My roommate Sam, a friend of mine for over a decade, sits on the couch of our living room, her laptop on her legs. Though her too-large tee shirt is wrinkled, and the dark arches under her eyes indicate weariness, her voice is triumphant: “Look at the website I made for my classroom! I got to use my Bitmoji, too!” I’d seen her working on it over the course of a whole work week, diligently plucking away on her computer with a glass of wine at her side. Now, I’d get to see the results of her work and wonder what else she has to do for her field of study.
I admire elementary school teachers greatly. I couldn’t imagine being around a bunch of children five days a week, let alone going to college to study exactly how to teach these children. Yet that is exactly what Sam does, all while interacting with technology in meaningful ways that fit her career choice. It has never been clearer to me that although technology by nature is broad, it can be molded to fit nearly anybody’s individual needs and preferences.
“Elementary educators use digital learning more than you think,” explains Sam. “I know that middle grades and secondary educators are known to use it, but like, the age of my students only affects what kind of tech we use, rather than whether or not we use it at all.” She went on to describe a program that the kids in her second grade English as a Second Language (ESL) class use as a warmup.
“It’s called StoryWorld,” she says, “and it’s actually really cool. It has a bunch of bilingual eBooks that the kids can choose from and it basically reads the stories out loud in their native language and then again in English.” Most of the students already know, to some degree, how to work the program (which is made for children, of course), but whenever her students are confused about a function in the system, it’s up to Sam to guide them through the troubleshooting process. She says on this, “It’s weird having to conceptualize the term ‘right-click’ to an eight-year-old. Even more so when English isn’t even their first language.” The trial-and-error method is what Sam likes best; she lets “[her] kids explore the software on their own a bit before [she helps} them.”
Sam engages with technology in the field of her career, but she also engages in a different set of practices within her studies. When asked what her most-used software was, her brows furrowed in deep thought. “Honestly,” she answered, “it depends on what class. But overall, probably FaceTime and all the Google products… So like, Google Drive, Google Slides, Google Docs… In that sort of vein.” Collaboration is a huge part of being a teacher, so these collaborative document tools find their way seamlessly into Sam’s literacy practices.
“Working together is so important in my field,” she says. “I don’t know what I’d do without all the Google suite services, let alone without FaceTime. These apps pretty much enable me to have meaningful discussions with my group members while allowing us all to work remotely on the safe document or presentation.” With a busy schedule like Sam’s, the ability to work remotely is crucial, and having proficiency in these technologies allows her to achieve that ability.
“And What about your Bitmoji? What’s the reasoning behind that in a classroom setting?” I had asked, my legs crossed and my tone curious. A Bitmoji is essentially a digital likeness of yourself that you create on the phone app by the same name. The avatar of the user is often used in conjunction with the social media Snapchat, which doesn’t really have pedagogical applications (or so I thought). At the question, Sam lit up.
She describes her professor’s reasoning behind the use of Bitmoji. Elementary school children are “really into cartoons,” art with round, non-threatening edges and bright colours. “Using a Bitmoji, in a way, makes me more relatable to the kids,” Sam explains. “It’s harder to create that connection in elementary school. With middle school and high school, students have a better understanding of the whole ‘teachers are people’ concept, so it’s easier to get somewhat on the same page.” She shrugged, and continued on to comment, “Using the Bitmoji is pretty much a method of making my kids comfortable and engaging them. It’s an age-appropriate way of being relatable.”
Towards the end of our conversation, Sam and I got on the topic of digital literacy. As a person who is also familiar with thinking critically about literacy, Sam reflects on her own literacy practices: “Yeah, I’d say that digital literacy isn’t really just a bunch of skills; it’s the types of ways you interact with technology, and how you hone your proficiency in whatever type of technology to decide to interact with. I use digital resources in ways that benefit me and my lifestyle. My literacy practices can look completely different than yours, or anybody else’s, for that matter. That’s kind of the beauty of literacy.”