Interactive Learning: Mi vida loca (My crazy life)

      This week I wanted to discuss an excellent source for language learning that can be used in the classroom or at home. BBC has a video series called Mi vida loca or in English, My crazy life, which follows a girl named Mercedes and her adventures in Madrid. One of the things I love about it is that what you see is from your perspective.  In other words, when characters ask questions they are asking you directly (to the camera) and you are supposed to answer aloud in order to continue.  You have a guidebook which explains new words or phrases and presents fun games to practice the material. As you progress through the videos, not only do you respond to questions, you also have to click on certain options that show comprehension of what was said. For example, they will give directions and you have to click left or right to show that you understand. There is also a great storyline to keep you interested in what happens to Mercedes which I don't want to give away.
My favorite part about this series is that students get to see what Madrid is really like since they touch on many cultural aspects of the city.

Adolescent Interview

Background Information: Nicole, Female, 16 years old, junior in a Florida high school. (my cousin)
Some answers are summarized since it was a telephone conversation. Any direct quotes will be in quotations.

1. How do you use technology in your daily routine? How about social media?

"I use my phone for an alarm and to check the weather."  Nicole states that she mainly uses texting to keep in touch with friends and her soccer team. Also, to keep track of homework.

2. I notice you didn't mention social media. Do you use it?

 "I use Instagram, but not often, and I don't use Facebook. I don't use social media as much because I don't like the drama . Social media is a big part of our reputation in schools and can be as much a bad thing as it is a good thing."  I found this to be a very mature response for a teenager and also surprising to see a refusal of social media.

3. How do you use technology in the classroom?

"My English class uses it for assignments every now and then that are important parts of our grade".  
She says that media devices are allowed by some teachers and not by others. So it seems as if there is no uniform policy on the matter.

4. If you had to do research, do you prefer internet or print books?

"I would choose the Internet, because you can find more specific information for the things you want, rather than having to dig through words in a book . Plus the Internet gives you multiple sources all at once that you can choose from rather than having a lot of books you have to look through yourself".

I found this quote to be very interesting because it refers to what we have read in the course.  Nicole sees how the internet provides quick and concise information.  

5. Do you check to see if the information is valid?

"Teachers tell us not to use Wikipedia , and when we do , we look at the ".com" ".edu" and stuff like that"

6. When you do online research or read articles online, do you consider that "reading" just like you would a print book? Or do you think print books have more validity? (* I wasn't sure if she would understand the question at first) 

"I find the Internet to be more current, it's a modern way of reading. It's like a more refined way of reading, given that the information is filtered to what you specifically want. Books are valuable, but I think you can find just as much information if not more on the Internet."

My thoughts:

    This interview was fascinating due to the unexpected responses.  Although I wasn't surprised to see how little technology was used in classrooms or the lack of policy towards it, I was surprised by the way in which Nicole wants to use technology in the classroom.  She explains that she prefers to use a device as an organizational and research tool for the convenience. However, she wants final products to be more traditional like in "paper and pencil".  I think that before including technology in the classroom we should survey students because maybe they aren't as open to it.  I even recall asking my students once if they wanted to use iPads for an assignment and they didn't!

Reforming Teacher Education Programs

        As a new teacher, I can easily recall my bachelor’s degree in which technology played a small role.  The extent of technology was the use of computers to make PowerPoint presentations or e-mailing documents.  We were never instructed on how to use new media such as iPads /tablets within our lesson planning. In regards to digital literacy, we were asked to complete certain tasks that would demonstrate our ability to create word documents and tables, make a blog and use search engines.  Besides the fact that these were very basic digital literacy skills to have, as well as skills you would expect from a college student, they were set apart from our education classes.  I believe that teacher education programs should be revised to integrate technology so that it is a priority and not an afterthought.  Imagine the abilities a new teacher would have to not only use it in their methodology but also, to have students represent what they have learned through technology.  In addition, new teachers could be leaders in their school community, hosting professional development sessions for their peers.

        The purpose of my paper will be:
Education reform for teacher training programs will have a positive impact on the use of technology in the classroom, specifically co-planning with technology in mind and not as an after thought.  When utilized incorrectly it may either have no impact or a negative impact since technology can at times be a distraction.  I believe that there are many improvements to be made in teacher education to change the impact of technology in the classroom.
 

Here is a list of sources that I will use:

Annotated Bibliography

Alker, Z. (2015). The Digital Classroom: New Social Media and Teaching Victorian Crime. Law,   Crime and History , 1, 77-92.

            Alker describes a unit, which includes student blogging and highlights the challenges faced in        teaching students to be digitally literate.  In addition, she states the benefit to the community as a whole. I believe this article will be helpful because it provides a very specific example of how new media can be used in the classroom.

Liu, S.-H., Tsai, H.-C., & Huang, Y.-T. (2015). Collaborative Professional Development of Mentor Teachers and Pre-Service Teachers in Relation to Technology Integration. Educational Technology & Society , 18 (3), 161-172.

