Powers and Student-Centered Learning

While one can certainly argue that Jennifer Powers' article holds bias against, or nearly against, print literacy, her endorsement of multiliteracy certainly deserves credit. What I enjoyed in particular was how rather than just saying that we need to incorporate more technology and media into the classroom for its own sake, or as a way to 'improve' students literacy skills, she really backs her promotion of multiliteracy by validating her students' multiple ways of knowing. As Powers states,

Why is it that many English teachers...seem stuck on print literacy...Today's North American Child is not necessarily a child of the printed word; her or she is more likely a child of television, video, music, and the internet, where an amalgam of words, sounds and images combine together to communicate ideas. This does not mean that these children are limited in their literacy; on the contrary, they employ multiple forms of literacy every day in order to decode the information with which they are being bombarded.

In stating that students already do employ multiple forms of literacy and that it is us educators who are lagging behind in our reluctance to expand on our own foundation of traditional literacy skills, Powers may come off harshly. However, if one gets past their initial feeling of defensiveness, one will see the merit in what she is saying, and one will see how what she is really promoting is a more student-centred instead of teacher-centred approach to learning. By empowering students' ways of meaning-making and knowing, one is ultimately empowering students to take ownership of their own learning. If students' current ways of meaning-making and knowing involve multiple forms of literacy, then, (as she would say) 'so be it'.