Chapter 4 Text Reflection-"Grande"

In reading the fourth chapter of Dr. William Kist's book, The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age, I was moved by many facets and applications to my teaching. This chapter is titled "Grande", Social Networking in a High-Tech Environment. My school is not what I would consider a high-tech environment. We are more blessed than some schools with the aspect that we have at least 3-4 desktop computers in each classroom, access to several stationary and mobile "labs" for whole class use, as well as a set of classroom "clickers." Yet, like most schools that I have knowledge of, we have a significant internet filter that prohibits full access to Web 2.0 for our students. Nonetheless, there are many meaningful things presented in this chapter that all educators can draw from regardless of their school's technology.

One of the key points raised in this chapter is teachers' experience with and modeling of appropriate and acceptable use of any social networking medium. Whether we are able to use Web 2.0 to its fullest capacity in our classrooms or have to adapt activities to be more intranet based and shared among smaller groups, it behooves us as educators to model for our students and explicitly lay out guidelines for being online. We can develop these guidelines by being a part of the blogosphere professionally and consider the etiquette that we should adhere to. Several points are given in Bud Hunt's Blogging Guidelines (pg. 73) that have far reaching implications:

1. Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog. ...

2. Never ever ever give out or record personal information on your blog. Your blog is a public space on the internet. Don't share anything that you don't want the world to know. ...be careful what you say too. Don't give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.

3. Again, your blog is a public space. . . if you put (content) on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always...ten years from now when your are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of.

4. Never link to something you haven't read...when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with.

Regardless of the environment in which we teach in, aren't these important online skills to be modeled and explicitly stated? The environment that our children engage in outside of our classrooms is predominantly unfiltered. I believe any opportunity we have to teach them these acceptable use skills is helping prepare them for the 21st century that they live in.

Mike Slowinski from West De Pere High School in De Pere, Wisconsin, stated in an Online Etiquette document he wrote for a collaborative literature circle project, "The main purpose (of this Google Group) is to discuss the book. However, if that is all we do on there, I feel as if we would not be using this site to its full potential." As I begin to learn how to use new media in my classroom and with my students I may begin by taking assignments and projects that are currently being done offline and putting them in an online format. Yet, to truly change the nature of how we do math in my classroom, I will need to utilize forums such as blogs, wikis, and Google Docs so that students can be collaborative without the strict confines of a 52 minute period and have their work made public to each other (or the rest of the blogosphere if possible) and open to comments and critique. It is this latter component that I am excited to experiment with in the hopes that it will raise the level of student concern for the quality of their work as it is exposed to people other than their teacher, parents, and themselves.

Hierarchy and New Media

I am becoming very intrigued by the concept of a hierarchy of text. When one encounters a word or idea in a variety of contexts like I have with this concept, you cannot let it go! I first heard or read about this idea a few weeks ago and it has come up again this week in Dr. Kist's New Literacies course at KSU. Dr. Kist states in his book, The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), " A breaking down of this kind of hierarchy of symbol systems probably begins by helping kids to respond to texts, both print and nonprint -and not necessarily tied to print texts- in a thoughtful manner." I believe that a hierarchy of what is acceptable and worthwhile literature, art, even science based media definitely does exist. The old conventions still dictate what is presented in school. I am continually amazed at just how much "text" is really out there that is not in the form(s) that my education was fueled by. It is a beautiful thing that the internet has broken down the barriers to letting people's "voices" be heard. Angela Maiers, Independent Literary Consultant, feels that teachers are stuck in an old paradigm in this regard and tend to get obsessed with who owns knowledge...it

(Creative Commons Licensing) turn copyright upside down. In the spirit of 21st century, teachers have to realize that it's not about hoarding. (Kist, 2010).

I am not a published writer, so it may be unfair for me to have an opinion on this, but I think the rules are inevitably changing!

History of the Internet

Wow! Finished reading the article, An Oral History of the Internet, Vanity Fair, July 2008. While I was aware of some of the elements to the development of the net, it was fascinating to see how far it has come and the applications that have come out of its development. Interesting to see how something that had its roots in national security could become a medium for writing a public journal, downloading music, or participating in an auction for any number of products or items. As the article gives excerpts of comments from the key players of the development of the internet, it also gives a great perspective of what was happening in our culture at the time and how technology was evolving. Maybe it is because my youth has seemed to pass by so quickly, but the article really gave me the perspective of how quickly the technology of the internet and its applications has developed. Why 1995 only seems like last year!

In relation to our class discussion about cell phone use in schools and the overall impact of mobile devices on our society, check out the following link to a story I heard on NPR yesterday morning driving to class. Pretty interesting!

NPR

New Literacies?

I am increasingly intrigued by the idea that one of the many roles we have as educators is to emerge students in the variety of media that they will undoubtedly be using all of their lives. This responsibility should assume that we are also using these new media in our lives, both professionally and personally. I have been slow to embrace much of this technology for many reasons, such as motivation, need, as well as the time that I devote to this learning.



Among the other scary responsibilities that I have as an educator of young people is that of giving them adult guidance in how to navigate and communicate in the multi-media world. ...today's kids are more connected to other people on a second-by-second basis than they have been at any other time in our history. (W.Kist, 2010) Obviously, parents and teachers cannot monitor every moment and action of students. But why wouldn't we want to pattern our classrooms and the media we use in them after the world that students live in? If we do not, we miss out on the opportunity to model appropriate and informed use of these media. I am not as learned as most of my students in the use of technology for learning and fun, but I would be kidding myself if I believed that all children are just "hard-wired" to work with electronic media. This would be a misconception that falsely assumes that my students are going to learn how to navigate their world on their own.

First Class Day

Today is the first day of my Summer 3 course, New Literacies in Practice. I am excited to be learning some new things, especially those that will motivate me as a teacher and engage my students. Based on the things we have done today, as well as what I have read in the syllabus, I am hopeful that I will add many things to my bag of tricks!
Currently teaching mathematics to sixth graders, I am yearning for ways to help my students communicate their understanding to each other and to me that go beyond just following procedures correctly or being able to solve problems. While these are very important to mathematics competency, it is not the whole picture. Students' ability to communicate in multiple ways is key to their development as succesful learners, citizens, and people. Enhancing the math communication piece of my classroom is what I hope to accomplish from taking this course.