Reading Week # 6

Reading Week #6 Families

1.     What surprised you, concerned you, or intrigued about students' access to technology in their homes?

      I was not really surprised about student’s access to technology. As I stated in the previous post it’s an age old theme. Every generation has to deal with the technology of that period. Every parent has to deal with the trials and tribulations of integrating the technology into the home, the concerns about independence, separation and autonomy that occur during the teenage years. I was told once that if God had told us what teenagers were like there would be zero population growth. I only disagree with the terms working class and middle class because in today’s economy, they are pretty much the same. In fact the middle class is dissolving and there is mostly ‘those who have’ and ‘those who not’. However after leaving out those terms, parents still want what they consider is the best for their children and perhaps how they were raised.

2.     What kinds of household spaces related to technology, or rules about using technology, were similar or dissimilar to your own household environment?

     I never had my ‘own’ space. I shared a room with my sister, my college roommate and a husband. I only recently acquired my own space and I revel in it. As a result, I made sure that my children (2) had a private space, mainly, their bedroom within which they were allowed certain privileges. I emphasize privileges not rights. I reminded them that until they owned their own place. had a job, paid taxes, they had to follow our rules. We had a family room with one TV, computers weren’t invented yet, nor were cell phones, or ipods, ipads etc. Both had their own phone and that was about it for technology and that was an extension. I also made it clear that I was allowed access to their rooms and friends of the opposite sex were never allowed in their rooms.  I never snooped and they knew that, and as technology evolved we tried to keep up. But they were older and territoriality was not much of an issue.

3.     Could this chapter be helpful for teachers who seek to integrate technology into their classroom activities in more meaningful ways?

            Not every household has the most modern and up to date technologies, or are the sole user of the computer.  I think that teachers know the socioeconomic and family situations of their class, i.e. inner city or private institutions. They may not know each student’s situation, but they have a good handle on what can and cannot be possible outside the classroom. I teach adults from all over West Virginia and I know that there are some places that don’t have access. So if I give an assignment that requires out of class on line access, I give them plenty of time to complete this. My students also know at the very beginning of the program that computer activity will be required and places where they can get access. One example of the socioeconomic situation would be the Garcia family in urban Los Angles.

I interviewed a brother and sister aged 12 and 9 and they had me laughing from the start. They are what you call 'connected' They have every playstation and xbox from the beginning of time, their own laptop computer but no phones. Not yet, when the plan runs out they will get a phone. When asked about hanging out, messing around and geeking out, I was informed they were not geeks.Tswift13JB just uses facebook and plays games at home and has restricted computer time at school. She wished she had more time at school. It was math and reading and that was fun. Ceclas has had to do a report from home and didn't like that, he would rather play on his XBox. Both play basketball and still spend time outside. Their parents have their passwords and have rules and regulations they must follow regarding usage at home. More to follow....

Reading Week #5

I was pleasantly surprised that the research is showing that our youth are not going down the tubes with iphones in their hands. As I read through these chapters, I was reminded of my parents complaining about the youth of the day, namely me and my siblings in the 1960s. According to my parents, we were always on the phone, sitting in front of the ‘boob’ tube and we were going to amount to nothing! There were no malls yet, but we had the public pool, roller rink and pizza place to hang out. We had to ride our bikes, but by golly we got there. I will fast forward to my children, always on the phone, in front of the TV, they were going to amount to nothing. But instead of party lines, there were phone extensions in every room and we had two TVs. Atatri also came out and computers were in their infancy. The malls and arcades were the hang outs and carpools were born. Now to modern society these kids are always on the phone and they sit in front of a game station or computer. These kids are going to amount to nothing. The malls have become chat rooms, myspace  and facebook. So what’s the difference? Not much really.(pg 114, para 2) We didn’t turn out so bad and my children are fairly normal tax paying citizens, as will our youth of today. There will always be best friends and bullies, gossip and rumors, breakups and heartbreaks, ‘greasers’ and jocks, prom king and queens. It’s all the same, except with each generation the speed of the media has increased. Where it used to be days or hours to hit the ‘grapevine’ now, it’s instantaneous.(pg 112 para 2) And once it has hit the net it is ‘out there forever’ something that must be ingrained early and often.

