First, a reminder! You need to post on our Google Community at least once in a month and respond to at least 2 posts, and you need to Tweet at least once in a month as well. The month is almost over. Check the participation rubric.
This week the readings are all about assessing reading and writing in digital spaces as well as creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and comprehension and the social practices around digital tools. One aspect of this assessment is helping students be metacognitve and assess themselves and their own learning and enactment of these key features of participation in New Literacies. I thought I'd do a little self assessment in terms of reflecting on my own incorporation of the 6 social practices into my blogging, collaboration and communication. So here goes:
1. Contextualizing digital texts: My blog is hopefully is serving the purpose of activating your knowledge of our topic and helping you to make connections before you read, so I carefully choose what I want to write about and how I frame what I ask. I'm not always as successful as I would wish, so I have bee working on being more specific and having some modeling of my thinking in my writing.
2. Making connections between texts and people: I think I'm doing okay in the blog, but I've been having some difficulty in my work with my Uganda project colleagues (a long story for another day). This plays into my communication piece over Google docs with my Uganda team as well, as it seems I'm not being clear about what should be happening in the Google doc....
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: See above on the Google doc.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: Well, not so good although I've been including pictures and graphics in my PD guidebook for the Uganda project. It will end up being printed this first time.....maybe I need to think about an iBook with examples after my first visit there.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I have been trying to do that when I read your blogs, putting myself in your shoes to understand your key points and how you picked them out.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I definitely do that with this blog as I construct my teacher identity, and hopefully my guide toward understanding.
Before you begin reading, think about and assess your own incorporation of the 6 social practices into your New Literacies participation in this class (that would be in this blog, your blogging group's blog, your use of the VCI, your writing group's use of virtual online meetings, your inquiry topic as you look for information for your chapter or integrate New Literacies into classroom practice). Where do you shine? What might you need to work on?
Here are some key ideas/terms that I think you need to look for and pay attention to as you read for this week and that I would like to see used in your own blogs: scenario based tasks, reader based response, meta-cognitive reflection, self assessment, static electronic feedback, intertextual commentary, marginal and end commentary, screen cast, dynamic response, holistic and analytic rubrics, dynamic criteria mapping.
Since you are all in different (or mostly different blogging and writing groups), discuss with each other how you are doing peer response and comments to each others' projects in your writing groups, and which suggestions you might like to try. Of course, you also need to discuss what you think are important ideas related to assessment in digital spaces and of New Literacies activity.
I'm going to delve into the VCI once I post this blog (it is Friday afternoon) and jump into your blogs for this week as soon as I post this blog. I'll be e-mailing you individually or collectively once I review the VCI. Look for comments on the blogs.
Finally, remember that your annotated bibliography is due on Oct. 30 by 11 pm. Upload to the appropriate Dropbox folder on D2L (I think that is the Theoretical Article one--I don't remember if the Dropbox has separate folders for the article and for the bib).
Have a lovely Fall Weekend.
Here's a go at my reflection regarding the 6 social practices:
ReplyDelete1. Contextualizing digital texts: Our group blog (Wannabees) is a place where I apply and present my understandings in a manner that encompasses my own philosophies wrapped up in my interpretations of the text. I read and reread my posts to make sure they are communicating my intentions to my group responders. My blog posts reflect some personal understandings, questions, and confusions, which I believe are appropriate to the purpose and audience of the blog. Fascinating to me is how my intentions for the purpose of the blog change weekly as a result of my post-reading reflections and exchange that occurs with my fellow bloggers.
