Podcast on Article 8

Equipping Students to Effectively Adapt into Today’s World

Article: “The New Literacy,” By Sara Armstrong and David Warlick

Summary

How do educators best prepare their students for a successful future? Considering the context of the present age, it is crucial and the cornerstone of the article “The New Literacy” by Sara Armstrong and David Warlick. In the midst of constant change, students need to be armed with the ability to adapt and utilize skills able to be carried over to other tasks. Thus, “the best thing we can teach them,” say Ms. Armstrong and Mr. Warlick, “is how to teach themselves.” What does this look like? Fluent literacy— this includes the capability to interact with present-day information. In addition, an exchange is required, switching over from the 3 Rs of learning to the 4Es: 1) exposing knowledge (reading), 2) employing information (arithmetic), 3) expressing ideas compellingly (writing), and 4) ethics.” After examining the background of each and how to employ it within ones’ classroom, tools for exposing knowledge —necessary due to the exuberant quantity of knowledge accessible for students to sift through— are discussed and include the following: “finding information, decoding information, evaluating information, and organizing information. Lastly, specific examples of tools are examined. Thus, the purpose of this article is to lay a foundation for educators why the new literacy is essential and some ways to implement in one’s teaching.

Reaction

Stepping back to gain perspective is an excellent tool for building understanding. I see this as the purpose of this article, which helps educators to understand the shift that has taken place within our lifetimes. Not only does this increase our ability to recognize how our students’ lives differ from our own, but this also aids our ability in preparing our students for the future. Who would benefit from reading this? I think probably new and technology-novice teachers. What I took away from the article is that the most effective tool I can give to my future students is self-reliance as an ever-evolving student. This emphasis on creating self-motivating learners aligns with my educational philosophy. What greater treasure can a teacher bestow to her students then the ability to gather meaningful information, interpret it to gain understanding, and then be able to apply to real-world situations.

Reference

Armstrong, S., Warlick, D. (2004.) The New Literacy. Retrieved from Tech and Learning:

http://www.techlearning.com/printableArticle.aspx?articleID=47102021

Incorporating Wikis into the Classroom

Article: “Why Wikis?” By Ruth Reynard

Summary

In “Why Wikis,” Ruth Reynard highlights the Web 2.0 tool, wikis, and expounds upon their purpose in the classroom. Not only do they make learning more efficient but they also promote the constructivist values of collaboration and active role of the student. Wikis assist students’ basis of knowledge as ever-changing, to be built upon by the individual, and interactive. They also allow for orderly and active interaction amongst students and a tool in which students can efficiently work together. Lastly, they provide a public forum, offering students the opportunity to professionally communicate with the world.

Reaction

Coming from a constructivist point of view, I adore all tools which open up opportunities for students to actively engage in their learning. Of course, carefully instruction and monitoring presence of the teacher is essential to ensure all published student work is appropriate for public viewing. Ways in which I would incorporate wikis into the classroom would include creating a class wiki for different topics of research as our own encyclopedia. This would allow a organized, single location for compiling and shifting through information, upon which students could add their own insight and build upon the ideas of other classmates.

Reference

Reynard, R. (2009) Why Wikis? Retrieved from Campus Technology:

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/02/04/why-wikis.aspx

Bringing Podcasts into the Classroom

“Podcasts: Where’s the Learning,” By Patricia Deubel

Summary

The purpose of this article, “Podcasts: Where’s the Learning” by Patricia Deubel (2007), is to define and illustrate the purpose of podcasts and why they are an effective tool for the classroom. The where from the title refers to the transportability this form of technology offers to the storing and transmitting of educational communications. According to the article, the definition of podcast is derived from the acronym POD, meaning “playable on demand,” coupled with the concept of “broadcasting” (Deubel, 2007). One can listen to instantly or download and listen to later. Excluded from its definition is the quality of being interactive, like Web 2.0. There is a wealth of resources available for students, including variety of content and across grades. Examples given for schoolroom use include the following: to record the goings on of the classroom and to record, collect, and create data and projects by students. Thus, purposes include promoting literacy and increasing speech and communication skills.

