Just a note: I've uploaded the rubrics for participation/professionalism and for the blogging onto D2L. I edited both of them a bit, so make sure you check them out. Additionally, here is the link for you to fill out the form on choosing chapter topics for our iBook: http://goo.gl/forms/jmqt16Hau6
Please complete the form by Thursday evening. We will discuss and finalize topics in class.
Thanks for your diligence in responding to my blog and in writing about the ideas related to New Literacies/new literacies. I do want to remind you that your blogs are discussions. Try to stay away from serial monologues.
We are moving into Module 2 about Web 2.0 resources and supporting NL/nl skills and social practices--the more practical piece. Remember to always be thinking about why the resources and skills are related to NL theory and to the important social practices that underlie that theory and the uses of those skills. This week we are focusing on collaboration and communication for comprehension--three of the C's that are key skills for participating successfully in NL. Before you begin reading, think about your own collaboration and communication skills. What are your strengths in these areas? What about areas for improvement? How do you think technology or Web 2.0 sites can help you become a better communicator and collaborator? What do you hope to find out in the readings about the relationship of these two key NL skills to comprehension?
In your blogs, make connections between key ideas in the readings and your blogging. Think about the ties to your own settings. Finally, in the blogs, let me know questions you would like discussed in our face to face class (about anything related to the topic or assignments). We will be having a practice session on Google hangouts as well as deciding on dates for online class meetings and small group meetings via Google hangouts or another meeting format.
See you soon!
Collaboration and communication for comprehension seems like a vast topic to me! I can see that the three C’s are crucial to higher level thinking and synthesis. I feel like in the classroom I am stronger at the 3 C’s, when compared to academic reading for grad school. When teaching in a classroom, it lends itself to making connections with others leading to comprehension. There are a variety of strategies and tools that can be used to strengthen comprehension through collaboration and communication. This could be anything from book sharing to discussion partners, etc. In my graduate classes we do collaborate online via blogs and discussion groups.
ReplyDeleteI could do a better job teaching my students the actual nl skill of responding to people in a social setting online. They are second grade students, but it would be beneficial to see how they could collaborate through that tool. I am not sure how that would look in a second grade class. I would need to use TPACK to plan the process out in a way that would prove beneficial to students. Sometimes TIME is my biggest enemy in the process. I think it is important to evaluate what is effective and beneficial and give that more classroom time.
I have been looking online at various tools that are available to teachers. It seems to me that in upper grades using google ed would be awesome. It offers teachers and students the ability to collaborate and communicate in real time. There is no losing work in the shuffle of school and home. The one major drawback is equity of technology resources. In class I am fortunate to have 10 ipads. I know that when students go home, about a fourth of them don’t have access to tech tools, or their parents won’t take them to the library to use them. This doesn’t make it impossible to use, but this needs to be a consideration in the planning process.
I would like to see what research has shown about the effects of technology on younger students key components of literacy. I would like to see what research shows about the effectiveness of guided reading with digital materials. I continually think about how technology can aid students in phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, word work, writing, and fluency. I would like to know what research shows about each of these areas to better guide my planning, collaboration with parents, administrators, and teachers.
Collaboration, communication, and comprehension are three things that I ALWAYS think about when planning any lesson plan. I think someone in my undergraduate brainwashed it into me because it was a huge take away that I had from my school experience. I think all content areas can benefit from having the three c’s met in the lessons because it closely follows Vygotsky’s theory of learning.
ReplyDeleteWhen I reflect on my own skills in the areas of collaboration and communication I see lots of room for improvement. I should be saying how fabulous I am in he areas but the truth is that I am not. I am a control freak and like to get things done my way and in my time. I think this is partially because I’m an only child and because of the era I went to school in growing up. When I was younger educational environments were competitive. I’ve at least accepted that I’m not great at it and I’m trying to be more open during group work and communicate my ideas in a less harsh manner. At least I see its importance to my students and include it in their learning environment though.
I think technology helps me communicate better because you can’t sense my tone of frustration. It’s easier to say something to someone while it’s on my mind too. If I wait to ask or say something I often forget. I KNOW it’ll help me communicate better with families through social media usage or web pages. In early childhood relationships with families are just as important as with the students. The same methods can help me collaborate with families in their child’s learning by being able to connect them to learning resources.
