I forgot to post...A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies

As I began reading The New London Group’s article, A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures I wasn’t sure how this meeting from 1994 would help me twenty years later.  What surprised me was that it really did address some of the same issues I am seeing in teaching in 2014. 

I related to article especially when it discussed shifting educational practices.  I see this from first a technology aspect of using various new forms of technology to reach the children of 2014.  Over the past ten years or so I have seen teaching move from the teaching verbally giving information to teachers giving students the chance to explore the information on their own using various forms of resources and technology. 

I was then able to see this in terms of the Common Core with teaching.  Over the past few years thanks to the Common Core what students are expected to do is above what teachers/parents have had them do in the past.  I as a teacher I am trying to embrace the change teaching with the Common Core.  I am giving my students the chance to navigate their own learning.  I might not give them full control but I am able to help guide them to find the answer or to tackle the challenge.

The Common Core was originally created because the changes of the Common Core were designed to help students become college and career ready.  Both teaching pedagogy and literacy pedagogy work together; teaching pedagogy is about teaching and learning about relationships and literacy pedagogy focuses on individuality. 

We as educators need to think about is best for our students in the long run.  Changing educational practices can be challenging at times but overall it is for the betterment of the student and teacher!

Resources:

Cazden, C. Cope, B. Fariclough, N. Gee, J. et al. A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures.  Harvard Educational Review; Spring 1996; 66, 1; ProQuest Psychology Journals.

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7720- Week #4- Screencasting-Response 2

I enjoyed reading “The 7 Things to Know about Screencasting” because I knew most of the things!  For once I didn’t feel like I was the only one not knowing!  The article breaks down the pieces about screencasting as well as providing the pros/cons. 

Dan Nunez provides funny “commandments” for screencasting.  There were three that I found very interesting.

First, I never thought to do a secret login for screen casting.  It is a great idea since you want to have some sort of privacy while teaching others.

Second, when he brought up the piece about my screen resolution I have to admit I got a little lost.  Beginning this program at UNH was the first time I ever thought about a screencast.  I’m still getting used to the idea but Dan’s idea about the screen solution is helpful for future reference.

Finally was the most important piece about titling, introduction of the screencast.  I wish more people would watch his video about screencasting because he brings up an important piece about giving the video or screencast an appropriate title. This is huge!  It’s super annoying trying to find the “right” screencast only to hunt through tons of video and then find the wrong video or the right one 100 video clips later.

Ian Ozwald’s Screencasting Handbook is good resource for producing a good/great screencast.  What I liked the best was he broke it down into various programs that can be used for screencasting.  As I have said I knew NOTHING about screencasting prior to this program. 

I like the idea about recording a meeting.  As my team’s Data/Grade Level Leader I take a lot of notes.  I’m thinking about recording a meeting to see if it will help me give more detailed notes.

I also LOVE the idea about bug reporting.  For some reason I had a lot of difficulty recording my Module #1 for 7720 and maybe reporting the bug would have helped me out.  I’m also considering using Jing to see if that would be an easier screencast for me.

It’s interesting to see if people have time to create a screencast all of the little pieces such as screen resolution can make the screencast that much better.  I also didn’t know about the different resolutions if using on a mobile device vs. using on YouTube.  I also didn’t know there are so many places to host videos.

I do have one question about screencasting.  My school uses Windows as an operating system and I use a Mac at home.  I am unable to download any programs to my school computer so I do most of schoolwork at home.  Creating a true to life screencast would be difficult for me.  So is it easier to just do a screencast in Powerpoint or Keynote for my students to use?

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Easy Blogger Jr. Multimodal Tutorial

I finally was able to set up Easy Blogger Jr. to use in my classroom this year! I was really excited about starting this year long project to use with my Kindergartners students and my program at UNH.  I say "was" because many, many, many times I considered just giving up on it but thankfully I didn't and now my little learners will get to enjoy the benefits. :)

I first saw the Easy Blogger Jr. app/program this summer as I was just getting started at UNH.  I posted it to the community and thought maybe someone else could use it as a tool.  After hearing from a few people that I could use it for some future projects at UNH I decided to try it out.

