Thursday Night Online (5/29/08)

Well, we didn't crack under pressure tonight. I thought going in that the two assignments might be too much to accomplish, particularly when everyone had so many other things going on in their lives this week. For Terri to teach and still do this, and Kelly to run the household, be a mom and wife, and do all this, is amazing. Eric and I, well, we talk technology back and forth most days.

We split the group in two to divide and conquer, and Terri and Eric led the way in creating a wonderful LetterPop advertisement listing some digital media options for teachers, found at http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=89616-dc2d89. The title is "Digital Dreamworks." Kelly and I focused on the creation of our group wiki where we began the assembly of a source list for our "Teacher's Resource ToolKit." Our group wiki can be found at http://pedagogy21.pbwiki.com/Group+4. We all collaborated well, as usual, and overcame obstacles along the way.

It was also nice to be able to experiment a little more with Elluminate on our own, as well as the group wiki and LetterPop tools. Our technology toolkit is expanding rapidly, isn't it?

A Little Humor

This Week's Blog Focus (Week of 5/26-30)

1. Computer literacy speaks to me about fundamental knowledge of computer operations, terminology, and methodology. How to use a computer effectively is quite simply this type of literacy. It is more the “how” than the “what.” Information literacy is the ability to access data, concepts, and images from a variety of written, media and digital sources and assemble that information into packaged, organized mental folders. It requires selection from sources, ability to discern value and worth of source materials, and ability to marshal sources towards a goal or learning outcome. Integration literacy is the seamless blending of technology into the classroom, with appropriate activities and problem-solving tasks provided your students, so that networked, integrated learning can take place. This type of literacy requires teachers to orchestrate technological activities and learning tools to match course curriculum and state standards based outcomes, and the blending should be natural and seamless.

2. The “net generation” of students has grown up in the milieus of television, computers, gaming, instant messaging, digital images, iPods, cell phones, etc. The Oblinger article talks of 13-17 year olds, my target group, averaging 3.1 hours per day watching TV, and 3.5 hours with digital media. The reading statistic is not provided for this group, but it is undoubtedly much lower timewise. These students have developed certain traits such as familiarity with digital imagery, rapidly changing attention from one task to another, affinity for social networking, risk-taking and discovery on their own, need for speed and entertainment, etc. The corresponding negatives for us as teachers are a diminished text literacy, the medium in which we still predominantly teach, a reduction in logical, patterned thinking, and lack of singular focus, due to their “bricolage,” a great term for their abilities to piece information together from multiple sources. We learned in more classic ways, text, writing, repetition, lecture, notetaking, but these methods are somewhat out of sync with the net generation way of approaching concepts and problem-solving. Our challenge is to adapt, with the use of technologies and learning strategies based on these technological platforms, so that we can achieve “legacy” learning of which Prensky speaks, in an attractive, useable format tapping the digitial strengths of this generation’s learners.

3. The six national technology standards for students, contained in the ITSE NETS.S, are:

1. Creativity & Innovation
2. Communication & Collaboration
3. Research & Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, & Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations & Concepts

In my experience, I see 3, 5, & to a lesser extent 6, well implemented. The first step for integrating standards 1, 2, and 4, which are the truly desirable learning activities and tasks, is awareness, which this course is providing us. My knowledge of computers and programs has already increased twofold in a little over a week. Armed with technological knowledge and familiarity with the learning tools, I think I can integrate these standards into my social studies curriculum so that they become embedded within the class structure. Additionally, we need to overcome the fear that we “digital immigrants” harbor towards computers. Teach towards our student’s native strengths, don’t always make them conform to your linear, textual thought patterns.

4. From what I have read, the biggest difference between the school/classroom 1.0 and 2.0 experiences is the degree of connectivity and interaction enabled and required in the latter. 1.0 seems relatively passive to me, surfing search engines for isolated sites where interaction is relatively one-sided and the sites themselves somewhat inflexible and authoritarian. Web 2.0 is an extension of internet technologies and software prowess to allow more democratic, personal, sociable, and interactive platforms to exchange ideas and meaningfully communicate with and among others. Sharing becomes a watchword, and collaboration is enabled in the programs and platforms, encouraging participation rather than observation. I see the incredible worth of this extension to 2.0, and hope for its widespread implementation in our classrooms. It mirrors the digital fluency of our students and allows them to express their individuality and creativity in ways comfortable to them.

5. I thought the del.icio.us site was an extremely useful tool. Once again, instead of having personal “favorites” on your own computer which are not easily shared with other computers, let alone people, the del.icio.us website is a simple yet practical idea, allowing you to build your own favorites, share your favorites with others, and collaborate. I think it will greatly facilitate the construction of the “Teacher Resource Toolkit” in Thursday’s group wiki project, as sharing links is so easy with this program. It also would allow you to build databases of articles and websites for your students to explore and even add to, as it has a collaborative aspect. I also got to see Dr. Smirnova’s favorites which was interesting. This site was easy to set up, easy to use, and adding the toolbar option was a snap. My site address is http://del.icio.us/wmcgillicuddy .

