Weekly Reading #9

1. How do educators in youth media programs differ from the orientation of classroom teachers in terms of preparing students for using digital media for work related purposes?

It seems to me that educators in youth media programs seem to be more toward higher level thinking than average classroom teachers.  The media teachers propose more open ended questioning with more than one result.  Classroom teachers often only want one answer for their questions.  In the world that we live in today there are many ways to achieve results and students need to be able to answer questions in different ways.

2. With some important exceptions, how are lower income youth marginalized from using digital media in ways that might provide them with economic empowerment?

Sadly when you cant afford the games systems or internet, you are not going to be able to gain that digital ability like other students that can afford it and use it on a daily basis.  When students have the ability to use computers, they are often qualified for many jobs.  These jobs can change that students economic situation.

3. In 2005 the CEO of IBM announced that if we wanted know what business leadership looks like in the 21 century look at what is going on in MMORPG's. After reading Box 7.4 does this make sense? Are you impressed by the levels of commitment and collaboration it takes players to be successful in these games? Do you have new respect for gamers?

The level of leadership is unbelievable.  The young people would be great at collaboration to run a very large company. I do believe that this is what leadership in the 21 century will require.   It would be hard not to have a new respect for gamers at this level.

4. How do school need to change to become learning environments that cultivate the same kind of enthusiasm and commitment from young people like NeoPets did for Eddie? How can digital media play a role in the creation of these kinds of environments?

I believe that teachers will need to teach to their students learning styles.  They will have to embrace digital media and help students become more engaged in the subject matter.  Students are absolutely in love with technology and teachers will have to use this to keep their students moving forward.

Webquest

https://sites.google.com/site/flatwoodswittywriters/

Weekly Reading #8

1. What impressed you most about young people's engagement with creative production?

Its interesting to me to see how popular digital media aka YouTube has gotten. Students have gotten so creative with the productions that they are constantly working on.   Students are able to leave feedback for each other.  Sometimes not so positive feedback. 

2. What concerns do you have about young people posting content online? I think that they do a lot of impulse posting.  They don’t really think it through before they have already posted photos and comments that could hurt themselves or someone else. 

3. Do you think most school policy toward student use of the Internet is reactionary or a necessary evil? I think that if teachers would embrace the online creative learning concept  and stay on top of the situation that they would not have to have such a strict internet policy.  Students would need to be aware of their consequences if they do not follow the rules.  But I think that if they were encouraged to work creatively online that there would be less instances of violations where the internet is concerned.

4. How might teachers' capitalize on student's interest in creative production with digital media?   Teachers should consider having students create projects where they are putting the final project on You Tube.  I think they would really take a personal interest into the subject matter just to try and out do their peers. 

5. Link to an online lesson plan, article, blog post video or podcast that is an example of student engagement in creative production with digital media for school related purposes.

http://www.smilebox.com/testing/slideshowsOBNoP.html?partner=googlex&campaign=test-12-06-28-search_core_slideshow_Upsl-Act-Dnld&gclid=CL7atrjyl7ECFUff4AodmA9Fgw

Webquest product and technologies

I have titled my webquest Flatwoods Witty Writers.  This will be for elementary reading students.  My students will be expected to create a story.  They will use Storybird to help them create a story along with illistrations.  They might also use a  simple storyboard to help them with their story drafts. 

Learning about webquests

All of these Webquests have pros and cons but the best two are:
A Creative Encounter of the Numerical Kind and Travel Agent to Ancient Egypt.
The worst two are The Diary of John Wilkes Booth and The Environmental Problems with Landfills.
The Diary of John Wilkes Booth has a good introduction to draw your attention.  It was pretty simple steps to follow. It seems like they could have done more with it by using additional multimedia.
The Environmental Problems with Landfills had a good introduction  It  builds on prior knowledge. The evaluation part was missing.
Travel Agent to Ancient Egypt Webquest was very interesting. It was easy to get through and it had a video. It allowed students to become familiar with Powerpoint.
A Creative Encounter of the Numerical Kind used animation to pull kids into it.   It was a long process but it describes each step .

