Teaching Secondary School Literacies With I.C.T.

There is an immensely important conjunction between literacy and Informationand Communications Technology (ICT). This book considers the application ofICT in raising and widening literacy achievements within the classroom, andexplores ways that ICT can be harnessed to help students develop their literacyskills.

Teaching Secondary School Literacies with ICT supports educators in this aimby offering creative examples of good practice. It provides commentary andresearch into what adolescent students are doing, both in formal educationand socially, with regard to ICT and literacy, including:

• Computer mediated communication
• Literacy implications of computer games and chatrooms
• Parents and children using the internet at home, and the implicit literacy skillsinvolved

Several contributors provide useful insights into the debate around teenageliteracy cultures and literacy in schools. For example, in schools, word processingand keyboard skills are valued; yet thumb-controlled technologies (games con-soles, texting) are denigrated. This book argues that if we are to encourage pupilsto develop the literacy skills they need for the 21st century, we need a morepositive and creative response to these popular forms of literacy.

This inspiring book is key reading for trainee and practising teachers, literacyadvisers and policy makers.

Moira Monteith is an educational consultant. She was previously a principallecturer in ICT in Education at Sheffield Hallam University, and before thata teacher. Her previous publications include ICT in the Primary School(Open University Press, 2002).

Geoff Barton began teaching English at Garforth Comprehensive School, Leeds, in September 1985. He is currently Headteacher at King Edward VI School in Suffolk. In 1986 he was asked to write a textbook about language skills and since then he has written around 40 English text books. He also writes and lectures on literacy, behaviour management and school leadership.

Sue Brindley is currently a lecturer in Education at the University of Cambridge where she is course manager for the secondary PGCE and leads the English PGCE. She also co-ordinates the MEd module on Researching Practice: Early Career Teachers. She is general editor of the forthcoming Open University Press series on teaching and ICT and co-author of the volume on secondary English teaching with ICT Before this post, she was Professional Officer for English at QCA, and wrote the Open University Secondary English PGCE.

Charles Crook is Reader in Education at the University of Nottingham where he is attached to the Learning Sciences Research Institute. His research takes a cultural psychological perspective on young people's use of new technology.

Roy Dymott was a graduate student at Loughborough University and now works in industry.

Kwok-Wing Lai is an Associate Professor and Head of the Faculty of Education, University of Otago. He has a keen interest in studying and researching into the use of computer-mediated communication in the school curriculum, teacher development, as well as the social and ethical aspects of ICT use in education. He is the founding editor of Computers in New Zealand Schools.

Guy Merchant after teaching for many years now co-ordinates the work of the Language and Literacy Research Group in the School of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. He has published widely in the area of curriculum English and is particularly interested in the impact of new technology on the ways in which we define and use literacy. He is currently researching the use of onscreen writing in the early years.

Moira Monteith is currently an educational consultant and was previously principal lecturer in ICT in education at Sheffield Hallam University and before that an English teacher. She has written and edited a number of books concerned with the use of ICT and with writing. Recent research includes student use of a `virtual campus’ at Sheffield Hallam University and student web-based study.

Sarah Monteith received a BA hons in English Literature from Lancaster University, and a PGCE in middle years education from Edge Hill University College. She is currently teaching English to years seven to eleven at Lathom High School, a mixed comprehensive in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. She has taught the literacy summer school at Lathom and is the ICT co-ordinator for the English department there.

Rachel Pilkington (C.Psychol., ILTM) is a Senior Lecturer in ICT and manages the e-learning team at the School of Education, University of Birmingham. Rachel received a B.Sc. in Psychology from York University in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Education from the Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds in 1988. She has researched dialogue in a variety of computer based and networked learning contexts from developing literacy in disadvantaged school children to tutoring diagnostic skills in medicine and developing communities of practice in Education.

Christopher Turner lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Education, mainly as a member of the Secondary English Team. Before joining the University, he was a Head of English in a Stockport comprehensive school. He has research interests in and has written about ICT and English, and Literary Theory and Reading.

Alison Tyldesley lectures at the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. Previously she was a Literacy Consultant for Derbyshire LEA and before that a classroom teacher.

Aisha Walker has a degree in Linguistics from the University of Lancaster, an MEd in Educational Technology/TESOL from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Education from the University of Leeds. She is now based at the University of Leeds where she teaches ICT in Education and conducts research into e-learning and computer- mediated discussion. Aisha is also a qualified teacher with several years of classroom experience working with different age groups.

Noel Williams is Head of Art, Design, Communications and Media at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as Reader in Communications, with major research interests in the overlaps between ICT and human communication. He was one of the founders of the UK Writing and Computers Society, and established Hallam's MAs in Technical Communication, Professional Communication and e-Communication. Currently his main research preoccupations are the evaluation of Voice Recognition systems, computer games as discourse, and the discourse cross-overs between different new media, especially in popular culture and the teaching of communication skills.