Critical Readers (DJE #6)

Quote: "Visual literacy is a learned “reading” of images. Semiotics is the study of how the reading of signs and symbols together communicate complicated ideas in the form of codes (Lester, 2000). Just as basic textual literacy uses vocabulary, metaphors,and genres, visual literacy employs colors, icons, and various media to communicate ideas and feelings to

readers. Grounded in the senses and surrounded by a context, both basic and visual literacy rely on active construction

of meaning through a process of interpreting codes and signs."

Reaction: I think what struck me most about this quote at first is the fact that it states that the ideas and concepts presented visually form complicated messages. It is easy to look a t a magazine cover or a news article with a picture and think that you know and understand what you just saw, but in reality, it all forms a very complicated idea that takes time and effort to fully comprehend. It is important that teachers realize this because it is difficult for students to understand these messages even if they know how to decode them and research them. The message is not clearly stated in words and therefore there is a lot of room for interpretation, especially because media sources know how to edit photos and stories to make the reader think certain things. I never though of visual literacy in this way. It is very important to recognize colors, symbols, signs etc.. as the vocabulary and context clues of visual media. Just as a student can not be expected to understand a story if he or she does not know the vocabulary, a student can not be expected to draw insightful and meaningful conclusions from visual media if he or she does not know what all of the different elements mean separately and what they mean when used all together. In teaching visual literacy, teachers need to start with the basics (what certain colors mean, or why certain symbols are placed in certain ways) in order for students to build on those skills and eventually be able to decode and interpret the visual messages that they see every day.

Resource: Abilock, D. (2003, Nov. - Dec.). A Seven-Power Lens on Multimedia Literacy. Multimedia Schools, 1, 31-35.

Related Resource: http://www.medialit.org/   This is an entire website and group dedicated to media literacy

Photo #2

From this picture, I would infer that Obama is receiving the news of the spill relatively well and that he is taking it seriously. He does not seem to be involved in anything though. He isn't making calls or looking for a sollution. He also does not seem to be overly worried or concerned. This picture makes me wonder why the news wasn't more shocking to him and why he isn't immediately jumping up to go down to the spill and work with those people to fix it.

Photo 1 gives me much more confidence in Obama's leadership because it is showing him being directly involved in the situation and doing something about it as opposed to just sitting in his office being told about what others are doing to fix it.

Photo #1

From this picture, I would infer that Obama was directly involved in attempting to figure out how to stop the oil spil, that he took advice from the crew members and company that were in control of the oil well, and that he knew this was a serious problem that needed to be dealt with immediately.
This photo makes me wonder how quickly Obama made it down to the spill and if he was the one to take control or if he worked with a team of people. The caption says he's seizing the claims process, but it looks to me as though he is working with a lot of people. I think that's good because a huge problem like the BP Oil Spill requires more than one mind.

We're All Artists (DJE 5)

Quote: How do we facilitate the coming age of art in our schools?
1. Rename art and get subversive. First-and I am only half-kidding-we need to rename art. The word comes with too much baggage. Being an artist implies a life of penury, emotional pain, and public misunderstanding. We need to demystify the nature of art and see it all around us, from the designs that underlie our tables and automobiles, to the aesthetics that imbue our Web sites, to the public sculptures that turn a building from a structure into a monument of public expression.

Reaction: Though a name can seem so trivial, I think Ohler really has a point here. There are a lot of words in the English language that come with a negative connotation. One example is the word lonely. If someone says that they are lonely then everyone assumes that they must be sad and in need of companionship, however; if someone were to say that they were independent instead of lonely, then people would think "good for them" because independent has a positive connotation. Art, in a sense, has almost become a four letter word, especially in the public school system. Administrators see it as a useless program that takes away from the budget, and more and more parents and less concerned with art and more concerned with the core classes. This is because when they think of art, they think of crazy artists and paintings, sculpture and other skills that they don't think will help their child get a job. Let's face it, not many parents are pushing their kids to become no-income struggling artists. However, what people need to realize is that art is many different things, including architechture, speaking, writing, and of course all of the countless forms of digital art. Art is a necessary skill for today's market and if it continues to be seen as useless or a waste, then student's will be at a great disadvantage.

