Blog # 8 Social Networking and Literacy in the Classroom

Tracy Tarasiuk's article made a strong argument that embraces social networking and multimodal literacies.  She determined to learn to know her students and what literacies they engaged with, and in so doing allowed them to interact with social media and websites they use outside the classroom, even while they were doing coursework and looked up material for the class.  I was not surprised when she writes that she struggled with "interfering as little as posible" but was when she writes "This was a struggle, until I observed that the work the students completed seemed unaffected by their multitasking" (545).  I think this jumped out to me because overall teachers believe that social media during classtime is a distraction and that it limits attention to the material at hand.   Tarasiuk's willingness to allow students to use it gave her a place to find what her students interests were and how they use the internet and multimodal literacies.  I realize that depending on the classroom structure, and what the teacher is asking students to focus on does not always allow for social media, but does this suggest that the problem of social media in the classroom is not that big of a problem?   By taking an interest in what social media her students use and what they are interested in also creates opportunity for teaching the issues of image the Kramer writes about and we considered in class.   By not pitting herself against student use of this technology, Tarasiuk should have many opportunities to dialogue with her students about how they present themselves on social media and bring attention to the power it has in everyone's life. 
In light of reading about Bauerlein's dire assessments of the current generation, I found Tarasiuk's findings that much more interesting.  Her survey found that the same students who use technology also had  "enjoyed a book for fun in the past week" (546).   While one could argue that her findings may not be comprehensive, they suggest to me that students who use technology do still read traditional books more than they are given credit for.  This also brings to mind a review of Bauerlein's book, by Charles McGrath, in which he notes discrepancies on what test score results one focuses on when discussing students today.  What impresses me the most about Tarasiuk's efforts is that she didn't just observe students use of social media and multidmodal literacies, but found a way to incorporate it in a meaningful way into her English classrooms.  Would Tarasiuk's model also be a good way to incorporate meaningful learning across the curriculum?   Writers such as Bauerlein suggest students know little about history and politics,  it seems to me that we teachers could use technology to combine learning from those subject areas with the English classroom.  Literature is so interconnected to history and politics that I think students could really benefit from teachers that work together to combine multimodal learning with the different subject areas.  These ideas are directly connected to having just finished reading James Dashner's The Maze Runner.   If I were teaching a course on the genre of dystopian fiction,  I would like to connect ways in which this genre has followed history and politics and also make a statement about our culture.  How might I do this in a classroom and in what ways can I incorporate multimodal literacy while teaching it are several questions I have. 
To close, I have to say that I really enjoyed The Maze Runner and once I finished it I happened to be on Youtube and was really struck by all videos and book trailers on the book.  It really does convince me that young people still read and when they like what they read they use social media to express it!  Social media and technology has changed the way we read, but a site such as Youtube that allows people a way to visually respond to a book like The Maze Runner has many, many more benefits than it does negative points.