Literacy
The term literacy denotes the ability to read and write. But it connotes a lot.
Even those who knows reading and writing may be illiterate in so many other ways. In our times those who do not know the basic operations of the computer and internet are illiterates !
A person becomes computer literate when he is able to use his knowledge on computer. But we do not use this simple logic when we speak about literacy in the general sense.
We say somebody is literate when s/he has preliminary education or s/he has a graduation,etc. We never think whether s/he is able to use this knowledge or not.
The horizon of knowledge has been expanding and those who are educated are not updating their knowledge. Then can we still call them as literates/graduates/masters,etc? Can we call a person who only knows DOS but not Windows a computer literate? Certainly not? This is the same with any other subject. This is one thing about Literacy/Education.
What Will I Do With My Literacy / Education.
First of all I need a job. If it is suitable to my tastes then it will be great. I would like to use my skills(which I learned or perfected through education) to produce something new. Also I want to use my skills for the good of the society.
When I was working as a teacher, I always tried to produce something new. Either from the efforts of the students or by me myself. It is the only way I get satisfaction. It is not mere money that can give us happiness. Even if we have all the money, we may not be happy. Because to be happy, we need something more; other than money.
I am not a poet or artist. But I have the same feelings of a poet. But how can I express my feelings? Since I cannot write poems, what will I do? One thing I can do is to create something artistic which may be as poetic as a poem. This is possible because we have modern technology.
While I was teaching, I used to make powerpoint presentations and other materials. This may seem simple. But it is not so.
I download pictures, music and write words then create this. It takes a lot of effort. It gives us a lot of pleasure also. We need a lot of reading. And a lot more imagination..
One thing I noted about this is that this is a form of self expression.
So when I was offered the course - Writing for Life - I was delighted much. I hope I can progress in this.
Thanks, Sandeep, for letting me know during class you posted this. If you need access to computers or Internet, feel free to stop by the office on the third floor at the end of the hallway.
ReplyDeleteGood notion of denotion and conotion. At one level literacy is, simply, reading and writing. But on another level, as you suggest, it involves putting reading and writing into action. It's reading and writing in context. And there are always already multiple levels of literacy. That is, I am illiterate in Hindi, but I'm not illiterate in English. And I am more literate in English than some, and not quite in some areas as others.
I sometimes teach website design. Your point about computer literacy is very good. Do people need to know HTML code in order to know website design? I think so, as there are always times where one has to fix a page and the WYSIWYG program doesn't fix the problem. There's a sort of underlying literacy to literacy, or as we put it in class today, assumptions. There are assumptions in any given communicative situation that influences one's interpretation of a text.
Some things are common worldwide: we're in school, in some part, to get a job. Period. Must make money to exist, and must contribute productively in society to exist. Excellent goal, too, to produce something altogether new.
I'd love to hear more about your experiences working as a teacher, Sandeep. Maybe you can post another blog post about that. Like you, I find art in design or using computers. I wouldn't call myself artistic, but there is beauty in design. Creating multimodal compositions, like you say, is a difficult art. I look forward to seeing ways in which you use your skills as a teacher and computer literate person with the material of the course.
If you're interested in working with me to design a _Monsoon Wedding_ poster promoting the screen of the film next month, please email me! Martin may be helping as well.
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ReplyDeleteSandeep,
ReplyDeleteComputers now dominate every field of our life. So, computer education is necessary today. From the primary level, the students get training in Computer education. But there are some other people who even don’t know how to use it, my mother for instance. She is working as a health inspector. She is now forced to mail the weekly reports to her superior officers. She doesn’t know anything about computer. So she decided to join an institute that teaches her basic things like mailing. Now she is able to grasp it...
can u plz write more about ur teaching experiences? waiting 4 it