2. Making connections between texts and people: In this arena I’m being challenged in a good way. Within my group’s blog (Wannabees) we have diverse background experiences and understandings of the readings and curriculum. Creating connections with varied perspectives has been a reach for all of us that want to partake in meaningful exchanges. What I’ve learned is to create successful acts of intersubjectivity, there needs to be continual exchanges of viewpoints and ideas to clearly see through each other’s lens. Clearly, when the exchange is minimal, so are the connections and understandings amongst us.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: Within my iBook group, we have successfully held two Google Hangouts. I do like the live video exchanges and I really liked the fact that I could create written text through a chat box while a conversation was occurring. Ugh—what does that say? I want to get my two cents in all the time, and this is a vehicle where I can successfully put my thoughts on the “table” whenever I want to? New vehicles for communication lead to new awareness’s…
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: I have been trying to incorporate more iPad applications for my students to use to enhance their learning in different content areas. I have applied more YouTube videos to ignite interest in nonfiction books we are reading (the latest one was on Sea Glass), and SpellBoard was new in that I added audio to sight words and words that reflect our weekly spelling patterns. I’ve also added a highlighting and annotating app that I haven’t figured out how to use on my PDF’s, despite the fact that it was touted as “simple to use”. I want to do much more---
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: Adopting different perspectives is the first step, and then working collaboratively to negotiate and arrive at a joint perspective is the real art. I work at it every day. I believe it is what reflects the highest level of critical thinking. In my class, my students are “literary lawyers”---we reason out our thinking, use evidence for our statements and thoughts, and “are open to different perspectives” (our morning creed). It is a day-to-day goal to reach that bar.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I am a work in progress in constructing my understandings in regard to articulating my thinking. Every day, with every new article and book I read, I get another step closer at being able to communicate and my intentions for my students and my colleagues.
1. Contextualizing digital texts—In our google community, I read for relevancy and use the links that pertain to my purpose of reading. In this blog and our group blog, I try to present my viewpoint in a clear and purposeful manner for the audience. As a print text reader—I am used to just reading the text. With digital reading, I am learning to contextualize videos, links, icons, hyperlinks, so much more information.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between digital texts and people—I think our group blog does a great job of this! We are making connections and building relationships through this blog. We are learning collaboratively and share information with each other. By participating in the VCI with Dr. Beach, students are connecting with the teacher in a meaningful way. (I think we shine here!)
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts—I think that as a group grows in making connections (above) then this practice will grow, too. By collaboratively curating our texts in the google doc we are becoming cowriters and revisers. By participating in this class blog we work with our teacher and peers to create this text.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication—In my classroom I use videos, audio clips and different images much better than in this class. I need to work on this area. Just through experimentation I can improve my communication to use multimodal, visual images, etc…
5. Adopting alternative perspectives—I really try to do this with each blog entry that I read. I have learned a lot by looking at things in a different light. Reading your entries have helped me understand concepts in a deeper way, by adopting a different perspective.
6. Constructing and enacting identities—Our group blog has helped me synthesize our readings for the week. It helps reflect my learning for week. We are constructing our own identities by sharing our thoughts and broadening our viewpoints. My identity is developing with each blog entry, as is my confidence and understanding of the subject matter.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: I am doing this when I am writing the blog or responding to whatever everyone else says. I personally don’t like online reading, but both of my text books are online versions and the articles are online. I prefer having the actual paper in front of me, so that is something that I have been trying to get used to.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: As I’m reading, I’m making connections to other things we’ve read in the class, to other things I’ve done in other classes, to my classroom, to my own personal beliefs, and more. We are making connections with each other and with Dr. Beach as we complete the blog, VCI, Twitter, and Google Communities.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: As a group, we are trying to work through our understanding of what we’ve read as a collaborative group and as individuals. Sometimes one of us will ask a clarifying question about something we’ve read and we all help try to solve it.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: Communicating through the bog, google hangouts, Twitter, and google communities is all new to me so I have been adopting different communication methods. I have used Twitter for other classes before and have some experience with google hangouts so that makes it somewhat easier for me.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: when I am reading the blog, I am doing this when I’m thinking about Mara’s and Krystal’s perspectives when they are answering the questions and responding to me and each other. I am also understanding and looking through your eyes when reading your blog or comments.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: Like Mara said, we are constructing our identities and beliefs when it comes to New Literacies and how we could use it in our classroom. Our identities as teachers or students have probably changed or solidified as the semester has gone on. Mine has.
Here is my attempt to explain the six social practices at work in the things involved with this course.
ReplyDeleteContextualizing Digital Texts: My view of this is having a clear sense of purpose in gathering digital information and how it applies culturally or socially. In this course I see myself doing this continually. In my readings I view the digital pieces referenced and think about their purpose and how they might apply in the classroom or to help students who are struggling reading. In the blogs I read, write, or respond to, I am continually attempting to make meaning out of the information.
