Reaction to Podcast

It was fascinating listening to my first podcast from home today. It was very informative and helpful to get my professor's perspective on the readings for this week. I now have a different viewpoint of the term literacy(cies). I understand how it would be very difficult to be completely illiterate today.
I can relate to my professor's experience with the Hispanic culture in Denver; I taught 8th grade in a school system in Hudson County and was immersed in their culture. Multiculturalism was a common theme in our classroom and it was part of the educational experience. They also taught me a lot about their culture and food was important to them. We ended up having our own International Day where we learned about each other's holidays and sampled various types of foods. They were very proud of their heritage, and it impacted on how they perceived the world and on their education. They loved telling stories and sharing information about their country of origin. Even though they were mostly all Spanish, other cultural groups were represented such as students from India and I had one Russian student. This was a unique group of children because they had been selected to be in the self-contained laptop program at their school. We were on the cutting edge of the latest technology at that time. This district promoted learning cooperatively with technology.
Everyone I taught had English as their second language and I was required to take ESL classes by the district. I learned a lot about different learning styles in my coursework.
I realize now how much impact new literacies and technology affects our students and also myself as a new graduate student. I never thought that I would be a blogger or a moodler. Here I sit reacting to new and exiting ways of learning from my home computer. We are never too old to learn something new. I am very motivated to learn in this new and exciting way.