This week’s reading really focused on composing various digital productions that incorporated an array of texts, motions and sounds. During this weeks discussion, I’d like to hear everyone’s ideas regarding how we can utilize these types of new media literacies in our classrooms. How do or might they affect our students’ learning?
Prompt #1: In Bomer’s article, “New Literacies in the Material World,” the idea is introduced that new literacies have actually been around since the early cavemen have been drawing on cave walls. “New literacies are new ways of doing things, new ways of creating and working with text.” Do you think that as educators, sometimes we get too caught up in the technological side of new literacies? Sometimes the creations in our minds cannot even come close to being recreated or replicated on the internet. Are we limiting creativity and attention to detail because of the constant shove to utilize technology as a tool in our classrooms?
Prompt #2: In the video, “Record, Reflect and Share: Voice Thread as a Digital Portfolio,” we are introduced to a multimodal composing site called Voice Thread. How could we use Voice Thread in the classroom as teachers? How could our students use Voice Thread to enhance their learning?
Prompt #3: In Chapter 5, “Designing and Publishing Digital Writing,” Hicks discusses creating class anthologies of student writings using a wiki. He talks about how in years past it was too daunting to make actual publications by hand. Using the wiki as a form of digital writing, “the audience is extended, and students become much more aware, as readers and writers, of how they both share their work and respond to the work of others.” Do you think that students who struggle with reading and writing would be less inclined to participate in a wiki? Do you think that this could cause some anxiety or behavior problems from students who are not proud of their writing abilities? Putting information on a wiki for all of the class to see and critique would be a challenging critique for any writer, let alone one who struggles. What are your thoughts on this?
Prompt #4: The Skinner article, “Developing Literate Identities with English Language Learners Through Digital Storytelling,” displays how beneficial digital storytelling can be for ELL students who may struggle with language barriers. Do you think that digital storytelling would help bring students together who may struggle with communicating with their peers? What other kinds of students would benefit from digital storytelling? How could students participate in something like this if the school lacked the funding to provide computers and programs like this one?
In response to prompt #1:
I think the point that ‘new’ is a soon to be dated term is really interesting. Everything that is once new becomes old, just as the method of communicating with paintings on a cave wall did. WE are continually discovering new methods to link literacy, so we will constantly evolve into ‘new’ literacies. I don’t think we are necessarily limiting creativity in our classrooms. Instead, I think we are opening more and more doors for students to explore and find out how they can succeed best in school. I do think at times we put too much pressure on ourselves to use the technology available, simply because it’s there. That is how I felt when moving from a low-income, old school to a brand-new high school. Since I had access to Smartboards I felt I had to use them, even without a complete understanding of how to use them effectively in the class.
The use of technology in the class has made me look ay assignments in a more creative light-I often ask myself questions like, “Instead of assigning a book report that outlines 5 particular parts of a novel, how can I make this more interesting for students to complete and more interesting to listen to 150 of the same assignment?” (it’s important for us to have fun too!) In the end, when I have taken the time to plan properly, technology has opened so many more doors and allowed my students to learn more.
It interesting that you said you felt you needed to use the technology because it was there. I have felt this way about certain things such as gettting a GPS and a SmartPhone or having a FaceBook page because everyone else in college had one. I think when you are not sure of how the technology works, it is difficult to use it properly in the classroom with the students. I think it is important to determine which technologies we like best and figure out how to best incorporate them into our teaching. I do agree that technology has opened many doors for students and teachers alike.
I like that you brought up your experiences working in a low-income older school and then a brand new high school. I did my student teaching at a very wealthy school district and my mentor teacher was in charge of the Classrooms for the Future grant given to the school. A lot of my student teaching experience was based around utilizing the new technology and trying to incorporate it into my lessons. Then I was hired at a lower income school district where I still had to use an old school projector (where you write with markers – yeah those still exist). Not only that, but I also had limited chalkboard space to write on – talk about a challenge! I think that you bring up a great point that as educators, it doesn’t really matter what tools we have available. Its how we use what we have that makes us a great educators.
I agree with you that technology opens a lot of doors and can really add some flavor to what could be a dull lesson. I think in addition to this, that a teacher who has experiences in all types of educational settings will really be the one to see the benefits and downfalls of having technology at their fingertips.
I have to agree with what both of you said here. I think that teachers sometimes get too wrapped up in the multitude of technologies that are available that they lose sight of actually teaching. I know that I’ve had this problem myself. I’m such a nerd for technology that each time I learn about something new I want to implement it into my classroom. This simply isn’t possible, and I think it’s crucial that teachers find an assortment of tech tools that they feel comfortable with to use.