Making connections between texts and people: I feel like as a whole we do a good job of this in this course. Just as with reading in general, making connections is crucial to comprehension. Without these connections, reading often falls flat and isn’t transferred to long term memory. We are continually taking what we have read and collaborating via blogs, chats, or face-to-face meetings. In this collaboration we are making connections with the text both socially and personally.
Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: I feel like I have done parts of this really well, and the other parts need improvement. In the creation of my theoretical piece and lesson that corresponds with this, I am creating digital texts with the collaboration of the students in my classroom. We are working together to create texts that represent all of the people in the group. As far as collaborating on texts for this class, we have done this in class a little. I feel like we are working toward this.
Adopting alternative modes of communication: This is a strong point in our various groups. I feel like we are doing a great job of blogging, chatting, and using other tools to communicate. We use Google Hangouts, blogs, e-mail, and some have used Skype.
Adopting alternative perspectives: In the process of reading the blogs or collaborating on a group projects this is a key to success. I feel like for the most part I do a good job of this. I do have to make myself stop to consider the person’s point of view in light of the person’s background. If this isn’t done, it is easy to take things out of context and misinterpret what is being said.
Constructing and enacting identities: I know we are continually doing this, but I often don’t think about what my “identity” within these groups is. I think this is continually growing and evolving. Depending on the group I am working with and its purpose, the identity I portray may change.
Disclaimer: If I thought I could really shine in any of these or other things involving technology I wouldn’t be in this class trying to learn more!
ReplyDeleteI need to work in all of these areas. Although I do have a grasp or knowledge of what each one is and how I am partaking in these practices more and more these days I haven’t yet come close to mastering them. I’m okay with that and keep trying to reflect on what I am doing and how I’m doing it.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: Anytime I am reading or writing on the blogs, twitter, or community board I am thinking about my own purpose for doing so, I am looking for information that pertains to my uses and understandings of the topic. I try to remember my audience as I post but could do better at this if I wasn’t feeling so egocentric in the learning process.
2. Making connections between texts and people: If I was close to shining in an area this would be it! I am more comfortable with this practice in all of my works in this course. I am able to make real life connections and connect new information I attain to other classes I have taken and that I am currently enrolled in with the others in my blog group. We have made connections with each other in both my groups and work well together. I really enjoy reading and hearing my groups connections too because those often stick into my long-term memory more than just reading about concepts.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: This is where I think I struggle the most but I am getting better with each blog, Google doc, and various other collaborative areas. I just do better in person with people. I try to make conversations and the learning process flow online but it’s difficult for me and feels unnatural. I know this will just take time and practice.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: This too is newer for me and I have really enjoyed learning more ways to communicate with others. I am not a huge fan of twitter but have enjoyed the Google community more than I thought I would. I like how we are sharing all the odd information pertaining to this class together. I think it helps us in making more meaningful connections. I love Google hangout! It is much more user friendly than some other video chat forums for multiple people. Some may remember my struggle with video chats in the past…
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I have always been open minded about others perspectives but when it comes to changing mine I am very stubborn. I think we all get that way and get comfortable in doing what we are used to doing. I am trying very hard to get out of my comfort zone and attempt these tools in this class. That is mostly why I took this class; I knew I needed to learn more in this area. I think I have definitely started expanding my knowledge and trying some new things. I think the multimodal iBook will be my biggest challenge!
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I think all of the above practices have been affected by my previous beliefs and experiences and are ever changing each time I read new text, have another discussion about the concepts we are learning, blog, or research for my iBook.
1. Contextualizing digital texts
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about contextualizing digital text I think about what it means to comprehend the information you obtain in a digital way and the way you use it afterwards. Consequently, the information I gather here, in our readings, in my group blog, on our Google community as well as in hangouts has allowed me to become a more critical thinker and writer. In addition, I try to put my new found knowledge into my other classes, if I can, and have been constantly trying to think of new ways I could incorporate what I have learned from the readings and my peers into m future classroom.