Easy Blogger Jr. is a free app where students can record a video, take a picture, or write about a book they have read and share it to the classroom reading blog.  What I really like about the app is it follows a gradual release model which is so important with my Kindergarten friends.  Students can start by taking a picture of a book and then by the end of the year they might be able to record a video book chat.

As I began setting up Easy Blogger Jr. I realized it wasn't so easy!  It took me many, many hours to set up a Gmail address (to use just for the blog), figure out how to add students and then trying to figure out the best way the app could be used.  The app let's students identify themselves by their picture I thought this was a great feature until I realized it is a public blog and I wouldn't want to put my students information and picture out for everyone to see.  I then thought maybe I should just scrap the whole program but after brainstorming for a few days and talking with people at UNH, my principal and my school district I decided that I could have students draw their own picture instead of using an actual picture.  I think this will be a great way for them to take ownership of their work and blogging.  I'm still deciding if I am going to label them by first name or by number but in the scheme of things it's not a major bump in the road.

I then thought about how I would share this app with my students.  I decided to do a screen cast of a powerpoint slideshow with my audio explaining each slide with screenshots from the actual app.  This also took a lot of time because I wanted to get the wording right for my students and make it easy to follow.  After many more hours I uploaded by Multimodal Tutorial to YouTube for Easy Blogger Jr.  *Please let me know if the sound doesn't work for reason I had difficulty uploading it to YouTube.*

So now the real work begins, introducing my students to Easy Blogger Jr.!  I think they will really like it and I'm looking forward to using it this year.  Since this new for all of use I'm going to use my introductory Easy Blogger Jr. lesson plan to get the show on road.  As Dr. Seuss would say...

Images Courtesy of:

http://classes.slis.lsu.edu/wu/7008/fa13/bsavoie/7008project/theme.html

http://www.theeasyappcompany.com/

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Frustration

I decided that I wanted to a use a reading blog for my Kindergarten students this year.  I saw reviews for Blogger Jr. over the summer and thought it would be a good fit for my students.  I have been trying to set up an account for my current class of students but I'm having lots of technical difficulties.  I have emailed Blogger Jr. to see if they could provide some insight into the situation.  I'm hoping that point me in the right direction so I can get this multimodal tutorial to work!!!!

Withknown or Without Known that is the Question!

I’m starting up my very own Digital Learning Hub.  I have decided to try out www.withknown.com as my host site.  I thought things were going smooth as I was “asked” to enter all of my information of which I was happy to add not only my blog, but twitter and my fantastic YouTube channel page.  From there I have since stalled.  I have been trying to tweak it all day with no luck.  I keep thinking about what Ian saying that it’s okay to bail on a site if it’s not working for you.  I’m hoping to walk away from www.withknown.com  for a little bit when I return my robot and I will rekindle our friendship.  So for now I have little to report other than I have inputted my basic information.  I’m hoping that soon my inner “Webmaster” will come out and have the most amazing Digital Learning Hub ever or at least something interesting to look at.  Look for updates @ http://misslanningslearninghub.withknown.com/

Me and my very own R2D2 (Aleph from withknown.com)!

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Digital Learning Hub Exemplars...Found?

I have spent many, many days searching and looking for exemplars of what I want my Digital Learning Hub to become.  There are bit and pieces that I like from various educators sites but nothing is really sticking out as a true exemplar of what I want my Hub to be.  I want it to be:

·      A place where colleagues, administrators, parents (and maybe students) will be able to embrace learning, teaching, and technology.

·      Easy to use and navigate

·      FUN!  Visually pleasing and exciting

·      Broken into content areas, literacy, numeracy, science, and social studies

·      A support/guide to find various avenues of learning

 I would also like to provide links to

·      Blogs

·      Websites

·      YouTube videos

·      Learning apps

·      Research

·      Ideas

·      Suggestions

·      CELEBRATIONS (and sometimes failures that lead to celebrations)

I might even want to include various digital texts and tools similar what we created in our summer coursework.

So I am unable to find an exemplar of what I want my learning hub to be but maybe after I work on mine I can provide an exemplar for someone else.  Disclaimer: This is wishful thinking!

I think Batman and Superman pretty much sum up my life right now!

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