I think I have a good handle on ways I can use technology for the three c’s but would like to learn how to have early childhood students use it for the three c’s.
Ok so I just spent the last 3 hours writing my response and then lost everything when Blogger required me to “log in” to my google account before it would let me submit. Needless to say I am quite upset and frustrated, so my answers may not be nearly as legible or thorough at this point as they were the first time around. And yes, from now on I will be writing all of my responses in Word and then paste them into the blog. ☹
ReplyDeleteI feel that my strength in communication is the ability to carefully select the words that I use. This is certainly not a skill that I was born with, but have developed (and am continuing to develop) over the years through a variety of life experiences. Marriage counseling (although it didn’t save my marriage), moving too many times to count, working in schools across the country (and having to quickly learn the subculture of the faculty, community, and district), and interacting with the military (and recognizing the various requirements along the chain of command) have played an integral part. As a teacher I feel that positive communication has allowed me to build strong relationships with my students and their families. Finally, as a PAR I feel that this strength allows me to (sometimes) deliver difficult messages to teachers who may or may not be receptive to the feedback.
I definitely feel that timeliness is one of the biggest areas that I struggle with when it comes to communication. I get hundreds of calls, texts, and emails a day and have a difficult time keeping up with all of them in a timely manner. I find myself triaging them, and by the time I get to the “least important” of them, it is often way past what I would consider a timely response.
I really struggle to identify a strength when it comes to my ability to collaborate. In all honesty I have a very difficult working with people who I don’t know, people who appear to not appreciate other viewpoints and the justification of those viewpoints, and people who do not work equitably. When I am forced to work or collaborate with people who fall into this category, I tend to shut down. As a teacher I am able to collaborate well with other teachers, district personnel, and parent/community partners (PTA), both in person and via the use of collaboration tools such as Google Docs. As a PAR I collaborate regularly with my co-workers and administrators. My co-workers and I text and email several times a day, share documents on the Google Drive, and create and edit documents via Google Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides. I think that collaborating under these “other hats” is easier for me because there is a level of protection that I feel when I am working, possibly because I can always use the “professionalism card” if and when I notice the attributes/behaviors mentioned above.
I hope that Web 2.0 sites and technology can help me be a better communicator by allowing me flexibility in the timing and location in which I can communicate. For example, one of the huge benefits of taking a blended course that utilizes some components of new literacies is that it allows me to do the work at my "convenience" which is so important since I'm working 50+ hours/week, basically single-parenting 2 kids, balancing a marriage with a husband who is home 20% of the time at best, managing a home (with 2 pets), and more (I could go on and on and on). I am able to communicate (blog, tweet, etc) when my schedule allows for it, primarily in the moments at red lights or between meetings at work and late at night when the house has been cleaned and the kids are all in bed. Since timeliness is such a challenge for me, I'm hoping that new literacies can be flexible when I need it to be, and hold me accountable when it needs to.
DeleteI hope that Web 2.0 sites and technology can help me be a better collaborator because some of the areas that I struggle with can be minimized if the collaboration is occurring via technology and not in face-to-face meetings. I also hope that it can help me grow as an individual and educator.
I hope that in the readings I am able to learn how teachers who successfully integrate new literacies to enhance communication, collaboration, and comprehension manage student behavior and performance. I know that this sounds absurd, especially coming from a veteran teacher, but the types of behavior and level of inappropriateness that my teachers are dealing with today is at an all-time high. It is so difficult for me to make suggestions on how they should deal with these challenges, when often times I feel like the problems wouldn't exist if the culture of the classroom was different. So, I am hoping that our readings will address how the expectations are set and how disruptions are managed, so that I can pass those on to my teachers.
In communication my strengths would be that I love to talk and share my ideas and thoughts. I try to choose my words wisely and convey the essence of my thoughts in a way that is easily understood. I also love to learn new things, so listening to others is a big part of communication, in my opinion. I enjoy hearing others’ ideas and learning from them. I think I understand the importance of a balance between talking and listening.