2. Making connections between texts and people:
This is something that I think I am doing a good job in. Making connections is crucial to my understanding and as a result of that I tend to ask a lot of questions. I try to do it both on the blogs, in my VCI and even during face-to-face when I see my group members. I think that because of the experience of all the persons who I correspond or interact with I am able view and understand others’ perspective.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts:
I think my group mates and I are working well to communicate our ideas and understanding of what we know and want to know. In my blog group we not only discuss on our blog platform but if something outside of that needs to be discussed for reassurance we send emails, and clarify when we meet up. I enjoy sharing ideas via Google community but I am still working on my Twitter life. Even though I feel a bit overwhelmed I am working diligently on creating my iBook chapter as I try to make use of the new information, sites, tools and other materials we have all shared in this class.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication:
It goes without saying that we are all doing a fantastic job with this, especially in Google community, which is one of my new favorite ways to look for, gather and even share information. Even though I was hesitant at first and maybe still am for certain modes (Twitter) I am very appreciative that I was introduced to new modes of communication, namely Google hangouts, Google community, as well as our blogs. Looking at it in a broader sense, these can be great ways for teachers and parents to communicate, as well as sharing and learning new information as it may pertains to student development in and outside of the classroom. Even though there are some modes I have to use with this class I have used others like e-mail, and texting to communicate with classmates. I am looking forward to using some of these news modes I’ve learned about in my future classroom to communicate with other staff members, principals and even parents.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives:
Generally, I see that we are all do this well as we update our blogs and add to the Google community and I think I have been able to do the same. Reading other peoples posts allows me to think critically outside my box, and as a result makes me a more well rounded teacher, student and individual.
6. Constructing and enacting identities:
When we talk about using new modes of communication and reading the articles and the information in our blogs and community I become more knowledgeable and as a result I’m able to grow as a teacher and student. I believe I have definitely grown as a student and a teacher and look forward to growing more as the end of the semester comes to an end.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: Thinking of this in terms of being able to relate a digital text to real life or vice versa when either learning or communicating through or about them, I think I do an all right job. I don't think I'm able to separate digital communication and non-digital communication from one another, so that makes it easier to go back and forth between them. Of course, I'm always learning; so it's been interesting to find what works for others and to learn how other people contextualize digital text (as we do in our blog groups). I hope that the way I present it and the (slight) interactivity I offer in my blogs about new literacies help with this also
ReplyDelete.
2. Making connections between texts and people: I feel like I'm able to do a good job at this. Since my family lives nowhere near me, I am forced to communicate through technology a lot more than I would otherwise; and in doing so, I am able to see ways to adapt a lot of what we're reading to my own life. This is also true when it comes to the paper I work at. We have to be very able to make technological communication personal, relevant, and interactive; and I feel that these techniques are also necessary in the classroom.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: I hear there was once a time when a writer, like myself, could write one thing at a time for one client; but I have yet to work a job like that. To organize my clients and to stay in touch with them all, I rely HEAVILY on Google Docs, Slack, and email to do my job(s) as well as random pipelines like Trello and Town News. As far as this one goes, I'm solid. Still, there are a lot of apps I don't use, like Google Hangout. I'm learning how to use this more efficiently.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: I'm flexible, as much as I don't want to be. As flexible as I am, I'm not keen on using anything that involves my voice because my mental processing power just isn't as great when I speak and listen vs. when I read and write or watch. Still, I'm doing the Google Hangouts, so I feel like I'm adopting things all right. Will I choose to use it in the future? Maybe to talk with my family, but probably never for work. I'm happy I'm learning to use it though. I feel like it's something I should know how to do. So, in this category . . . growing pains.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: This is usually my forte, but I feel like I'm relearning it in this class. This may be just because I'm in a school outside of my normal college, so learning the way the classes tend to work and the culture and the information might be making me feel as if I'm not grasping this aspect as well as I usually would.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I've been horrible at this recently, possibly because I'm carrying more fictional identities than usual in my work and school due to the three fiction and multiple non-fictions I'm writing; but I think I'm doing all right at this. I even have a new 'teacher' identity that I use in my blogging that has developed from the readings and the way I connect them to my work in education (of course, I'm no teacher, but you guys are amazing for what you do, so it's been a lot of fun to put on my educator hat and learn with you all).
