Media Ecology and Learning Case

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SMDQ9JOUm6T4lksVnMNLVX72ze511EWLGGBkkg6xqkI/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the link to my GoogleDocs Paper with rough draft of my case!

Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practices

"Such transferecne would depend both on the students' own capacity to identify opportunities for innovation and the way  that such innovation was encouraged in school." (pg 130)
This quote from chapter 7 got my attention because it reminded me of our previous blogs and discussiongs about not all students having the same access to media or new technologies. Digital learning, if not taught in school, is the responsibility of a student in a sense. These students need to have creavitiy and innovation and then maybe educators would be more prone to using technology in schools. I am aware that everyone has different access-- making this sort of an unfortunate cycle.

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"...demanding that student-teachers design a text using visuals, print and audio, is consitant with Kress's (2000) argument that literacy education in a digital age demans 'a very differnt pedagody and a fundamentally different notion of learning'." (pg. 144)
Having young educators who are learning how to go out into the field of teaching create these types of lesson plans to stimulate the brains of young students. This new pedagody is going to hopefully help young students learn digital media in schools more than they are doing now. It is a gradual process and implementing new ways of teaching with college-age studend teachers is a great way to start and hopefull create a snowball effect.
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"For example, in the multimedia workshop environtment, students share pictures, music tracks and tips for creating particular effects for others' projects to a degree that I have not experienced with students respond to print texts alone". (pg 160)
This excerpt from chapter 9 demonstrates the feedback students receive when digital media is added to curriculum. They can share so much more and broaden their opinions and work when multimedia is included. Printed text is so limited to the amount of review can be done with it. Students are contained to a set direction of where to go with their feedback. Having multimedia included allows for so much more creativity.
Using digital literacy outside of school can be many things- social media, creating presentations for work, or just organizing your own digital life. There are many apps that can help with all those things.  I feel prepared after taking this course about showing my learners, someday, about the world of digital literacy. I feel like it is an ongoing project, though, because this world is ever changing. To feel more prepared I would need to keep up to date on the media world. I also think I would definitely have my students prepare digital projects to show their understanding of content. It may be beneficial to them in the learning aspect- some students are visual, some aren't. It can incorporate all learning styles in some way. Also having them create digital means of understanding will benefit them in the real world. They will need to have these skills when they graduate from school and find a job.

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Interview Part 2

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Hanging out- Her responses coordiate with friendship by her wish to use the technology at school to check her social media sites. She mentioned she had many.

Messing around- her use of computers provided her with informal learning opportunitiess by using Google to look up interesting things, playing educational games from teachers, and also how to use a keyboard in general and internet tools on her own.

Geekingg out- I believe she has deveoloped a particular interest in many things from her enjoyment of researching different topics on Google. She also enjoys different games that I personally know are educational. She is a very bright student.

Schooling- She does not mention the use of lingo in our interivew, reading books, or writing traditionally. I did not really ask her to elaborate on any of those topics. However, she does mention that she enjoys reading about different topics.

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"One technological determinist view represents contemporary children as increasingly 'active' and 'worldly' because there are now technologies that enable and encourage this."


"The enormous variety of blogs- sometimes referred to as the 'blogosphere'- includes serious and trivial material and is a largely unregulared clamour of indiviual and group voices. Depending on one's point of view, this can be seen as a fascinating diversity of human expression or a confusion of unfiltered information and opinion."


"When part of the reality of a situation is virtual, and the actors and researchers are both physically embodied and actualized in the virtual world as avatars, the research context can be conceived as a number of layered realities."

Digital Literacies; Social Learning and Classroom Practices

"One technological determinist view represents contemporary children as increasingly 'active' and 'worldly' because there are now technologies that enable and encourage this."
-- This quote resonated with me because I find it true that chilren in today's world are much more informed and knowledgeable about things going on in the world and have their own opinions. They can even locate places online to voice these opinions and make a stand for what they believe in. I don't know if it is completely a good thing that children can see what is happening in the world because there are so many awful things that are posted on media forums. --


"The enormous variety of blogs- sometimes referred to as the 'blogosphere'- includes serious and trivial material and is a largely unregulared clamour of indiviual and group voices. Depending on one's point of view, this can be seen as a fascinating diversity of human expression or a confusion of unfiltered information and opinion."
-- This stuck out to me because are blogging every week for this class and has brought me into to the 'blogosphere'. Reading my peers blogs has been very informative and I have started looking at blogs to get opinons on things in everyday life. I think students can benefit from learning how to blog and how to research blogs of others. It can be informative as well has helpful in many situations.


