Closing Thoughts

Through the discussions, assignments, blogs, readings, and hands-on experiences of this course, my thoughts about the role of technology in the teaching of reading, writing, and language arts has changed. While I still feel that technology should be used to allow students to express their ideas, expand their understanding, and share their work, I now know the significance of teachers structuring their activities so that students are doing these things in conjunction with the curriculum. Technology is more than a tool used to compliment curriculum. Technology, content, and pedagogy must work together as a team to create a curriculum that is engaging and meaningful for students. Our world is rapidly changing, and students need experiences with technology to develop digital literacy skills necessary to be successful in today’s world.  We need to provide students with opportunities to communicate their ideas with technologies because that is how communication takes place nowadays via digital presentations, smartphones, texting, and other means of social networking. For curriculum to be meaningful, teachers need to help students see the connection between content and their daily lives. Innovatively utilizing technology in our pedagogy, not only allows students to connect with the content in new ways, it also gives them experience applying these technological skills in a safe and secure way. 

*Here is a Wordle cloud of my closing thoughts:

Social Networking

Yesterday, we had a guest speaker come to our class and give a presentation about social networking in the classroom. Actually, our guest speaker gave her presentation via Skype. It was pretty neat. She began her presentation by sharing facts about how social networking is changing literacy practices are creating a revolution. Here are a few of the facts that grabbed my attention:

• 62% of adults use cell phones and text message to complete job related tasks
• 96% of 9-17 year olds report using social networking technologies
• 70% social network at least 9 hours a week
• Youth are reading and writing more than any time in history
• 80–90% of schools are against any type of social networking technology like email, posting to discussion boards, blogging, & text messaging
• Children who are avid text messagers tend to have better performance on measures of verbal reasoning ability, spelling attainment and general writing attainment

These facts and statistics blow me away! As educators, we really need to rethink our stance on social networking technologies. Clearly, social networking is an integral part of our students’ lives and we should be utilizing this to our advantage to help students connect with content and curriculum in a meaningful way that promotes digital literacy skills needed to be successful in today’s world. 

Our guest speaker shared artifacts of her experiences with implementing social networking in schools. I appreciated her showing us a student’s profile because it highlighted the importance of students being able to express themselves and share their identity with others. The presentation also included images and examples of how we could utilize free and safe social networking sites, such as Ning and Edmodo, to engage students in literacy activities. I liked her idea to have students decode or translate texting lingo into Standard English, this would be a highly motivating and beneficial lesson. I also valued the speaker emphasizing the need for teachers to provide a purpose for student writing, an authentic audience, and opportunities for collaborative writing. Providing these things helps students to see the significance of writing and allows them to take pride in the development of their skills. 

It is important to address the safety concerns regarding social networking in the classroom. There are real dangers out there but we cannot allow ourselves to be so fearful of predators and hackers that we hinder the growth and development of our students. It is essential that we take precautions to keep our students safe on social networking sites. Here are some precautions that teachers can take:

• Use privacy settings that only allow invited students, teachers, parents, administrators, etc to have access to the site
• Get parent consent to use the student’s name, pictures, work, etc. on the social networking site
• Use first names only or create screen names
• Discuss and set expectations about appropriate social networking behavior
• Establish consequences for cyber-bulling or inappropriate social networking behavior
• Avoid facebook or other “mainstream” sites. Use other social networking sites/spaces such as:

1.       http://www.ning.com/

2.       http://www.edmodo.com/

3.       http://www.twiducate.com/

4.       http://classblogmeister.com/

• Make social networking a vital component of your curriculum. It will not be meaningful or successful if you have the mindset that is an “add-on” that takes away from instructional time. 

**Image of students using social networking in schools found at: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3462/3753081309_69be061892.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.headsupdad.com/2010/04/24/technology-makes-ontario-private-schools-better-than-public-schools/&usg=__blsr0c1pC_Vd748ocVv7WV9AKP0=&h=341&w=500&sz=129&hl=en&start=22&sig2=NnPAvnuSVKNdeHv6gMJ4AQ&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=kF0htjQIToDKYM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bin%2Bschools%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_en%26ndsp%3D20%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch&ei=JWXVTbzFBsTI0QG9veWlDA

Keyboarding

Keyboarding? What does keyboarding have to do with innovative uses of technology in literacy curriculum? This was my initial reaction when we began discussing the pros and cons of teaching keyboarding to elementary students in class on Monday.