ReplyDeleteIn collaboration my strengths would be similar. While collaborating with my colleages I try to listen as much as I talk. Collaborating means working together, sharing ideas, learning from each other, etc…these are all things that I find to be very important in order to feel like a part of team. Having the support and “team” feeling with my grade level teachers is very important to me I have come to cherish this aspect of teaching as sometimes it is not present. Sometimes I am the “chief” and sometimes I am the “indian”. I think that’s important to have shared ownership in collaboration and being supportive of one another.
My area I could improve on in communication is the use of technology with the parents of my students. I talk with them face to face, telephone conversations, even texts…but I don’t like answering detailed emails. I just get soo many emails in one day that I find it hard to respond to every one of them. My school district does not want teachers to discuss specific behavior issues or concerns via email so that’s another reason why I don’t use email as effectively as I could.
My areas that I could improve in collaborating is that if I don’t agree with an idea or feel as if things aren’t getting decided upon…I have a tendency to just do it myself. I don’t mind being the follower but there better be a good leader! If not, I will either provide that leadership or withdraw and do it alone. I need to work on this area.
Technology and Web 2.0 sites could help me lean to be a better communicator online. I have little experience with blogging, tweeting, etc…By learning to communicate through these formats I will be able to broaden my communication and collaboration with colleagues. This will help me learn more and give me the opportunity to share my knowledge with others.
I wonder if communication and collaboration skills are linked to comprehension? If so, how? How can I, as a teacher, improve student comprehension? With technology? With collaboration? I’d like to know how to implement technology to increase the three C’s in my Pre-K class. I wonder if the use of technology increases or decreases or has any impact on early reading skills such as phonemic awareness, letter identifications skills, phonics, etc…?
As I'm reflecting on communication, collaboration, and comprehension with use of New Literacies, my mind immediately goes to blogging and emailing. These two NLs require the three C's in order for someone to effectively carry out communication with another, digitally. I want my students to become familiar with digital texts, no matter the format or purpose. I want them to practice typing skills in order to communicate with each other and others online through "emails" and blog posts. They are third grade, but these NL skills should be worked on as early as possible and I recognize that - my difficulty lies in the resources and appropriateness/relevancy of New Literacies for my kiddos.
ReplyDeleteMy own strengths in terms of collaboration and communication online are that I value and love to use technology to communicate and collaborate with others, so I am constantly using new literacies to speak with others. My areas for improvement lie in the fact that since I use technology a lot to communicate, I use the same apps/sites/methods to communicate and do not know a lot about newer modes of communication. I am interested in learning about relevant apps/sites/resources to begin having my students practice these 2 NL skills online. I'm hoping to learn about ways to have them practice collaboration and communication digitally, and then further, how to weave these skills into my literacy block for comprehension.
“What are your strengths in these areas?”
ReplyDeleteI think I am strong in the area of communication in the sense that I can speak and write with clarity and cohesion so that others can easily understand what I am talking about. I also feel like I get along well with people, so that helps with collaboration.
“What about areas for improvement? “
I sometimes struggle with how to tactfully bring up ideas that I think should be changed or added when I am collaborating. Facilitative questions help some, but I still think it’s an area in which I need to improve.
“How do you think technology or Web 2.0 sites can help you become a better communicator and collaborator?”
I think technology and Web 2.0 sites are really great for facilitating communication and collaboration. Personally, I love working collaboratively in Google Docs, for example, because it allows us all to add and change what we want with ease, and we can create comments for when we have questions or ideas. It’s much smoother than pen-and-paper collaboration.
“What do you hope to find out in the readings about the relationship of these two key NL skills to comprehension?”
I would love to gain practical ideas for how to apply the skills to enhancing the comprehension strategies that my literacy students use in their reading of both digital and print texts.
Before I begin I wanted to reflect on the terms collaboration and communication, especially as it pertains to me being a teacher in the classroom. Collaboration to me is working together with others in order that something may be accomplished. It can also refer to working with, or making a relationship with students in order that they may succeed. On the other hand, communication is the way in which we interact or converse with others via non-verbal and verbal ways. Comprehension is the way one understands or effectively internalizes information presented to them.