The last two years of my teaching have included a heavy amount of technology integration into our classrooms. My district received a “Classroom of the future” grant which meant that everyone received Promethean boards in his or her classroom. Just as Carissa pointed out, I immediately felt like I had to learn how to use the board as quickly as possible, even when it was simply fluff added to my lesson. At times, I felt like a magician trying to entice my students to learn parts of speech by integrating the Promethean board into the class discussion. In reality, I could have completed the assignments just as easily with a basic white board.
In addition, our in-service days were spent learning about new digital tech each session. I became completely overwhelmed by the wealth of programs and services that our tech liaison and fellow teachers started to teach. Between Weebly, Wikispaces, Wordle, Edmodo, WordPress, and many more I became concerned that I wasn’t using enough technology in my classroom. Finally, I realized that trying to use each and every technology I learned was simply insane. Instead, I decided to focus on what I liked and determined which digital technologies would work best with my English content. It’s the reason that I sort of slammed Wikispaces the other week. I tried them briefly, became frustrated, and used Weebly instead.
I’ll post my response to prompt # 3 tomorrow. Time is so short in my life right now which is why it’s so difficult to respond to everything!
I comepletely agree with you Doug. I think in order for us to integrate technology in the correct way, we need to be comfortable. Although it would be great to use absolutely everything available to us, it simply isn’t possible. I also think just as we can sometimes egt overwhelmed, the students do too. If we come in everyday using a new technology, they get more caught up in what we are using instead if being engaged in the lessons.
I agree with you. Technology is a very difficult concept. We have pressure from the administrators about coming up with the latest technological concepts to use in the classroom. However, couldn’t a power point just be the “new” overheard projector? Couldn’t a “new” Voice Thread easily become a generic collage or dated poster? It is all in how the teacher used the technology. Are we using technology for the sake of technology, or are we using a tool that we can challenge our students with to make them grapple with a text or think about something in a new way. We want them to be literate in all forms of technology, but we should be careful to not use technology simply because it is technology.
I really agree with what everyone is saying regarding our dependence on technology. I’m sure that we have all had experiences where we have had a grandiose idea of how we were going to incorporate technology into a lesson plans. You get everything set up and all of a sudden everything just falls apart…you lose Internet connection, the files aren’t saved on the computer, etc. I think that while using technology can really be a godsend sometimes, it’s equally important to have backup plans that use no technology. After all, being a teacher is all about being resourceful and organized.
I agree with you, Doug, that it gets to be a bit overwhelming at times trying to incorporate all of the different kinds of technology into my classes. I am currently at Trinity Middle School in Washington county and they are totally technologically integrated! It’s great in some ways, because it allows me to access things that I would not have been able to and allows me to be more prepared in a lot of ways; PowerPoints and ActivInspire software allow me to make my entire lesson, examples and all, before class starts. They’re actually utilizing a new program for grammar and writing, too, that is synced with their writing textbook so they can get grammar mini-lessons, interactive textbooks, games, etc. and they can peer edit other students’ writing, all online. Things like that are awesome, but a lot of stuff could have been done without the technology.
It comes with its own set of challenges to do things with the technology as well. The time setting things up is definitely a drawback, and it really stinks when things aren’t working.
I agree with Lahaina and Doug that some of the stuff is just sort of neat to work with, even of it is doing the same thing that may have been done without the tech!
W
Apologies for that last reply. Apparently I accidentally sent a one letter comment. At any rate, I wanted to briefly mention this new initiative we have at our school that a lot of teachers are furious about. We get graded on this new scale that’s part of the KtO grant our district received from the Federal Government (1.5 million dollars in funding). Apparently, different laptop usage is worth a certain amount of value, and different programs are worth a certain amount of points out of 4. Our administrators come into our classroom 4 times throughout the year and perform an observation about the technology usage in the classroom. While I am a huge advocate of using technology, I have heard many of our teachers complaining about the grading system.
For instance, using the Promethean board and allowing the students to interact with it only garners a score of 2 out of 4. Yet, for some unknown reason, having a laptop in front of the students to use a word processor scores a 4 out of 4. Science teachers are irate because they score a 0 out of 4 on the test if they are doing labs that don’t require computers. In other words, a lab that uses microscopes, beakers, and other science tools is considered inadequate by the new federal scoring system. This relates back to the fundamental flaw of trying to use too much technology in the classroom. The science teachers are providing good instruction in my opinion. Technology should be use, but it shouldn’t be forced.
I’m sorry but that is absolutely insane! I cannot believe they are keep tabs on technology usage like that! Talk about pressure… Do the students know that you are being assessed on technology usage? All students seem to have a sixth sense about what’s going on in the classroom, do any of you think that maybe they are aware that some of us are stumbling through the technology and trying to use it even if its not entirely necessary?
