Week 5 2018 Collaboration and communication for comprehension

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. Specifically, J 3 will discussion communication to build community within and outside of the classroom.  BABR 6 discusses how online discussions build communication and collaboration. H&C 5 discuss how to use audio tools and H&C 9 discusses how social media can support collaboration. How does communication and collaboration increase comprehension? How can you connect the key ideas to your own setting?

Have a good week!

Week 4 2018 Planning for NL/nl

So sorry I'm behind in confirming your topic choices for the digital book. Jenny, you want to do digital citizenship, which I can see easily for the theoretical piece and the lesson activities.  I"m not sure about what resources you will evaluate, but I'm ready to hear your plan.  Melinda, I have you down for planning for integration of New Literacies into literacy instruction.  Theresa, I have you for social media and collaboration.  I"m looking forward to what you all do with those topics. 

The readings for Week 4 focus on the planning process for integrating New Literacies/new literacies into your teaching and classrooms.  Last week's readings also alluded to planning as part of describing new literacies on classrooms.  I hope that as you read, even if the literal content is not about your teaching area or grade level, that you have been making connections to your own situation and in your mind, thinking about how the information could be used at your grade/age level.


As you read the chapters, think about how the ideas they put forth are part of planning for instruction.  How are they related to last week's readings? Compare and contrast the different frameworks. How are the readings all connected to this week's overarching topic? What is new to you about this process and what is just an expansion of what you already do? On Page 28 of H&C, you see a link to the Tech Integration Matrix site.  Go there and see where you fall within the two dimensions of the matrix.  How will all of this information help you as you plan for your own lessons/activities integrating digital and multimodal literacies into your classroom?

Have a good week! I'm looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Sept 14 at 5 pm.  I"ll let you know where via email. If there are questions that you woudl like to discuss in class (content or assignments), let me know in the blog discussion.

Week 3 2018 What do NL/nl look like in classrooms?

This week I'd like you to continue to think about what makes new literacies  new and especially consider what they look like in classrooms.  New literacies are not just about integration of technology but about how literacy is transformed. I added a bit about the differences between New Literacies and new literacies on last's weeks blog in response to your question/uncertainty.  Let me know if we need to revisit this distinction at our F2F meeting on Sept. 14. There was also a question about activity based curriculum.  Think about this concept about being based in learner's activity around literacy that is goal directed (activity as a verb), not as basing your classroom on activities before determining goals and purposes of your lessons (activity as a noun). I think that this is consistent with what you already know and do.

As you discuss this week on your own blog, please make sure to use the following terms in your discussions: goal driven reading and writing, affordances, constraints, open networked environments, multimodal texts, literacy practices, social practices, collaboration, communication, critical stance, persistence, flexibility, reflection, teacher and student roles and relationships.  You will be introduced to frameworks for classroom practice including TPACK, TPACK+, 21st century literacy learning, flipped classroom, IRT.  You have already read about Literacy 2.0 and activity based curriculum. Discuss your thoughts on all of these frameworks: similarities, differences, challenges. You might want to look carefully at Reflection question 2 at the end of H Chapter 10 and respond to that.  I have also uploaded to Canvas 6 articles that illustrate NL/nl in classrooms. Each of you should pick a different one to read and then summarize the classroom practices described in the article for each other and discuss how the descriptions of the classroom practices demonstrate the skills, strategies, and dispositions for 21st Century Literacy.  I'm sure each of you will also have other topics that you would like to discuss as well.

I hope you have a good Labor Day Holiday weekend and a good week next week. Don't forget to complete a virtual check in form for me please.I'd appreciate if you could do that by Wednesday.

Week 2 2018 What are New/new Literacies/literacies?

You are beginning the first module of the course, which lays the groundwork theoretically for the practical knowledge of supporting literacy development using digital tools that are multimodal.  The purpose of this module is to answer the following questions over the first 3 weeks:
What are New Literacies and new literacies? Why are they important? What makes them New? What do they look like in classrooms? How can teachers plan to integrate digital and multimodal literacies into their literacy instruction and learner's literacy learning?

For this week, you are focused on those first three questions. As you read, compare what you know about literacy in a traditional sense with Literacy 2.0, digital literacy and multimodal literacies.  Look for connections across the three texts that you are reading. For your blogging discussion, define what you think New Literacies are.  How are they different from new literacies? How do the 5Cs of the J text compare to the BABR text's 6 social practices? Where does the information in the H text fit in all of this? What are you doing already that might be supporting New/new Literacies/literacies in your classroom? What are you doing that might not be supportive of New/new Literacies/literacies?  Please use the following vocabulary in your responses in ways that demonstrates your understanding of the concepts that underlie them: creativity, collaboration, activity based curriculum, affordances, social practices, intertextuality, learning networks, digital citizenship, critical thinking, communication, comprehension, open and closed networked environments, connective writing, forward inferencing, sources of prior knowledge, connected learning.

Remember to post your responses to my questions before you read the response of your classmates. Remember also to include a question for your classmates that you would like to discuss. Finally, the blog should become a discussion between the 3 of you, so that means more than just posting and responding once to each of your other 2 classmates. 