Webquest-Location of Trinidad and Tobago and Identification of Physical Features

I chose this webquest because it works for the grade level that I teach.  It allows students to learn about another country and its qualities.  It makes students think that they are an explorer on an adventure.

Webquest
http://questgarden.com/118/22/8/110202062524/

Rubric
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L94eQsp139HQOofnD5fiFGYjuwGX2PEULk4bVf9Y8qA/edit

Weekly Reading #7

It surprised me that more of the games played are played by women instead of men.  Considering that most of the games played in my house are by the guys. On both sides of my family, it is the guys consistently that play more games.  The article states that 38% are played by women.

The only games available when I was young was Atari.  I played it some but never really spent too much time with it.

It is important that we encourage children to play games as this will only support the concept of using technology.  In hopes that teachers will jump onboard the idea that games support technology use and encourage creative technology ideas.

Case study of technology final draft

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14uSfPNux9csQq68eTPczupxkXZcqtrFVuFbKDUAMFvY/edit

Case Study on Technology Rough Draft

Introduction: Background information about your young person including geographic location, age, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic status, academic achievement, access to computers at home and school, parental rules about computer use, school rules about computer use, general description of computer use at home and school.

Jason is an 18 year old white male.  He lives in Burnsville WV with his parents.  He graduated from high school in May 2012.  He drove to high school his senior year.  Jason loves spending time on the computer.  He has a computer in his bedroom.  He is given full access to the computer and allowed to use it whenever he wants to.  He isn’t restricted from the computer on school nights.  His parents expect him to be responsible enough to complete his school work, keep up with his chores, and keep us with his job.  All these things will help him prepare for college in the fall.   He is planning to attend West Virginia University and major in Chemistry.   Jason is my nephew and he lives next door.  At this point I know he is on facebook once in a while and he uses a cell phone.

Hanging Out: How did your young person's use of computers reflect friendship driven practices and facilitate social interaction between their peers? Give concrete examples.

Jason is on his computer on a daily basis.  He is constantly checking his cell phone to see if he has any messages from his friends.  He is on his phone on the internet on facebook and twitter.  He has friends in a variety of states.  He talks to his friends in Lewis County where he just graduated High School.  He is talking with his new roommate that he will have when he moves into his WVU dorm in August.  One of the most important things to Jason would be the time he spends on his cell phone with his girl friend.  He tells me that he is on there with her for hours.  Different amounts of time each day.  He feels that not having a cell phone would impact the relationship that he has with his girl friend. 

Messing Around: How did your young person's use of computers provide them with informal learning opportunities to develop tech savvy skill sets? Give concrete examples.

Jason spends a lot of time on the computer.  He is always going to different sites.  He has learned how to go into these different sites and open forms and manipulate them.  He has found many different ways to get around being blocked from particular sites, even when he is in school.  He mentioned going to Youtube and some other music websites.  He saves a lot of music to use on his ipod and just to burn to cd’s to play in his car.  He likes to watch movies online and says he never has to worry about missing his favorite shows on television because he can just to onto the network site and download the episode that he missed and watch it whenever it is convienent for him. 

Geeking Out: Has your young person developed a particular interest or highly specialized skill sets as a result of their use of computers at home and school? Describe?

Jason mentioned that he does have a few favorite sites that he became fond of when he was beginning his love of chemistry.  He says that he is always finding new sites that help him with formulas and the periodic table.  He informed me that there are a lot of apps that can be downloaded to help with homework too.  Jason is a very bright boy and very eager to pour himself into his major at college.  Most of his life revolves around him preparing for college at this point. 

Digital Media and Schooling

How can teachers build on your young person's skills and interests that pertain to digital media at school? Why should teachers build on young peoples' Make connections to recommendations put forward by the National Council of Teachers for English (NCTE) in these policy briefs.

I think it would help if teachers allowed their students to demonstrate to the class, some of the new sites that they have found as well as how to use and manipulate those sites.  Students learn a lot from one another and are encouraged by their peers.  Teachers can learn a lot while their students are learning.   

Weekly Reading #6

don’t follow the rules.   