            This article discusses how teachers are using technology for non-instructional tasks even though there are many benefits of integrating technology into the classroom.  They state that pre-service teachers lack opportunities to apply knowledge of new media similar to what I propose in my essay. This article will be useful for finding strategies to reform teacher education programs since it discusses how to design new courses.

Muilenburg, L. Y., & Berge, Z. L. (2015). Revisiting Teacher Preparation: Responding to Technology Transience in the Educational Setting. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education , 16 (2), 93-105.

            The article recognizes the increasing importance of technology skills in education and how rapidly technology advances.  Like the previous articles, it mentions the lack of hands on training with the integration of technology in ways that are truly transformational.  They also discuss the “Technology Integration Matrix” which as five levels of technology integration.  This is very helpful in deciding how much of an impact technology is having in the classroom.

Rawlins, P., & Kehrwald, B. (2014). Integrating educational technologies into teacher education: a case study. Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 51(2), 207-217.

            This case study examines the integration of technology in an actual teacher education program and the results obtained.  The program looked to facilitate an environment of collaboration among the students.  I think this article will be helpful because it contains feedback from actual teacher and students in the form of quotations.

Vu, P., & Fadde, P. (2014). A Snapshot of Technology Integration Training in Teacher Education Programs. International Journal of Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach , 14, 139-150.

            This articles looks at many teacher education programs in order to see if there is a standard for the inclusion of technology.  It includes interesting statistics that other articles do not.  Furthermore, it questions how technology should be incorporated, whether as a standalone course or embedded in each course.  This is directly related to my topic of interest since I want to know how programs should be improved or changed.

Journal Post #3: New Literacies in the classroom

      New literacies in the classroom are being redefined and reimagined to new dimensions.  Students that are given the liberty to use new media in the way they imagine it, can give meaning to a new form of literacy.  As Erstad (2013) says, “The combination of media elements is not just a sum of different elements, but creates something new; a new quality as text”(p. 44).  This quote resonated with me after reading the journalism case study in Chapter 1 and I believe this brings purpose to the use of new media in the classroom.  Students have the ability to become these creators or “authors” of new literacy.

         In this week’s readings, I saw the focus on students learning with the teacher. As educators, it goes a long way to first acknowledge what information students bring to the table. If we can appreciate their contribution to the classroom, we may gain their trust and form a stronger teacher/student relationship. We can't just tell students what they need to know, we ask them what they know first and go from there.  As a student explained in “Multimodal Pedagogies”, the teacher did not waste time re-teaching skills they already knew, but rather pushed them to explore new ones (Vasudevan, Dejaynes, & Schmier, 2013, p. 26). This promoted the student’s independence and led to the creation of great projects.  When one student combined a podcast with a video, she created a new text with even more meaning then those two elements would’ve had on their own.

          New media online such as blogs allow learning to bridge the gap from school to the home. Students can continue to work on their blogs from home for personal satisfaction and not just for academic purposes. The key to being fluent in digital literacy is to explore the possibilities afforded to you by new media and not be confined to a certain structure.  If teachers can encourage students to see beyond the school setting and incorporate learning through media outside of school, then students may develop a deeper understanding of how new media may be used in their lives.

References

Erstad, O. (2013). Trajectories of Remixing. In C. Lankshear, & M. Knobel (Eds.), A New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 38-56). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Vasudevan, L., Dejaynes, T., & Schmier, S. (2013). Multimodal Pedagogies. In C. Lankshear, & M. Knobel (Eds.), A New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 23-37). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

What counts as literacy in today's world?

           When Wilber (2010) defines new literacy in the article “Special themed issue: Beyond ‘new’ literacies”, she states that “texts are changeable, and authorship is open, giving the user more power to write, remix, and publish” (p. 2). Digital literacy has expanded upon traditional literacy by allowing the reader to go from passive to active. Internet users no longer just do research like I did in high school, they now add their own knowledge, edit and comment on articles or blogs and most importantly have access to a plethora of opinions and perspectives on any topic.  In Rich (2008), students expressed similar view points about the quick access to information, with one student stating that he could view “up to 100 websites” in one night; this is practically impossible to do with traditional texts in such a short amount of time.  On a cognitive level, being able to skim so many different sources in order to compare and contrast them is a useful skill to have and can be applied in other contexts.

            One of the reasons literacy is constantly changing it because it has to adapt to new media. When the World Wide Web became widespread, texts went online and have been redefined by the use of images, music and video, which also contribute meaning to the text. Meaning can be transmitted across various mediums without losing its significance. Furthermore, there are other devices such as smart phones and tablets that have shaped the way we write and read as well.  To be fluent in the way we use these devices takes practice since users have developed their own language, which may contain shortcuts and we even see images replace words.  

            Digital literacy in education would benefit students by preparing them for a digital world in which technology is everywhere, especially the workplace.  It is difficult to find a place of employment that does not rely on computers or technology for some aspect of their business. From college studies to job searching to employment itself, new media will be a part of our student’s lives.

                                                             Bibliography

Rich, M. (2008, July 27). The Future of Reading- Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? New York Times, p. 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Wilber, D. (2010, May 31). Special themed issue: Beyond 'new' literacies - Digital Culture & Education. Retrieved September 15, 2015.