Saturday, October 26, 2013

EDU 720 Discussion # 6 -




The readings this week were very interesting to me as they reflect topics which I have little exposure to or about which I have not spent much contemplation time.  The research discussed by Margaret C. Hagood, College of Charleston, USA, Chapter 19 , Intersections of Popular Culture, Identities, and New Literacies Research, provided a good historical overview of the types of popular culture, cultural identities and New Literacies.  I was especially interested in learning about how adolescent and cultural identity issues of gender, race, culture and power can be influenced  by online activity.  As the mother of a 13 and 16 year old I am keenly observing my own daughters' "relationships" with technology.  I found it interesting as well to learn about the different ways Margaret Hargood framed types of culture.  She wrote about popular culture as mass culture, folk culture, and everyday culture.  The key question posed in her article is this, "How do readers read and use popular culture to form and inform identities?"  This question is most important to me as I reflect on the interpersonal activities which helped me to form my identity and compare it to the technology assisted interpersonal activities that my daughters are experiencing now.  

Chapter 21 informed me about the new literacy spaces of Anime, Magna, and Fanfiction.  As  mentioned before I have limited exposure to these literacies.  Within the past few months my 13 year old daughter has become an avid fan-fiction participant. I appreciated the historical and cultural information about Japanese Anime and Manga.  I have dramatically changed my understanding of  Anime and Manga since I was under the impression that they were "just cartoons".  One of the overarching questions posed in this chapter concerns how we might, or even should we bring, the understandings learned from online participation to bear on literacy pedagogy in classrooms.  This week's discussion questions  are directed at this key point.

I enjoyed watching the U Media video Connected Learning TV - Brother Mike Hawkins.  It was great to see people form all over the country collaborating and sharing ideas and experiences.  It is fascinating to explore the many ways that innovative people have set up schools of today.   The Adolescent Literacy Development in Out-of- School Time, A Practitioner's Guidebook will be a wonderful resource as I delve further into this topic.  The Connecting Digital Literacy Between Home and School is another resource which I perused and appreciated.

In response to our discussion directors questions I can not respond to classroom specific questions since I do not have my own class as an instructional coach.  I did however, spent significant time looking into the main site that my daughter uses.One of her favorite sites is called "Wattpad" and Wikipedia  explains it in this way. " Wattpad is an online community for writers. Users are able to post articles, stories, and poems. The content includes work by undiscovered and published writers. Users are able to comment and like stories or join groups associated with the website. Around five in ten users are U.S. based; traffic also comes from the U.K., Canada, the Philippines, Australia, and more. [2]"

As far as I can see this is a productive online space for my daughter to explore various genre of reading and writing. I feel fortunate that our school system is working hard to connect out of school and in school activities.  As part of an 8th grade iPad initiative there is definitely a home school connection.  There is a clear set of rules and regulations for the iPad use and my daughter can not use Watpad on the school iPad. I envision becoming more involved  in the discussions around in/out of school internet connections both where I work and for the school district where I live.





2 comments:

  1. Joanie,
    Thanks for reaching out to me the other night. I really enjoyed out chat! Now I'm gonna look up wattpad! :)
    Gail

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