Just read this great article about the fact that a review of college-student's writing suggests that we are seeing a new literacy - excited to read the research
Article: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson
Study http://ssw.stanford.edu/about/about.php
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Google Wave
Oh wow, watching this video from Google about GoogleWave - the implications for education are huge.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Digital Youth Network
Just saw information about the Digital Youth Network and the Remix World - looks like a classroom version of Facebook - wonder what the difference is from NING software - I'll have to play soon and figure out if one works better than the other.
Friday, May 1, 2009
The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies
The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies
As new media shifts how we read, write and collaborate, the definition of what it means to be literate also shifts. This is the definition of these new practices as published by the NCTE. I find it exciting that the list is so full of process and socially mediated practices.
As new media shifts how we read, write and collaborate, the definition of what it means to be literate also shifts. This is the definition of these new practices as published by the NCTE. I find it exciting that the list is so full of process and socially mediated practices.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Lingo to Word, for those of us that don't speak text
Love this site! Lingo to word will translate either direction (traditional text to txt msg or reverse) and help you improve your texting vocabulary. I love that students could use this site to help with code switching, and teachers could use it to learn what students are saying. I think it is really important that we not discount how digital natives use language.
translated to text speak...
lov dis site! Lingo 2 wrd wl transl8 Itha direction (traditional txt 2 txt msg or reverse) n hlp u improve yr txtN vocab. I lov dat studnts cUd uz dis site 2 hlp W cod switching, n tchaz cUd uz it 2 lern w@ studnts r sAyn. I tnk itz realy impt dat we nt discount hw digital natives uz lang.
translated to text speak...
lov dis site! Lingo 2 wrd wl transl8 Itha direction (traditional txt 2 txt msg or reverse) n hlp u improve yr txtN vocab. I lov dat studnts cUd uz dis site 2 hlp W cod switching, n tchaz cUd uz it 2 lern w@ studnts r sAyn. I tnk itz realy impt dat we nt discount hw digital natives uz lang.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Conference
This conference looks amazing - am going to try and think about how to attend. Such good stuff, thanks Travis for the tip! http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/
Monday, March 9, 2009
Great Resource
Just saw this great website so rich with resources. I am really looking forward to digging deeper.
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/
Monday, March 2, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tensions of New Literacy in Old Structures
This week E Sky-McIlvain responded to an earlier post
What is missing, from my point of view, is creativity - a literacy that we seem to be killing, even in laptop classrooms. It is interesting that the new 2.0 literacies can be just as limiting as they can be expanding. Enter the teacher/bar-setter (which can also be student peers) and the platform for creative ideas to be showcased. Are teachers afraid of that? Yes, I think they are. How many history teachers would let students immerse in Vietnam without learning about other 20th century wars? How about just immersing in "war" as a concept, with facts and documents gathered and organized and shared for emotional rather than academic messages? Confining technologies to facts and outcomes has to go if we are to reach those higher, newer, levels of use.
I could not agree more with her sentiments and found myself returning to this post as I was reading a chapter from W Kist's book New Literacies in Action. In the chapter "My Grandchildren's Time Zone" he talks about the tensions inherent in new literacy classrooms and questions if the current structure of schools can support this new kind of learning. Just as Betsy questions above, these new literacies can really begin to free teachers and students to examine ideas and content in new ways, but not if confined to old methods of assessment and understandings of being a teacher. Additionally Kist makes a wonderful point that if we embrace these new literacies and multiple forms of presentation and communication, we must question if we still revert back to text once students have had this new learning. I know as a teacher I have been guilty of this! You ask students to engage, create, explore, all those good things, and then...you ask them to write about. This return back to traditional response and print media has to be examined. I am not sure it is never appropriate, but if we always come back to the same place, have we gone anywhere.
Kist presents many tensions - the role of the teacher, the return to the same media, the time spent on projects, the presence of assessment and grading demands. These realities of how we understand school exist, and as teachers look to change the way we educate students how can we help explore and ease these tensions such that we avoid black and white answers, but instead deal with the ambiguity that is always present in education and life.
What is missing, from my point of view, is creativity - a literacy that we seem to be killing, even in laptop classrooms. It is interesting that the new 2.0 literacies can be just as limiting as they can be expanding. Enter the teacher/bar-setter (which can also be student peers) and the platform for creative ideas to be showcased. Are teachers afraid of that? Yes, I think they are. How many history teachers would let students immerse in Vietnam without learning about other 20th century wars? How about just immersing in "war" as a concept, with facts and documents gathered and organized and shared for emotional rather than academic messages? Confining technologies to facts and outcomes has to go if we are to reach those higher, newer, levels of use.