My and my children’s circle of friends was fairly tight, usually encompassing just our neighborhood and school friends, we only expanded our horizons if we went away to college. Dating and having a relationship of any kind was tightly controlled by the parents.  New technology has expanded the scope of relationships so that they can flirt, date and, breakup outside of the ears and eyes of the parents.(pg 145 para3) Today’s kids’ circle has expanded to encompass the world, even the moon, but they still maintain a basic core of friends from school, activities and their neighborhood.( pg 82 paragraph Peers and Friendship).

I have a new appreciation for social media and I may just invest in an ipad.

Media Ecology Case Study

This was a journey into the unknown, for me. Since I am going to a seminar next week, I have already interviewed two children, brother and sister ages 12 and 9 respectively. He will be known as Ceclas  and she is known as TSwift13JB. They are the children of one of my students and I have only just met them last year. They are the classic connected kids, with all sorts of digital media. I didn’t have to ask many questions they had no problem telling everything. I did ask, ‘what would you do if the electricity went out all over the world’?  They had an answer for everything. I also had questions regarding passwords and parental monitoring. I must say it was quite entertaining.

Reading Week #4

I found after reading this article, that I am totally out of touch with the elementary/secondary schools.

Since my children have grown and I teach college students I never knew that reading and imagery went hand in hand. I really feel like a fish out of water.

What I know about illuminated text and using pictures to help a student read more proficiently is very miniscule. I do believe, however, there is a place for illuminated text in the school. But not the way I just learned it. I feel that if a child is having trouble learning to read, the illuminated text of flashy words and letters zooming from one side to the other would only confuse a student more. In the examples that were posted for us I found the illuminated text ‘I carry you in my heart’ to be quite boring and if I were having trouble reading, I would give up early. Where the example of the toothpicks, ‘Toothpick Ocean’ kept words moving along with images and I think this would resonate better with the student. As Stated in our reading “We have noticed that the strategic use of visual material can enhance reading experiences for reluctant and low-ability readers and, indeed, can help them become more proficient creators of internal visual imagery that supports comprehension.”( pg 759) I interpret visual as meaning pictures, drawings etc. Where as, in the 1^st paragraph on page 762 titled ‘Illustrations in the text’, I feel that illustrated text when used with pictures or drawings in addition to words would be an excellent tool in the school. In fact I feel that one of my fellow student’s illustrated text about FDR and the day of infamy would be an excellent example of this. It has pictures and words and the speaker of those words. I was mesmerized by it.

This is not what I originally produced. It seems authorSTREAM does not like PPT 2010. I spent way too much time trying to fix it. It was fun to do...but disappointing end production. A hearty thank you to Mary Swiger for instructions in embedding.Enjoy.

Dance the Final Recital

More PowerPoint presentations from Jodee Nelson

Week 3 reading

Chapter 1: Media Ecologies in Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out

1.      What findings in the Media Ecologies: Quantitative Perspectives surprised you the most? How does the finding change the way you think about young people, technology and learning?

What I found most surprising was the fact that according to the Kaiser report , media engagement did not crowd out time spent with family, hobbies and physical activity. I found this to be very interesting in light of the hype we see on TV about having 5 phones in a house hold and they text each other across tables. I’m from a time when color TV was invented and we still had rotary dial telephones and party lines. I remember when the calculator was invented, my parents then claimed it would turn our brains to mush. The family units started to become disjointed with the need for both parents working or divorcing and having no time together. So it seems to me that maybe media engagement is helping pull the family back together. I think that the more I learn about this, I don’t think it should be limited to just the young people. However, the world is their oyster and media has so much to offer them. I’m a little jealous that I didn’t have this access in my youth.