In response to prompt #3, I think that posting student work on a wiki is a great tool to aid in reading and writing in the classroom. I think students who struggle with writing may be more inclined to participate in a class wiki. Most of the time, I think a struggling writer’s biggest challenge is putting the pen to paper– getting their ideas out there. I think typing and the computer eliminate part of that particular struggle. They can type and delete without anyone every knowing what they had written. Paper isn’t so forgiving. I go back to the ideas Gibbons noted in “Collaborating like never before: Reading and Writing Through a Wiki” during our week 4 readings. He discusses the benefit of students being able to access a digital writing workshop whenever they wanted, including at home. He also explained that his students felt the process of collaborating and commenting on each other’s writing on a wiki proved more beneficial and rewarding then face to face peer editing.
In the English Department at my school, we often discuss that one big issue with writing is that students have lost value for the process. Hicks notes that a wiki may be a way to solve that problem: “When students are responsible for posting their own writing and commenting on the writing of others, they are likely to feel more engaged in the writing process” (82). Writing is a challenge for all students, but even the most experienced writer needs to start at the beginning of the process to achieve a successful piece of writing in the end.
There are a few ways to aid students who struggle and may not feel comfortable with posting their writing on a wiki. First, I think as educators we need to teach how to constructively peer edit. Give the students models and examples follow. If struggling writers see that the purpose is not to criticize but help them improve, they may be more comfortable. In the past when I asked students to peer edit, I removed all their names from their papers and assigned each students a number only they knew. That way no one knew who wrote the paper they were editing and the author didn’t know the editor. A similiar idea could be utilized on a wiki. Asking students to remain anonymous, with only the teacher knowing the students numbers or usernames may also put struggling students at ease. Finally, Hicks suggests a tool called “‘blessed,’ ‘addressed,’ or pressed’” (83). If the students use this tool when posting on a wiki, a struggling writer may begin by only requesting praise or positive feedback for their work so they can build some confidence. More confident writers can request to have the writing “pressed” or critiqued to help improve the writing. I think wikis really meet students where they are as writers and editors. Reading other students work only helps individuals improve in their own writing.
You’re right: writing is a process. It is something that experienced writers frequently take for granted as a lot of the process is internalized. And it is something that inexperienced writers seem to skip. Either way it is important to take your students through the steps.
I like the idea of the wiki for peer editing. I think it does take the pressure off. I also really like the idea of taking the names off the paper. I did a version of that in my creative writing class, but it had never occurred to me to try it in my English class. I also think your right with modeling. I think good models for students are key because I remember reading my peers papers in my AP English class and being totally lost. I had no idea what to say to my peers! They were such good writers, what could I possibly add to their paper to make it better and not make me seem like a moron. As an adult, I feel their pain. But now I know where I went wrong. I did not have a model to follow. But I do think taking off their names or wiki editing would eliminate that problem. Very good idea!
Hi Jennifer –
I agree that peer feedback is perhaps most beneficial for helping peer readers think about their own writing. And, yes, the Bless, Press, Address protocol for feedback is quite effective. I’ve copied below the version I’ve used in the Summer Institute for Teachers. I can also attach it in an email if you like.
This feedback protocol can certainly be supplemented. I use lots of different protocols for peer feedback in my classes. Mainly, I want to re-orient students away from thinking about peer feedback as peer “correction.” Bless, Press, Address is helpful for having peer readers think about a specific style of feedback. Also effective: having students ask questions in the margins – questions that, if answered by the writer, would improve the piece of writing in some way. This, like everything, needs to be modeled for students.
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Bless, Press, Address
We will use the protocol many Writing Project sites use for their writing groups.
Bless: Do you want your work blessed? In other words, “tell me what’s working.”
Ask for bless when you:
• Are not quite ready for a full blown critique of your work
• Post writing that is more of a reflective nature or that is highly personal or that you do not intend to develop
Address: What specific questions or concerns about your writing would you like addressed?
Ask for address when you:
• Have a specific area that concerns you
• Need suggestions for where you should go with a piece
Press (out the wrinkles): You can give the reader freedom to respond in any fashion. This, of course, could include Bless and/or Address; it could also include constructive criticism that the reader thinks you might want to consider.
