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.

Reflection on Critical Friends Unit Review - 10.23.13 for EDU 718 and 720

The unit review was a beneficial activity for further refinement of my unit.  The following ideas were shared with me by my group and I will consider them when fleshing out and revising the rest of my unit.

• I will develop a "plan B" in the event that I get no response to my call for participants 
• I will offer some type of incentive to participate in my voluntary professional development classes to be help after school, perhaps food or a teacher store gift card
• After listening to how Roisin will flip her class I have begun to think more about building in structure for flipping the lessons in my unit.
• I would like to check out a web site mentioned by Nancy, "thing link"  to explore different ways of graphically organizing and labeling
• Beth's lesson was very thorough and reminded me of the need to identify standards in my unit plans, perhaps I will look into the CT Teacher Technology Competencies Performance Indicators (2001-Revised 2012)CT Teacher Technology Competencies Performance Indicators ( 2001- Revised 2012) and/or the Ct Technology Standards which are more about the indicators for student proficiency

EDU 720 - Unit Outline

Google Tools for Collaborative Inquiry and Professional Development

A Unit of Study

Joan Robinson - October 2013

The goal of this unit is to teach teachers how to set up an infrastructure to share instructional resources, processes, content, technological tools and collaborative online spaces.

The unit is primarily skill based and is intended to be taught over an 8 week period with teachers meeting once a week for 45 minute. There will be a brief mini lesson and then teachers will have a week to practice or “play” with the new skill learned over the week.

Assessment will take place on the last class when participants share “lessons learned”.

Lesson Topics/Goals

1. Setting up individual google accounts
2. Creating a Google Circle, posting and sharing in a Google Circle
3. Sharing through Google Hangouts
4. Google files -  documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, drawings
5. Providing feedback on shared Google docs, written and verbal -using Kaizena
6. Google Groups
7. Ground rules/ethics of internet collaboration
8. Sharing lessons learned -demonstration of lessons learned - plans for how to utilize skills gained

Kaizena Tutorial

On Allowing Introverts the Autonomy They Need in Our Classrooms - Open Mic # 2 EDU 718

This week for EDU 718 we explored a series of very interesting readings, videos and songs.  They were:

Required:

• TED Talk:  Susan Cain - The Power of Introverts
• Video:  Is There an Introvert Craze because of Technology?
• Reading from Turkle:  Alone Together, pp. 275-278 (“Walden 2.0”)

• Reading from Edutopia:  “Embracing Introversion:  Ways to Stimulate Reserved Students in the Classroom”

Additional (optional):

• Review the Sherry Turkle TED Talk:  Connected, but alone?
• Music video:  “Alone Together” composed by Artie Shaw c. 1939

• Music video:  “Alone Together” by Daley, ft. Marsha Ambrosius c. 2012

• Forum for sharing teaching ideas for introverts.
• Susan Cain’s Manifesto, 16 beliefs regarding introverts
• Huffington Post:  “6 Things You Thought Wrong About Introverts” 
• Blog post on introverts and extroverts

Here is my reflection on the information.

I found all of the readings and videos to be very informative.  They inspired me to reflect on the ways which our classrooms often honor and reinforce extrovertedness.  I appreciated the distinction made in several articles between the terms shy and introvert.  I find it especially helpful to think of introversion as having to do with how one re energises her/himself.  In my family there are two of us who are typically considered introverts and two who are typically considered extroverts.  When I consider introversion in terms of “alone time needed to re energize” I categorize us all as introverts.  Thinking of my family members and how we all learn best helps me analyze how our classrooms can be more conducive to affording introverts opportunities to flourish.

There are several teaching techniques for Introverts listed in The Forum- By Susan Cain The Power of Introverts which was one of the optional readings for this assignment.  There was a common theme throughout most of the suggestions and that had to do with offering students a choice in both how they work and how they present their learning.  In designing classroom instruction the teacher will honor all styles if she/he allows for different ways to process and presenting information.  There were also several references made to how technology can afford differentiated opportunities and modes of presentation for students.

In the blog post Techniques In Learning & Teaching Where Transformative Learning & Scholarly Teaching Meet  Ilene Dawn discusses undergraduate and graduate level courses and how to nurture both introvert and extrovert styles.  Of particular interest to me was her proposition to encourage people of each style to grow.  She stated  “The Courage to Optimize the thinking and acting modes embedded in both introverted and extroverted processing, and to Optimize ways of building and using skills across the collected capacities infused across extroverted and introverted preferences, these fuse to create these new capacities:

Courage to speak – softly.

Courage to listen – mindfully.

Courage to ask questions – reflectively.

Courage to synthesize – collaboratively.  “

I am grateful to this group for choosing this topic.  I have learned about several ways to honor different ways of “being” and learning.  In summary there are two quotes from Manifesto, by Susan Cain - 16 beliefs regarding introverts which I will quote:

“9. Everyone shines, given the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamplit desk.

16. ‘In a gentle way, you can shake the world.’ – Gandhi “

So begins the "diving in journey" with Google Sites

Today marks the fifth time I have sat down to "play with" Google sites.  I have finally chosen the template I want to use.  I have several paper versions of what I want my site to include and am now experimenting and reading many of  the "how to" links.

It is interesting to reflect on the interplay between the content and presentation format I choose in the development of my Digital Learning Hub. For me, the process involves trying different layout options and then letting it sit for awhile.  When an idea gets me out of bed at 4:00 in the am I know it is time to try that new idea out!

I also am reflecting on a feeling that I have as I work on my Digital Learning Hub.   The feeling has to do with pride.  Perhaps it is a pride that I have something worth sharing with a larger audience?  There also is a feeling of vulnerability that I experience.  Am I ready to put my ideas out there for all to see and possibly criticize?

As I continue to develop "Teachers Curating", (which is the site name...for today), I will reflect on my learning process along the way.

Looking Ahead

Today I read a white paper entitled, Toward a New Learning Ecology: Teaching and Learning in 1:1 Environments for my UNH class ED720, Central Issues and Research in New Literacies class.  

 It makes me want to 
take a field trip to Finland and Sweden to learn about their teacher education programs.