1.     What surprised you, concerned you, or intrigued about students’ access to technology in their homes?  I am surprised at how much parents are allowing their children to use computers in their bedrooms.  This to me is just promoting children to test the limits of the things that they really shouldn’t be doing.  There are a lot of children being given cellk phones.  Cell phones are one thing but smart phones?  They have constant access to internet and parents again are not monitoring their usage.

2.     What kinds of household spaces related to technology, or rules about using technology, were similar or dissimilar to your own household environment?  Students are allowed to use computers and cell phones where ever they want to.  I personally didn’t allow my daughters to use computers in their bed rooms.  They were allowed to be on the computer in the living room only.  I was always walking by to monitor what they were doing.  I personally think that more parents need to be monitoring what their children are doing online and be more involved in their lives.  They also need to become more technologically inclined. 

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

Yes this chapter could be helpful for a classroom teacher.  One of the things that they could consider is routines and restrictions (pg 172).  They could enforce that students complete certain parts of their assignments before they would be allowed to use their computers to do social projects or research.  It would be important for the classroom teacher to be very structured and to make sure her students knew what she expected.  They must also know the consequences if they don’t follow the rules.

Classroom Technology Survey

https://sites.google.com/site/livinginamediaworld/classroom-technology-survey

Weekly Reading #5

How does these chapter support or counter adult views of adolescent use of social media as destructive or frivolous? It seems that in the past that adults have frowned upon teens gathering in public places to socialize.  They ended up gathering in Malls when they were built to then socialize.  Teens are now using sites like facebook, MySpace and twitter to engage in their social lives.  If students do not have the opportunity to connect with their friends often on social media websites they feel like they would lose their social world pg79.  I think that adults still frown on teens using facebook and other social media sites as they think of it as a waste of time. 

How did this chapter change or confirm your understanding of adolescent use of social media? It is easy to see that teens need to be able to communicate to enhance their social world.  They are now able to reach out beyond their generational and cultural boundaries to enhance their social world pg82.  Students might have only had a couple of friends that they talked with or shared personal information with.  Now they easily could have a couple of hundred friends to shard themselves with.

When they are in what is considered an intimate relationship they are able to keep what is considered a leash on their significant other through the use of cell phones, social networking sites and instant messaging.  Teens having access to these technologies are actually changing and shaping the dating world as we know it.

What connections, if any, can you make between this chapter and learning in school?  One of the hardest things for schools to deal with is the drama that social media sites can cause.  There is a lot of bullying done on these sites pg 105.  This can take the focus away from learning.  Students aren’t just dealing with the drama while they are at school, they have it to deal with any time they are online.  So they actually cant get away from this drama.

Activity #1 Interview Highlights

Jason is a very active young man.  He is preparing for college, works at a job and still has time for games and computer chats.  He is constantly on his cell phone or answering messages.  He was on his cell phone while we were completing this interview.  He has four game systems.  He has a Playstation III, he has an XBOX Kinect, he has a WII and he also has a DS.  He also plays games on his computer while he is chatting to his friends.  He prefers to be doing more than one thing at a time; like talking with his friends and playing a game or doing homework.  He might even be talking to more than one friend at a time.  He prefers to stay busy and considers himself bored if he doesn’t have these games and his friends to talk to.  It is quite obvious that a student with this much access to technology would be easily bored in a classroom without the use of technology in the classroom.

Making connections between "A picture is worth a thousand words" and the Illuminated Text activity

Does the Illuminated text have potential to support student learning in school ? There is great potential in aiding student learning with illuminated text.  Students that are struggling readers benefit greatly from pictures.  For readers who struggle, pictures operate beyond the decoration function (Levin, Anglin, & Carney, 1987.)  Students often struggle with decoding words and miss what they are actually reading.  They also don’t understand text due to lack of experiences.  Hibbing & Rankin-Erickson (2011) suggest, “In our work with struggling readers we have found that the use of sketches, illustrations, picture books, and movies provides students with information on which to build their internal images.  Rusted and Coltheart (1979) confirmed that poor readers frequently move from text to pictures to text as they read, using the pictures as a tool for understanding.  Struggling readers often don’t have imagery skills and due to this deficit, it often leads to a reading disability.