Source: Ohler, J. (n.d.). Art Becomes the Next R. Google Docs. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCKbHYY-gzXtLXnLak8i_hoV7TPAOfxNIamNrkWW3Pc/edit?pli=1#

Related Resource:

Just an example of what can be created with digital media!

Digital Story Project Blog

At first, I thought the digital story project was a little overwhelming, because it was difficult to decide exactly what aspect of teaching I wanted to make a story about and to decide the best way to represent what I picked. However, once I got past that point, I really enjoyed creating a digital story that was about aspects of teaching that are important to me. It was challenging to find the right pictures and words to get the right idea across, but it was still fun and forced you to be a little creative. Aside from all of the credit slide confusion, this was a fun project. I think this project fits Number 2a on the ISTE NETS Standards. It is,
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:

a.	design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

This project was based on a digital tool and definitely got students to be creative. Also, it is more difficult to show what you know or to make a point in so few words, therefore, students really have to have done their research or figured out exactly what the want to say in order to create the digital story.
I found a lesson plan called "Technostory" in which students had to create a digital story about themselves travelling through a magical land. Not only did the students get to be creative about the pictures and sounds used, but they got to come up with a really fun and creative story about the magical land and also about their adventures there. I think this is a good way to emphasize the storytelling itself over the digital medium.

Photo Story- Sarah Queen

Storytelling (DJE 4)

Quote: "The problem for many students is their focus on the power of the technology rather than the power of thier stories. Some students are engaging the medium at the expense of the message, producing a technical event rather than a story. Part of my task as a digital storytelling teacher is to teach students how to be storyrellers. Two important components of my approach to teaching storytelling are story mapping and practicing written and oral story telling before bringing in digital elements."

Reaction: I think that Ohler is right about students getting lost in the technology aspect of assignments like these. Even in our current digital storytelling assignment, I've been focusing more on all of the nifty things I can do with the story maker as opposed to putting most of my focus on the point of the story. If it's difficult for me as a college student, then younger students would definitely need to be taught more skills in that area. I also really like the way Ohler goes about teaching his students so that they can avoid losing their story in their digital medium. I think it's really a great thing that he teaches oral and written storytelling first, because those are important skills and without them the students would be overwhelmed by the idea of not only telling a story but telling it using digital media.

Resource: Ohler, J. (2005). The world of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.jasonohler.com/pdfs/digitalStorytellingArticle1-2006.pdf

Related Resource:

What kind of learner are you?

After taking the survery I learned that I have a mulimodal learning preference. My highest scores were in kinesthetic and reading/writing. My lowest score was aural which was a 2. I agree with this because I know that I learn more if I take notes or highlight things in my book than if I just listen to the teacher lecture or read. Also, I know that in many cases I am a hands on learner. I get more out of going on a field trip than just listening to the teacher tell me about something.

Picasso Head

Technology Comic

IDK how 2 spell tht (Double Entry Journal #3)

Quote: "For most of the history of the language, English speakers took a lackadaisical approach to spelling; the notion that a word should always be spelled the same way is a much more recent invention than the language itself. The standardization of English spelling began in the 16th century, and although it is unclear at exactly what point our spelling became set, what is certain is that ever since it happened, people have complained that the rules of spelling, such as they are, just don’t make sense."

