EDEC 612 Media Literacies

Yu-Ti Huang #260574607

Digital Pedagogy Statement

I remember selling encyclopaedias when I was young, and now I see them being
cleared out of the house and rejected by most people. Technology has already made
information archiving and searching to be achieved in a second. I remember looking
words up in a dictionary when I was learning English with plenty of new vocabulary on
one page in my dull textbooks. Technology has already made language learning so much
faster, easier and jollier. I love tradition, but the world is changing fast. As Morgan
(1996) has mentioned, the fundamental purpose of education is to make future social
life possible (p295). In order to prepare our students for their future life, different
types of media and technology that involve our subject matter should be introduced to
our students from time to time. In addition to our traditional painting, crafting, and
hand writing, we can also have video designing and remixing to give greater variations
to our teaching.
As a second language learner myself, I use a variety of online tools, such as
Google Translate, Reverso, imTranslator, and YouTube, to help me learn. The relation
between the students and teachers mostly starts from learning experience sharing. Also,
since children learn by modeling. (p167, Agne, 1999), it is our responsibility to present
some make-life-easier learning tools that we have been using or exploring, and to have
our students engaged. The interaction between students and the teachers will increase.
Our positive attitude towards continuing learning will pass to our students and students
can keep learning on their own through the convenient technology even after they

EDEC 612 Media Literacies

Yu-Ti Huang #260574607

graduate from school. Overall, school is not the only time and place that learning
happens.
It is important to be a smart user of each tool. Google Translate, for example,
doesnt always do a good job, and sometimes we get some ridiculous answers from it. It
happens when one word in one language can correspond to several different words in
another. However, people make similar mistakes even more without it. Normally, when
I use the language learning tools, I will try to use several ones at the same time and edit
the results with the language knowledge I have learnt. Video making is another
interesting trial students can work on in the class. PowerPoint is not only for
presentations. I have made my own professional portfolio (attached in the mail) with
PowerPoint, Gif animator, and Microsoft movie maker. This is another form of Remix.
The new form of media and technology stem from tradition. People are the one
who make everything happen. Peoples perceptions, the ways of interpretation, and the
definition of truth differ from person to person. Books and newspapers have spread
unreliable information for centuries. New technology certainly makes information
spreading faster and easier. Our nave students might be easily tricked by some of them.
One lesson of critical media literacy per semester is unavoidable only to make sure that
our students are aware of the tricky media world.
One bonus from knowing different languages is to be resourceful. I speak
Taiwanese (sadly, it has no writing system), Mandarin-Chinese, French and English so I
can read various stories, news, recipes etc. from various sources. I become more open-

EDEC 612 Media Literacies

Yu-Ti Huang #260574607

minded because of the better understanding of the world. I would value the great world
views my students have, and actual application of the English learning in their real lives.
I update my life events on Facebook in the three languages that I speak to narrow the
distance between my friends with different mother tongues. I probably make mistakes
from time to time on my posts, which shows the most important tip to learn a new
languagenot afraid of making mistakes. Most people show their understanding and
admiration to our efforts. To end my statement, I would like to draw the quote from
Agne (1999), We do not teach, we facilitate the learning of another. (p 167) I want my
students to well use the tools around them to make progress on their language learning
in and outside of my class.