Reaction

Having recently created my own first podcast, I have personally experienced the following benefits: 1) growing in self-awareness re: my voice and improving my ability to communicate orally, 2) creating a way to store a audio story I can share with students at any time, and 3) versatility and improvement to projects, i.e., from video, to story-reading (in which can be included sound effects/ music to come story come to life), etc.  Another key benefit is their ability to support differentiation. For example, podcasts can be translated into different languages and, thus, can help accommodate ELL students. Another way is creating access to lectures and classroom discussions for absentee students.  I can also see parents appreciating such access as well. Finally, podcasts create an authentic form of assessment and evidence of learning.

Reference

Deubel, P. (2007). Podcasts: Where’s the Learning. Retrieved from The Journal: http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/06/07/podcasts-wheres-the-learning.aspx

Propelling Students with Special Needs into Their Potentials

Responding to “Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged,” By Diane Curtis

Summary

This article illustrates how students with physical disabilities are able to engage their minds utilizing assistive technology. Inspiring stories of such children are shared to support the positive role AT has had thus far. They include allowing a child to write with his eyebrows, speaking for another child who can’t talk, both of whom are from an elementary school in California. The goal of the school is “to design whatever plan is necessary to allow the students to achieve their potential.” (Curtis, 2005) More examples are given from students from Washington, including those from a program at the University of Washington. The overarching theme is that providing technology for students with special needs enables independence and propels them into their potential.

Reaction

Why not? Who would be against empowering students and witnessing miracles? The stronger deterrent I imagine is exuberant costs of equipment. So, I picture further implementation as a process over time, with the accumulation of research and acquiring of technologic tools. Otherwise, it is amazing to hear of children with severe disabilities functioning at levels far beyond their capacities.

Reference

Curtis, D. (2005). Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged. Retrieved from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/assistivetechnology

Social Networking as a Tool for Establish Learning Communities

Responding to Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities, By Ruth Reynard

Summary: In the article, Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities, author Ruth Reynard advocates for the utilization of social networking within the classroom environment to engage students in constructing knowledge, collaboration, and, thus, creating a community of learning. How to reach this goal requires a process and the intentional guidance of the teacher, similar to that of establishing the atmosphere of a physical classroom.

Reaction: As a whole, it sounded like the author was referencing interactive technology beyond social networking and incorporating Web 2.0 as a whole. During my own educational experience, I have encountered helpful technology tools which have assisted in my growth as a student, a member of the collective whole, and knowledge base. One example is my cohort’s Facebook page, on which we post questions and answers, exchange ideas, plan events, and share our thoughts. On the positive side, this is a single place to connect with the whole group and receive quick feedback. On the downside, not all of our classmates are Facebook members, and, thus, are not part of the hub. As another example, some of my college professors have assigned online discussions. A typical process has included first posting, then commenting to other classmates, and then responding to comments on one’s own post. What I have benefitted from these include: publically communicating my thoughts, hearing the perceptive of others, and, then, going back to my writing to strengthen my argument because I have a broader viewpoint then before. A last example, although not social networking, illustrates the collaboration of ideas, via a Google document. What has been helpful about this tool is the ability to work simultaneously with team members and have one document to share, which we can add and edit it on the spot. It’s like we are able to get inside each other’s minds. With this said, I support Reynard’s argument to utilize Web 2.0, like social networking, to create active, constructivist classrooms.

Reference: Reynard, R. (2009).  “Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities.” Retrieved from Campus Technology: http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/07/22/beyond-social-networking-building-toward-learning-communities.aspx

"Give Girls a Chance"

Responding to “Give Girls a Chance: Building a Bridge to Science and Technology,” By Roberta Furger

Summary

The article poses an example in action of how to reduce the gender disparity within careers in the realm of technology and science. The highlighted program, entitled Techbridge, is a collaborative effort of one community to offer quality hands-on training in these areas for girls. Its major goals are reducing negative social factors and providing a space for exploration and development of skills. Partnering with local schools, the program offers its services as an augmentation to the class day, in some cases once a week and in others daily as an elective. Like a charter school, those interested apply and then are selected into the program. Girls are enticed by the “girls-only” policy. The activities mentioned illustrate a highly constructivist learning environment, where the students are in charge of their own learning. This is a snapshot of real girls taking small steps toward gender equality in the workforce.