Reaction: I had never thought of the English language or spelling like this before. When it comes to texting, e-mailing, and other forms of electronic communication, I am all about correct spelling and writing words out completely. I hate when I get a text that says HRU 2day. However, this article really made me think about why I feel that way. From a young age, children are taught that spelling is extremely important and they are forced to learn all of the crazy rules of the English language. After reading this, I'm really questioning just how important spelling is. If 2day and today sound the same and people can understand what is meant, then why does it matter what it looks like. The rules used in social speaking such as 2 for too,two,and to or U for you make sense and are actually a lot easier to understand than the rules the English language follows. I'm not sure that this article has completely changed my mind, but it definitely has me thinking.

Reference: SHEA, A. (n.d.). On Language - The Keypad Solution - NYTimes.com. NY Times Advertisement. Retrieved September 6, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Related Resource: This Youtube video shows how different words have acquired new meanings since the explosion of the Internet.

Poll Everywhere, Wordle, and ISTE NETS-T

Poll Everywhere is a free website that allows you to create a question that can be answered by texting in or by answering on the computer. You can then use Wordle to make a collage of all of the answers that were sent to your poll. In our class we used Poll Everywhere to find out a little more about our classmates and then we used Wordle to create a collage of the answers we got and got to customize it with different colors and fonts and what not then posted it to our blogs.
One teacher used Poll Everywhere to introduce her students to her lesson on Social Media as a learning tool. She created a multiple choice poll that asked her students which social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, they used the most. Her students responded very well to the idea and were excited to be able to text in answers.
I think that by using Poll Everywhere in this way, this teacher engaged her students in her lesson and got them interested in what they were doing at the moment and what they would be doing for the rest of the school year. She also used not only a face to face environment but also a virtual environment in which the students answered her poll.
These activities would be extremely helpful tools in my future classroom. Allowing students to use their cell phones and computers for learning immediately gets them excited and interested and therefore makes them more attentive to the lessons you are teaching them. As an English teacher, Poll Everywhere would be a great way to find out what students are thinking about any literature that we may read, especially those students who would be too timid to voice their opinion to the class openly.

Double Journal Entry #2

Quote: "Those of us studying electronically mediated communication (language produced on computers or mobile phones) have been looking for evidence that mediated language is changing traditional speech and writing. To our surprise, the list of effects is relatively short. Here are my candidates:

Incorporation of a few acronyms into everyday language. These days you sometimes hear students saying "brb" (be right back) to one another when they temporarily take their leave. I have also overheard "lol" (laughing out loud) in conversations among young people. However, these neologisms need to be put into perspective. Infusion of written acronyms into everyday speech is a common linguistic process—to wit, RSVP, AWOL, or ASAP. If a few more lexical shortenings make their way into general usage, that's nothing out of the ordinary."

Reaction: I think this quote is so dead on in referring to acronyms that have been around forever such as RSVP. This quote in and of itself proves the point of Naomi Barron that acronyms do not have the power to "bring the English language to its knees." Instead of changing how our language works and how we communicate with each other as some people think is happening, the only thing that new acronyms such as "LOL" and "BRB" are just being added in to everyday conversations, and usually are only used in texting and iming not verbally. No one thought that RSVP, AWOL, or ASAP were going to ruin language or deteriorate students writing and speaking skills. These acronyms are simply short and sweet ways of saying longer phrases. I really don't understand why people get so worked up over a student accidentally using lol or btw in a paper because when you think about it, it's really no different than a spelling error. It is a mistake and isn't appropriate for school assignment, but it certainly doesn't suggest that the English language is crumbling under the pressure of these crazy, scary abbreviations.

Reference: Barron, Naomi. " Educational Leadership:Literacy 2.0:Are Digital Media Changing Language?." Membership, policy, and professional development for educators – ASCD. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2011. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language%C2%A2.aspx>.

Related Resource: This article, by Aliza Sherman, suggests that there is no right or wrong way to assimilate "Social Speaking" into our everyday lives. We just have to realize when it is appropriate and when we should steer clear of LOLs and BRBs. http://gigaom.com/collaboration/how-social-media-is-affecting-the-way-we-speak-and-write/

Woordle

Polleverywhere

Click here to view my poll