering curricular redesign to be able to address the demands of the workplace for experienced digital natives. At Carnegie Mellon University capstone-level courses are most often project-based to give students an appreciation of real practices. However, while students are able to handle the technological demands of such courses (e.g. building or redesigning a website)fairly easily, it isn't equally easy for them to engage in concept-driven methodologies, such as organizing items or labeling them. It seems that in order for undergraduates to engage in conceptual activities at the level of application, we need scaffolding at the introductory and reinforced levels from other courses. A possible solution lies in scaffolding such activities in previous courses, but then continuing to build up mastery by allowing for continuous exercise and practice even while they are applying their knowledge in real contexts. Such an approach had implications for curriculum sequencing and alignment, especially if the expectation is for students to be masterful digital natives.