I could not agree more with her sentiments and found myself returning to this post as I was reading a chapter from W Kist's book New Literacies in Action. In the chapter "My Grandchildren's Time Zone" he talks about the tensions inherent in new literacy classrooms and questions if the current structure of schools can support this new kind of learning. Just as Betsy questions above, these new literacies can really begin to free teachers and students to examine ideas and content in new ways, but not if confined to old methods of assessment and understandings of being a teacher. Additionally Kist makes a wonderful point that if we embrace these new literacies and multiple forms of presentation and communication, we must question if we still revert back to text once students have had this new learning. I know as a teacher I have been guilty of this! You ask students to engage, create, explore, all those good things, and then...you ask them to write about. This return back to traditional response and print media has to be examined. I am not sure it is never appropriate, but if we always come back to the same place, have we gone anywhere.
Kist presents many tensions - the role of the teacher, the return to the same media, the time spent on projects, the presence of assessment and grading demands. These realities of how we understand school exist, and as teachers look to change the way we educate students how can we help explore and ease these tensions such that we avoid black and white answers, but instead deal with the ambiguity that is always present in education and life.
Monday, February 23, 2009
What makes something a new literacy
As the snow is swirling outside my mind too is trying to make sense of how and when we can label something a new literacy. Lankshear and Knoebel (2007) argue that in order to be labeled as such there needs to both new "technical stuff" and "ethos stuff" (p. 7).
The technical stuff side makes more sense to me, I can understand and appreciate new technologies that promote user generativity. The ethos side of things for me is not more difficult to understand, but rather it is more difficult to accomplish and promote in an academic setting. As Lewis (2007) in a different chapter of the same book points out, schools have not moved beyond the technology or technical stuff for the most part (p.230). As I was reading about the new ethos stuff, and the social and relational aspects of new literacies - I am struck by the parallels with Type I and Type II technology integration. Type I is focusing on the tool, whereas in Type II the tool enables a new experience or learning environment that is not possible previously. The movement from an Internet focused on "use, reception, consumption" to one that allows for "participation, interactivity and agency" (Lankshear and Knoebel, p. 16) is a wonderful shift, but one that still is largely taking place in the private lives, not in the educational lives of students.
Why is this the case? Does it have to do with trust in schools? Power ideals of teachers? Outdated policies of Internet use? Lack of guiding standards for education?
Reading the new 21st century Skills Map it is clear that there are those organizations trying to push these new ideas through the standards-based channels. Talking with teachers it is clear that individuals are working to make these changes in their classrooms, but there still seems to be little comprehensive movement to align personal and academic understandings in the 21st century school. I hope this change is coming...
The technical stuff side makes more sense to me, I can understand and appreciate new technologies that promote user generativity. The ethos side of things for me is not more difficult to understand, but rather it is more difficult to accomplish and promote in an academic setting. As Lewis (2007) in a different chapter of the same book points out, schools have not moved beyond the technology or technical stuff for the most part (p.230). As I was reading about the new ethos stuff, and the social and relational aspects of new literacies - I am struck by the parallels with Type I and Type II technology integration. Type I is focusing on the tool, whereas in Type II the tool enables a new experience or learning environment that is not possible previously. The movement from an Internet focused on "use, reception, consumption" to one that allows for "participation, interactivity and agency" (Lankshear and Knoebel, p. 16) is a wonderful shift, but one that still is largely taking place in the private lives, not in the educational lives of students.
Why is this the case? Does it have to do with trust in schools? Power ideals of teachers? Outdated policies of Internet use? Lack of guiding standards for education?
Reading the new 21st century Skills Map it is clear that there are those organizations trying to push these new ideas through the standards-based channels. Talking with teachers it is clear that individuals are working to make these changes in their classrooms, but there still seems to be little comprehensive movement to align personal and academic understandings in the 21st century school. I hope this change is coming...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Some new tools for writing
Glypho: http://www.glypho.com/ multiple users create and write the same story - readers vote on which versions they like
Novlet http://www.novlet.com/ a similar idea of writing by many different people - including across language barriers
Museum Box http://museumbox.e2bn.org/ allows students to create 6 sided cubes about different topics, cubes can be turned and different content can be embedded. Thanks D and T at MBHS for this one.
Novlet http://www.novlet.com/ a similar idea of writing by many different people - including across language barriers
Museum Box http://museumbox.e2bn.org/ allows students to create 6 sided cubes about different topics, cubes can be turned and different content can be embedded. Thanks D and T at MBHS for this one.
Disrupting Class
Just finished reading Disrupting Class and while many of the ideas were fascinating and exciting, it was actually not their ideas about education that grabbed me most. Instead it was the ideas about educational research that I found most interesting. This semester I am undertaking research on Web 2.0 and writing. So far I have found this interesting and exciting. I have begun the interview portion of the research and am really enjoying these interviews to try and get a window into how teachers come by these new tools, and how they deploy them in their classrooms. However in reading chapter 7 i realized that this, and even future research I am interested in is descriptive research. As they argue, descriptive research certainly has a place in building understanding of certain conditions. However, it is more through prescriptive research and examining anomalies and creating better categories that we might be able to offer more people better educational opportunities. Although these categories are but one way to split the different types of research, the investigation was useful to me as it forced me to think about how to make my research personally useful, and useful to a wider audience.