I really like the idea of having students to draw pictures to indicate what they have learned or what they haven’t learned.  Generally students would rather draw you a picture than to have to write you an essay.  This allows students that are normally not writing much in their essays to be able to really express themselves with really detailed pictures.  The use of picture books could be very beneficial too.   Students don’t always interperate the emotions that the text had tried to convey.  In research, Gombrich's (1982) arguments supported the conclusion that pictures are supreme in their capacity to arouse emotions.

Movies really are great at helping to build background knowledge.  They really motivate students to learn the necessary information needed to read the text.  The excitement of knowing what you are about to read can really encourage a reluctant reader to read books that are longer than they would usually read.  I like the idea of WRWR, watch read, watch read.  This really helps the teacher to point out specific details that she wants her students to understand.

The illuminated text has the potiential to support students with many necessary skills to become better readers.

Media Ecology Case Study June 15

Jason is an 18 year old white male.  He lives in Burnsville WV with his parents.  He graduated from high school in May 2012.  He is given full access to the computer and allowed to use it whenever he wants to.  He isn’t restricted from the computer on school nights.  His parents expect him to be responsible enough to complete his school work, keep up with his chores, keep us with his job.  All these things will help him prepare for college in the fall.  Jason is my nephew and he lives next door.  At this point I know he is on facebook once in a while and he uses a cell phone.

A couple of interview questions that I thought of would be:
1.  What if you were not able to use your cell phone?  How would that impact your life?
2.  Can you prioritize the technology use in your life?  What is more important?  What could you live without?

Weekly Reading #3

1.  W hat findings in the Media Ecologies: Quanitative Perspectives surprised you the most?  How does the finding change the way you think about young peope, technology and learning?  It was odd to me that the Kaiser report found “That media engagement does not crowd out time spent with parents, pursuing hobbies, or doing physical activity.”  It seems to me that more people complain that families don’t spend time together any more due to kids constantly on their cell phones and computers.  They stay in their bedrooms and isolate themselves. 

2.  What are the benefits to a genre-based approach to understanding youth engagement with digital media over a categorical-based approach?  They feel that the Genre-based approach is more of a whole picture look into things.  It shows how people use a variety of digital media at the same time and moves away from doing things one at a time.  Things like watching tv or using a computer separately.

3.  What aspects of Michelle’s (Box 1.2) computer use at hime have implications for computer use at school?  Michelle has the opportunity to use a computer at home.  This gives her an advantage when she is at school.  She wont have to be instructed on simple computer skills like the other students will need.  This will help her to have more time to work on higher level thinking skills as well as increase her confidence level.

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 affordance in school-based literacy instruction?  If so, what are they.  If not, what are your concerns?  I believe that the digital technologies do have a positive implication on school-based literacy.  At our school our students have to write all their essays using the computers.  They are encouraged to use their creative writing skills.  Teachers use a variety of websites to enhance creative writing process.  I would like to see our teachers use blogs and wikis too.

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?  It is very important for classroom teachers to know about, understand and embrace the use of updated technologies.  Too many teachers are afraid to try things on computers.  They can be even completely resistant to learning new things.  I have heard a teacher this week in a training session say that she doesn’t have internet nad she has no plans to use it.  She even said that she doesn’t even hardly use her computer time that she is allotted in her school.  This is very sad to me.  There is no way students can advance in the necessary 21 century skills if they don’t have a teacher that embraces the idea of these skills herself.

6.  Should schools support students’ in “geeking out”?  What are the educational and ethical implications of “geeking out”?  I feel that if we are going to support students in learning about the most recent technology skills then we must allow them time to experiement.   Students would need to be monitored very closely of course.  Students need to be encouraged to learn these skills.  If we allow them access to programs and technology they will take ownership of them.    They will want to learn.  Too often studens are blocked from youtube, facebook, twitter and other social networking sites.  They need to be allowed to use these sites but with restrictions. 

