Literature Review: Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs

Mullen, R., & Wedwick, L.. (2008). Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs. The Clearing House, 82(2), 66-69.  Retrieved May 17, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1592650451).

I chose this article because I feel the topic is very relevant for this class. The article starts out with the following statement by Blain, an eighth grader, in a blog post:

"Students should be able to use modern technology in

the classrooms because that is the world we are growing

up in and it is a skill to know how to use the latest

technology."

Blain, eighth grade, blog post

Blain hits the nail on the had to use an old cliché. The authors go on to say "Being literate no longer only involves being able to read and write. The literate of the twenty-first century must be able to download, upload, rip, burn, chat, save, blog, Skype, IM, and share."

The authors focused on three technological tools: YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs. They discussed their use of these technologies in the classroom and gave specific examples.

The YouTube section of the article was thought provoking. On one hand, the wide availability of videos makes this technology very attractive to teachers and students. On the other hand, there are so many extremely inappropriate videos posted on YouTube that many schools ban the site on their networks. Thus, a valuable learning tool is lost. The authors make a valid point, instead of banning YouTube in the classroom, instead, focus on teaching students how to use it safely and productively. We all know the students will go home and access YouTube there. So why not teach them how to be responsible?

I visited Seattle last August to see my brother and his family. My niece is only six years old and I had just bought her a computer of her own. Part of the reason for my visit was to set it up (my brother is technology challenged lol!). She had already experienced surfing using her dad's computer and, during my visit, she was trying out her own computer by accessing YouTube and searching for videos on the Beatles! I was struck by how comfortable she was in using the computer. I can definitely see her wanting to make use of YouTube for homework assignments where appropriate.

Next they talked about Digital Storytelling and gave an example of how they introduced it to the students. There were challenges because students had to share equipment, but everyone felt the experience was positive and valuable.

Finally, students were introduced to blogs. Prior They set up a classroom blog on Blogger, and students were educated on blogging prior to posting. The blog was well received and students were active in using it. Again, a technology tool had a positive result.

I think this article clearly described ways to use these tools and pitfalls teachers need to think about, such as inappropriate material (YouTube), equipment considerations (Digital Storytelling), and protecting the students identities (blogging). It is definitely an article to refer back to.

Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know

When I spotted this K12 Online Conference, I thought it tied right into this week's class. The presenter is Rodd Lucier from Komoka, Ontario, Canada.

Mr. Lucier explains how we live in a culture where "cheating" is widespread. Mobile devices are banned from classrooms for this reason. Even online gaming has cheats because the games can be too hard to play without them. I actually can related to the last point. I play World of Warcraft and, while I definitely do not "hack" the game, I do frequently look up how to complete quests. In fact, just yesterday, I realized I am not even trying to complete the quest on my own first, I am going right to www.thottbot.com to look it up. And I do this even for quests I have already completed on another character.

He also made the point that educators often add graphics and music that does not belong to them to student materials, and that we have to start being an example for the students in this area.

Mr. Lucier then explained what Creative Commons is, why it is important, and how to license your works so they are usable by others. He also mentioned the fact that when President Obama took office, the official White House website started licensing with Creative Commons. In fact, Creative Commons had to create a new license type for government works.

He also mentioned ccMixter, a site where music is available for reuse, and talked about several other sites where you can find legally licensed materials. He also discussed the fact it might be possible for students to license their own works. The trick is to know the laws for your country.

You have to realize that when you license your work with Creative Commons, someone might use your material in a way you might not approve of, but if you grated the license you have no recourse. Mr. Lucier told the story of a photo posted by the photographer of a student that Virgin Mobil took, flipped, cropped, added text, and then used in a promotional manner. The owner of the photo had no recourse.

This was a very enjoyable conference. It built on the material we discussed in this week's class and went into a lot of detail about why it is so important  to use legally available materials in the classroom, and how to do so.

Digital Nation Video

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Of course the fact that they started at MIT in Cambridge was fun as it is a local school.

MIT students are some of the smartest people in the world. They are extremely wired. Some thoughts jumped out at me during this segment.

The students are so wired they will interrupt face to face social interactions to answer a phone call, respond to an e-mail or tweet, or check Facebook. That is actually very sad. Personal interactions are deteriorating for our digital natives. Does anybody just sit and talk anymore?

The students are distracted by technology. Even in class they check e-mail, twitter, etc. when they should be focusing on the lesson. And this is true whether the lesson is lecture or interactive . These students can't stop multi-tasking.

