O-M-GEE

Today was just like any other.  I woke up, checked my texts and Snapchats, looked on Facebook, and sent out a tweet about the Superbowl.  Although I’m not interested in any of the teams playing this year (the Giants aren’t in it... boo), Superbowl Sunday is a time to get together with friends, eat some yummy snacks, and laugh at commercials.  Needing to bring something to this gathering, I hopped on Pinterest to see what wonderful creations others have made and crossed my fingers in hopes that mine turns out looking half as good as what is presented on that site.  I found a Reese's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Dip and figured that would be perfect.  Then, I went to lunch with Megan to figure out what to write this blog on.  We discussed our mornings and realized how much social media and technology we use in our everyday lives.

According to Sweeny, technology is about staying connected. She states that people “use technology in two distinct ways: to socialize and to seek out information” (Sweeny, 2010, p.124). Thinking about my morning, these were the two goals I achieved by using these various technologies- seeking out the perfect Superbowl snack and communicating with others through various applications. Today, students are considered “digital natives”.  If the use of technology is a norm for us as teachers, as well as our students, shouldn’t we find a way to incorporate these multimodal texts into the educational setting?

“The current information and communication technologies (ICT's) are fundamentally changing the ways in which youth today read, write, and communicate” (Sweeny, 2010, p.121).  The problem is that teachers are afraid that using forms of technology for literacy instruction will have students not take the work as seriously.  We believe that many teachers do not view social media as being a quality literacy resource. 

There is a disconnect between how people view literacy and the most effective ways to teach these particular skills in the classroom setting. Before reading these articles, if asked about literacy, we’re not quite sure we would have considered technology or social media a valuable tool for instruction.  Now, we believe that teachers should embrace these tools and use the technological advancements that are available in order to differentiate instruction and bridge the gap between the changing world and school. What do you think?  Is social media something that can be used effectively at both school and home?  How?

 Social media provides a means for self-expression.  Think about Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat.  These are all social media applications that allow us to make decisions that reflect who we are and how we communicate with others.  As Gee would say, it’s how we express our multiple identities.  According to Gee, “there are four ways to view identity, that is, what it means to be a certain kind of person” (Gee, 2000, p. 100).  These four identities include the Nature-identity, the Institution-identity, the Discourse-identity, and the Affinity-identity.  How can your students express their identities in an effective and productive manner in your classroom?  Can social media be used as a tool to help students recognize these identities?

 These articles helped us think of new ways to approach literacy instruction and presentation in our own classrooms.  Rather than limiting students to a paper and pencil or a typed format approach, teachers can offer options and flexibility for assignments.  With an end goal in mind, students can express and identify themselves through the use of multimodal texts such as pictures, video, and audio.  Do you think, with our world becoming so technologically advanced, we will see more social media and other outlets appear in the classroom?  We look forward to hearing your ideas and thoughts!                                              

TTYL- Alex and Megan

Change is the Only Constant

We are in a hyper connected world.  This is changing the way we read, write, interact, gather information, shareideas, and connect with one another. Anstey andBull (2006) remind us that change is the only constant.

They state that “previously technology was either for communication or providing information. Now one piece of technology can fulfill both purposes” (p.14). Absolutely. Blogs, wikis, pinterest, Facebook, Twitter…these technologies provide information and provide possibilities for communication simultaneously. The literacies we use when we engage with these technologies is defined by our purposes. First, I’m viewing my friend’s Facebook post and then I’m tapping into her pinterest pins to learn more about how she designs her classroom. Then, I’m following a blog to learn about issues in the field of literacy and next I’m clicking on a link that sends me to the NY Times article on statistics about college.

The digital landscape is not only changing the way we gain information and communicate with one another, rightly so, it’s also changing the way we teach. Or it should be.  Salman Khan advocates for changing the script–for flipping the classroom. To put content into video for students to view, review, and review again at their own pace. Leaving classroom time an opportunity to help students where they need it most. Having peers interact with one another to solve problems, analyze text, and ultimately humanize the classroom. Do you think video is reinventing education? How would this work for your students? What are the benefits? What are the costs?

Khan Academy Using Video To Reinvent Education

Some argue that what’s changing in schools may be superficial rather than fundamental. Leander (2007) considers how “technologies are essentially social, and thus serve to constitute particular values, ideologies, preferred practices, power relations, social relations, and modes of learning” (p. 26). Leander looks at the production and organization of school space and time and in his research on wireless classrooms and the use of laptops where the technologies of schooling were largely left unchanged. Kahn might argue that the physical spaces of our classrooms are becoming more obsolete as we engage with students increasingly over digital spaces and that the 45 minute teaching blocks do not allow for repeated practice, student ownership, or enough collaborative possibilities–his site changes that. But what about the teacher as a critical part of the physical space? of the technology that is school?

As teachers in physical school spaces, how do we incorporate new technologies and new literacies into our teaching without simply responding to the latest “new” educational trend. Lankshear and Knoebel (2007) argue for what they call “new ethos stuff”–that is–”active collaboration and participation, leveraging collective intelligence via practices like eliciting user annotations, distributing and wilfully sharing expertise, decentering authorship, mobilizing information for relatedness, hybridization, and the like” (p. 20). The new ethos is about access and power and participation and the possibility that anyone can learn new information and share ideas. Want to learn how to play guitar, there are a myriad of videos and teaching tools online to do so? Want to find a recipe for the perfect pancakes? Voila. Want to write about the overtesting of children in public schools? You’ll have a captive audience.

What’s happening with technology is about literacy, teaching, learning, and schooling but it’s also about far more than that. Anstey and Bull (2006) urge us to consider the power of globalization in our increasingly technology-driven world. Teachers in Kenya can learn from teachers in New York via Skype. Teachers can gather ideas together through google docs and exchange best practices across the globe. Children can engage in experiments in LA and discuss the results with children in Taiwan.

In the video below, we see Digital Humanitarianism at work and how the earthquake in Haiti changed everything about how responders can reach people who need critical help immediately and in an on going way.

Digital Humanitarianism TED Talk

This matters.