{"id":2175,"date":"2011-11-15T09:10:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T14:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=2175"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:39:01","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:39:01","slug":"we-need-more-teacher-centered-solutions-in-ict-for-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/literacy-ict-challenges\/we-need-more-teacher-centered-solutions-in-ict-for-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need More Teacher-Centered Solutions in ICT for Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019m not convinced that the challenge of promoting literacy ICT is a market failure, a human constraint, or a technological constraint. It\u2019s a bit more nuanced than that. The tech capabilities are there, teachers will use good literacy tools, and the market exists. But what is lacking is the connection between all three of these things.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve observed during my short time in this whole ICT realm is that people who design ICT tools for literacy have never really gotten into the brain of a child learning to read and have probably never taught a child to read. I think what we need are more teacher-centered solutions in ICT. We need to mimic what REAL human beings already do well while teaching our children. And we need to make it as simple and as useful as possible.<\/p>\n

Teaching a child to read is no easy task<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What continually amazes me is that the more years I spend teaching, the more styles of reading acquisition I see with children. One of the main reasons it is difficult to utilize ICT to teach children to read is because most ICT tools do not often differentiate between a child\u2019s fluency and comprehension needs.<\/p>\n

These two facets of reading adoption intertwine and are relevant the moment a child first opens a book, or is read a book. Some children are quick decoders, with the ability to grasp phonemic awareness<\/a> and phonics almost instantly. In other words, they can sound things out, they can recognize sound patterns, and they can orally read what\u2019s on the page. But that doesn\u2019t mean a kid knows how to read.<\/p>\n

The second part of reading gets even more complicated \u2013 comprehension<\/a>. The way that I see basic comprehension is that a student can understand the essentials of what s\/he\u2019s reading, retelling the main parts with some important details. But…<\/p>\n