| The purpose of this study was to measure pre-service teacher perception, awareness, and potential use of digital literacies, media, and digital interactive text in their future classrooms. The study grew from the theoretical rationales of new literacies, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and constructivism. New literacies are essentially the skills teachers and students need to utilize and develop in order to interact with novel digital sources. Research was aimed not simply at exposing pre-service teachers to the possibilities, but to gauge their current knowledge, interest, and views of potential future application of said technologies and student learning needs before and after the experience.;One hundred pre-service teachers participated in an intensive semester experience involving a variety of interactive digital text sources and related technologies throughout the course of a semester. Participants read and discussed a variety of articles and interacted firsthand with a number of digital literacy technologies. Data were collected throughout a semester in the form of pre and post surveys, recorded interviews, and recorded class discussions. Findings indicated that pre-service teachers generally maintained or strengthened their perceptions and understandings of digital interactive text, digital literacies, and digital literacy tools. There were several demographic categories that yielded significant results. |