Writing to Learn
Armbruster, McCarthey and Cummins (2005) in a chapter from Learning to Write, Writing to Learn: Theory and Research in Practice review literature on how writing across the curriculum is perceived by teachers and used in local classrooms. In their work they found few studies to support the claim that writing across the curriculum makes an impact on student learning, but did find smaller studies that show support for continuing the practice since teachers perceive it as having a positive impact. Teachers cited reasons of thinking time, creating positions and helping students master content. All these are certainly important attributes of what we hope students will do through learning.
As a teacher I agree that writing across the curriculum has real benefits. But as a researcher i am wondering how teachers can prove this to transform ideas into beneficial practice for students.
So, I am trying to then wrap my brain around how to compare this article with the research brief that Silvernail and Gritter (2007) prepared about Maine's MLTI laptop program in Maine. This brief looked at MEA test data (our state assessment) to see if there was any difference in scores once laptops had been implemented state wide in the 1:1 model. Silvernail and Gritter found that "overall performance on the 8th grade MEA has not changed appreciably since the inception of the laptop program." (p.4). However they did find that scores on the writing portion of the MEA's have increased significantly since the laptops have been in place. This finding held true despite how the students took the MEA (with computer or without) and was further supported by data that students who used the laptops in more aspects of the writing process in school performed better than those students who were not using them for the writing process.
So, on the one hand I am excited to see that there is some data to support the investment in these laptops, but on the other hand I am wondering why the anecdotal and perceived impact of writing and using technology is not more well documented. Is it because of what we are using as metrics? Is it because people have not studied this topic? Is it because it is tool early to tell?
Writing and technology are becoming an intertwined process for those of us that live digitally. I am curious why there was little research to be found about writing across the curriculum, and why the laptop research shows gains in just the writing test, not across the curriculum? Certainly in the Armbruster et al chapter teachers acknowledged that one of the benefits of writing across the curriculum was that writing improved with content knowledge, so perhaps this is why we are first seeing the rise in writing scores with the MEA's. Will evidence be found later that shows growth in all areas of the MEA's? Or, is it that the MEA's may not measure what we are interested in?
As a teacher I agree that writing across the curriculum has real benefits. But as a researcher i am wondering how teachers can prove this to transform ideas into beneficial practice for students.
So, I am trying to then wrap my brain around how to compare this article with the research brief that Silvernail and Gritter (2007) prepared about Maine's MLTI laptop program in Maine. This brief looked at MEA test data (our state assessment) to see if there was any difference in scores once laptops had been implemented state wide in the 1:1 model. Silvernail and Gritter found that "overall performance on the 8th grade MEA has not changed appreciably since the inception of the laptop program." (p.4). However they did find that scores on the writing portion of the MEA's have increased significantly since the laptops have been in place. This finding held true despite how the students took the MEA (with computer or without) and was further supported by data that students who used the laptops in more aspects of the writing process in school performed better than those students who were not using them for the writing process.
So, on the one hand I am excited to see that there is some data to support the investment in these laptops, but on the other hand I am wondering why the anecdotal and perceived impact of writing and using technology is not more well documented. Is it because of what we are using as metrics? Is it because people have not studied this topic? Is it because it is tool early to tell?
Writing and technology are becoming an intertwined process for those of us that live digitally. I am curious why there was little research to be found about writing across the curriculum, and why the laptop research shows gains in just the writing test, not across the curriculum? Certainly in the Armbruster et al chapter teachers acknowledged that one of the benefits of writing across the curriculum was that writing improved with content knowledge, so perhaps this is why we are first seeing the rise in writing scores with the MEA's. Will evidence be found later that shows growth in all areas of the MEA's? Or, is it that the MEA's may not measure what we are interested in?
Writing in new media - two way change
"we see technology as an integral part of human experience, not as an outside agency that is somehow changing us against our will. Rather it is out process of using--an re-creating- these technologies that is essential human experience" (p.200)
Bruce and Comstock article, "Why Writing is Technology: Reflections in New Media"
Bruce and Comstock in this short chapter claim that writing and technology have a relationship whereby the user in participating with technologies and writing makes changes on both elements. This two way impact means seeing technology as more than just a tool that enables new forms of writing, but rather shows it to be changed by the ways writers are using the new tools. This picture is a more organic way of seeing the emergence of new media and new technologies.
As they claim "participatory design practices, the tools itself does not remain static, but emerges as the writer and reader interact" (p.201). This idea may be part of why writers feel empowered by using new media or web 2.o t00ls. The participatory nature makes them feel more a part of the organic process of learning and thinking.