1. Contextualizing digital texts: When reading digital texts, I am able to comprehend and apply what I read through our group blog, this blog, the google community, D2L and twitter. This also applies to text messages and even social media, I think. The collaboration that comes with contextualizing through blogs and social media, though, helps me evolve in this category.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: Our group blogs, this blog, and social media allow us to connect text and people, digitally. I find that this is more difficult to do in an academic aspect/situation than a social one for me. I have no trouble texting or carrying on a conversation on social media, but when it comes to connecting and analyzing together on an academic piece, I prefer face-to-face interactions usually. This class is definitely building my ability to do this, though!
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: This goes into what I was just saying about having trouble collaborating to understand digital texts. I find a disconnect when trying to work together to analyze a reading through a blog, but I am beginning to feel more comfortable doing it. This would definitely be one I am strengthening throughout this semester.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: I feel like working collaboratively with peers who cannot be in the same vicinity as us, has forced us all to adopt various modes of communication. Google docs, hangouts, blogs, Adobe Connect, etc. They are all so useful and are used to help us collaborate and create together. My groups are both doing well at this! I tend to prefer modes of writing for communication like texting, blogging, and the google community/chat feature because it is easier for me to express myself that way, but I'm working on using the digital face-to-face meetings to get better at this.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: In our weekly blogs, we are able to ask questions and gain new understandings about the classroom experiences and perspectives of each other. This has been a strength because we have been able to think of ways to utilize resources across grade levels and content areas by sharing experiences and perspectives.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I think this constantly changes as we 'digitally code switch' (don't know if that's a real term, but it makes sense for these purposes). My identity when posting to our group blog and on D2L is of a student, while posting on my classroom blog and FB page is my teacher identity, and posting to social media is a more laid back and personal me.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: I read posts and texts online within my blog group and on Google community and respond to each one accordingly. I try to understand other people’s perspectives and share my own. I take into consideration peoples feeling when I blog knowing that we all have different cultures and have experienced and done things in different ways.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: When I read I try to think about how the information gained can be incorporated into my own cultural background. I think as individuals we each interpret what we read in differently ways and it helps us to shed light from different perspectives.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: I think the communication with my group members and other classmates has been good thus far. With the use of this blog, Google community and Twitter, mine along with others thoughts come together in one space and in turn this allows us to feed off of each other. Whether we understand where someone else is coming from on a particular topic or not, it is in our duty to ask questions and share thoughts. We encourage and praise each other, share our opinions and feelings and Dr. Beach will even correct any misconceptions we may have. I think these things help to make the writing atmosphere more welcoming.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: Learning about and using Google hangouts, Google community, Twitter and participating in group blog discussions has all been new for me. The experience has been rewarding because I have learned how to express myself a little more and realize that is not a bad idea to try new things. Maybe one day I may be able to encourage others to use these modes of communication and teach them about their great benefits. I have shared my feelings and shared new things that I have learned along the way and I have also learned for others about themselves and from the different things they posted.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I think I am doing a good job at this. Reading from the texts and reading my group members perspectives and creating dialogue on different topics has allowed me to build my knowledge and understanding of what I already know and what I have learned along the way.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: Within the blogging I think of myself as someone who is continuously learning and growing both as a student and a teacher and learning to understand and appreciate other people’s perspectives.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: When I am doing my reading and reading/responding to my classmates’ posts on twitter, google communities, or our blogs, I am contextualizing digital texts. This has been an adjustment for me because I feel like I comprehend text better when it is on paper.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: As I complete the readings and work on class activities such as blogging, I am connecting my background knowledge, my experiences, my current practices, my beliefs, the readings, and the ideas, knowledge, and practices of my classmates to my classroom practices. This has allowed me to enrich my instruction with new strategies.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: By collaborating on our google doc and blogging, I am working toward a deeper understanding of the class material. This is something I am still working on.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: By using blogging, twitter, and google + to communicate with classmates and groupmates, I am using modes of communication that I normally would not use.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: When I read my group’s blog posts/comments or a classmates’ twitter or google community post, I think about their knowledge and experiences and how they relate to my own practice as a teacher.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: By interacting with both New Literacies and new literacies throughout the semester, my ideas and practices as a teacher about literacy and technology are evolving.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: I feel like this blog is very helpful in allowing me to preview the material in the upcoming week. It gets my wheels turning and sets me up for the reading. Now, I don’t always (ok well I hardly) understand all of the reading, but I think I would be even more lost if this blog wasn’t part of the process.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: I feel like I could easily repeat my answer to question #5 (I started from the bottom and have worked my way up). I have found it easier to connect with my Writing Group than with my Blogging Group, but this may be because when we come together we all have different topics and that is very evident from the beginning. We are all working towards the same end goal, but our content is all different. Within my Blogging Group we are all trying to process the same content while working towards the same end goal (at least within this class), yet we see things so differently, it has been very difficult for me to contribute to the sharing of knowledge within our group.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: Within my job I have really begun emphasizing the use of digital text with the teachers I work with. I rely heavily on the Google Drive (docs, slides, sheets, etc) to communicate and share information and resources with them, as well as work collaboratively on lesson plans, learning objectives, and performance rubrics.