ReplyDeleteStrengths wise, I believe that I am a good team player, I cherish the relationships and friendships that I make. I collaborate with others I take everyone’s opinions into perspective, I listen, and I participate. However, because I think I am more of a leader than a follower I can work on allowing others to take charge sometimes. When I communicate I think that I speak and listen well. I am of the opinion that listening is the key to communicating with others, especially with children and as a result I place great emphasis into this area. Moreover, I believe that I do a lot of initial thinking, reflecting as well as researching when I want to effectively understand something. However, I guess because I am still a new teacher I can become intimidated sometimes. I believe that my skills in all these areas are great but I know I can always improve on them because there is always room for improvement.
Through the use of different technologies or Web 2.0 I can become a better communicator and collaborator in that they will help me to present myself in a different manner. Not just the norm of face to face interaction but through different means that may be more efficient and easy to use. For example, I can have a Skype conference with parents if they can’t make it in or I can send emails with work for students who have missed school. I can find new ideas and ways to communication and collaborate on different websites, through blogs and YouTube channels, just to name a few.
Finally, as it pertains to these two key NL skills and their relationship with comprehension, I hope to find out in the readings how they all work hand in hand in the classroom in order that students and teachers alike can benefit. I would also like to find out if one triumphs the other, or which skill is the most important for us as teachers to have. In addition, I would like to find out if we as teachers can build one skill before the other and if this affects our comprehension.
There are definitely things I miss about having a “normal” elementary classroom of students. One of the things I miss is teaching a class of 25 kids how to communicate so they are responsive to each other’s ideas and thoughts while working in small groups to problem solve. It is incredibly rewarding to see a classroom of children develop as mature speakers and listeners. I was late to the whole collaboration ideology. My personal classroom experiences were being “fed” information, low-level comprehension questions, and about zilch creativity in thinking, writing, or any type of personal expression. It was after teaching a year or two that I realized that type of classroom is not what will spring kids forward outside of school. Perhaps because I spent 15 years as a Sales Director for a large company and owner of my own company, that I realized the importance of communication.
ReplyDeleteMy past experiences as a presenter, negotiator, listener, and seller of goods, have helped to frame my pedagogy. I already had a bridge to teaching with those communication skills learned and practiced. I value communication and the importance of collaboration to reach common understandings and to negotiate respectfully possessing an ability to see different perspectives.
I have come to understand our digital environment much better having read what we have read this semester and over the past year. I still require time and experience with the tools and applications of Web 2.0 to foster my learning and that of my students. Currently, my approach has been concentrated on honoring different interpretations of printed text, and I’m ready to take the leap with new literacies. There is not a doubt in my mind that our education systems (at least the one’s I have had personal experiences with) are not paced with what needs to be required for our students that enter these digital environments. Having become an advocate for change over the past few years, I find the arena of new literacies vital to understand to establish pedagogies and instructional frameworks that will meet the future needs of our kids. To acquire information and knowledge on-line requires critical thinking when exploring sites, hyperlinks, and videos. If our students are to compete and be confident communicating globally with different cultures to construct meaning, reason with mutual respect, and negotiate to problem solve, as teachers we must be laying a foundation for those skills, abilities, and dispositions in which they will live in both their professional and personal lives. Now—not later, now.
I think that I have good communication skills, whether it be personal or work related. I feel like I can communicate well and professionally when needed or required.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with collaboration when I don’t know the other people in the group or whatever the setting is. I would much rather prefer to do things on my own. A lot of that comes from the idea that I don’t trust people to hold up their end of the collaborative effort or project.
When it comes to communicating online through 2.0 websites, I don’t have much experience. The only thing I use online to communicate is email. I use google drive and docs with my team members and it is a great tool to collaborate. But, other than that, I don’t have much experience. Those types of websites can open up the doors and opportunities to communicate and collaborate with different methods or in different settings.
I would love to learn about how I can better facilitate these two NL skills in order to increase my student’s comprehension. Since most of my students are primarily Spanish speaking, their comprehension and academic language is lacking. So, I would like to learn ways I can use these two skills to improve comprehension.
What are your strengths in these areas? What about areas for improvement?
ReplyDeleteI think my collaboration skills are great. I love to work with others and I believe my strength in this area is compromising. Compromising allows everyone to contribute their own thoughts, as it is a give and take situation. Sometimes when I am passionate about a situation or project I get super excited about it and I must realize that other peoples input is necessary for the execution of what is going on. One thing I can improve on is being in doubt when I am not excited about a situation or project. In my opinion, I tend to shy away because what I have to offer at that time might not be good enough.