Ask for press when you:
• Have a strong piece of writing that is ready to be pulled together
• Are ready to accept and understand suggestions made by others about your work
Wow, I have never heard of this… and I love it! As mentioned earlier, peer feedback can often become “peer correction” and can often be a waste of time. In my sixth grade classroom, the varying levels of the foundational writing skills of my students makes activities such as this more harmful than helpful. After my first year of teaching, when I discovered that peer feedback= peer correction, I changed my peer feedback to a simple “two stars and a wish”. Students would read a couple of other students’ pieces and give them two constructive compliments (which I model early in the year) and then one concept they thought could be improved with an example. What I like about “Bless, Address & Press” is the student’s choice to whether or no he or she is ready for constructive criticism. Because of the incredible varying levels (which I guess we have at all ages), those who struggle can finally fend of the continous “correction” they must get and build some confidence, and more importantly, hope. They can do it. I am excited to use a version of this in my class this year!
I think bless, press and address is a great idea to use in the classroom simply because it addresses the idea that not all students (or writers in general) are ready to have their work critiqued. I think sometimes when we write something personal and a lot is poured into it, it makes it harder to hear criticism about that work. In my experiences students seem to have a hard time understanding that you cannot just write something once and submit it. They don’t want to edit it or have anyone read it. They are afraid of criticism, particularly from their peers. Do any of you have the same experiences? Do you think students need to learn to not just write well, but understand that a great piece of writing needs constant editing? Do any of you remember feeling like this when writing? Does the need for technology decrease our patience that is so carefully needed in order to compose solid writing?
I think you bring up a really great point about the differences in writing with pen and paper and writing through typing. Students today are far more inclined to typing messages to communicate than writing notes. Personally, in my family we text to keep each other “in the loop” instead of leaving notes on the kitchen table and it it more effective because the other person will get the message no matter where they are. There are two aspects of writing to a wiki that I think are extremely beneficial. First, students use technology in every aspects of their lives, so using technology to encourage writing is going to make students feel comfortable and allow them to use tools they are already familiar with. Second, by using a wiki, students have access to their work and their peers work virtually anywhere. If a student has internet access then they will be able to complete the tasks assigned through the wiki. One problem I have seen with sending drafts of student work home is that students who are absent the next day have student drafts and that places both the student absent and the student who’s draft is with the person absent behind. However, if the student absent is at home they can still log on to the wiki and complete the work. If they do not complete the work, then the teacher will still have access to the student’s work and he or she can review or edit the writing.
I also like that you give examples for how to use “Bless, Address, Press” in the classroom. I also think this is a great way to achieve 100% participation on the wiki because students can request to receive feedback at different stages. However, the problem that I can see through this process is developing a fair way to assess student work. It would be unfair to grade a student who has only requested the “Bless” step by the same standards a student who has requested the “Press” step, because a student who has requested the “Press” step is clearly more engaged and involved in the writing process. Also, how would a student improve their writing if they are only receiving positive feedback? While the idea is great in theory, I’m not sure it is fair for all students.
Just out of curiosity… Do any of you have your students write a hand written rough draft? I know I probably sound old school, but my student’s writing skills are very ummm…. Lacking… And I make them do hand written drafts because if I let them on the computers to write their papers, they will do everything on the computer EXCEPT write their essays. They are not allowed on the computers until I have checked a rough draft and they can begin typing it. Anyone else do this?
Sadly, I used to write all of my papers out by hand before I would type them simply because my mind wouldn’t work with that empty screen and blinking cursor staring back at me. After my second year of undergrad I got out of that habit and used the computer entirely. However, I think it helped limit the distractions I had when writing.
In response to Prompt #3, I think that it would definitely hinder some students from writing, however, the fact that there is an extended audience may push them to revise and edit before posting! Hopefully the wiki can be used in a way that will positively impact student collaboration and learning, encouraging them to give and take constructive criticism, learning from their classmates and maybe even teaching them something, too. Perhaps the “jigsaw” approach could be used online during the editing and revision phases, with teams in charge of picking up on certain places in writing that may need work. Then, everyone is contributing something and no one is the kid that has nothing to offer!
I like that you bring up the idea that other people are able to see what they are writing so this may push them to edit and revise. Some students are very proud of their work and want it to be the best that it can be. Sometimes pressure can be a good thing.
The jigsaw puzzle would work really well here. I love that technique and use it quite often in my class, though never with revising and editing. I think using it in conjunction with some kind of online technology would capture students’ attention much more than just switching papers in class. Do you think you would use something like Google Docs to accomplish this?
Prompt 2
In all honestly, I was not impressed with Voice Thread when I watched the video. I was very caught up in the “reaching” out to the world option. As a practical teacher, I was thinking how could I possibly get my students talking to people around the world? I was not thinking about the creation part of it.
However, after tinkering with it, what I liked was that it was so easy to use. It took the application part of creating videos out of the equation. My tech savvy students would respond to it well, and my non-tech savvy students would not be intimidated by the complexity of it (like they would a iMovie maker).