2.      What are the benefits to a genre-based approach to understanding youth engagement with digital media over a categorical-based approach?

As in all new technologies, the powers that be want cookie cutter answers. Like No Child Left Behind, the government tried to compartmentalize special needs students , only to find there are a stunning amount of special needs. I believe that this is a similar situation and the variables are staggering. Our text points out that the genre-based approach emphasizing modes of participation, not categories or individuals. They are looking at the variables that make the youth and the technology unique, and looking at the forest and not trying to identify the trees.

       3.      What aspects of Michelle's (Box 1.2) computer use at home have implications for computer  
            use at school?

I feel a showdown approaching between mother and daughter. Michelle is a 12 year old or tween in a strict home environment, where Mom does not want to let her go. The internet has opened a whole new world for her. She loves the creative media course in school because it gives her the freedom to express herself. Although I think she is in a similar socioeconomic situation as her friends, she has more access which can give her the edge in school.

4.      As you read about Clarissa (Box 1.3) consider the affordances of digital technologies that help Clarissa shape her identity and the role they play in literacy engagement. Do you think there are positive implications for these affordances in school-based literacy instruction? If so, what are they. If not, what are your concerns?

I feel that there could be positive implications for school-based literacy. Because story writing could   be beneficial in lieracy.  However, my concern is how do you control who they are talking to and writing and posting? To me the youth are not given enough guidelines to follow. Free expression should be a privilege and not a right.  In the day and age these young people don’t realize the implications of sharing passwords, and what they post. Facebook and myspace have taken on a whole new meaning. Like writing in a diary, when I was young, stories are made up or embellished. It was our world and we could be anything that we wanted. Clarissa does the same but she puts it out there for all to see in the program Faraway Lands. That to me is very bothersome.

5.      In the section titled Messing Around we read about the sophisticated and creative technology practices young people are developing on their own outside of school. Do you think it is important for teachers to know about and understand these practices. Why?

      I absolutely believe that it is important for teachers to understand these practices. It is important for them to keep up with the developing technology.  If we don’t understand how students are already using digital media, how can we effectively make assignments to enhance these skills? I learn a lot from my students. I find myself ‘messing around’ and this actually leads gathering a great deal of information without setting a specific goal.  I have my students write research papers and this leads to the students learning and not necessarily having prior knowledge of a topic and they don’t even realize it. A few of my students will be presenting their information at a conference in the fall. Part of our program is on-line and we have the students experiment and ‘mess around’ and this allows students to become real experts with new media and teach others. Especially me, I am roaming out of my comfort zone

6.      Should schools support students' in "geeking out"? What are the educational and ethical implications of "geeking out"?

When I hear a person called a ‘computer geek’ it makes me think of people that know how to break the rules necessary to get a job done and others want to learn.  I feel the schools should take advantage of their expertise and not negate their talents simply because that person does not necessarily fit into a preconceived notion of a ‘geek’. Educational implications would include learning how they find credible information, but they also know the shortcuts and illegal downloading could be a problem.

7.      The young people studied for this book lived in urban settings in California or New York City. Do you think young people in West Virginia behave in similar ways and develop the same kinds of digital literacies? Provide examples from your own experiences with young people in West Virginia.

  I believe the youth of the digital age are basically the same all over the states and even the world. They all want to be connected. The more money, the more toys. There are places in every state that has areas of such poverty that braodband has not been installed until very recently. I also believe that if the kids want it, they will figure out a way to get it. Determined is the child that wants something reeeeally reeeeally bad, life is not worth living without. The only experience I have with the youth of West Virginia ,are my students, all over the age of 21. They bring their iphones and ipads to class and listen to their ipods regularly. I had a contest to see who could last the longest without their phone. I had them put the phone in front of them and the first one to look at it had to leave the room. They didn’t last a minute.  For that reason iphones and all i technology is not allowed during class. They hate it.