Specifically with regards to eBooks, I don’t really feel like this a part of the class that we have really delved into yet, although our writing groups are certainly attempting to start the process. While each of us are writing about our own topics, we are working well together to discuss ideas and provide feedback to each other. I think that our writing group is working together quite well, although we do not have a tremendous amount of interaction.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: This is the one area that I feel the most confident in, and yet I know I still have a long way to go. I have definitely stepped out of my comfort zone and explored different modes of communication over the past 2 months via Twitter, blogging, and synchronous chats (both video and text).
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: This area has definitely been a huge challenge for me. I have tried over and over with my blogging group, and yet each week I am just as stumped as the week prior. I struggle to understand what they are saying, which is a large result of my lack of being able to see the content through their perspective. We have such varying backgrounds, and although most of us are enrolled in a similar program, we are all at various stages of that program. With me being the most junior of the group with regards to time in the program, I struggle to understand connections and references made to previous classes taken.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I find this particular social practice to make me the most uncomfortable, likely because I have yet to get a firm grasp on what exactly qualifies as an “identity” and what does not. I guess my hang up is that I consider myself to have one identity that wears many hats, yet my identity remains the same. The idea of a “projected identity” sets off alarms in my head, perhaps because I struggle to separate this concept from deception and lying. I am really trying to wrap my head around this, and feel like I am making some progress. For example, I now see the benefit that a more introverted person can have from the security of a digital environment. It is in this safe space that they are able to more easily share their ideas because they have are able to assume a different identity.
1. Contextualizing digital texts: Whenever I fill out the VCI, I think about my purpose and situation in doing so. When I am reading community posts and blog posts, I think about where the poster is coming from, as well as how I could use their ideas and perspectives in my own situation. As a digital text creator, I could improve in this area because I have a hard time getting my head out of the secondary level of education, and I should consider my audience more.
ReplyDelete2. Making connections between texts and people: I think I do this when I am reading texts for class and thinking about how they apply to my teaching situation, as well as reading blog posts each week and connecting my peers’ thoughts to their teaching situations. I feel like I could improve in this area, but I’m not sure how.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: I think we do this every time we use Google Docs, when we meet in person or when small groups meet to collaborate and provide feedback to one another. I think the weekly blogging also contributes to this social practice.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: This is something I am working on. I feel stuck in a rut of only communicating through blogging, small group meetings, and e-mail, so I think I need to work on being more invested in the Google community, Twitter feed, etc.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I feel like I do this when I read your blog posts, my peers’ blog posts, and my peers’ responses to blog posts each week.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I am constructing my identities as a student and a teacher when I read and respond to the readings, as well as when I engage with blog posts and Google Community posts.
1. Contextualizing digital texts.
ReplyDeleteWriting at the blog of my group (the Wannabes), I contextualize my writing toned into the audience (my classmates) and synthesize as well as articulate my thoughts to “digitally” communicate. Reading Dr. Beach’s blog, e-articles, and other online sources, I contextualize the digital texts to wisely consume the contents through analyzing, evaluating, and critiquing as necessary. Also, when I tweet, I can differentiate the audiences’ expectations between blogging and tweeting; so I am willing to use abbreviations or emoticons when tweeting, e.g., I use “cuz” for “because.” Which is another form of contextualizing digital texts I think.
