My Personal Learning Networks / ED 7714: Week 5

Note: This post is delayed. It's from ED 7714 Week 5 (and wrote it but forgot to publish!)


Below is a "Mind Map" of the Personal Learning Environments that I will be using. I anticipate that this list will grow as I become aware of everything that is available.

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Reflections on PLE's: Peer Review / ED 7714 Week 6

Part of connected learning is having the opportunity to see what others have accomplished and learning from them. I wanted to see how other people organized their Personal Learning Environment and I found Laurie’s visual representation on her blog, “From the Pit” to be very helpful.

While my PLE chart covered some of the same categories as Laurie’s (family, social, education,) Laurie included more detail, which made me realize that my sources of learning are more varied than I originally thought. In particular, Laurie had a section for offline learning networks. I realize that I learn a lot from others in face to face settings. In particular, my collaboration with colleagues is often done in person. I definitely want to acknowledge the importance of personal relationships in my PLE.

I would also add a category for my classes at UNH. My coursework is definitely enriching my own learning. Laurie also included categories for multimedia, blogs and Google which are all important ways for me to assimilate, curate and share knowledge. Lastly, I loved that Laurie had a category for books, which as an English teacher, will always remain an important source of learning for me.

Seeing the PLE’s of others is an important source of learning. One of the major themes of New Literacies is the importance of sharing and collaborating in order to maximize our own productivity. I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to learn from them.

What Path Shall We Take? / ED 7710 Week 6

Greenhow et al (2009) argue that the nature of the Internet has changed drastically in the last decade. Referred to as Web 2.0, the Internet is much more than a source of information. It has become much more collaborative, creative and innovative. Since the Web has become such a dominant factor in our lives, both in and out of school, more research is needed. As Greenhow et al point out, researchers need to examine learner’s online inquiry practices, analyze issues of equity and access and study learners’ online identity formation. By the same token, educators need to develop their own online identity and become their own curators of information. The more comfortable and versed in technology that educators are, the better they will be able to serve their students.

Leu, O’Byrne et al (2009) take issue with some of the Greenhow et al research. They make the point that creating students who are Internet savvy is a literacy issue not a technology issue. I agree with Leu, O’Byrne, et al on this critical point. Students need new skills to successfully navigate the Internet and to use it in the creative and innovative ways that are possible. The “new literacies” required of students need to be integrated into the curriculum and not taught solely as a separate class on technology. Therefore, it is up to every teacher to find ways to integrate technology into their own disciplines.

For the past decade, there has been a movement to teach “reading across the curriculum.” Educators finally realized that teaching kids to read is a shared responsibility, and not just the reading teacher’s job. I see the teaching of technology in the same way. The teaching of technology and the new literacies must become a shared responsibility.

Educational policy at the national, state and local levels takes a long time to change. However, the speed of change in technology is unprecedented. As a result, teachers can’t wait for educational policy to direct their efforts as far as preparing students to be skillful, collaborative and creative in their use of technology. Teachers need to be forward-thinking and flexible as they adapt to the new literacies.

Personally, as an English teacher, I hope to improve my knowledge of technology so that I can help my students to develop solid twenty-first skills. I agree with the authors of both articles that the Internet has “great promise and challenge.” I want my students to have the skills to take on the challenge of the Internet and use it skillfully, creatively and innovatively.

Learning to Golf via the Internet: The Final Result (in video)

I've done some research and some practice, and although I've made progress, I'm not quite ready for the Women's PGA Tour just yet. I better keep my day job! Check out the video to see how it went.

Learning to Golf via the Internet: Final Reflections

When I was assigned the “Networked Learning Project, I figured that I always wanted to learn how to play golf, so this would be the perfect opportunity. I immediately set up a folder in Google Docs and saved links to videos on YouTube. After watching the videos, I practiced in my backyard. (Luckily I didn’t hit the ball very far!) By far the most useful technological tool was the Ubersense app which allowed me to compare my swing with that of professionals. I was improving! I have to admit thought, that it was my son who actually helped me the most. He watched me practice a few times and immediately saw what I needed to do. He gave me two tips to improve my swing and they worked! As helpful as the Internet was, I don’t think it will replace human interaction. (That’s good to know for all of us teachers!)

So overall, this project taught me a little bit about golf but a lot about technology. I used the blog I created. I categorized and saved information on Google Drive. I watched tutorials in order to learn how to edit videos on iMovie and even how to add music. (I have to say iMovie is pretty awesome!)  For the first time, I uploaded videos to YouTube. There were a few glitches along the way and some things seemed to take forever, but the theme of the class (which I keep referring back to) seems to be persistence and flexibility.

I still have a lot to learn about both golf and technology, but for now I think I’ll leave all of my technological tools behind and go play 9 holes!

Online Content Construction: What Can We Do In Our Classrooms? (ED7710: Week 5)

Reading Ian O’Byrne’s article on Online Content Construction gave me some ideas about how I can better incorporate technology into my instruction in my English class this year. I’ve already decided to do more instruction on online reading comprehension, in particular helping kids to better evaluate information online. Content construction goes hand in hand with comprehension. Kids need work on synthesizing multimodal sources. In particular, I want to give kids more opportunites to communicate information via a variety of platforms. I am going to use Google+ communities for a class blog for kids to respond to various prompts, mostly about the literature we read. We also do a lot of background information research which is a perfect area for kids to prepare multimedia presentations on the content they have learned.

O’Brien’s article on at risk students supported the findings in the article by Castek et al about the successes that struggling readers can have when using multimodal sources. I think this is very true. As O’Brien pointed out, at risk students can be “artistic, creative, innovative and daring.” In many ways, students who are considered struggling or at risk are much more willing to take chances than high achieving students who just want to get the right answer. I am hoping that by incorporating more multimedia sources into my instruction and by and offering students the opportunity to present the content knowledge in a variety of ways, at risk students will be more successful. I also would like to see the high performing students step out of their comfort zone and be more risk taking and innovative.

Remix and Creativity: Is Anything Really Original Any More? (ED 7710: Week 5)

I enjoyed watching Kirby Ferguson’s TED talk about “How Remix Culture Fuels Creativity and Invention.” It really made me think that nothing is really original. Aren’t we all just building on the ideas of others who preceded us? As Mark Twain said, “All ideas are secondhand.”

A “recycling” of ideas occurs all the time in literature. When I read Shakespeare’s Hamlet with seniors, they see the parallels with Disney’s The Lion King. (Of course, they suggest that we just watch The Lion King instead!). We watch West Side Story when we read Romeo and Juliet. If you really think about it, all of literature can be reduced to a limited number of plots and themes which are retold in a variety of ways.

7 movies that are cleverly disguised Shakespeare ...

Ferguson’s definition of creativity as “copy, transform, combine” is interesting. We really are dependent on the ideas of others. Although I understand that individuals want to have credit (and make money from) their ideas and inventions, as Ferguson suggested, maybe we need to take a look at the way creative works are viewed as property under the law. Building on the ideas of others is how we advance as a society.