"When part of the reality of a situation is virtual, and the actors and researchers are both physically embodied and actualized in the virtual world as avatars, the research context can be conceived as a number of layered realities."
-- Having students participate in virtual world learning could be a postive in the educational setting. Although there are still questions about grading and observing, it is a good theory to help some students learn different ways of understanding things in other ways besides a classroom setting.

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Digital Texts In and Out of School

"And yet, in many classrooms these devices and the texts produced with them are still perceived to be irrelevant, and even dangerous, in relation to children's learning and their development of powerful practices with text."
-- From the introduction, this quote got my attention because I think it very true in a lot of our schools. Maybe educational systems are nervous to bring all these new technologies into the school out of fear. I think opening the digital literacy door wide open will benefit students and school all around.

"How do we ensure that every child has access to the skills and experiences needed to become a full participant in the social, cultural, economical and political future of our society?"
-- This is a tough question. If we provide the necessary tools in the school environment then we need to be sure to educate our students fully on what we expect them to learn, because some students (maybe more than we realize) will not have access to these same learning tools outside of school.

"Further, in exploring meanings, we can take into account not just the written word, but also images, layout, font, sound, gesture, movement and so on."
-- Written word is becoming only a single way of communication. Images obviously speak 1,000 words, but adding font color, size, music or sound, and movement can all help our words speak more loudly than we ever hoped. As educators, we need to be creative in ways to get our point across and gain the attention of our students. I think the tools we are taking from this course will help immensely with that!

"This research aims to understand how digital texts are used by a small purposive sample of preteens and early teenage children to create and perform their social identities."
-- I used this section of text in my interview blog, but I want to use it again here because it still blows my mind how young people today are balancing this whole digital world with so many social media outlets. My sister listed three or four, and that is a lot to me. I know there are even more out there! I think it can be a good thing- for students to figure out what they like, and who they want to represent themselves as, but this can also be a bad thing because sometimes we cannot take back the things we post on the internet and it can be detrimental to our lives. Just something to think about..

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Interview

I interviewed one of my younger sisters- Samantha. She is 14 and just finished the 9th grade. Here are her responses--

Do you have a computer /iPod/MPC playerWii/ ect....?

• I have an iPod and a family computer

What kinds of things do you use the computer for?

• I use them to google interesting things and play games

What is your favorite thing to do on the computer?

• favorite thing to do on a computer is go to Coolmath-games.com and play the games

How did you learn to do that?

• a teacher game me the website when I was in middle school after I had finished all of my other assignments

What are some other things you use the computer for?

• I also use my computer for social media (such as Twitter, tumblr, and Facebook)

What is your favorite game? Why?

• My favorite game is Red Ball because I like using the arrow keys on my computer to make the ball move around and collect stars

Do you know other people who do this?

•  I don't know anyone who does what I do on my computer

How do you use the computer at school?

• At school I use the computer for my schoolwork and when I'm finished usually they allow me to play games

How would you like to use the computer at school?

• I would like to be able to check social media on a school computer

Do you think teachers would let you use the computer to do those things? Why? Why not?

• I would not be allowed to check social media on a school computer because some social media sites have inappropriate material that would not be approved of at school.

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A section from the readings in Chapter three revolves around children "create and perform their social identities" (pp. 56). My little sister made me curious about how they actually make up their profiles- I know I had a Myspace when I was younger and put so much work into making it ME. There are so many options of social media now for students to have, I'm curious as to how they juggle so many hats.

Presentation- Digital Natives

This stand alone presentation about digital natives and the new media in today's age tries to explain what we must face as current users of digital media, and future educators of students born into this digital age. We have a responsibility to learn new tools and resources to use for our students. They should be provided an education that uses traditional learning skills as well as new digital tools to prepare them for success in the world. Technology is constantly changing and we must keep up and help our students learn. We might also learn from them in the process!

Students born into today's times are at an advantage to learn with tools we didn't have as students. We need to provide them with the safety, skills, and information they need to use these tools correctly and to help improve themselves as well as others. They are educators of digital literacy as well!

