Laptop and Literacy - Warschaeur (2008)

There are three literacies that have been measured to see the changes between using a traditional classroom and a classroom with laptops where pupils are able to use computer programs to complete their works.

1. Reading Literacy
2. Writing Literacy
3. ICT Literacy

READING LITERACY
Warschauer (2008) claimed that there are three important changes in the teaching and learning of reading in the laptop classroom:

1. Scaffolding: It refers to provision of support so pupils can read more challenging material.

2. Epistemic engagement:Active involvement in knowledge building; of or relating to knowledge or knowing. For e.g. teach, train and stimulate their thinking by analysing short stories through online discussion in a groupwork.

3. Page to screen: Uploading lessons, notes, etc to computer screen.

WRITING LITERACY
Warschauer’s (2008) claims that “Laptops were used extensively during each stage of the writing process. Pre-writing activities were assisted by the use of Internet searches and graphic organizers for planning. Drafting of papers was almost always done on computer, which caused less fatigue then writing by hand and offered additional benefits to pupils who had difficulties with coordination, motor skill, or cognitive function and thus had difficulty with handwriting.”

Some of the advantages of using laptops in writing are:
1. Pupils can do checking and reading computer written papers easier than the handwritten papers, allowing teachers to read and respond to pupil writing much more efficiently.

2. It is very helpful for the pupils if they need to revise their work during revision week.

3. During rewriting stage, pupils can received immediate feedback, reread their own papers, and edited their work was most markedly aided by laptop use (Warschauer, 2008).

4. Teacher can ask their pupils to improve their writing by asking them to write or give comment on teacher’s blog, summarising an online passage or e-journal, write a story according to the illustrated pictures, etc. This can be an alternative for those pupils who enjoy writing more by using laptop programs.

5. Pupils can play with the text, animation or graphical pictures which can be inserted into their work.

6. Spell check can help writing more easier and faster.

Some of the limitation of using laptops for writing:
1. Although the pupils can use laptop for writing and keeping notes in the classroom, there are some potential problems. It is virtually impossible to create sketches on a notebook during lesson.

2. Some of the interviewed teachers believe that pupils who use computers for their writings will have unwanted advantages by using the auto spell-correction and grammar check features. This will not help them to improve their grammar or spelling during examinations since it is a form of guided writing.

ICT LITERACY
According to Warschauer (2008), he stated that beyond the traditional literacy areas of reading and writing, it is widely recognized that there are new literacies associated with the use of ICT. These include both information literacy such as the ability to access, manage, evaluate, and make use of information and multimedia literacy that is the ability to interpret and produce knowledge in multiple media and modes.


Definition of ICT Literacy

It is an the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and/or networks to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information ethically and legally in order to function in a knowledge society.



Benefits of using Laptops in ICT Literacy are:
1. The pupil will experience pupil-oriented learning. where the lessons with the presence of laptop will allow more pupils’ control.

2. Learning can also be more collaborative, and more instant feedback can be provided and a promising iterative process with a greater revision during the learning process.

3. Pupils are also able to obtain greater use of published sources using online resources to produce a greater diversity of multimedia products including musical presentations, videos, animations and web pages.

In contrast to all this advantages:
1. Teachers must take a look carefully on each pupil’s abilities and skills before considering on implementing laptop classroom. The instructional planning should be appropriate to all pupils especially to those who have cognitive disabilities (SENA). Another factor that teacher need to consider is the language used with the resources that they need to find on the internet. The teacher also needs to plan carefully in giving instructions and assist their pupils promptly in any difficulties.

2. Classroom with inappropriate furniture. If there are no power outlets, pupils can rely on batteries in their laptops but they need to charge their notebooks earlier. A number of classrooms have or will be upgraded with new furniture to enable the use of the laptop.

3. The hardware failure issues occurring, all the unsaved work documents will probably be lost and cannot be auto-retrieved by certain programs.

4. Pupils also need to learn the responsibility of maintaining their own computer.



It is my opinion that computer literacy is not something that must to be forced into the classroom, but rather something that needs to be adapted into one since the growing technological advancements will inevitably come into every aspect of our life, whether we want it to or not. We need to be ready, new rules must be implemented, and more researches need to be carried out. The important thing is to move onwards, not backwards, and not be afraid to explore new concepts and ideas. I’m sure we will, eventually, figure out all the complications and minor details. It is after all in or nature to advance and self improve (for most of us anyway). Otherwise we’d still be riding mules to work.