Bruce and Comstock article, "Why Writing is Technology: Reflections in New Media"
Bruce and Comstock in this short chapter claim that writing and technology have a relationship whereby the user in participating with technologies and writing makes changes on both elements. This two way impact means seeing technology as more than just a tool that enables new forms of writing, but rather shows it to be changed by the ways writers are using the new tools. This picture is a more organic way of seeing the emergence of new media and new technologies.
As they claim "participatory design practices, the tools itself does not remain static, but emerges as the writer and reader interact" (p.201). This idea may be part of why writers feel empowered by using new media or web 2.o t00ls. The participatory nature makes them feel more a part of the organic process of learning and thinking.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Participatory Learning
Rereading the report that Jenkins et. al. (2008) put out Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:Media Education for the 21st Century I was struck by the fact that they choose to focus on
Participation as a part of culture
instead of
Interactivity as an attribute of technology
Although all the learning and experiences they discussed relied heavily on new media and new literacies enabled by technology, they choose to focus on the fact that these new forms of learning have to do with participating in learning in a new way, and therefore there are cultural implications and contexts for these new learnings.
In addition the team adds to the New London group's work on new media by stressing that while these are new literacies, they are social in nature. The social realm of learning, be in real or virtual time or space fundamentally shift how we need to educate students to be part of this new landscape.
In reading this article I am excited to see the shift again away from the tools (technologies) that enable the new ways to interacting, participating and exploring education to a focus on creating more meaningful learning experiences. I believe this is similar to the reason I am interested in the TPCK model since it is about the effective integration of elements to produce more meaningful learning experiences. The shift away from the tools to the learning is a positive one, and i am curious how this concept will emerge in the interviews that I am conducting.
Participation as a part of culture
instead of
Interactivity as an attribute of technology
Although all the learning and experiences they discussed relied heavily on new media and new literacies enabled by technology, they choose to focus on the fact that these new forms of learning have to do with participating in learning in a new way, and therefore there are cultural implications and contexts for these new learnings.
In addition the team adds to the New London group's work on new media by stressing that while these are new literacies, they are social in nature. The social realm of learning, be in real or virtual time or space fundamentally shift how we need to educate students to be part of this new landscape.
In reading this article I am excited to see the shift again away from the tools (technologies) that enable the new ways to interacting, participating and exploring education to a focus on creating more meaningful learning experiences. I believe this is similar to the reason I am interested in the TPCK model since it is about the effective integration of elements to produce more meaningful learning experiences. The shift away from the tools to the learning is a positive one, and i am curious how this concept will emerge in the interviews that I am conducting.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Writing in the 1:1 classroom
According to Warchauer (2006) Internet browsing and word processing are the two most common uses of laptops in the 1:1 classrooms he studied. The word processing functionality of the laptop allowed for writing to be integrated into more areas of instruction, to be an iterative process, to be public and collaborative, to be authentic and allowed for diverse genres (76-79).
However, despite the presence of the laptops the quality of the educational experiences does not truly shift for the students. Laptops do allow for the amplification effect to occur - whereby good teaching and sound pedagogy can be made better through the use of technology to further support and individualize instruction. The presence of the laptops however do not guarantee that this will occur.
In reading this book it is clear that while technology holds a promise for supporting reform, without the foundation of the pedagogy and content knowledge, as suggested in the TPCK model, teachers and schools will not be able to leverage this tool.
Some thoughts about what students can do with the laptops in the writing process
PreWriting
However, despite the presence of the laptops the quality of the educational experiences does not truly shift for the students. Laptops do allow for the amplification effect to occur - whereby good teaching and sound pedagogy can be made better through the use of technology to further support and individualize instruction. The presence of the laptops however do not guarantee that this will occur.
In reading this book it is clear that while technology holds a promise for supporting reform, without the foundation of the pedagogy and content knowledge, as suggested in the TPCK model, teachers and schools will not be able to leverage this tool.
Some thoughts about what students can do with the laptops in the writing process
PreWriting
- Background research
- Graphic Organizers
- Keyboard vs. Hand
- Scaffolding tools
- Reading and evaluating
- Providing feedback
- Editing and revising
Reasons to Blog
Just reread a great post by Wes Fryer on Google's Infinite Thinking Machine Blog - Blogging Can Make You Smarter. I have to agree with him that the process of blogging about new media and new literacies has really forced me to think about each reading I am doing and try and connect it back to my big ideas about how to we use these new tools to make education work better for all students. As so many authors have pointed out, I do not believe it is the technology alone - rather it is the pedagogy of engaging students in individualized learning with the use of new tools. It is just that the new web 2.0 tools make it so much easier to do this.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2009 Horizon Report
The 2009 Horizon Report has been released and is always interesting to read. Cool to see what new tools may impact the educational landscape in the coming years. Curious to me was the fact that personal web is in the 2-3 years out...seems that one is already coming and in place.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Professional Development for In Service Educators
As I mentioned in my last post how to introduce and build capacity around the TPCK model is going to be different for different learners, and one factor that will influence this is the amount and length of time a teacher has been a practicing educator. In Chapter 12 of the TPCK book this concept is explored and I really liked the idea of activity types as a vehicle for helping teachers sort through practice, and perhaps move towards the intersection of content, pedagogy and technology. although I think the idea can be useful with pre-service teachers as well, I do think help practicing educators feel valued through scaffolding their experiences with new ideas about how to enrich teaching will be a better model.