The MIT students claim they are completely capable of multi-tasking and multi-tasking successfully. The study in California, however, shows a very different result than student perceptions. Multi-taskers are bad at all aspects of the tasks they are multi-tasking to do, versus performing the tasks independently.

The segment on Korea was fascinating, It is a country that is  wired to the max, but they are attempting to install ethics and good technology habits in students. I don’t see that working in this country. The country's problem of technology and gaming interfering with school such that the country offers two week Internet Rescue Camps was scary. It is an interesting idea, again I don’t see that happening in this country. The student profiled said he expected to resume computer use when he left the class. so does the rescue really work?

The NY IS 339 school turned around due to use of technology. Each student receives a laptop and lessons are done online. School transformation was incredible. But, students now have instant gratification learning. They browse during class (distraction again). They work at defeating firewalls to get to sites the school is blocking on purpose.

One message came through loud and clear: reading and writing skills deteriorate as students get older.

I know I get distracted. At work I constantly check my personal email on my iPad and browse when things are slow. When not working I do several tasks at one time.

The World of Warcraft segment was near and dear to my personal life as I am a long term player. When you play and belong to a guild it is a social environment as well as a gaming environment. The guild can be like family. You are connecting with people from all over the world. But it can be addictive. I know someone who was so addicted to WoW that she became aggressive, confrontational, and abusive to friends and family. She trashed many friendships (mine included) and eventually realized her addiction and stopped playing Wow. But I hear she is on Facebook playing the games there constantly so did she really beat her addiction? I don't think so.

The Second Life segment was sad for me. In real life I know of someone whose wife left him to go live with her Second Life  “husband” … and his real life wife. She moved to another state to be with this man she met online even though he was not leaving his wife. She was so addicted she got into serious debt. Unlike WoW Second Life, at least at the time, allowed you to spend real life money for items in game.

Seeing a corporation like IBM using a game for virtual reality for meetings and basically requiring its employees to do so left me feeling uncomfortable. What if you are an addictive personality in games but are required to use it for work? Isn’t that like making an alcoholic have a meeting in a bar? It also reduces the face to face work day environment which provides a level of human contact now greatly reduced at IBM.

Remote  control warfare? It makes war even more impersonal. Army Video Game recruiting center – scary, but I suspect enrollment will go up quickly.

Digital Literacy

Title:                Digital Literacies: Embracing the Squishiness of Digital Literacy.

Authors:           Chase, Zac¹ zchase@scienceleadership.org
                        Laufenberg, Diana dlaufenberg@scienceleadership.org

Source:            Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy; Apr2011, Vol. 54 Issue 7, p535-537, 3p

Article Link:     http://pn8vx3lh2h.search.serialssolutions.com/directLink?&atitle=Embracing%20the%20Squishiness%20of%20Digital%20Literacy&author=Zac%20Chase%3B%20Diana%20Laufenberg&issn=10813004&title=Journal%20of%20Adolescent%20%26%20Adult%20Literacy&volume=54&issue=7&date=20110401&spage=535&id=doi:&sid=ProQ_ss&genre=article&lang=en

This is a short article that asks the questions: "What is Digital Literacy" and "How do I Teach Digital Literacy?" The authors start out by deciding that digital literacy is really a genre; that reading and writing are reading and writing, whether done by hand or on a computer.

The article reports on some of the projects SLA (a school in Pennsylvania) students use to promote digital literacy. One of the projects consists of students interviewing younger students, and posting the results on a blog. Videos are uploaded to SchoolTube, YouTube, etc., and students are encouraged to read and respond to the blog posts.

Another very interesting project is an activity called "Who is Telling the Truth?" This is a seven step activity where students identify a reported event. It must be something that is widely reported. The students work in groups of three to complete this activity. See the article to read all of the steps, but the end result is a collaborative exercise somewhat like the jigsaw exercise we did in class last week. This activity can be done without digital resources, but then the primary responsibility is on the teacher to provide the information. Making this a digital exercise moves the learning responsibility onto the students. This engages the students and makes the learning experience more worthwhile.

As I move into the educational world, teaching digital literacy is something I need to be very aware of. Activities to promote digital learning are very important and this article definitely demonstrates some ways to accomplish this.

K12onlineconference: Session: Daily Digital Portfolios

The presenter of this session is Kathy Cassidy, a grade one teacher in Canada. She uses blogs in her classroom as a digital portfolio. I was impressed that she has first graders posting text and images in a classroom blog. The students use  these blogs in parent/teacher conferences to show what they have learned and how they are learning. Her presentation includes four student presenters.

Kathy provides a Wiki along with her presentation. You can view this Wiki at http://primaryportfolios.wikispaces.com/. It includes the portfolio of the four student presenters and a link to Kathy's blog.

