Module #3- Supplemental Readings Response

As I read the Coiro article I couldn't help but think as I read the "think aloud" (go figure).  I'm going to approach online reading as Coiro suggests, I will approach my online reading, navigate through it as best I can, monitor my comprehension (asking, "why"), and of course think of how to respond.  I'm trying to approach reading as I did as a struggling First Grade (Kindergarten wasn't as intense in the 80's) reader, think about my strategies and use them.  Over time I hope to get there otherwise that's A LOT of paper!

I liked what John Seely Brown had to say but I was really drawn to the keynote speaker introduction by Diana Rhoten about integrating technology into our classrooms.   Diana Rhoten brings up a good point about technology in the classroom saying that no matter what happens, "we will NEVER fundamentally change the future of teaching and learning".  Yes, technology is important to include in our teaching but it can't be ALL of our teaching.  I have thought about that a lot this school year.  I'm so happy to be getting my sixth year in IT&DML, I have always embraced what new technology that has been introduced in my district and I have always been excited to explore these technologies with my students and sometimes colleagues.  But especially this year I have been exposed to sooooooo much!  I'm super lucky and am I happy to learn more not just for myself for but for my students.  What I need to remember is that I can't share all of it at once!  They are 4 and 5 years old and can't take all of that in.  As an adult I can barely keep up.  So bit by bit we are working on adding new pieces into our classroom.  My students were happy to use the iPad that we are lucky enough to have and when I included Easy Blogger they reached a new level of happy!  They are constantly asking when they can review a book for our blog with a drawing or a recording.  It's really wonderful to see how excited they are about reading and without even knowing it I'm also able to see what they are really comprehending.  Online Reading Comprehension come to life!! So yes, Diana Rhoten we will never fundamentally change the future of teaching and learning but instead let's grow with it and be the fundamental change.

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Mooc Module #3- Week #2- Storify

I remember hearing about Storify over the summer and I thought I should check it out.  What I didn't realize then was that Storify was added to long list of things I should check out online.  Luckily with this assignment (thanks Laurie and Mimi) I was finally able to explore Storify!

Overall I thought it was easy to use.  I only had an issue figuring out how to add text to my "story" but other than that it was fun to use.  I enjoyed looking at my classmates thoughts on "Our Journey so far in the IT&DML program," we are like to laugh so overall I couldn't help but laugh at other peoples thoughts.  Jody, I wish I was on that amazing beach that you had added.  Laurie and Mimi, I have been puzzled much more than just July!  And Josh, Homer's TPACK was just as interesting as mine!

For my contribution to our Storify story I wanted to touch on the beginning, middle and end of the program.  First, the Noah's Ark Trailer couldn't have been better!  We were all herding on to the IT&DML Ark, Ian was like Noah saying, "It begins" on that fateful July 7th night back in the summer of 2014!

I then thought how I have felt sometimes when it came time to completing my work, figuring out what exactly to do, and of course the usual confusion I feel...404-File or Directory Not Found.
Then I thought back to our meeting in August with people that were finishing up the IT&DML program.  The look of happiness and accomplishment that I look forward to having in August 2015!  Who says it better than Rocky?! :)  Friends are a fourth of the way done!!!!

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Online Reading Comprehension Module 3- Supplemental Readings

Online reading comprehension is becoming as important as teaching student basic reading comprehension.  What teachers need to remember when teaching online reading comprehension needs to be a step-by-step process.  Students and teachers need to understand that all information on the internet isn’t true!  As I read the Leu, et al article, it shared the story about online website about saving the endangered tree octopus was a hoax but 87% of 7^th grade higher performing online readers thought it was true (Leu, et al, 2008).  Stories like this are all over the internet.  Teachers need to teach students about to not only comprehend what they read online but also how understand what they read.  If the students had searched for more information about the endangered tree octopus they would have discovered it’s a not even real animal so it couldn’t be endangered.  I know many adults that need to learn that not everything they read online is true!

Christine Greenhow’s talk about social networking sites and the future of cyberlearning shows how the not only is the internet continuing to grow because of social networking sites but how the world is changing because of technology and internet.  She shares that Kodak filed for bankruptcy because of shift from cameras with film to digital camera and cameras in our phones.  This shows how because of technology growing it causes another past technology to fade away.  Greenhow then shares that teenager’s number one activity outside of school is social networking.  I would say that adults aren’t far behind.  I would be interested to see where adult’s favorite activities fall in terms social networking.