I immediately started to think of all the possibilities in my classroom. It could be a cool culminating project to demonstrate knowledge about novel. I was thinking they could put Romeo and Juliet into their own words or rewrite the ending. They could also use it as a pre-writing tool for a topic that I assign them to get their ideas flowing. I really think the assignment possibilities are endless, and I really want to try to experiment with them. I also really want to hear some of your ideas, too!
Kristen – loved that this was your first impression of Voice Thread because that’s exactly how I was at first too. I thought it was boring and could no not serve a purpose in my classroom- not with the attention spans some of my students have! However, once I played around with it I saw that there was much more than I was giving credit for.
I like the healthy push back on technology in this discussion thread. As I read Carissa’s, Doug’s, Jocelyn’s and Lauren’s critiques of the technology-for-technology-sake mentality adopted in some (usually higher socio-economic schools), I’m reminded of Hicks’ very useful MAPS heuristic (pgs. 56-57) in chapter 4, “Examining Author’s Craft.” The heuristic is helpful for analyzing writing situations and the advisability or not of using specific technological tools to support the specific writing task. (I suggest using this heuristic with colleagues when designing or rethinking writing assignments.)
As you have pointed out, the use of technology needs to be purposeful, and the best way to determine that is by articulating the learning goals for the assignment. In other words, thinking about technology is like thinking about writing from the rhetorical perspective: Purpose, Audience and Format are central to the Situation of the writing. This is why I tend to rail against generic templates (e.g. the 5-paragraph model); they often strip the assignment from the situation and the purpose and audience. Let’s face it: we try to persuade our mother differently than we do the highway patrol officer – hypothetically speaking.
In response to prompt #4, I think that digital storytelling is an excellent tool for ALL students, and especially those who are learning a new language, are shy, or have low self-confidence. Digital storytelling allows students to feel in charge of something that is THEIRS, because it is their own story to tell. This allows the creativity to flow, because there are no real standards for what is correct vs. incorrect- each story is unique- so a student can focus on what he/she wants to incorporate into the story, as well as how to tell it. In addition, if they write a story, there isn’t the pressure to perform something that is difficult for them to read aloud (and possibly feel embarrassed). With the help of the teacher or peer groups, an ELL or struggling reader can carefully work with the text and refine his/her reading fluency, and reading the story aloud allows the reader to think carefully about how to tell the story with emotion and passion. As far as creating images to accompany the story, this is another creative tool that enhances a student’s visualization skills. Finally, when working with the text, speech, and images in the story, students are learning how to collaborate and negotiate together, so social skills are improved.
It would be more difficult to participate in a digital storytelling project if a schools lacks the funds to support this kind of project, but not impossible. I can see students tape recording themselves (which, by the way, another benefit of this is that students can reflect upon and critique their speech by playing back the story) on an old-school tape recorder and creating a picture book (w/ or w/o text) to accompany the speech. This is almost like a read-aloud version of digital storytelling, but more feasible to do with limited resources.
I completely agree. I think the creativity aspect of digital storytelling is what can get all students, no matter what kind of struggles they have, motivated and focused. ELL students can feel intimidated, confused, and frustrated, but as I stated in my post, I think technology is a language in which the world can now be fluent. Once you have tinkered with technology where ever you’re from, I can’t imagine learning technology in a new environment (especially compared to language) would be harder than learning the language. Therefore, I think it is very beneficial to use online medias as a tool to help these students learn the foundational literacies they need for every day living in a place with a different language. The case studies in the reading really highlighted that, too.
I think that digital story telling would be a great confidence booster for kids who struggle with writing. I like that you brought up the worry that many students have that they are not doing things the correct way. As a teacher, you want your students to be as creative as they can. You don’t want them to worry about the technicalities more than the ideas they have. Writing should be fun! I think digital storytelling really pushes the creativity and shows students that writing is not just 5 paragraph essays about things they don’t care about.
I agree that digital storytelling is a great tool to spark creativity with any student. We go back to the idea that images often transcend language barriers. By allowing ELL students to work on their writing skills while still conveying their ideas clearly through images and music will help build their confidence. They are able to communicate in a unique way with their peers and maintain that confidence in order to progress and improve. Projects such as digital storytelling help lower an ELL student’s affective filter and therefore help them to learn and communicate more effectively. Even students that are not ELL and simply struggling with writing, would benefit from a project where they can convey their ideas through images as well as words. Finding the right approach to writing is half the battle.
I agree that writing should be fun and creative! The more students enjoy writing and creating, they better they will become at it. Giving students the opportunity to express themselves in a way that they enjoy and can build their confidence will help work at their educational goals and aspire to continue to learn and grow.