What I didn't like about the presentation was the quality, although I realize that it was a "home" video. The audio was choppy, and the kids were speaking over each other's pictures, making it hard to figure out who was presenting what. But overall it gets the message across that these kids really love incorporating digital learning into the classroom and that they are motivated and engaged. During the presentation they demonstrated using Sketchcast. Check it out at http://sketchcast.com/. Sketchcast looks like a tool similar to voicethread, where you can record a sketch with or without voice.

I also liked that the kids were conscious of being safe online and talked about dos and don'ts, such as not revealing your last name or location.

This was a fun and informative session, I highly recommend it.

All teachers must provide equal access to the digital world to all learners

What does "All teachers must provide equal access to the digital world to all learners." mean to me?
The digital world is here and it is here to stay. Our students are now digital natives, and are
very well versed at using available technology and digital devices. Our teachers need to use technology
to motivate their students.

 

Our educators need to incorporate appropriate technology. The classroom has to change. Students are
no longer willing to sit in a classroom and listen to lectures. That kind of learning is boring to
our students and doesn't motivate them. They are used to being on the internet through the use of
computers, smart phones, iPads, and other digital devices. As our text book mentions, students want
to know why they have to "power down" when they arrive at school. Using technology in the classroom
helps motivate our students, and helps them share in the responsibility for their own learning.

 

Technology must be used appropriately, however. Any internet sites you use in a classroom must have
content that is correct, relevant, and appropriate. Also, as the MLK site we looked at last week proves,
the educator must also make sure who is responsible for the site or information.

 

With the myriad of Web 2.0 tools available, bringing technology into the classroom will help educators
provide equal access to the digital world.

My most important digital technology

Before I purchased an e-book reader I would have said my phone. Now that I have an iPad, however, that is the digital device that I can't do without. I'd be completely lost without it.

I am an avid reader and always have a book with me. With the iPad I always have my entire library with me. It is wonderful to know I'll never be stuck without something to read. I love it so much I am slowly (or not so slowly depending on cash flow) moving my paper library to the iPad.

I do have nightmares about what I would do if my iPad was lost, stolen, or damaged. What would I do? I am getting rid of my paper books so going to the bookshelf to grab a physical copy isn't an option. Thanks to technology, however, I do have a backup plan. The same reader apps on my iPad are also available on my iPhone my computer, so I have complete access to my library that way as well.

Integrating technology into the classroom

Technology is definitely here to stay, and the students of our age are digital natives. Ignoring technology in the classroom just leads to frustrated students and teachers. The students are frustrated because they can't use the digital tools they are increasingly expert with, and the teachers are frustrated by their students lack of interested and involvement in the learning process.

Take my nephew as a case in point. He is entering high school this coming September. His current school system does not use technology in the classroom. In fact,  you can't even pay him to pick up and read a book (believe me I've tried). He is going to a private Catholic high school in the fall at his own request. He doesn't want to go to this school for a better education but because his friends are going there. He has no interest in learning, hates doing home work, and has so so grades. The only reason he was accepted to this high school is due to the economy - enrollment is down so the school is accepting students they would not have accepted even five years ago.

Put my nephew in front of a computer, however, and everything changes. We both play World of Warcraft and I can't keep up with all of the rules and stats for characters in the game. I just play for fun. When I see him, he starts spouting all the rules and stats at me, and starts bragging about his progress in the game. He is involved, he is interacting, he is learning.

If my nephew's school system used technology, he would absolutely be a much better student. So why aren't more schools integrating technology in the classroom? Money is an issue, but there are grants, budgeting, donations, and many other ways of obtaining technology for school.

So my philosophy about what it means to integrate technology into the classroom is that we should integrate it to the greatest extent possible. We should use technology and innovative lessons based on the digital age to engage our students and make learning fun. The digital age is here to stay, we need to evolve our classrooms to take advantage of it.

Introducing myself

Hello everyone!

My name is Judy and I am changing careers. I currently test tax software from September through March, and I also prepare taxes from January through mid-April. In the past I have built computers from scratch, been a Novell Certified Network Engineer, supported accounting and point of sale software, and done technical writing.

I am looking to change careers and I am returning to my roots. Both of my parents were educators and expected me to follow in their footsteps. After years of rebellion I am finally realizing that mom and dad did know best. Hence my dive into a Masters in Elementary Ed K-8 here are SNHU.

Other things about me: I am an avid reader, spend time on an island in Maine during the summer (not as glamorous as it sounds lol), and I breed Maine Coon Cats.