I think that both the Leu article and Greenhow talk show that the world is moving towards learning online.  We as teachers need to help students comprehend what they are learning on line; not just in articles and videos but also through social networking.

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Module 3...Reading Deeply Online

So last week I decided that I was going to start reading online and not print out the articles for each week.  At first it was a tough task, I wasn’t used to it.  I didn’t have my trusty highlighter and pen.  I know that I can do that online but I haven’t gotten that far yet.  Hopefully by next week I will be there!  As I was reading I did like the option of typing my thoughts right into the document that I was responding about or cut and paste a quote that I wanted to go back to later.  I was beginning to read deeply, as I said I was beginning to.  I still miss my highlighter and pen but I think that since we (the world not just our classes) are moving to more online reading I need to move with it too or I will be left without anything to read!

The first question about, “How does what I am reading influence how I should read it?” For adults and students is interesting question.  When I read something for fun I could read it anywhere on the beach, on the train, in a busy airport but when it comes to “school work” I need a quiet spot.  I don’t want any distractions, I need to concentrate, and I need to be a student.  When my students participate in learning centers I try to provide them with that quiet learning environment.  Some students are working on the computer/iPad with headphones, some are listening and responding to a story at the listening station, some are working with me at a reading group and some are “reading” in the classroom library.  I want students to know that when it time to learn that when it is time to read they also need a quiet spot to think, learn, and focus.

I received a nook a few years ago as a Christmas gift and at first I thought, “How am I going to read on this thing?”  Of course I didn’t want this expensive gift to go to waste so I started downloading books and magazines.  At first I thought I could only read fun books and magazines and then I found out I could out read meaningful text on the nook as well.  I realized that the format of the information affected my perception of the validity/rigor to what I read.  I am now “teaching” myself that no matter where I read or what I read it on does have validity.  The rigor to which I read it changes because of the context.  An article from Us Weekly is going to read a lot differently than an article from New York Times on Education or World News.

I try to apply my understanding of reading deeply to all of my students.  As my experiences change with reading online I show my students that I am learning as well.  I can go back to stories that I have read aloud in a hard copy and show them the online version.  Using the Smartboard I am able to show students how to make notes in the text that we can go back to later and revisit the text and notes.

Reading deeply online is something is foreign to me but it’s something that I am learning to do.  As I learning I am trying to incorporate it into my classroom.  It’s not only something I am learning to do but it’s something I am sharing with my students to help all of us learn to read deeply online.  It might not always be perfect but learning isn’t always is!

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MOOC #2 Playlist

What a great assignment!  It was super fun to do!  I asked many friends and colleagues songs that I think that they thought I should do.  My iPod is FULL of various kinds of music so I was a little overwhelmed about what to pick but in the end I stuck with three songs to add to the ITDML station.

First, I choose was “Under Pressure” by Queen.  As I began this program I thought I knew a lot about technology but even after the first class I had many emotions including feeling pressure.  I didn’t really know the feeling of pressure until I came back to school teaching and going to school.  It’s been a lot of work and time management but certainly after I see the assignments for the upcoming week I always feel “under pressure”.  Talking with my classmates let’s me know I’m not the only one and that no matter what it will get done which often brings me off the ledge.

I then choose the song “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor.  I first heard this song on a TV show and liked it so I downloaded it.  My younger cousins told me love listening to this song with their sports team because it gets them “pumped up”.  For me it’s about making yourself known.  Using all of the parts that they say make up the 100%, 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain, and in the end 100% to remember the name.  Each of us experiences these things in our lives, working, school, or in our personal lives but in the end all we have is our name that makes us who we are.

Finally I choose “I’ll Be There For You” by the Rembrandts.  This song is for my friends and family and my classmates in ITDML.  Everyone let’s me know that I can do it and that in the end they will there to celebrate my successes and sometimes my failures.  I would like to think there will be more successes than failures!

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ED 7720 Week #6 Reading Response

I really enjoyed reading the Lankshear and Knobel article because it discussed the ever-changing world of technology and new literacies.  They were discussing how new literacies are always changing and I totally agree. 

