New Lit Peer Reflection

I decided to reflect on Amanda and Emily’s “E-Pals” New Literacies Project. I have never heard of E-Pals before and I thought that their presentation was very informative and easy to understand. I thought that their project was very appealing, interesting, and extremely accessibly- I thought it was great how they gave characteristics of the E-Pal program as well as a step by step process (with highlighted red boxes… which made it even easier!) on how to navigate through the actual website. I thought that exploring digital literacy through E-Pals was a perfect idea. I think it excels all criteria for digital literacy. I think that this program would be very effective, because it has all of the same benefits as the standard “pen-pals” but it is even better because it adds the technology aspect. Through this project, I learned about digital literacy, which is literacy for the 21st century~ it has all qualities of traditional literacy but it is in the form of blogs, emails, and writing workshops. I learned a lot about the technology, because E-Pals is something I wasn’t familiar with, so the entire presentation was new knowledge to me.
Overall, from this project I have learned that using emails and blogs, something that has become part of my everyday life, can be a very beneficial way of teaching and exploring literacy. I also think that it has showed me through technology, you and your students can communicate with students throughout the world, without having to wait for an actual letter in the mail. This is great for Language Arts because it takes literacy outside of the classroom. It is also beneficial for the students because it gives them knowledge that they can take home with them and use for the rest of their lives.
I do have one question about E-Pals though~ is there a screening process or something that can tell that it’s a real class? I just want to make sure that there isn’t some creep that is corresponding with the students, pretending to be a student.


~Nicole Lendo