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 behavior in similar ways and develop the same kinds of digital literacy’s?  Provide examples from your own experiences with young people in West Virginia.  I do think that students in West Virginia behave in similar ways compared to students from larger cities.  Students with internet are playing video games with students from other countries.  They are shopping online.  Several students use facebook and twitter.  Some even have blogs.  The disadvantage is internet access in our area.  Several students live in rural areas that don’t have internet and therefore they are shut out of a necessary form of communication.

Power point final version

Here is the link to my power point.  Wheww, this was challenging for me.
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/wvsuzieq-1441196-baseball-game-final-version/

Link to presentation

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/wvsuzieq-1436396-baseball-game/

Weekly Reading #2

 Literacy has changed in so many ways over the years with digital technologies.  Students are being exposed to facebook and twitter on a daily basis.  Most students have cell phones even in the elementary schools.  With students being exposed to this type of multidemensional technology, they become bored with one dimensional technology.  Students that are not reachable through general text are more engaged when they are taught with multimodal methods.  Things such as youtube videos, podcasts and self running powerpoints help students to become more interested in the subject area being taught.
The DC Area Literacy Map Project was really great.  It allowed teachers to undestand literacy in different spaces and places.  It let teachers see how important it was to connect literacy to their students particular situations and locations. 
I can totally identify with the problem with the teacher "buy in."  Teachers have a hard time buying in to new technology.  We first of all dont have the funding it takes to keep up with the technology equipment that we have now.  They feel that it never works properly so why plan to use something that ultimately wont work and you just have to have a back up plan and a second set of lesson plans.

http://youtu.be/l9vG0GqpdQI

Weekly Reading #1

I would define print culture as - Print culture is all the aspects of print for communication.  From the alphabet to symbols used in todays society, such as a symbol meant to show a womens restroom. 


The benefits of print culture compared to oral and scribal culture - The main benefit is that you can have many copies of a print,  there isnt always extra copies of oral culture.  With print culture it allows authors to be defined and acknologed.   


The impact of print culture on society -  Society has grown away from alot of the print (ie newspapers)  They are growing toward more digital copies of print. 


How are changing technologies influencing print culture - People prefer more immediate communications.  They want their news fast.  They prefer to have information in places where they never used to be able to have it. 


What are the implications of these changes for learning in schools - Schools need to offer print in a variety of methods.  Students are use to playing video games and the reading in the games would be electronic.  This encourages them to read and therefore teachers need to capitolize on their interests.

Textual Lineage 3

This poem is something I as a child would have given to my second grade teacher.  She was one of the most caring people in our school.  I hold her very dear to my heart.  I hope you enjoy this little poem. Number One Teacher



Dear Mrs. Caldwell,
I'm happy that you're my teacher;
I enjoy each lesson you teach.
As my role model you inspire me
To dream and to work and to reach.



With your kindness you get my attention;
Every day you are planting a seed
Of curiosity and motivation
To know and to grow and succeed.



You help me fulfill my potential;
I'm thankful for all that you've done.
I admire you each day, and I just want to say,
As a teacher, you're number one!



By Joanna Fuchs

Textual Lineage 2

We are the world. This is a song that was playing when my daughter was born.  The words to this song give us all hope. 

http://youtu.be/ne7fPpxAnuM

Textual Lineage 1

http://www.vevo.com/watch/miranda-lambert/over-you/USRV51200001

This is such an incredible song.  Its called "Over You"  This song takes me back 15 years ago to a time when I lost my brother-in-law.  He was my best friend.  He is the one that introduced me to my husband, his brother.  It took me a long time to get over losing him. There is a line in the song that says "They say I'll be ok, I'll get over it"  Losing someone is never easy and those words are very harsh.  Yes, I am fine now and healed through helping to raise his then 6 year old daughter.

My definition of what it means to be literate.

A person must be able to communicate using a variety of different updated methods.  It is important to keep up to date with the most modern technology.  If you cannot use a computer in todays society,  you would probably be considered technologically illiterate. 

My name is Suzanne Wine, I live in Burnsville WV.  I teach Special Education at Flatwoods Elementary in Flatwoods WV.  I love pageants and festivals, live music and relaxing with family.  I am interested in learning more about using technology so that I can incorporate more technology into my gifted lessons.