For communication, my strength would have to be change in demeanor. Depending on the situation that I am placed in, may it be that I am teaching, speaking with a student about a personal matter, a parent or coworker I know that demeanor is very important. Sometimes I need to be playful or funny to get a message across to my students, sympathetic to a student’s needs or professional and straight forward with a parent or coworker. Variation in communication skills to me is very important. Through communication I sometimes fail to express how I feel. I am good with picking up on how others feel or how to act depending on the situation I am in and with such I act accordingly. However, I never communicate my feelings. I mostly want others to be happy and taken care of before I think of myself and how I want them to act with me.
How do you think technology or Web 2.0 sites can help you become a better communicator and collaborator?
Well, because I feel like am I a very creative person, I thing Web 2.0 would give me that extra boost that I need to make my commutation and collaboration extravagant! The interaction I will have with my students, parents and others would work to their benefit and make for an overall better work environment.
What do you hope to find out in the readings about the relationship of these two key NL skills to comprehension?
I hope to find out if collaboration and communication stills to comprehension can function separately and still be effective.
Overall, I feel like I am a strong communicator and collaborator in my personal and professional life. However, I could work on being a more active listener at home and sometimes struggle to be assertive with others at work.
ReplyDeleteTechnology and/or Web 2.0 sites can help me become a better communicator and collaborator by connecting me with a wider range of people. For example, by starting to use a resource such as Twitter I could gain new information, communicate information to others, exchange resources, and make relationships with other professionals.
In the readings, I want to learn how I can use digital or technological resources in my kindergarten classroom to foster better comprehension in my students through collaboration and communication. I feel like I already give my students a great deal of time/practice communicating and collaborating in traditional ways. I am trying to figure out how I can facilitate these skills in a way that will build their competencies toward new literacies.
(NOTE: I had to cut this into two posts because Blogger can't count and thought my 4017 characters were over 4096 characters, which is its limit for comments)
ReplyDeleteThough my profession is communication, I have huge, glaring weaknesses in this area. I can write, and sometimes people expect that I can speak well because of it too. I'm not outgoing, and rather than just being introverted, I'm also super shy. To top it off, I was hard-core cyber bullied before there was so much as a term for it, have been cyber stalked, and continue to be cyber bullied as a female gamer (video game player). So, all of those together mean I get anxious in groups and even more so when meeting groups online, even when it means I'm getting online to do something fun.
Written communication online can also be confusing for me without the use of emojis. I rely so much on tone to understand what people say that things can get confused when communicating simply in text--especially when arguing a point with someone to whom writing is not their strong point of communication. Without solid writing skills, it can be hard to express oneself accurately online (without emojis).
I believe that these are also my strength in communication, however. Because I know how difficult it is for me to do these things, I understand how hard it can be for others to do these things and I can compensate or augment my own communication to suit them best; and it's easier for me to pick out a veiled threat online to run to someone's aid.
I was also always the kid who was put in the group with students who didn't want to work and would be left at the beginning to do all the collaborative work alone, so now, even as a 30-year-old adult, I still can't completely get the hang of collaboration. It doesn't make sense to me for multiple people to work on one creative piece. I understand why there needs to be different departments of work within the creation of one thing, but I can't seem to understand why, for example, I am an art director and copy writer of a creative team with two other art directors. I don't see how we can all draw on the same idea, so we'll end up just coming up with multiple ideas and wasting time, from my own personal slightly obsessive compulsive point of view. I know how to do all aspects of that creation process, so it seems silly to me that I don't just do it all, get it over with, and save everyone time and money. That is a huge weakness that I am still working on resolving.
Because of my interest in communication through technology, though, I also know how to communicate in many ways and am trained in many forms of technology-aided communication: video, audio, written, art, design, photography, so on.
I do still see the benefit in Web 2.0 sites. My work groups use shared, collaborative Google Docs constantly; two of my three jobs use Slack to talk with one another and the third uses Group Me, which allows us all to stay in touch enough to work from home while still remaining half in a virtual "meeting" to ensure we're all on the same page.