In looking for more information about "activity types" (Harris and Hofer) I found this paper which I am excited to spend some time with. I just think that perhaps this approach towards offering multiple new ways (not just new tools) for teachers to migrate practice might be useful. I am curious in my research (and now thinking about developing in-service training as an output of the conversations) how I can apply these ideas.
In looking for more information about "activity types" (Harris and Hofer) I found this paper which I am excited to spend some time with. I just think that perhaps this approach towards offering multiple new ways (not just new tools) for teachers to migrate practice might be useful. I am curious in my research (and now thinking about developing in-service training as an output of the conversations) how I can apply these ideas.
TPCK in preservice teachers
In finishing Chapter 11 of the Handbook for TPCK for Educators, and after the meeting with technology leaders at the higher education institutions around Maine my brain is really puzzling through some concepts. As I think through these ideas I am thinking in two different ways. The first has to do with preservice teacher education, which I do think is a different beast than in-service teacher education/professional development. Even the book articulates the fact that there will be fundamental differences in how people understand and move towards the TPCK model based on their own experiences and prior knowledge.
In thinking about my work with preservice teachers, the following list is a list of big ideas to keep in mind as I plan for future course work. I hope to help students
In thinking about my work with preservice teachers, the following list is a list of big ideas to keep in mind as I plan for future course work. I hope to help students
- develop an integrated knowledge base
- think strategically
- unleash creativity
- think critically
- "rethink, unlearn and relearn, change, revise, adapt" (p.225)
- Understand research as part of the profession of education
- Understand affordances and constraints about technology
- Plan for the details needed when working with technology - seeing the forest and the trees in planning
- Critical reflection
- Using case studies
- Matrix planning - (p. 232) declarative, procedural, schematic, strategic vs. Content, Teaching and Student learning, Technology
- Have students articulate pedagogical choices
- Have them do more small group practice teaching and writing of that content
Friday, January 23, 2009
New Media Idea
Just found a new website that would help integrate literacy into classrooms, and even living rooms. Speekaboos you can listen to stories, get story guides, and even record your own voice. Need to play more.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Is it the new tool or good teaching?
I just finished reading Penrod's book Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy and she presents solid arguments about why blogging has a place in K-12 schooling. As she highlights blogs help engage student, create diversity in the learning environment and can serve as a bridge between the world of school and the world outside of school. As the book progresses her definition of blog seems to grow (including MySpace pages, IM and texting) and while I am not sure I agree with this term encompassing so many technologies, I can certainly see how maintaining a social network page with notes may be considered blogging - IM, texting and wikis seem to fall under different umbrella's in my book since they call upon related, but different skills.
Regardless of these terms though Penrod argues that blogging and mixed media creation holds great promise for students, teacher, and education. She claims that these modes can bridge disconnects, create student centered learning, promote differentiated instruction and lead to life long learning. I don't disagree with her claims, however, a tool is always just a tool until it is used by real people in context. I am not sure that the tool alone is going to change education - there needs to be a more fundamentally shift in pedagogy before there will be any changes in education. I can see many teachers taking the new technology and simply adapting the 5 paragraph essay - but put it on your blog - this is not going to be enough. Instead of looking at the tool or the software we must think more broadly about the context of education and what do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know when they achieve? What do we do when they don't achieve? These questions will still plague educators if left unanswered.
I do not think Penrod feels that the tool alone will change everything, but I think too many people reading this kind of material might see it as a magic cure, when really engaging students in school and meaningful learning is going to take a lot more change then just using the new tools. It may start with the new tools, but it is going to take far more than this for lasting change.
This is where the technology, pedagogy and content knowledge (TPAK) model does have strength, since it suggests that teachers must work from all frames of understanding an issue to solve problems. I fear that Penrod's approach to blogs is grounded most in the technology of this new tool, and now we need to talk about how to make the pedagogical shifts necessary for true change to occur.
Regardless of these terms though Penrod argues that blogging and mixed media creation holds great promise for students, teacher, and education. She claims that these modes can bridge disconnects, create student centered learning, promote differentiated instruction and lead to life long learning. I don't disagree with her claims, however, a tool is always just a tool until it is used by real people in context. I am not sure that the tool alone is going to change education - there needs to be a more fundamentally shift in pedagogy before there will be any changes in education. I can see many teachers taking the new technology and simply adapting the 5 paragraph essay - but put it on your blog - this is not going to be enough. Instead of looking at the tool or the software we must think more broadly about the context of education and what do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know when they achieve? What do we do when they don't achieve? These questions will still plague educators if left unanswered.
