As a teacher, I have long thought that if I could know which strategies were the most important for novice online readers to develop, then both my pedagogical efforts and my students’ learning efforts could be tailored for results. The logic here is somewhat economic and linear: Return on investment (ROI) is likely to be maximized if teachers and students focus efforts on the particular learning strategies most likely to support advanced reading comprehension.
If we consider the example of inquiry-based activities we often ask students to do online (e.g., “go online to learn about climate change and then write a report”), studies have shown that appropriate use of particular online reading strategies can lead to better understanding of the topic. The logic of ROI is not, therefore, misguided. During online inquiry, studies have shown that experts are more likely to ask questions related to purpose, generate search terms to allow quick access to relevant information, and evaluate its trustworthiness. Experts also engage recursive processes of connecting background knowledge with the salient ideas they read in the texts they find. Experts synthesize understanding and then communicate it using (at a minimum) knowledge of genre, medium, and audience. Experts also persist in the face of challenge. They are critical, recognize gaps in understanding, and adjust strategies seamlessly to find meaning. It is truly a wonder to see this unfold.
When presented with the same tasks, novices can struggle. They are more quickly overwhelmed. They can lose their focus. Teachers and librarians who have seen novices struggle with cognitive overload have asked me to advise them of the order in which this array of known expert strategies should be taught. Sometimes, they ask me how to chunk the strategies so that they can be presented discretely, in more manageable parts for their novice learners to practice and acquire.
Lately, I’ve been thinking that the appropriate response to my colleagues should be a set of questions that explore the fit between the complex thinking we would like students to develop, and the pedagogies we adopt to scaffold their emergence.
I’ve come to think our pedagogies should be inspired more by an integrated, ecological view of literacies systems and less by the belief that complex literacies activities can be deconstructed and taught piece by piece or strategy by strategy. Knowing what experts do is a fundamental starting place, but lately I’ve wondered whether ROI is the right way to frame my thinking as a teacher of online literacies, especially when, as a field, we don’t yet understand all of the interactions at play as diverse online readers construct meaning.
This morning, the intricate blooms of the peonies in my garden made me wonder whether ecological models could inform online inquiry and strategies instruction and, if so, what that might involve.
Looking at the peonies, I remembered how I waited for them to bloom. I planted them first in one spot, and then another but, for years, they didn't seem to do anything. They had stems. They had leaves. I watered them. Nothing happened. I fertilized them. Nothing changed. My mom encouraged me to be patient. “They take a while to get established,” she said. I didn’t think she meant seven years.
Now, when I see the intricate swirling of the petals, I am reminded that this beautiful flower emerged from complex systems. The conditions for peonies are multifaceted and interconnected. There are no blooms if the roots haven’t had time to grow deeply. There are no blooms without a balance of nutrients, or a slightly acidic pH. There are no blooms without sunshine and rain. There are no blooms without repeated cycles of growth and senescence. There are no flowers in June without December’s frost. Which of these conditions is most important, or which should come first or last?
If, as teachers of digital literacies, our goal is to enable learners to develop complex and similarly beautiful processes of meaning making through online inquiry, then maybe peonies can help us to plan instruction.
Just as we know that peonies need nutrients, sun, and rain, teachers must know which online reading strategies are important. However, adopting a systems view of strategies instruction may be more appropriate than one that is too discrete or linear.
What would happen if students were offered repeated and diverse opportunities to engage with a range of online inquiry tasks over time and with diverse disciplinary, rhetorical, and communicative purposes driving their work? What would happen if every teacher, every year, in every subject area helped students to identify and explore the many important and recursive online reading strategies required for inquiry across disciplines, texts, media, and contexts but without emphasizing particular strategies as more essential than others?
June brings flowers and time for teachers to reflect. Systems, complexities, interactions, context, and conditions. Could peonies inspire us to think differently about digital literacies instruction next year?
Michelle Schira Hagerman is a newly appointed assistant professor of Educational Technology at the University of Ottawa. Michelle is also an enthusiastic gardener. You can learn more about Michelle's teaching and research on digital literacies instruction by following her on Twitter. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).