 

 

Digtal Natives

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Beyond Digital Natives

Chapter 10:
 "Much as we may embrace the affordances offered by changes in technology, we must also acknowledge that the school discourse is not only rooted in traditional construction of literacy (Marsh, 2003) but that it is also responsible for shaping children's perceptions of aspects of literacy (Levy, 2009b). "

My reaction to this quote is one of agreement. Of course new technologies are making things simpler in general. This includes schooling, in my opinion. Teachers can use many online resources to teach their students and have the students use them as well. This will prepare them for life outside of school such as the workforce, which is much more technological than past years. However, we can't abandon the traditional sense of schooling, either. I think a good mixture is a great solution to educate children with traditional aspects- such as textbooks, writing skills, and reading on physical text, as well as using digital tools to 'revamp' education in a sense. New tools such as smart boards, Ipads, and online games or programs can help students learn from a different perspective.



Chapter 11:
"Research focusing on what seem to be highly developed skills, such as information seeking, go further to demonstrate the dangers of assuming that everyday skills are a sufficient basis for making claims about educational skills. For example, many young people may have the ability to find information using digital technology but lack the information literacy skills to make effective decisions about the information sources they find (Coombes, 2009, Singh, Mallan & Giardina, 2008).

This excerpt from Chapter 11 is very relevant to my personal experiences. I remember in high school writing papers and having to do 'research' but using sources like Wiki. After college, I obviously now know how important it is to have reliable sources of information. I think that these skills should be taught earlier than college age students. Although some sources seem legitimate, they are often not true, or unreliable when compared to scholarly, peer reviewed articles and journals.  



Chapter 12:
"First, is there a generational break that divides older and younger people by how each group uses technology? The answer is 'no'."

Chapter 12 really made things clear when it came to the term 'digital natives'. This quote stuck out because I think older generations are learning, too, what it's like to use all these new digital tools and resources. They may have to take a little more time to understand or not grasp the ENTIRE concept of some things, but there are also children out there who do not have the digital literacy tools that we commonly think this generation does. I think things even out in the long run of who contains digital literacy concepts.



Learning Literacy Skills



This meme represents the idea that when teaching digital literacy in schools, all aspects should be taught or touched upon. Students need to learn not only how to use these new skills, but what they should be looking for, as well. There is so much on the Internet and students need to know what is reliable information and what is garbage. It helps to know what to look for.. or what not to look for.

Digital Natives- Navigating Digital

"My interest is mainly in the role of education in creating the learning environments needed for providing all children and young people with the competencies needed to become literate in a digital culture and enhance their everyday knowledge, experiences, and skills."

  

I completely agree with this quote from chapter 7. It is one of my main goals as a future educator to allow students to use digital media to their full advantage in their education. They can have access to so much more learning and success, in my opinion, with digital media under their belt. They will be much more prepared for the work force as well. 

 

 

"It's use within the student community has reached  

such high levels that it at least matches and probably exceeds that of email (Judd, in press)".

   

This quote from chapter 8 amazed me. When I was younger, email was the only way to get a hold of someone other than phone or letter. Now that it's coming up as perhaps a second place to social media is astounding to me. I am not surprised though, because I Facebook message people all the time. It is almost faster to me- or I just think people will check their Facebook before their email.

 

 

 

"Montgomery has investigated the 'youth civic web'- platforms built for young people in order to invite them to participate. She concludes that interactive media is helping to provide young people with some of the essential skills for civic and political engagement by allowing them to learn about the critical issues of the day; insert their own voices into the public discourse; and actively participate in a rage of political issues (Montgomery, 2008)."

  

This excerpt from chapter 9 stuck out for a few reasons. Number one being that it relates so closely to this past week's political news- for gay marriage to be legal across the United States. I have seen just on my own Facebook the opinions of many, and the support, or disagreement on both sides. Seeing the freedom we all have to voice our own views about such policies or views is almost unheard of if we were to rewind just a few years. I think it's great that this participation is happening just because of the access we have to social media, or the internet in general. People can become educated on politics or policies and then actively participate in discussions with other people, without having to be part of a political office. Just us normal folks having the ability to learn, educate others, and collaborate together to expand our views and mind sets thanks to this digital age.

 

 

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When it comes to whether teachers should be responsible for developing digital literacies, I would say partially. I think courses should be offered at school specifically designated to focus on digital literacies, and I think teachers should be required to incorporate new uses in their lesson plans so children are exposed at least in that way. I don't think it should be SOLEY places on the teacher because socially children will learn new things on their own. Digital literacies can be focused on in the courses offered- much like gym, or music. Eventually it may take more of a hold on the educational scene and become a course like history or science.