After the discussion and thinking about keyboarding from the researchers’ view point, here are my thoughts:

·         If students have an opportunity to “explore” the keyboard at an early age, they will have prior knowledge to build on when they begin a more formal keyboarding program in upper elementary.

·         The traditional “Home Row Key Method” does not work for all students.

·         We, as educators, need to be more flexible and guide students to figure out which method is efficient for them.

·         SPEED IS NOT NECESSARY!

·         Students need to apply keyboarding skills in a meaningful way.

·         Keyboarding does not replace handwriting.

·         DO NOT depend on the software (Type to Learn, Mavis Beacon, SuperKids, etc) to teach students, a trained keyboarding teacher is needed.

·         Students need 30 hours of keyboarding instruction to master skills.

·         Online keyboarding games are a motivating way for students to reinforce skills.

·         Here are two great websites with interactive keyboarding games:

            o   http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html

o   http://www.wacona.com/keyboardinggames/keyboardinggames.html

With the advancement of new technologies, keyboarding has been overlooked and forgotten. When students are not able to efficiently keyboard, simple computer tasks become difficult and digital projects become a frustration for both students and teacher. As technology is increasingly integrated into curriculum, it is essential that we are providing our students with a solid foundation of basic technological skills, such as keyboarding, in order to ensure their success.

Image of preschoolers playing keyboarding games found at: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.qwertykeyboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Keyboard-preschool-kids-flickr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.qwertykeyboard.org/computer-keyboards-for-children&usg=__9B_6Mren1e2Vq_B_WfpMAFrY8jM=&h=400&w=500&sz=112&hl=en&start=13&sig2=JF6ql8ZtLiU2OOMS_JoEeA&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EhjEuy6f55EerM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dchildren%2Bkeyboarding%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_en%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch&ei=_zTTTf-dPImh-QbGpIXZCg

Blogging in the Classroom

What is a blog? According to the Wikitionary.org, a blog is “a website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts. Most blogs are written in a slightly informal tone. Entries typically appear in reverse chronological order.”

What is blogging? According to the Wikitionary.org, blogging is “the design and editing of a blog.”

Thousands of people blog every day about every and any topic you can imagine.

How can teachers repurpose blogging to innovate literacy curriculum? 

One way would be to use blogging as a tool for students to respond to literature. Students could blog their predictions, connections, inferences, and thoughts as they read novels, poems, short stories, newspaper articles, etc. Students could also share their responses to text features, such as flashbacks, alliteration, metaphors, symbolism, etc. Another way students could respond to literature with blogs is to share book reviews. Blogs often include images, videos, and links to other websites, so the blog can be simple or complex depending on the teacher’s instructional goals, student motivation, and access to technologies. 

Blogs can also be used in classrooms as a collaborative tool to enhance the writing process. Students could post rough drafts of their writings and classmates or even older students (from upper elementary or middle/high school grades) could offer feedback, suggestions for improvement, and praise. Students would then complete the editing and revising stages of the writing process and post their final draft on the class blog so students could see their own progress/improvement and all students could benefit and learn from each other’s work. 

Blogs could also be used to encourage deeper discussion of content. Often students are hesitant to share their thoughts, questions, or ideas in class for fear of sounding “dumb” or being “wrong”. On top of that, there are usually one or two students that dominate the discussion and others do not have an opportunity to express themselves. Giving students time to blog after a verbal discussion of content will ensure that all students have an opportunity to participate in the discussion. Students would comment on their peers’ blogs and the online discussions has the potential to expand knowledge, reinforce main ideas, answer questions, clear up misconceptions, enrich content, etc. 

I believe blogs can be a powerful tool for student assessment. Each student could have a page on the class blog that showcased all their projects, number of book/genres read, videos, papers, published stories, etc, that would serve as their “portfolio”. Having all the students work documented digitally, in one place, would give the teacher (students and parents) an opportunity to assess student growth more efficiently. Additionally, sharing these artifacts on the class blog give students a larger audience, this increases motivation and brings more meaning to the content.

It is important to note that blogging can only be successful in the classroom if the teacher and students are willing to put in the effort to make it a meaningful experience. 

