Technology Integration Article

Borsheim, C., Merritt, K., & Reed, D. (2008). Beyond technology for technology’s sake: Advancing multiliteracies in the twenty-first century. The Clearing House, 82(1), 87-90.

This article focuses on more than simply implementing technology in the classroom just for “technology’s sake” by discussing the benefits of teaching with a commitment to a multiliteracies pedagogy in order to help students “understand how to move between and across various modes and media as well as when and why they might draw on specific technologies to achieve specific purposes” (p. 88). The examples in the article relate to the English classroom, but the authors state a desire to reach audiences from all disciplines through their suggestions that reach across curricular boundaries. The article is divided into three categories concerning multiliteracies: multiliteracies in the traditional curriculum, multiliteracies beyond classroom walls, and multiliteracies for preservice teachers. In the traditional curriculum section, Borsheim discusses the importance of integrating technology even in the age of high stakes testing and mandated curricula. Merrit, in beyond classroom walls, discusses incorporating the technologies that students now use to communicate (text messaging, social networking sites, etc.) into the classroom as a way to engage students in reading and writing. When teaching preservice teachers, Reed encourages the use of wikis and blogs to help her students see how the kinds of technology they use in the classroom matter. The key to all of this technology use in the classroom is providing students with meaningful information about using new technologies in order to “enhance students’ abilities to use them as well as understand the complex ways they challenge us to participate in the world” (p. 90).