Reaction

I am intrigued by the framework laid out is this article. As an advocate of the constructive classroom, absolutely, I envision the success such a program would accomplish. From the small picture given here, it simply looks like great teaching to me. Criticisms I would offer include the small-size proportion of this example. What would it take to implement such programs on a grander-scale? Another point I would like to interject is this: why not bring such excellence into the regular classroom for all students? An open and inviting atmosphere would be established and respect for all would be promoted. On one hand, I see the benefit to specializing this for girls, but, on the other hand, I can also view a coed group, within an atmosphere I described. With this said, I am all for expanding the horizons of every student, which is what Techbridge is accomplishing.

Reference

Furger, R. (2003).  “Give Girls a Change: Building a Bridge to Science and Technology.” Retrieved from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/techbridge-science-technology-girls

Web 2.0 in the K-12 Classroom

Reference: 
Curwood, J. S. (2012). Web 2.0: Beyond Google. Retrieved from Scholastic
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/web-20-beyond-google

Response to “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” by Marc Prensky

Responding to “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” By Marc Prensky

Summary
In the article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” Marc Prensky (2001) pinpoints “the most fundamental of [the] causes” of the present “decline of education” as the following: “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”

Throughout, he (Prensky, 2001) uses the analogy of natives and immigrants to portray respectively “today’s students” and “the rest of us” as co-inhabitants in this new realm of the “digital age,” which exudes its own language and culture. In fact, the former actually “think and process information fundamentally differently from” the latter, and, moreover, “it is very likely that [their] brains have physically changed… as a result of how they grew up” !

Continuing upward (Prensky, 2001), this comparison is exemplified in the classroom, where a clashing of these cultures is taking place. On the one side, today’s teachers, digital immigrants, are holding to the perspective and methods of teaching which existed prior to the digital age, while, on the other side, our students, digital natives, perceive the world with  different lenses and require new methods in order to learn.

The solution represented (Prensky, 2001) includes learning “to communicate in the language and style of their students,” as well as the “content.”

Response
Although I am not sure if I would define it as the “most fundamental” cause as Marc Prensky (2001) has done, I agree with the author that this modern explosion of technology has fundamentally revolutionized the way students learn. I found the analogy fascinating because it conveys such an extend of depth of connectedness this generation has made with technology, as it has likened this group to natives, individuals who identity with a particular culture in which they are born and to which they have developed a sense of belonging and way of interaction in their world. Then, on the other hand, immigrants, who typically I perceive as those choosing to move to another place, in this analog, this movement relates to a change in time, which is a fluid transition and has been accomplished completely out of their control. They did not chose to live in this time period, nor can they go back to an early time without technology. (Of course, they are in control of how they respond to this ever-changing environment, but because its not a literal place it as well as its global reaches, trying to escape impact of technology is quite impossible. In light of this situation, a wise, veteran education’s gave me this advise: “Let your students teach you. For example, if you, the teacher, is struggling with a technological issue, ask the students for help. It’s been my experience that they usually know how to fix the problem!”  (S. Doud, personal communication, 2011).

How I believe we, as educators, should response to this shift in society is two-fold. Firstly, I agree that changes do need to be made in order to effectively connect and relate to our students. However, secondly, I also believe that although technology as a whole has opened up an unfathomable measure of opportunities for learning and is the language of students, we should guard ourselves and our students from the negative effects it also bears, including an impossible (and many times unhealthy) speed of which we have set our lives to and a lack of personal communication (which, some will agree, leads to more superficial relationships).

One ending thought, I looked at the difference between digital and analog (www.techterms.com) and discovered that analog data is authentic and more accurate than digital data. This lead me to ponder the implications that this new world being build around us is all artificial. What will the lasting ramifications on human society be?

References
Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants [online article]. Retrieved from:
http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm

Definition of analog and digital. Retried from: http://www.techterms.com/definition/analog