Image of young students blogging from the website: http://kidslearntoblog.com

iPad

On Friday, the professor provided each of us with an iPad 2 (or iPad for some) to experiment with over the weekend.  How cool is that?! I have been considering purchasing an iPad for my four-year-old son, so it was awesome to have a test run. I think the iPad makes the internet and applications more accessible and convenient than traditional computer use, but I will wait until it runs flash before purchasing. I also caution schools from purchasing large quantities of iPads or iPad 2s because Apple is sure to correct the flash issue soon in order to keep consumers happy.

Favorite Apps:

• Doodle Buddy- tool for drawing
• Strip Design- comic strip maker but also nice for picture collages
• Planets- 3D guide of the solar system (ASTONISHING!)
• Toy Story Disney Digital Storybook- e-Book with fun extras

The Pros:

• There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of apps that promote learning and skill development
• Could be integrated with any subject area to get students motivated about the content
• Apps are affordable (many are free)
• Easy to use (toddlers can navigate)
• Light- super portable
• Large screen
• Support for multiple languages
• Ability to enlarge text/windows (zoom)
• E-books can be read to users
• Allows users to produce creative artifacts easily and quickly (For example, drawing a picture in the Doodle Buddy app for iPad takes significantly less time than drawing the same picture in Kid Pix for the computer)
• Space saver in comparison to computers

The Cons:

• NO FLASH!! (Other tablets such as, BlackBerry’s Playbook, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, HP’s soon-to-be-released TouchPad, and others run flash)
• The lit screen is not ideal for long term reading…honestly, I couldn’t last 10 minutes before my eyes ached
• Battery life (I’ve read that it lasts for 9 hours but the one I had lasted just 4 hours)
• Apple will come out with something newer and better as soon as you purchase one
• Lack of additional memory (No USB port or SD card slot)
• Typing or writing is not user friendly 

**Here is a photo of the iPad 2 with it's new cool magnetic covers from: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ipad-2-uk-price-revealed-starts-at-399-22-03-2011/

Digital Reading Devices

I absolutely love my Kindle. I have always been an avid reader but this ingenious device enhances my reading experience. As a young student, I was reading books two or three grade levels ahead of my own. However, I have always been the kind of reader that (gasp) skips over unknown words. In fourth grade, my teacher shared with me that I baffled her because she did not understand how my comprehension of above grade level materials could be so strong when I was struggling with grade level vocabulary. Now when I read using my Kindle, I do not skip unknown words. I just move the cursor in front of the word and BAM! Instant definition! This naturally lends itself to increased vocabulary and a deeper level of comprehension.

As an educator, I found myself thinking, if the Kindle has enriched my reading experience as an adult, imagine what it could do for students in the classroom. This thought led me to the following article:

Larson, Lotta C. (2010). Digital Readers: The Next Chapter in E-book Reading and Response. The Reading Teacher, 64(1), 51-22. 

The International Reading Association (IRA) has cited the importance of incorporating information and communication technologies into current literacy programs. Why would the IRA suggest this? New technologies are demanding new literacy skills from our students we need to transform our literacy instruction to meet this demand. Larson’s article offers insight into how digital reading devices, such as the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, Cybook OPUS, iLiad, and iPad, can be used as tools in literacy instruction to help meet this new demand.

In her article, Larson explains the basic features of digital reading devices and discusses how they offer “new avenues for accessing and interacting with a wide array of texts.” A digital reading device can store hundreds of books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs; allows quick access to dictionary, internet, and other search capabilities, offers customizable settings to suit each reader. For instance, a reader can adjust the font size, determine layout (horizontal or vertical), activate text-to-speech (the device reads the text to the reader), highlight key phrases or words, search within the book, and add notes.   To show the benefits of these tools and features, Larson conducted a small case study in which two 2^nd grade students of different ethnic/linguistic backgrounds were given a Kindle to read a book selected by their teacher. 

Student A was an outgoing, social 7-year-old Caucasian girl reading at grade level and expressed strong communication skills. Student B was a quiet, serious 8-year-old Asian girl who is fluent in Chinese and speaks English as a second language, reading at a 5^th grade level. Both girls read Friendship According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney, a chapter book recommended for grades 2-4. Larson observed the girls reading on the Kindle 40 minutes a day for three weeks. The students were informed of all the features and tools and told they were not required to use them but could. Larson also interviewed the students, teacher, and parents as well as analyzed the digital notes and highlights of the devices.

