As a student in the Reading Masters Program at Cal State L.A., I have always been interested in curriculum and instruction. Very early in my career as an English teacher, I enjoyed sharing best practices with my colleagues. To that end, I am interested in how instructional design programs and curricular tools can maximize students literacy development. As an English teacher, I am interested in the role of media in the types of texts students read and construct each day. Today's new media tools such as social networking, blogging, hypermedia and hypertext revolutionized communication yet again. These media can be powerful tools to help students hone and develop multiple literacies. I think the techonological tools can also help reinforce the traditional types of literacy as well, but are often unused in classrooms. I see a natural fit between media tools and the English/Language Arts classroom, as my goal as a teacher is to teach students to think with multiple types of texts. Hence, my fascination with media tools that facilitate literacy. Aside from the aforementioned tools, curricular programs that promote online writing portfolios and promote student (and teacher) writing of multiple drafts for authentic audiences fascinates me in that these tools have the potential to increase student writing and relieve teachers of a physical paper load.
As schools are social institutions, they are often slow to change, and hesitant to embrace the full potential of technological tools. As noted in Chapter 21, many of the changes adopted by schools are often piecemeal changes, and don't alter the general school culture vis a vis instructional design. Hence, one of the challenges I might face in working with instructional designers to design literacy fostering programs might be an overall resistance on the part of schools to adopt a programs not geared to high stakes testing. There is still in some ways an understimation of technology, in my opinion, on the part of educators who only view it as a method for knowledge presentation rather than a vehicle for knolwedge construction and management.