This was one of the first times I decided I wanted to try reading all of the articles on my computer rather than print them out (which I always do).  I couldn’t help but notice that my email updates would pop up in the upper right hand corner of the screen and the my iMessges from friends would also be displayed in the same spot.  My computer was an example of the new literacies! 

To think back to college when Instant Messaging was the thing; you could walk down any dorm room hallway and hear the dinging noise alerting someone that they had a message.  Text messages were just beginning and Facebook was just starting.  Ten years later how the world has changed and moved onto new literacies! 

A lot of people would rather send a text message than have an actual phone call.  Facebook is so common that businesses (even my dentist office) request that you “like” their business to increase the free advertising.  And now when I ask my teenage cousins in high school and college about instant messaging they say that no one does that anymore.  In some ways it looks like I’m moving from Mindset 1 to Mindset 2 not because I have to but because I want to and I’m willing to try to learn more about the latest new literacies.

The Connected Learning Principles article had a lot of information to share.  It showed how learning isn’t really based on set purpose but instead a group of ideas that work and build together to create a new vision of learning.  “Through a new vision of learning, it holds out the possibility for productive and broad-based educational change”(Connected Learning TV, 2014).  I thought to myself “What is going to be the next possibility for educational change?”  I then realized that it probably occurring right now without someone like myself knowing it!

John Seely Brown video shared once again how technology is continuing to grow and how education needs to change with it.  I really liked how it brought up blogging.  Beginning this program at UNH I was immersed into the world of blogging.  Of course I had heard of it before and had a few favorite blogs for ideas for my classroom and future lessons/centers/bulletin boards but I had no idea what was really out there.  I have shared with my friends and colleagues that I have created a blog with this program and a few have checked it out (Hi, Christine).  John Seely Brown said, “Blogging is unfinished conversation rather than a production.”  How true a statement!  Blogging puts ideas out in the world but is never truly finished.  As someone who likes to be organized and likes “finished products” blogging is something that I can go back to again and again and revisit.  It’s new to me and something that I am still getting used to and get the hang of but I am slowly getting used it.

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ED 7720 Week #5 Response

As I read the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” I couldn’t help but totally agree with the author.  I find that reading articles online more than a few paragraphs my mind starts to drift and wander.  I find it difficult to not open up another tab on the internet search bar.  Either something I read wants me to search for something or my drifting mind causes me to think about something else that I have “always” wanted to know about.  When I first started the program at UNH I found it difficult to read on the screen for everything and because of that I print everything out.  I will admit it…I print everything out!  The way I rationalize it to myself is that I print it onto scrap paper and it helps me go back to see what I read, highlight and make notes on the texts.  It also makes it more difficult for my mind to drift off like it sometimes does when I read online.  I did find it interesting that the author Nicholas Carr said it was difficult for him to read something online more than a few paragraphs but his article was way more than a few paragraphs.  Yet, what I found most interesting is that Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and useful”, what I think it does is it give endless information that causes people to lose themselves in “googling”.  What scares me is that the founders of Google want to make it into a HAL-like machine that connects to our brains.  Yes, having endless bits of information is cool but sometimes half the fun of learning something new is figuring out how to find it.

The core ideas behind Connected Learning are what make it so interesting to me!  The first, Interest-Powered is what drives most learning.  If you have an interest in something you want to want to learn more.  That interest is what makes you go a step further and makes you want to find out more.  Second, Peer-Supported is something that also causes people to keep going.  There have been times that we have all wanted to give up but someone checking in to see how you are doing/ encouraging you to keep going is what drives keep going after many setbacks.  And third, being academically orientated.  This is important because there is a reason behind what is happening/what is being learned.  To me all lessons are at some point academically orientated and that what keeps the learning going.

The Spires, Wiebe, Young, Hollebrands, Lee article talks about technology, etc. But what I found the most important is how education has three foundational assumptions, that the teacher is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT factor in determining students success, professional development, and support an idea driven and creative economy.  Over the past two school years my school district has begun to allow teachers to choose their own professional development on some professional development days.  What I have found is that it has given teachers the chance to explore various ideas that they want to include in their classrooms.  It has also given teachers the chance to be in charge of their own learning which to me makes everyone a little happier to be there.  I think that when teachers are seen as being important and are given the chance to better themselves it betters everyone!

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