In response to prompt #3, I think that some students might initially feel anxiety or be hesitant to participate in a wiki, but with careful planning, writing, and editing, these feelings could be eliminated, and students might actually be proud of themselves and more confident in their writing. No student is going to want to put work on the Internet that they’re not proud of, so I think it’s important for the teacher and peers to help one another through the writing process by peer reviewing. In the past I’ve felt that students don’t take peer reviewing as seriously as I would’ve liked them to, but they might be more inclined to help each other if they know they’ll have a Internet full of readers to impress. I also think it’s important for the teacher to hold conferences with the students as well, because students tend to be very trusting of their teacher’s opinion, and it may make them feel more comfortable putting their story on wiki page.
With these steps in place, I think that a wiki would be a great tool for students to feel accomplished writers, especially after they’ve spent so much time editing and revising their work. When a struggling writer sees his/her work on display, they may not only feel a strong surge of pride in themselves, but they may also be more motivated to take the same steps that they did to get to that point. Also, I think that GoogleDocs could be incorporated into the writing process as well, so that students could work together to create a writing piece that they’d copy and paste into a wiki page. Collaborative writing, to start, may help students ease into this type of publishing. Overall, I think that the pros of participating in a wiki far outweigh the cons, and that some of these cons may be fixed somewhat throughout the process.
I agree that teacher student conferences are an important part of the writing process. I also think the students trust and value the advice of the teacher when it comes to writing. Students sometimes are more inclined to make revisions to their work based on the comments of the teacher rather than their peers. The student also should also see the teacher as a writer. Whenever my students are responding to a prompt, I always try to write with them. When my students are writing research papers, they are required to submit two rough drafts. We then conference about their drafts– the first draft they point out certain things they want me to look at specifically; the second I look at the overall content. The open conversation about their work always seems beneficial.
I like how you hold two separate conferences with your students, as well as write with them. To me, this shows that you value what they are doing by participating in it yourself, which also shows that you’re a writer, and it allows them to grow with individual attention. One of my main concerns with peer reviewing is that students are too “nice”, and don’t want to hurt their peers’ feelings by changing anything, so they focus on spelling and punctuation. That’s another topic, though, but conferences are crucial to students developing as strong writers.
The Skinner article, “Developing Literate Identities with English Language Learners Through Digital Storytelling,” displays how beneficial digital storytelling can be for ELL students who may struggle with language barriers. Do you think that digital storytelling would help bring students together who may struggle with communicating with their peers? What other kinds of students would benefit from digital storytelling? How could students participate in something like this if the school lacked the funding to provide computers and programs like this one?
In response to prompt #4, I do think that digital storytelling could be beneficial for ELL students who struggle with language barriers. Because you can access the program and work/comment at any time, ELL students would be given the time necessary to think about what they want to say and how they want to express it. In school, some ELL students may become very quiet because they are scared to make any mistakes. Next, it was explained in the article that many students nowadays, despite academic struggles, are quite proficient and advanced in sophisticated technology literacies; therefore technology literacies should become a tool for learning rather than an isolated, inconsistently used “activity”. These literacies include using visual and digital technologies, instant messages, and social networking sites. Unfortunately though, most schools tend to focus on foundational literacies, such as decoding and reading comprehension of print-based texts. Along with the theme of this class, the authors of this study explained that “Literacy is no longer singular and print bound; instead the iconic and digital demands of the 21st century have opened up literacies that require transversals across print and nonprint-based formats.”
Digital story telling can be used to help students draw upon their knowledge of popular culture as they construct texts in school can be an empowering method for validating thier sociocultural identities. It seemed that the digital storytelling was a motivator for Diego, and there were opportunities for Diego’s teacher to scaffold foundational literacies during the digital storytelling process. Some examples of how it can be scaffolded is using the writing process, writing craft, encoding and decoding, story comprehension, reading and writing fluency, and content are vocabulary. The research of the study found that ELL students can not only benefit from using online medias scaffolded with foundational literacies for academic learning, but it can also help ELL students develop a true identity in the new world in which they are living. Just as the saying “laughter has no language” goes, I think technology doesn’t, either.
Having worked closely with one student who was from Thailand I can’t agree with you more about how frustrating it is that most ELL curriculum is focused mainly on decoding. The student I worked with was from such a remote part of Thailand that his native language was not seen when we would try to test him. It was hard to measure how much English he knew when weren’t sure how much of his own language he knew. As a result of his language barriers, this student was very a quiet and reserved. He was an excellent artist and this was his main means of communicating. A lot of the students were afraid of him because they did not understand him, but I think that digital storytelling would be a great tool for him and students like him.