I believe that the development of digital literacies can support the development of reading practices. Words are still words whether in print or on a computer screen. So children are still reading. Also, the learning process would most likely be more interactive from a digital standpoint, so children may actually have a better and more positive experience with digital literacy learning.

When it comes to academic writing practices, I am not quite sold that there is a substitute for physically writing. I think children should be able to read and write in cursive. I know that is leaving the learning community in some areas, but I personally disagree and think being able to write is part of being literate.

 

 

 

Bad Luck Brian

 

This meme about bad luck Brian may reflect with some recent (college) grads are feeling. I personally was  not this literate with the online world until college. I had to rely on my instructional technology course back in my freshman year to even begin to grasp what some concepts were. This course is helping immensely as well. There's just so much information and I wish I would've been more prepared, or at least more introduced, in my high school years.

The Civic, Social and Multi Modal Lives of Digital Natives

"The notion that all young people are free to "volunteer" their labor for the good of communities and civic organizations has become entrenched, alongside the notion that older adults have more responsibilities and less time, because young people "save time" multitasking digitally.

 

This quote from chapter 4 stood out tome because it's something I never really considered being an issue. I did not know that older generational people were being given less digital responsibilities because the younger, digitally native generation can "save time". This may not always be the case. Some adults are more fluent in media than younger people.We  should not assume/

 

 

"They share their private information and personal issues and upload their photos via mobile phones. However, sometimes others expose their friends' profiles from Prof to the major Internet sites based on the PC Internet with unpleased\ant comments, a practice that can be regarded as a form of cyber-bullying, known as sarasu.

 

This specific quote from chapter 5 stuck out to me because this is such a huge issue with online chatting, playing games, putting private information out there. There are so many risks that a person can encounter and those risks of violation grow the younger the person in, in my opinion. There are tons of people who prey on young people on the internet.

 

 

"Characterizing young learning as a homogeneous group through the use of terms such as "Digital Natives" is problematic for a number of reasons, but the main on is that through a broad generalization such terms gloss over the need to identify and recognize difference."

 

In chapter 6, this quote stuck out to me because it makes sense in a way. Not all young learners are going to be pros at digitally advanced things if they haven't been exposed to learning them yet. Some children are not in school, or do not have the financial means of owning new digital items.

 

 

 

"Digital Native"
This meme is expressing the relief that one might have knowing that they are privileged to be born in such an exciting time in the digital world. They will possess skills that some older generational individuals will never have. 

 

Digital Natives: Reflecting on the Myth

"The problem here is not with the natives themselves, but rather with the rest of us, the "Digital Immigrants" who remain obstinately toed to older media, and who are failing to catch up with the times."

 

This excerpt from the Forward stood out to me because I just had an image of young people using all sorts of new technologies and then an older generation giving them a strange look and complaining about it. I know that obviously not all young people embrace technology and not all older people exclude it. It was just an image that came to mind and the fact that this quote from the book is sadly true. Technology is becoming more and more prevalent and useful and I personally think it best to embrace as much as we can. I'm not opposed to traditional things, such as physical books, but I'm also not opposed to new and exciting change.

"...where technology evangelists have become particularly prominent in many areas of education, promising to 'transform' and 'revolutionize' pedagogy using a variety of devices, all the way from digital television to the Nintendo DS and the Apple iPad."

Chapter one presented a quote that I found exciting. New technologies in today's educational settings is a great way to prepare students for the world they will grow to be working adults. The more we can help prepare them, the better their chances are for success.

"As unenhanced humans, we are limited in our perceptions and constrained by the processing power and functioning of the human brain."

From chapter two, this quote stood out to me as just a simple fact about 21st century technology. Without the knowledge provided by digital media we are inhibiting out own minds from what they can be capable of with the assistance from new technologies. I never have really thought about but we would not know HALF of what we know without digital assistance (in my opinion).

"By shifting our attention to the ways in which technologies open up the potential for new kinds of social engagement, the argument moves towards choice and the ways in which technologies might allow for new kinds of educational engagement."

 

This quote from chapter 3 stood out to me because it just opens up thought to how we, as educators, can enhance and develop new ways to bring technology into the classroom to further the actual engagement of students.

 

 

 

'Don't worry, I got this.'

 

This image was really one of the few that I had pictures to create a mental picture of what digitally native means. Babies today are born as native to the digital media available and know how to use it very early in age.

 

Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practices

"We type far more than we used to and are producing massive amounts of text compared to what we used to write,” Baron says. “And because of the amount of writing we are doing, we tend to devalue what we write. How much do we edit or care about what we post online to god knows whom? How much are we making sure to represent ourselves carefully?"