Reflections on TDC Chapter 1 & Digital Natives

I perused the resources on the separate tabs of TDC Chapter 1. In teaching today, I have already recognized the importance of music as a learning tool. In Integration Corner, I have seen some of the links already, particularly the Library of Congress and Webquest sites. In Software corner, I thought the WebBlender tool was particularly useful and creative. In the Digital Media corner, I liked the United Streaming piece.

I also surprised myself with my computer terminology savvy in the "Who Wants to Be a Computer Genius" game onsite.

I thought the depictions of the net generation as phrased in the Oblinger article and "digital natives, digital immigrants," as phrased in the Prensky article, were fascinating. The noteworthy points in the Oblinger article to me were, the preference of digital age students for images over print, their hypertext minds leaping from concept to concept, preference for experiential learning, speed and instant gratification, and the social components of their acquisition and mastery of material. I also thought it was interesting that while they are fluent in accessing these digital mediums, they still crave face to face interaction with their teachers.

The Prensky article allowed me to see myself as a digital immigrant, holding onto old World learning customs and practices. The awareness of the digital native characteristics is valuable, for teachers, so that we can accomodate their need for speed, randomness, games, entertainment, visual stimuli, and less rigid approaches.

Monday's Online Session (5/26/08)

Well, everyone's holiday weekend came to a close with class tonight.

The inital phase of the class allowed our Neverending Quest-ions group to hobnob and exchange ideas about the work so far and standards based education versus creative knowledge building. We then departed for Elluminate where we spent roughly half the time commenting on the differences between information and knowledge in the technology laden, net generation age, and the second half designing an acronym incorporating the central tenets of the ISTE National Educations Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). On the former, the articles suggested that today's students are bombarded with and have a certain sophistication in gathering data from multiple data points and sources, information, yet knowledge involves the shift to long term memory from short term and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis. Packaging data. Our group acronym was F-U-S-I-O-N, since we thought the NETS-S really spoke of fusion of sources and skills with the aid of technology. To paraphrase, F meant fluency with information sources and mediums; U meant understanding concepts, not just facts; S meant strategies of instruction allowing synthesis of various data and concepts; I meant integration of technology into conventional curriculum; O meant opportunities for students to create, share, and publish with technological means; and N meant networking, the important social component of student learning in the net generation.

Our group posted an artful, colorful banner for our acronym.

Thursday's Online Session (5/22/08)

Our group, Neverending Quest-ions, performed admirably I think in the second session.

We were a little confused when we should enter the Elluminate chat, but we spent the time productively exchanging experiences establishing our own web pages, blogs, and wikis. I was impressed by Terri's incorporation of music into her personal web page, which is a wonderful touch I think. We were all in the initial throes of experimenting with Tapped In, some of us had established offices, some not yet, and we needed clearance to join Dr. Smirnova's technology group which she had to grant prior to access. All of us are experimenting with our pages, successfully I think, and they are surely works in progress. We also exchanged our views on our LoTi experiences and observations. I think Eric, Kelly, and I thought we had seen 0-1 implementation, whereas Terri had a slightly higher approximation, maybe a 2. Still not the 4b or above that the Powerpoint looks for, by any stretch. Dr. Smirnova had us assemble in Elluminate and we had a good philosphical discussion about technology integration into classrooms and the phobias many teachers experience about such integration as a normal part of their instructional techniques. The obvious message is greater comfort with technology on the part of teachers translates into more native, natural learning of our students. A goal to strive for to be sure.

Monday's Online Session (5/19/08)

Oh, and I almost forgot to say, my group, Neverending Quest-ions, consisting of Terri Brockmann, Eric Ambrose, and the Kelly A. Connolly, was terrific in our first online session. We were slow to get to Elluminate because we were having so much fun brainstorming a group title, motto, and visual clip, but we all know each other, we are friends, and it is easy to have such wonderful partners to work with in this new and exciting venture. Terri is soooo organized and efficient, Eric is funny and witty beyond belief, and Kell contributes Irish wit and practical wisdom. Terri and Eric are English, Kelly and I Social Studies, so there is a definite humanities tilt to our group.
Each of us made significant contributions to the group effort, and while we didn't reach some of the agenda, we are all like fast closing racehorses, we'll be there at the finish line!

Personal Education Preferences

I did the educational philosophies self-assessment which Dr. Smirnova had directed us to and asked us to complete. I thought heading in that I might be a "Perennalist" and "Essentialist," but to my surprise and delight I ended up with the highest score in "Humanism" and the second highest in "Information Processing." There may be hope for me yet in this journey of mine from left-brained learner and teacher to right-brained multi-tasker! Tell me where you scored highest, I'd be interested in hearing.

Well, what do you folks have to say?