I have also enjoyed opportunities to talk to or listen to people I'd never be able to talk to without Skype or another video chat service, from chatting with my friend in DC to attending a hangout with CERN in Europe. Access to this technology in itself helps me become a better communicator just because of the frequency with which I communicate because of them. Practice is the best way to improve, and the prevalence of technology like this provides practice. Perhaps enough regular, positive online experiences will one day also help me to become comfortable online again, but that is proving to be difficult to establish.
DeleteI wish I had something to say about the last question, but I already know how they relate to comprehension to some extent. By attaching any piece of information into the web of what makes up "real world" experiences, comprehension goes way up. These forms of communication help that integration to occur. However, the nuances and theory are probably something I don't know, and I'm sure there are other ways in which these things help comprehension, which the readings will hopefully help me see.
First, my strength in communication is that I follow multimodality when I communicate. What I mean is that I use gestures, facial expressions, and other visual communicating tools as often as I can in order to communicate easier, such as images or graphic organizers. Also, I usually listen first, I believe, and support the partners' opinion or constructively argue with them as necessary. On top of that, as for collaboration, I want to say that I am a big fan of teamwork, which is a good kind of “skill for collaboration.” Specifically, I think that I am a good teamwork organizer. For example, I usually try to support or lead a team work by setting up the project schedule clarifying who's doing what, by when, and etc. Also, I’m a good record keeper; I use diverse Web 2.0 tools (e.g., Google Docs) to keep my teamwork record, through which my teammates can share, critique, eventually make our teamwork successful. On the other hand, I need to improve data organizing skills more. Many friends told me that I am such an organizer; however, I know that I have many messing parts here and there. Just like a house cleaning in the spring, I need to clean up my data (e.g., Google Docs, Dropbox folders) more frequently.
ReplyDeleteTechnology or Web 2.0 sites will help me more efficiently communicate and collaborate with others. To some extent, I think that people develop or innovate technology to overcome one of the fundamental human constraints. For instance, we cannot move against the time and physical barriers, e.g., we cannot physically meet and talk with someone in the opposite point of the globe in real time. However, web technology such as blogging, Skyping, or Google hangouting, has enabled us to overcome those constraints in some ways. These innovative aspects in Web 2.0 will help me become a better communicator and collaborator by equipping me with various tools to overcome many challenges coming from diverse time and space limitations. Also, Web 2.0 collaborating tools such as Google Docs will allow me to easily handle projects wherever I go as long as I have the Internet access.
In this week’s reading, I hope to find out how the 2C skills (communication and collaboration) under NL are related to, and lead students to comprehension. For better and authentic comprehension, discussion, which involves communication and collaboration, is essential as Socrates posited thousands years ago. And, we do know that e-communication and e-collaboration play a significant role in the 21st century learning, because almost every kind of knowledge-building process requires those digital interactions. Therefore, I believe that there are strong relations between the 2Cs and comprehension; and I expect that more practical approaches (examples or best practices) to these concepts will be discussed. We'll see. :)
Think about your own collaboration and communication skills. What are your strengths in these areas? What about areas for improvement?
ReplyDeleteI think I am good at working with people and I can get along with anyone. Sometimes I do get shy around a lot of people or people that I don't know. I am also not good at asking for help. I don't like to bother people or look like I can't do something. I think that I am good at explaining things and use resources when necessary. I love to incorporate visuals in my lessons because I think it just enhances my communication with my students. I love to listen and I think I am good at it and giving advice. I am good at switching between personal and professional communication.
How do you think technology or Web 2.0 sites can help you become a better communicator and collaborator?
Oh I love technology! I think it definitely enhances my communication because sometimes it is easier to talk through a format like a blog than to communicate in person. It is easier to get all your thoughts out whenever it is written. But I also love video communication such as Skype and FaceTime. I can see myself using video conferencing in my classroom to show parents their student's schoolwork or update them if they cannot in fact come into the classroom.
What do you hope to find out in the readings about the relationship of these two key NL skills to comprehension?
I am curious to see how I can help my students who may not be great communicators for whatever reason. For some students, it may be because of their personality. I will want them to know that I am there for them and they can come to me with anything. For others, it may be because of a language barrier or unfamiliarity. I want to know how digital tools can assist these students who may not have the knowledge to communicate effectively yet.