 

I cannot say how valid this segment from the text is-- we write so much in today's society, on the internet, at work, texting, etc.. do we really pay THAT much attention to what we are saying or how we may be coming across. Are we making sense?

 

I am 50/50 on the stance between web evangelist and traditionalist. I think that we need to embrace the new technology and the 'reading' that comes with it, however, my mom was a former English teacher and now editor of a newspaper has had me reading books since I can remember. I proof read text messages (that don't need to be) sometimes out of habit-- annoying!

In the article written by Karp, it was stated that writing cent be necessarily good or bad, but depends on 'an old concept; audience'. How we read of write depends on who we are reading or writing to. I think I can be as informal as I want when texting to a friend and then change it up for a teem paper.

On the more traditional side of things,  I believe in reading a nice printed book. I do agree with the Literacy Debate article which mentioned that there are many distractions on the internet that can take away from any reading students are doing.

 

 

 

This visual metaphor symbolizes my view of really not being able to 'pick' a side of web evangelism or traditionalist. I think both have positive things about them and also some draw backs when comparing them to each other.

Texting and Multi-Modal Texts

Here is my Blabberize I made from the information I learned from the TedTalk.

The important things I learned from this video are 
 

1. New words in texting such as "slash" to change the subject 

2. Texting allows us to write like we speak 

3. Texting is known as fingered speech 

But most important is 

4. Texting is an entirely new language among today's young people 

   


A way to use Blabberize in teaching context is to give instructions to students. Examples include what the homework is, what's on the agenda for the day, etc... It keeps it funny and the students will (hopefully) be paying attention to something like this!

Disruption: The Role of Image in Communication

In the article, Disruptions: Social Media Images Form a New Language Online, by Nick Bilton, there was a section that stood out to me.
 

"Instagram said last week that people shared 45 million photos a day on the site, and 16 billion in total since it began less than three years ago. On Facebook, people share 300 million images each day, or 100 billion photos a year." (2013).

The quote from the article resonated with me because I am an avid Facebooker and Instagramer. The numbers from the article are astounding to me. I knew there were a lot of pictures posted but to think about everyone in the world who has those forms of social media posting really puts it into perspective.  My Instagram has 356 posts. I find that high but I have some friends with postings in the thousands. I suppose 45 million a day is reasonable when I think about it.


I have selected an image that opens up some thoughts about taking pictures of everything instead of enjoying the moments as they happen. Although the man in the image has no camera, his mind is full of other things besides what's right in front of him and he isn't enjoying the simplicity of his surroundings. This is similar to us taking photos of everything instead of just taking it all in.
 I'm going to stick with the caption provided. "Mind Full, or mindful?"


References:
Bilton, N. (2013, June 30). Disruptions: Social Media Images Form a New Language Online.

About Me-- EDUC 6809 #1

Hello, my name is Polly and I am originally from Harpers Ferry, WV but currently am living Weirton, WV. I work in the infant room of The Goddard School in Moon, Pa. I graduated from FSU last May with a degree in Psychology and minor in Education. I am excitedly on track to graduate with my Master's in Professional studies in December! 😃 

From this course I want to learn so much more about media in the 21st century. I use it in most of my Master's courses, obviously because it is online. Learning new skills and websites can help make life easier and set assignments apart from others. In regards to teaching, it can do the same thing. We will be getting iPads at my job soon and I'm hoping I can learn new ideas to take with me to the classroom to help benefit my students and parents.

In the graduate program I have taken the following courses:

6300: Foundations of American Education

6301: Research in Education

6302: Advanced Studies in Human Dev.

6303:Adv Studies in Education Psychology

6304: Diversity &Disability

6305: Advanced Educ Tech and Media

6320: Students with Sp Lrn Problems

I am currently taking --

6809: Teaching in the New Media Age

6321: Students with Special Behvr Problems

6330: Introduction to Autism

And Finally, for Fall 2015 I will be taking the following--

6395: Action Research in Education

6315: Teach Content Area  Literacy

 

 

 

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This ••21st Century Literacy ••video from YouTube is short and sweet. Times are changing and I am in charge of educating young people about how to succeed in this new age.

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Briggs, S. (2014, July 26). 20 Things Educators Need To Know About Digital Literacy Skills - InformED. Retrieved May 31, 2015, from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/digital-literacy-skills/

 

21st Century Literacy. (2012, April 19). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGTl-OdkVIE