Jocelyn, you bring up a valid point how other students may fear or shun EL students simply because they do not understand them. Young students easily push away people they don’t understand or who are different from them. By utilizing tools that can bring students together and giving all students the opportunity to express themselves, it will be easier for students to see that diversity should be embraced and that all everyone has something in common with one another.
PROMPT 1:
If technology is being implemented into the classroom with a clear goal in mind and not just because the technology is available, then no, I do not think creativity is being limited in the classroom. I am reminded of a time in high school when my school received a grant for each department to have thirty laptops on a movable cart. Each teacher was required to use the laptops every week, regardless of what was scheduled in the curriculum. During this time, I was taking a class called “Law and Current Events,” so my teacher thought it would be appropriate that every Friday we would get on the laptops, search for a current event involving the law and write a summary of the event applying it to what we had learned in class. Great in theory, right? And it was great for the first few weeks, but what wasn’t effective was that after everyone found their favorite site, each week we would quickly log in write a few sentences and then play “Family Feud” or “Peggle” until we discussed the events and after everyone was done discussion, we went back to playing our favorite computer games. While this was not the best use of classroom time, it was more effective than watching teachers spend the whole class period trying to get a SmartBoard to work or trying to hook a laptop up to the projector. There were numerous times in high school where the whole class period was used sorting out “technical difficulties.”
My purpose in telling these stories is to bring to light the fact that new literacies are a huge benefit to our students, IF we know how to use them effectively. To use these tools effectively, we need to become experts and know how to use each tool to its fullest capacity, be comfortable solving problems students may have, and have clear picture of what students will know that they didn’t know before after the project. I make my last point because I didn’t learn one thing about technology by Googling a news article and giving a short summary. There are going to be times where our students know more about a certain technological “tool” than we do, and we need to be comfortable with that and learn from our students, but we should know enough that we are using technology to enhance learning and not using it simply because it is there to use. I don’t think we are paying less attention to detail by using technology, in fact I think many students will pay more attention to detail because they know more people than just the teacher are going to see their work. This is especially true if students are working on a project collaboratively, because they know they are responsible for some of the work. When all students are held accountable, the products are always done with more care; I strongly believe even better project, created with the best care, will be produced by students using technology.
PROMPT 2:
I agree with both Chrissy Hellyer and Kristen that iMovie maker is too complex for all students to use and benefit from and that VoiceThread is a much more “user-friendly” tool all students could use. Also, Kristen, I like your idea of using VoiceThread to re-write scene from a play or for students to tell what they learned as part of a culminating project. VoiceThread is something we could use to easily engage students because it is interactive, creative and most of all—FUN! Too often in education are students told they will do something and everyone will do the same project and that there is no freedom, so we need to use our classroom and our new (at least new for me) knowledge of VoiceThread to give students choices in how they will share their knowledge.
One problem that I could see with using VoiceThread in the context Hellyer uses VoiceThread is that a large majority of my students would not be interested in sharing or conferencing with other people from all over the world. I can hardly blame them, as I was just thinking about pictures of myself I have used for this class once the course is complete. There is just something about having your face all over the world that is a little creepy. Some of my students feel uneasy when I have to record lessons in the classroom for Pitt, so I know they would feel uneasy about sharing with others, who they do not know.
To combat the privacy issue, I was thinking I could create a class blog where everyone could copy and paste their URL so only people in the course have easy access to their video. I would like to use VoiceThread for students to do news segments surrounding a novel they are reading in class. Currently, my students are reading Animal Farm and I know they would enjoy creating a broadcast where they could use pictures to supplement their news. I could assign each student a scene from the novel that corresponds with a scene from history dealing with communism and socialism. This would be one way for students to apply what they have learned from the novel to a historical event, which they would need to research to successfully tell the news. This is just one way we can use VoiceThread to enhance leaning in the classroom and make learning enjoyable and fun!
I love your idea for VoiceThread! So creative and I really think the students would enjoy that.
You mention that the students would be uneasy about conferencing with people around the world – I was a part of something like this in a 3rd grade class. A parent of one of the students was a doctor who would go abroad to work for Doctors without Boarders. He was working in Hondorus and wanted our class of 3rd graders to video chat with a group of 3rd graders there. My class was so nervous! They were supposed to do this and use the little Spanish that they knew to talk with these students from across the world. I don’t think that this is a bad thing though – I think that this is a big learning opportunity. I wish that we would have had a few questions prepared ahead of time to ask the students and some responses. Maybe we could have emailed them some information ahead of time so that they would have been less nervous about the interaction. Maybe the use of a VoiceThread could have broken the ice for them and given a nice introduction before we had to be “on” in the moment over video chat.