I look forward to reading what you write and discuss. I'll weigh in when I feel the need or if you want me to.   Have a good week.

Week 15 Reflecting on your learning over the semester

You have done quite a bit of reading, blogging, writing, and discussing aspects related to literacy and technology.  We looked at New Literacies and new literacies, and the important skills and social practices that are a part of both. You practiced with Web 2.0 tools and tried out ideas in your own practice.  I'm quite impressed at what you all did and the willingness you had to try out different tools and social practices. Finally, we read about and you are writing multimodal works. I'm really looking forward to your iBook chapters.  I'd like you to reflect about your learning over the course of the semester and respond to these questions:
1. What are the three most important (to you) ideas that you learned about New/new Literacies/literacies this semester? Why are they important to you? How will they inform your practice as a scholar/higher education instructor, reading specialist, early childhood educator, or elementary educator?
2.  Revisit the goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of the semester. How have you met them?

Remember that we are meeting on Adobe Connect on Friday, Dec. 11 at 5:00 pm.  I'm looking forward to your sharing of your projects at that time. Here is the link to the video on how to access Adobe Connect.  Remember that the dates etc are for my first hybrid class last fall.

Have a good week.

Week 13 Supporting your own learning

This week (the last week of readings) is all about how you will continue to support your own learning about New/new Literacies/literacies.  These literacies are key to success, as you already know, in the 21st Century. New Literacies are continually changing--even the apps or websites or programs that you think you know are updated regularly, sometimes to the point where you have to relearn how t  use them.  Not only that, new tools (hardware, software, in the cloud) proliferate and old tools may become obsolete.  As teachers, we are life long learners (or we would not be doing what we do). Sometimes your school district or workplace decides what PD you will attend and sometimes you yourself do.  So think about what makes effective PD for you? How do you continue to learn about your profession?  How have  you used Twitter and our Google Community as a learning platform?

The next 2 weeks, you will only be responding to my blog so that you can spend your time working on video annotations and your multimodal article.  You will need to meet with your writing group and with me with your drafts of your article online via Google hangouts or Skype.  I'll be available Nov. 29 in the evening or daytime, Nov. 30 in the evening or afternoon after 3, and Tuesday Dec. 1 in the evening or late afternoon. I"ll be in California on Nov. 30-Dec 4 at the meeting of the Literacy Research Association, so remember the time difference (I'll be 2 hours earlier than you).  I want to touch base with everyone about their chapter and how it is coming.

Have a good Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for all of you and the work that you do to support the learning of all children/learners.  I'll be down in Texas with my mother celebrating her 90th birthday on Nov. 25.  I'm including a picture of my Mom and I.  She still lives alone, is a basket weaver, knits and sews for her great-grandchildren (ages 18,14, and 1) and honorary great-grandchildren, reads the newspaper daily (and has at least 2 books going)and is a faithful attendee of women's soccer, basketball, and softball at Texas A&M University (where she lives). I could tell you all about the  gutsy stuff she has done (she was the first woman in her small town in Iowa to go to college and she worked for the FBI in Washington, DC during World War 2, for example) that makes her a role model of her time.

See you online the week of Nov. 30!

Week 12 Designing multimodal texts

I enjoyed the multimodal blog responses and small group meeting reports.  I have had such a busy meeting week that I haven't had the chance to read your blogs yet (it is Friday at 3 pm as I write) but I'm hoping some of the multimodality has oozed over to them as well.

This coming week's readings are all about designing multimodal texts and how to help learners become multimodal text designers.  So, tell me what you know about design principles and about remixing and using images, sound, and video from the internet. What does it mean to "level up"? what does iteration and feedback have to do with it?

I know that there is lots to read, so here is how I"d like you to divide it up:  Everyone should read the introduction and section on assessment in BABR 8.  Divide up the rest of that chapter around these headings: images, audio, video, digital storytelling/poetry.  Everyone should read BABR 9 on design principles.  Divide up the articles among each of you.  The blog leader can address the common readings and those pieces she read, and each of you need to respond to her questions and fill in the rest of your blogging group on what you read.  Then all of you make connections.

A few reminders:

• Resources were due on Nov. 6, so I'll be grading them over the weekend
• Your lesson/activity plan is due Nov. 13 before we meet face to face.  Let me know if you need more time to get the video annotated and uploaded. 
• We are meeting face to face in Rm 334 on Nov. 14 at 9 am-5pm.  We will plan on an hour for lunch.  Our main plan of work is creating the multimodal chapters and learning how to author an iBook.  If you have an Apple computer, make sure to download iBooks Author and Pages if you don't have it (it is free).  If you don't, I'll have an Apple laptop for you to use.  
• Get a Dropbox account if you don't have one as that is where we will deposit the iBook stuff 
• If you borrowed one of my iPads, you will need to bring it to give back to me at the end of the day.
• Bring questions, concerns, etc. 

I'm looking forward to all of us being together again. Have a good week, and see you soon.