Week 10 2018 Assessment

I really enjoyed your discussion of digital writing, anchor charts, and mentor texts.  I tried out your links and bookmarked a couple of them.

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 been 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, and am continuing to work on discussion prompts for my other class.
3. Collaborative understanding and creation of digital texts:  I have been working with two other people on conceptualizing a research project and writing a proposal for a presentation via Google docs. It is working pretty well, especially if we do a synchronous discussion via Zoom or Skype.
4. Adopting alternative modes of communication: Well, not so good in terms of multimodal issues, but I am thinking about doing more chatting, and I do work with several students via Zoom or Skype.
5. Adopting alternative perspectives: I have been trying to do that when I read your blog and the discussion boards for my classes, 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 your blog, your use of the VCI,  your inquiry topic as you look for information for your chapter or integrate New Literacies into classroom practice).

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 blog: 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. 
Of course, you also need to discuss what you think are important ideas related to assessment in digital spaces and of New Literacies activity.


 
 Have a lovely Fall Weekend.

Week 9 2018 Writing in digital spaces

 As I write my blog entry, I'm thinking quite a bit about my own New Literacy practices, particularly around collaboration on writing projects in digital spaces.  This blog is one example, but it is probably the least collaborative of what I've had to work on.  One project we (and that is me and my research collaborators, none of whom are at OU) are working on is writing an article about a project on knowledgeable teachers.  We have already analyzed data from interviews that each of us did of teachers who are exemplars of knowledgeable teaching. We put copies of each others interview transcripts in Dropbox, we entered our coding notes into a Google form and we all wrote reflective memos about what we were seeing.  We meet via Skype to discuss what we are doing as well as sending things via email.  We have multiple copies of the drafts in our Dropbox folder.  Then there is my new Uganda partners.  One is a lecturer at Gulu University in Uganda (although he is a Canadian) working in adult literacy, lifelong learning, and community engaged research. The other collaborator is Sr. Rosemary, my new doctoral student.  WE have a folder on Google Drive with articles for each of us to read, our research ideas, and now our proposal for a symposium at the European Conference on Literacy in 2019. We have Skyped and brainstormed ideas and written together on the Google doc.  By the time you read this, I will have submitted the proposal.

You are going to be reading about writing and collaboration in digital spaces. Before you read, I'd like you to think about the following terms or ideas:  blogs,  vlog, digital story, digital anchor charts, mentor texts, genres, websites, cloud computing, writing craft, audience, purpose, writing notebook. All of these are related in some way to writing in digital spaces.

As you write your blog and respond to each other, I'd like each of you to include at least 1 hyperlink.  The hyperlink needs to be related to your topic of discussion.  

 A couple of questions and ideas I'd like for you all to discuss in your blogs as well.  For what kind of activity do you think it would be better to have students collaborate on a Google doc and for what kind should  they collaborate on a blog?  Why? Look up your topic or look up New Literacies on Wikipedia.  What did you find?  How accurate was it? How  do you know? Which of these ideas that you read about would you like to try with students? which have your tried?

Finally, please complete a Virtual Check In this week by Friday morning.  I'll check them regularly and respond to questions or requests as I can.

Week 8 2018 Inquiry: Research and critical thinking part 2

Sorry ladies, that this is late going live.  I got behind yesterday.

This week you will be reading about creating students who are critical consumers and producers of digital texts as well as tools that can help them organize and critique their research.The readings won't be explicit in their tie to critical thinking and inquiry, so I have added 2 articles to the additional readings module on Canvas.  Use your definition you created for inquiry and discuss how the tools in the 2 chapters can support what you read about in the 2 articles.  How could you use them in your own settings.  Think about how they might fit in your activity plan as well.

Your resource evals are due on Saturday before midnight. I am enjoying your discussions on your blog, and am trying to respond as well.  Are you doing synchonous discussions?

Week 7 2018 Inquiry: Research and Critical Thinking Part 1

I enjoyed reading about the different things you are trying out, and hearing about potential pitfalls.  And I agree with you all that you need to balance ebooks and traditional ones.

Learners are  empowered when they are able to ask questions about topics of interest and use those questions as a guide to finding information they can use to enrich their lives. So this week, we are beginning to read and discuss about inquiry.  While inquiry does include communication, collaboration, and comprehension, critical thinking is going to be a key focus here as is creativity.

This week you are reading  3 book chapters.  I'd suggest reading the Johnson chapter first, followed by the BABR chapters. They are really full of tools and strategies for inquiry, so much so that I was a bit overwhelmed!  Here is some vocabulary I"d like for you to use in your blog discussions: locate, evaluate, synthesize, integrate, divergent search phrases, repurposing, reinforcement, problem posing, online search, search engines, search strategies, curating, organizing, summarizing. Synthesize the information and collaborate on creating a definition of inquiry learning grounded in all of the readings for this week. Make this synthesis a generative synthesis (see the DeSchyver article I've uploaded on Canvas for a definition of this term). Then I want you all to be critical evaluators.  Divide up the tools from BABR chapters to try out--the blog leader can either make assignments or you can volunteer.  Critically evaluate the tools that you tried out and write about them in your responses.
Remember that  this week you need to fill out the Virtual Check In form. Please do this by Thursday  midnight.  I"ll check regularly and get back to you.  Have a good fall weekend.

Week 6 2018 Comprehension and e books

Awesome discussion this week, ladies!  I could tell it was a synchronous discussion and much richer because of it.

This coming week you will be extending the creative collaboration and communication around comprehension:  What is it in digital spaces? What supports it on Web 2.0? Which of the social practices might contribute to it?  An additional topic is how eBooks contribute to comprehension, and in fact, my aha moment of the readings, what "taken for granted" book handling skills need to be revisited in order to comprehend a story or a piece of text in the e-world.

 As I was reading, I came upon a reference to Bloom's Taxonomy and its revision to be a digital taxonomy.  Take a look at it below.

 Keep this in mind as you read the chapters in the Johnson book and H&C chapters.  In your blog discussion, refer to the digital Bloom's to identify the comprehension/thinking that you might be encouraging with students in each of the activities or ideas presented.

It is noon on Friday as I write and rain is still coming down.  Stay dry!  Stay safe.

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.