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.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
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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