In response to prompt 3, I do think that students who struggle with reading and writing would be less inclined to participate in a wiki and may feel anxiety from sharing their writing with others. If students do not have the confidence in their writing, it can be stressful to have to share it with others. Even though this may occur, I think it’s a challenge that may be good for students to embrace. As they publish their work for others to see, they are able to learn from their work by looking at what they like about it, and what they want to work on for next time. I also think it will build their confidence as others respond to their work.
Another lesson that can be taught from this challenge is how to positively critique work. When students are sharing their writing with their peers, it’s important to teach students how to critique work in a positive way that helps the writing move forward, not bring them down. Students will need to do this not only in school, but in everyday life with family, friends, and at work, so it’s an important lesson to teach early on so students can have a lot of practice discussing others’ work in a positive way.
In response to prompt 4, I do think that digital storytelling would help bring students together who may struggle with communicating with their peers. It gives ELLs a chance to fully express themselves through a different outlet other than only the English language. Visual learners and students who do not enjoy traditional reading or writing may also benefit from digital storytelling. Since digital literacy is becoming such a positive and growing academic choice in schools, there are many grants becoming available to help get technology into the schools. I know one of the local high schools in the area recently received a grant to have iPads put in all of the classrooms and to create a new computer lab. As more people come to see the importance of programs such as this, more options will become available to get the programs to the students that need them.
In reponse to prompt #2, I really enjoyed watching the video on VoiceThread and using VoiceThread. I watched the video, “Record, Reflect and Share” after I had already done my VoiceThread project. I really like that she went into exactly how to make VoiceThread work in her class – the details of making accounts and sharing the recordings with the teacher and others, as well as how to manage the student projects with checklists and mini lessons on how to ask for silence before recording and saying, “thank you” when you are finished. Thinking as a Language Arts teacher, I could see using voicethread for many projects. Specifically, I could see having the students create poems and find pictures to go along with the poem. They could read their poem on VoiceThread and match it up with the photos. This would enhance their learning by having them think deeply about what they have written – what picture could represent that thought? Once the poem is read out loud, does it have the same flow as when you wrote it down on paper? Is your punctuation the way that you want it to be in order for the reader (or listener) to experience the poem the way that you want it? Having the students use this tool will also make them more conscience of their work because of the potential that other people will be seeing and listening to it as well. They would be more likely to give it more effort if they know that it will be viewed by others and not just the teacher.
In response to prompt #3, I think that putting the students work on a wiki would be a great idea. This makes me think of the time that I was student teaching in a 3rd grade and the students were given an project where they were to choose one nationality that they identify with and create a presentation about it. The students were to present this Power Point presentation in front of the class and a roomful of parents. talk about pressure! What I found amazing was the fact that, because everyone put themselves out there, everyone felt vulnerable and were then willing to help eachother out. The collaboration that came from this project was very unexpected and so wonderful to see. Students that were not struggling would look around and see classmates that needed some help. They knew how personal this project was, and were very sensitive when giving tips and suggestions to the other students. It was such a success. So yes, I think that using a wiki to display student work is a good idea. It is a space where students can display their work. It would be a place that others could critique and the students could learn. they would receive feedback from someone other than just the teacher and that would give even more value to the opinion. Also, having their work displayed would give them more of a reason to work hard and put an effort into their final product. Finally, because they are all vulnerable to being exposed to other students, they are more understanding of the struggle and more willing to help each other and be respectful of the work that is done by their classmates.
In response to Prompt 3, I think it would be useful to allow students to read past students anthologies, both in digital and print form, and be able to choose between the two which they would like to use. There will always be students who struggle with reading and writing and I think allowing students to see both forms, and then being able to choose, would help to ease up the anxiety a struggling reader and writer might have about others reading their work. As Hick’s wrote, it is a shame that a lot of the Anthologies do not get seen again after the school and I think the digital method is a way of being able to preserve these documents and be able to share them with students in years to come. Also, using the digital method, all students in a class could look at the same anthology at the same time.
Struggling readers and writers could turn to these previous works for help, and by perhaps choosing a form that does get viewed by everyone, they may be able to produce better quality work.
Prompt 2:
VoiceThread is a very interesting site. This video was very interesting. It is much different than a blog which you will either use pictures or videos. This site allows you to show the pictures and then use voice explanations behind them. Sometimes it is easier for a student to orally explain something rather than writing it down, VoiceThread could allow students to explain an idea using pictures and voice. VoiceThread allows us to upload photos from other accounts such as FaceBook and Flickr as well as the computer so it gives multiple ways for the students to post pictures. Students could do a portfolio about their summer vacations to be shared and give everyone a little introduction. VoiceThread can be used for multiple sharing opportunities; From creating a more personal profile to an educational video and sharing how VoiceThread was used such as in the video we watched.