Reading #2 Multimodal Literacy: An Introduction

1. How has the nature of literacy changed as a result of digital technologies?

 Literacy, no longer confined to communication through reading and writing of traditional printed text, has expanded and figuratively exploded, particularly within the past decade. For educators and students, it’s here—technology. I continually struggle with the tension between the restrictive culture of political mandates that value traditional approaches to literacy and how I continually work to develop a culture of possibilities that engage and build upon the new literacies that students bring with them to class daily. Today make literacy more relevant to students while creating space in the English language arts classroom both for teachers and students alike to explore, compose, and share a range of texts with larger audiences. Further, when we keep such questions in mind, we can create multidimensional curricula that reach more populations in ways that we could not otherwise. We know that when people are actively engaged with inquiry, have a desire to learn new things, and try out different digital, visual, musical, spatial, dramatic (and so on) tools and techniques, they have the potential to say and do things that we have never before imagined.Change in literacy

2. What are the benefits of multimodal reading and writing for students?

Research has shown the multifaceted ways in which languages (art, drama, music, movement, written/oral, math) can be studied in school. It has been substantiated  that students of all ages learn best when engaged .But to be successful the strategies need to be  socially constructed, personally relevant, creative composition and interpretation of texts that incorporate a variety of meaningful communicative modes or symbol systems. Working with multimodal literacies is an essentially interactive and flexible, dynamic and integrative, social and cultural practice that cannot be reduced to anything less.

3. What project described intrigued you the most?

I found two studies, in particular, demonstrated how the inclusion of drama in the reading

curriculum improved students’ comprehension and the teacher’s use of effective instructional practices to support reading (Rose etal., 2000; Wolf, 1998). Saying ‘Yes’ to Music: Integrating Opera into

a Literature Study,” Sharon Blecher and Gail Burton describe the integral role music plays in their first- and second-grade curricula. They demonstrate how music frames their school day, enhances children’s understanding of story, specifically fairy tales, and enables children to engage in authentic musical and literary inquiry .In this chapter, readers see how drama, visual arts, music, and the genre of fairy tales were integrated to help children broaden their thinking and extend the possibilities for learning in unique and phenomenal ways. Chapter 4, Esther Gray and Susan Thetard present their research investigating how Susan’s high school students express the complexities of the Holocaust through process drama  and writing in role. Gray and Thetard describe how they carefully designed  contexts to discourage students from oversimplifying the events or from resorting to mere tragedy narratives. Findings f rom the data illuminate the ethics and insights students gained about the Holocaust-era and about themselves as actors. This chapter raises important points related to critical literacy and identifies key considerations for teachers who plan to implement drama in their own literacy classrooms.

            Interestingly, when I was in 7^th grade , 1964, my English Lit. teacher had us act out our book reports. We did not just read, this made us more aware of what we were reading. But we read books paper and print, nothing on line. When my children were in kindergarten (1977) their teachers read their fairy tales to music and incorporated dance. My daughter loved it , my son hated it. Go figure. What I find interesting is today, it is made out to be a new way to engage students.

4. What challenge to integrating mulitmodal reading and writing into schools do you most identify with?

            There are many challenges that I can identify. Although I try to become multimodal savvy, I take the risk and try to move outside of my comfort zone. But many classes are led by , more talented than I, weavers of multimodal curricula or by teachers who collaborated with researchers or colleagues. But more significant is that, I teach what I know best, what I am most comfortable with, and what I enjoy. A teacher’s comfort level with his or her own artistic abilities or technological skills can be one of the biggest deterrents to implementing multimodal literacies instruction, which I strongly agree.  Because I am not from the techno generation, it is like going to a foreign country without knowing the language and trying to get around one word at a time. The students today are practically born with an iphone in their hand and I’m still trying to figure out the VCR. Actually I can set the time now.