Rationale:
It is largely known that there is an achievement gap between low socioeconomic students and their more affluent peers. With the inclusion of technology and digital media, the gap seems to be widening. When students are unable to comprehend digital texts, it makes them less prepared to thrive in the 21st century. It is the job of educators to prepare students to be successful citizen who can function in this ever growing, technological world.
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Throughout my coursework at North Carolina State University in the NLGL program I learned a great deal about new literacies and how they influence students today. Starting in my first graduate course I learned what new literacies are and how they are growing in today's education. I then learned that there is an online achievement gap that differs from that of what everyone typically knows as the achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic statuses. I worked heavily in my coursework with integrating technology in reading and writing with my Title I students to see what I could discover about this digital divide and gap. I worked with a colleague on blogging with students and how it affects students' writing and motivation when it becomes digital. We found that blogging has positive effects on students. I also flipped my instruction for writing through an action research project and found that students without the support at home cannot thrive with flipped instruction. I reflected a lot about my own instruction and found that there are positive and negative ways to integrate new literacies to help close the online achievement gap.
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