I do not think Penrod feels that the tool alone will change everything, but I think too many people reading this kind of material might see it as a magic cure, when really engaging students in school and meaningful learning is going to take a lot more change then just using the new tools. It may start with the new tools, but it is going to take far more than this for lasting change.
This is where the technology, pedagogy and content knowledge (TPAK) model does have strength, since it suggests that teachers must work from all frames of understanding an issue to solve problems. I fear that Penrod's approach to blogs is grounded most in the technology of this new tool, and now we need to talk about how to make the pedagogical shifts necessary for true change to occur.
Demographics of Teen Bloggers
In D. Penrod's book she explores how blogging might be closing some digital divides and therefore have real promise in educational settings.
In reading her book a few pieces really seemed significant to me
- Gender and blogs
- Ethnicity and Blogs
In her research she cites two Pew studies, but I think in reading both reports the findings really came from one report. I am having a hard time finding the same statistics in her report - even when I look directly at the cited material. She cites Rainie (2004) however, I could not find the statistic that was in the book at that urban youth were the largest block on content creators online. I did however find that among teen bloggers this demographic was reported to be the largest producers of content.
In this report (not the one cited) I can see these conclusions, but they are for youth only, they can be found on page 10). However, for all people (youth and adults) it seems like more traditional patterns still exist, since within this report there is another on Content Creators this study does not at all agree with her findings - and suggest that higher average household income is correlated with more content creation online - what I had thought. However in reading these Pew Reports it makes me realize that the trends in teen blogging may be out of sync with the trends for all bloggers.
She also reports that ethnic divides are closing with regards to blogging - she cites information from 2005 which states 17% of African American students in the study, 17% of Latino/a students in the study and 19% of Caucasian students in the study reported blogging. This move towards a more equal demographic was really exciting to read (and can be seen on page 14 of this report). I wanted to see how this trend had changed or maintained since the book was published. This more recent study showed that there had been an overall increase in blog creation (from 19% of teens to 28%), but no information about ethnic trends in this demographic.
Digital divides exist in many different forms, and the research from Pew is exciting because it suggests that blogging might be helping decrease these divides.
In reading her book a few pieces really seemed significant to me
- Gender and blogs
- Ethnicity and Blogs
In her research she cites two Pew studies, but I think in reading both reports the findings really came from one report. I am having a hard time finding the same statistics in her report - even when I look directly at the cited material. She cites Rainie (2004) however, I could not find the statistic that was in the book at that urban youth were the largest block on content creators online. I did however find that among teen bloggers this demographic was reported to be the largest producers of content.
In this report (not the one cited) I can see these conclusions, but they are for youth only, they can be found on page 10). However, for all people (youth and adults) it seems like more traditional patterns still exist, since within this report there is another on Content Creators this study does not at all agree with her findings - and suggest that higher average household income is correlated with more content creation online - what I had thought. However in reading these Pew Reports it makes me realize that the trends in teen blogging may be out of sync with the trends for all bloggers.
She also reports that ethnic divides are closing with regards to blogging - she cites information from 2005 which states 17% of African American students in the study, 17% of Latino/a students in the study and 19% of Caucasian students in the study reported blogging. This move towards a more equal demographic was really exciting to read (and can be seen on page 14 of this report). I wanted to see how this trend had changed or maintained since the book was published. This more recent study showed that there had been an overall increase in blog creation (from 19% of teens to 28%), but no information about ethnic trends in this demographic.
Digital divides exist in many different forms, and the research from Pew is exciting because it suggests that blogging might be helping decrease these divides.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New Media Project at MIT
In discussing my new interests in Web 2.0 and technology my sister reminded me to check out the work of the New Media Literacies lab at MIT - and their work is so super cool. I need to re-read their white paper and check out their new teacher resource to see how this group helps teacher approach these new literacies in in a concrete way in the classroom. I think this intersection between theory and practice is a critical place to examine in my study this spring because how teachers interpret and practice theory ultimate shapes the learning students experience.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Technology Literacy Challenge
Just finished reading C. Selfe's Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century (1999) which reviews the goals of Clinton Administrations' Technology and Literacy Challenge. A fascinating book about this ambitious project; it's intended outcomes and potentially unintended outcomes. This book really helped me see how technology and literacy have become joined through many different twists and turns. I think this helps me see where the rise of new media and new literacies has come from.
In the book she calls for teachers of English, language arts and composition to be aware and pay attention to initiatives such as this because while this began about students learning to use computers, the complex definition of literacy is complicated by social constructs, and as technology has crept into the definition of being literate, we as teacher need to be aware of the power and privilege issues that are associated with being literate today.
