Week 1

Amended in response to comments:
New literacies in the classroom are both inevitable and positive. As education is always changing, and new curriculums are being brought out, alongside the many different theories about child development, and impacts on education, I believe that the absence of technology in the classroom would be counterproductive to children's learning. 
This is not to say that we must rely on new literacies as teachers, but allowing children to move onto the next class, school, college and then into the working world without any formal education in technology - or more importantly how to apply technology to everyday life and learning - it would make life difficult without these skills.
In addition to this, many primary aged children have access at home to technologies and new literacies; it is my opinion that school and home should support one another to aid in every child's growth and well-being. Therefore, children should be introduced to new literacies as part of their educational curriculum, as well as seeing them as toys and games outside of school.
In my recent school experience the school had recently invested in 8 iPads for the children to use. The children saw these as a rare treat and enjoyed using them to play games. However the games uploaded onto the iPads were only educational ones - the children were learning without even realising they were.
A more specific example of this is a Year One child who needed help improving his handwriting. The school invested in a new app that was a game as well as a resource for learning; where you had to trace the letter before getting a dot-to-dot to complete. All the children ended up loving this resource, but for that one child he developing his handwriting and enjoying himself at the same time.
I am not claiming that new literacies and technologies are the 'be all and end all' in the curriculum, or that they should replace any other important aspect of the curriculum; but that they should be integrated as part of our 'broad and rich' learning environment. 
Personally; the struggles with this module for me will be that I am not fully aware of the broad range of technology and new literacies that are currently available to schools. However, I look forward to going into school from an ICT point of view, and examining this aspect of education.