Larson discovered that the Kindle digital note tool allowed the students to engage, connect, and respond to the text in a way that put them in control. Larson sorted their literature responses into five categories:

1.       Understanding of story (retelling; personal commentary)

2.       Personal meaning making (text-to-self connection; character identification)

3.       Questioning (desire for information; indication of lack of understanding)

4.       Answering (answers to questions in the text)

5.       Response to text features/literary evaluation

Student A’s responses were more diverse but excluded category four. The challenging text inspired her to ask questions, and wonder about the author’s use of conventions and writing style. Student B’s responses were generally in categories two and one. Student B’s greater understanding of the text allowed her to make connections that were more personal and allowed the teacher to see a less serious side of her personality.

Larson also discovered that the students utilized the font size feature. Student A felt that she could read faster with larger text. An important thing to note is that when students are reading together their settings should be consistent to avoid confusion. The built-in dictionary was mostly used by Student A to decode unknown words, especially multisyllabic words. Both students were not fond of the “Kindle’s voice”, but found the text-to-speech feature useful for decoding “individual words or navigat[ing] through difficult text passages”. The student and parent interviewed revealed that reading on the Kindle boosted reading confidence and promoted positive attitudes toward reading, in part because the “coolness factor”. Larson also mentions that the students were still able to “snuggle” with the Kindle, which is an aspect that promotes a positive reading experience. Whereas E-books on computers or laptops can negatively affect the reading experience for some readers because of the discomfort.

What implications does Larson’s research have for the classroom? Students cannot manipulate a book but they can manipulate a reading digital device to make the content more accessible to them based on their individual needs and preferences. Reading digital devices also offer students an opportunity to respond to a variety of texts in a way that cannot be done with traditional books. This allows educators to better understand their students reading behaviors and comprehension skills. Teachers can use this information to differentiate their teaching and provide students with the individualized instruction or skill development they need to be successful readers. While the benefits of utilizing digital reading device can be seen through this research, the case study was small and more research about integrating digital reading devices into literacy curriculum is needed. 

**Here is an image of popular reading digital devices from http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/mac-computing/will-apples-ipad-kill-the-e-reader/

Mobile Learning

This quote from today’s reading grabbed my attention and made me think:

“Learning while mobile sees learning as happening across contexts, people, and digital tools that are both mobile and static. It focuses not on learners and technologies, but on the interactions between them, emphasizing that learning is a social process.”

-Mark Van ‘T Hooft

I think that currently, educators (in general) are focused more on the technologies. I am guilty of it too. A new gadget comes out, we rush to get it, and then we force it into our curriculum even if it is not really a good fit. Before jumping on the bandwagon of the latest technology, we need to stop and think about how our students are going to interact with it. Are students going to be able to access the content more actively with this new tool? Will this gadget promote higher order thinking skills? Does this gadget support collaboration? Collaboration should not be limited to just students. Will teachers, administrators, and members of the community be able to interact with students in a meaningful way with the assistance of this new technology?

In the reading, Mark Van ‘T Hooft also mentions that mobile learning bridges the gap between classrooms and society. I think that some professionals in our field fear this bridge. Society is not always a safe place and it would be foolish not to be cautious but I agree with Van ‘T Hooft when he says that utilizing a mobile connection between the classroom and the rest of the world gives students an opportunity “to learn how to navigate their world in safe, ethical, and productive ways”. Students are going to use iPads, cell phones, Smartphones, social networking sites, You Tube, etc, so why not teach them how to use them in a meaningful way while at the same time making the content more interesting and applicable to their lives.

Image found via Google Images was located at:  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://msmartlearning.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/mobile_learning7.jpg%3Fw%3D311%26h%3D442&imgrefurl=http://msmartlearning.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/pengenalan-pembelajaran-mobile/&usg=__3ZGs-KtIemkahif3Nstq70h2vFE=&h=442&w=311&sz=70&hl=en&start=1&sig2=feQRu49n7GnOWz6iJoQimA&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=3Hf3LVi_NrxEWM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=89&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmobile%2Blearning%26tbnid%3D2ZnH6CQxX4hkyM:%26tbnh%3D0%26tbnw%3D0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_en%26imgtype%3Di_similar%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divnslbfd&ei=19HNTbCrHKTb0QGa7MCmDg