The legislation in this case was aimed at making every student 'technologically literate' which referred to the ability to use computers for "learning, productivity and performance" (p. 10). At this time the push was not to build, or redefine literacy as including new media, but rather focused on the tools of technology. In an interesting twist the relationship between technology and literacy was further joined with the rise of the standards based educational reforms. As states began to write state wide standards and curriculum these technology and literacy became further entwined (Selfe, p. 77)
As I read this book I guess I was struck by a number of things - biggest of all how conscious the effort to bring computers and technology into schools has been as a governmental initiative to drive our global competitiveness. While I can understand this perspective, I guess I also wonder why educational initiatives have to be linked to global productivity. Even here in Maine MLTI was linked to these same goals.
I also think that because I was a student during the years of this push I guess I just saw the increasing arrival of computers in learning environments happening because they fulfilled a need. I did not see, and did not realize until reading this book how systematically deployed computers and educational technology were as a part of a federal initiative.
Her book follows this initiative to see how to it appealed to business, government, education and families. Although I think her she oversimplifies how this transformation has occurred, I do believe she helped me better understand the very complex forces that have brought technology into new definitions of literacies and how these shifts are and are not impacting practice in schools.
Her call to critical consciousness also was an important part of this work. She outlines the two camps of teachers - those that have embraced using technology and those that have ignored it. However her conclusion that these two groups both ignore the critical issues of what technology means in our culture was fascinating - since I have always thought that those that embraced technology were doing the 'right' thing. As she points outwith discussing how privilege and access and uneven resources in schools are impacting the new definition of literacy we will replicate the same patterns of literacy that are heavily aligned to patterns of race, gender and socio-economic status. She encourages us, wisely in my belief, to make technology visible in a manner which helps us think about how it impacts the learning environment and the wider world.
In the book she calls for teachers of English, language arts and composition to be aware and pay attention to initiatives such as this because while this began about students learning to use computers, the complex definition of literacy is complicated by social constructs, and as technology has crept into the definition of being literate, we as teacher need to be aware of the power and privilege issues that are associated with being literate today.
The legislation in this case was aimed at making every student 'technologically literate' which referred to the ability to use computers for "learning, productivity and performance" (p. 10). At this time the push was not to build, or redefine literacy as including new media, but rather focused on the tools of technology. In an interesting twist the relationship between technology and literacy was further joined with the rise of the standards based educational reforms. As states began to write state wide standards and curriculum these technology and literacy became further entwined (Selfe, p. 77)
As I read this book I guess I was struck by a number of things - biggest of all how conscious the effort to bring computers and technology into schools has been as a governmental initiative to drive our global competitiveness. While I can understand this perspective, I guess I also wonder why educational initiatives have to be linked to global productivity. Even here in Maine MLTI was linked to these same goals.
I also think that because I was a student during the years of this push I guess I just saw the increasing arrival of computers in learning environments happening because they fulfilled a need. I did not see, and did not realize until reading this book how systematically deployed computers and educational technology were as a part of a federal initiative.
Her book follows this initiative to see how to it appealed to business, government, education and families. Although I think her she oversimplifies how this transformation has occurred, I do believe she helped me better understand the very complex forces that have brought technology into new definitions of literacies and how these shifts are and are not impacting practice in schools.
Her call to critical consciousness also was an important part of this work. She outlines the two camps of teachers - those that have embraced using technology and those that have ignored it. However her conclusion that these two groups both ignore the critical issues of what technology means in our culture was fascinating - since I have always thought that those that embraced technology were doing the 'right' thing. As she points outwith discussing how privilege and access and uneven resources in schools are impacting the new definition of literacy we will replicate the same patterns of literacy that are heavily aligned to patterns of race, gender and socio-economic status. She encourages us, wisely in my belief, to make technology visible in a manner which helps us think about how it impacts the learning environment and the wider world.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Why Blog?
In her book Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy, Diane Penrod (2007) begins with an investigation of why students are already blogging in their personal lives.
She claims these are the five basic reasons (p. 3)
1) Easy to publish
2) Information reformation (I love this term - for me captures just what I am doing here in my blog- taking new information/ideas and playing with them until they feel like mine, there is really joy for me in this process of making sense)
3) The genre is changeable
4) Allow writers to experiment
5) Empower marginalized by giving voice
I agree with her reasons thus far, and am anxious to read the rest of the book because I believe she is going to explain/push for blogging to enter classrooms. I think the biggest concern I have is what happens when teachers who want to promote 'traditional' literacy get a hold of this genre - will it take these good elements out of the process? How do we keep the joy, pleasure and creativity alive that already exists in this medium and use that for the benefit of education. I'll be curious what she says regarding this issue.