2. Making connections between digital texts and people.
I have used various digital tools, which connect digital texts and people, that is blogging, texting, emailing, Google docing, tweeting, and commenting on Google plus. Having my blog group members and other groups connected by forwarding the information about “how to hyperlink at a blog comment window” could be a shinning example. Additionally, I have been using another “class blog” for my students, through which they are building up the relationship not only with their teacher (me), but also among them – even with other classmates who learn the same chapters in another class hour. I am really glad to see my students connecting each other to co-construct meaning together. This could be another shinning part. But, I should admit that sometimes my students just reply to me with no interactions with peers. This experience has led me to come up with more open-ended and group-engaging prompts – still working on it.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts
For this social practice, Google docs is my super star. Whenever I have Google hangouts with my collaboration groups, I open up a Google doc and share it with the conversation partners. What’s nice about this is that we can monitor peers’ works simultaneously – which positively prompt and facilitate further thinking I believe. Even for an in-class group work, Google docs do its magic; 11 of my students shared one Google document with 3 open-ended questions. “Wow, we also need to work right now, look at them typing,” said my students. Twitter, on the other hand, was also an eye opener to me regarding this social practice; I never thought about tweeting seriously for educational purposes. However, we create digital texts via twitter, sometimes I use it for annotating information for further consideration. I’ll definitely try to incorporate twitter for my students for academic purposes in the furture.
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Delete4. Adopting alternative modes of communication.
All of the modes mentioned so far (Blogging, Google docs, Twitter, and Emailing), are the alternative modes of communication that I have used for this semester. Oh, one more tool – todaysmeet; I used todaysmeet for a presentation I had with Korean teachers in Houston early this month. Again I’m a big fan of Google docs for the “alternative modes of communication” concept as well. One thing I need to work more on is digital annotation. I have not thought the importance or effectiveness of e-annotation, but I am thinking about the significance more and more. For instance, I really want to know the inside and out of an app “Evernote,” so that I can help my students freely maneuver the digital annotating tools.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives.
The reason I love blogging is this fifth practice – adopting alternative perspectives. Based on the intersubjectivity and interobjectivity, I really like sharing, adopting, and transforming perspectives through discussions. I thought the traditional purpose of blogging was “self-publishing,” but recently it has evolved towards more about sharing thoughts. Also, other digital messages from other tools (e.g., twitter and Google+) give me alternative perspectives, especially from other teaching settings – this is one specific shinning part of our program, ILAC.
6. Constructing and enacting identities.
Through my group blogging mainly, I construct my identity as a doctoral student by trying to think beyond/deconstruct the discussion topic with critical lenses. Blogging is a micro-presentation. Presenting my idea invites critiques from others, which eventually help me build up my identity not only in the blogging, but also in my society as a digital citizen. Other than my experience as a student, I also construct my identity as a teacher through another blogging with my students. I give guidelines to my students, and the students also openly discuss their opinions about the classes. For that reason, I believe this is another shinning part, but at the same time, I think that I need to more sharpen up my blogging usage with my students to help them more effectively construct and enacting their identities as well.
I feel that I need to work on all of these skills!!! It is a learning process.
ReplyDelete1. Contextualizing digital texts: We contextualize digital text whenever we read anything online - articles, blogs, tweets, etc. We have to find the important information and relate it to our own teaching and our own beliefs. We also get to learn new teaching techniques and practices.
2. Making connections between texts and people: I think this happens with any of the activities we do in this class - blogging, tweeting, interacting on google, etc. I learn about the text through others in this class and see their perspectives.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts: This happens through blogging. We make meaning together - answering each other's questions and adding our perspectives.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: I feel that this is a slow improvement process, but this class is teaching me how to communicate through blogging, and google (docs, google chat). I am used to mainly email, text, and social media.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I think this happens any time I get to interact with the other members of this class because we each have different backgrounds. Also, I learn new things and new perspectives each week during the readings.
6. Constructing and enacting identities: I am constantly constructing my identity as a reader, learner, and teacher when I read each week and interact with my peers through the blogging and google community.