She claims these are the five basic reasons (p. 3)
1) Easy to publish
2) Information reformation (I love this term - for me captures just what I am doing here in my blog- taking new information/ideas and playing with them until they feel like mine, there is really joy for me in this process of making sense)
3) The genre is changeable
4) Allow writers to experiment
5) Empower marginalized by giving voice
I agree with her reasons thus far, and am anxious to read the rest of the book because I believe she is going to explain/push for blogging to enter classrooms. I think the biggest concern I have is what happens when teachers who want to promote 'traditional' literacy get a hold of this genre - will it take these good elements out of the process? How do we keep the joy, pleasure and creativity alive that already exists in this medium and use that for the benefit of education. I'll be curious what she says regarding this issue.
4 reasons that new ICT tools and powers change literacy
According to Warschauer (2006) there are four major shifts that new ICT tools allow
1) interactive written communication: "these bridge the historic divide between speech...and writing" p.7) - this statement is certainly supported by Jacob's (2008) findings about IM (see my Dec 24th Post
2) allows for the creation of hypertexts
3) democratizes multimedia creation
4) many to many communication
These changes are massive and certainly classroom practices can now make use of these powerful transformations in helping students build literacy skills, but how do teachers learn and become comfortable with these tools and this new form of knowledge production?
1) interactive written communication: "these bridge the historic divide between speech...and writing" p.7) - this statement is certainly supported by Jacob's (2008) findings about IM (see my Dec 24th Post
2) allows for the creation of hypertexts
3) democratizes multimedia creation
4) many to many communication
These changes are massive and certainly classroom practices can now make use of these powerful transformations in helping students build literacy skills, but how do teachers learn and become comfortable with these tools and this new form of knowledge production?
ICT Skills Assessment
ETS now offers an ICT Skills assessment test that is supposed to evaluate a student's ability to perform critical ICT skills that might be different from the everyday technologies they employ. In reviewing the information presented by ETS it looks to be a good test of skills and knowledge related to ICT, but as always the more critical question is what can an institution do with the information it gets from such a diagnostic. Having multiple tracks towards gaining more competency or building more skills is needed once we have the information that students are struggling or strong in a given area. Additionally I would be curious if there is any correlation to performance on this test, and performance on other standardized tests.
3 literacy challenges of today?
In reading Laptops and Literacy (Warshauer, 2006) he separates literacy into two different literacies: academic literacy and digital literacy. As he says " literacy is not a singular, but rather a plural construct. There are many types of literacy for different situations" (Warshauer, 2006, p.3). While certainly this point agrees with others that I have read thus far, by naming digital literacy as a different set of skills. However, after he breaks apart these different forms of literacy he also suggests that " learning cannot be reduced to skills and competencies, it must be centered on content. But mastery of content is best achieved through collaborative critical inquiry and in-depth analysis of challenging problems related to that content" (p. 9). He believes that "how schools can become more relevant by teaching the kinds of literacy thinking, communication, and productivity skills as well as academic content, needed in the 21st century" (p.9) is the first literacy challenge for today's schools. He also argues that the disconnect between home and school, although with the digital divide between rich and poor represent the other major challenges to literacy in our school's now.
These challenges resonate with my experience, and the other readings I have been doing. I look forward to reading more from him and discovering how he see technology (specifically laptops) as having the potential to meet these challenges. Although I believe that the hardware and tools represent a crucial element to meeting these challenges, I also think that educators need to build TPCK to better use the tools we have available to meet these challenges. I think only by building capacity in the intersection of technology, content and pedagogy can we begin to address these concerns.
These challenges resonate with my experience, and the other readings I have been doing. I look forward to reading more from him and discovering how he see technology (specifically laptops) as having the potential to meet these challenges. Although I believe that the hardware and tools represent a crucial element to meeting these challenges, I also think that educators need to build TPCK to better use the tools we have available to meet these challenges. I think only by building capacity in the intersection of technology, content and pedagogy can we begin to address these concerns.
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Literacies, New Genre: The Wovel
This morning driving into work I had to smile at the NPR report about the Wovel. The Wovel is a new term that describes a new genre of writing - a serial book that is released in weekly installments on the web. Much like the Choose Your Own Adventure books the Wovel also has a voting option for readers to direct the flow of the story.
Interesting to see that new forms of writing, and new genres are popping up as a result of the rise of Web 2.0 tools. Additionally in the report one woman commented that the short format appealed to her busy life as well. The changing conceptions of reading and media certainly seem to be growing.
Only problem...I guess a wovel is also the name of a funny looking snow shovel. Perhaps they should have googled the term first
Interesting to see that new forms of writing, and new genres are popping up as a result of the rise of Web 2.0 tools. Additionally in the report one woman commented that the short format appealed to her busy life as well. The changing conceptions of reading and media certainly seem to be growing.
Only problem...I guess a wovel is also the name of a funny looking snow shovel. Perhaps they should have googled the term first
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