-
FREE -- Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government
-
80 Excellent Podcasts for Every Kind of Classroom | Online Classes
-
Teaching/learning technique
-
VPR News: Test Results: High School Students Struggling With Math And Writing
test scores
-
What is transformational writing, and how do you go about teaching it? - English - TES Connect
-
Afghan Army Gets Training In Reading And Writing : NPR
Is writing a life and death issue?
-
What Is the Best Software for Novel Writing?
appls/software for wiriting?
-
the 10 methods for articles writing | Articles Directory - Submit Articles Free
Methods to writing articles. Could be used to talk about writing as process/recursive
-
Lincoln is seen through his writing, rare objects at Omaha exhibition
Reflection of the writer - history of the self
-
-
-
Google Labs - Explore Google's New Ideas
Awesome new stuff to use, check out
-
NCTE Secondary Section: The hardest part of the ACT was writing in cursive
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Diigo links
P2 - keywords/wordwatch
Hey...I decided to try something a bit new (at least for me) for my last paper. I tried to create links within the paper, since it was submitted electronically and I am guessing that most of the readings will be done electronically. It should provide links to documents online and in a companion folder that I uploaded to GoogleDocs. I wonder if anyone else has done the same? Is this the future of how documentation will be completed for online journals? it seems to provide a greater intertextuality, but also could be quite cumbersome and almost overwhelming.
Oh shoot....
So in my disarray following two snow days in which I have not visited my work desk, I have just realized that I cannot find my book for comments of Selber -- and I actually had a lot for today! I guess that is one of the danges of any technology (print, SmartPhone, computer) I choose to use and one of the benefits to using something like SpringPad, EverNote or Catch. I ran into this two weeks ago as I left my laptop in the classroom after a Tuesday evening class....(what is happening to my mind?)
With all these communication and organizational tools, I often feel that I am becoming more and more overwhelmed with input and I wonder if I am capable of filtering it....
If I had already typed my notes in, I could just share them with you all right now rather than leaving my computer, as I am going to do right now, to search for my book!
With all these communication and organizational tools, I often feel that I am becoming more and more overwhelmed with input and I wonder if I am capable of filtering it....
If I had already typed my notes in, I could just share them with you all right now rather than leaving my computer, as I am going to do right now, to search for my book!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Questions that need to be asked -- as a teacher
"What is lost as well as gained? Who profits? Who is left behind and for what reasons? What is privileged in terms of literacy and learning and cultural capital? What political and cultural values and assumptions are embedded in hardware and software? " -- Selber (81). More on this later...
I love these questions posed by Selber. I think about this quite often as I ask my students to depend more upon technology in my delivery of calendars, schedules, and assignments. Half of my students can't use Twitter during the days because they don't have unlimited texting and the site is blocked as a matter of institutional policy.
Many of them cannot download or access documents from home as they have cut the internet connection due to family budgets. Even more of them have unreliable internet access at home due to viruses shutting down their machines.
My school is not aiding in balancing this inequity either as our media center hours have been cut to 10:30 - 2:14 each day -- all the while locking up over 100 PC's dedicated for student use -- due to state and district budget constraints.
So, the rich kids get further and further ahead in the technology game while the poorer kids fall even further behind and the public education 'solution' doesn't seem to be working so well.
I love these questions posed by Selber. I think about this quite often as I ask my students to depend more upon technology in my delivery of calendars, schedules, and assignments. Half of my students can't use Twitter during the days because they don't have unlimited texting and the site is blocked as a matter of institutional policy.
Many of them cannot download or access documents from home as they have cut the internet connection due to family budgets. Even more of them have unreliable internet access at home due to viruses shutting down their machines.
My school is not aiding in balancing this inequity either as our media center hours have been cut to 10:30 - 2:14 each day -- all the while locking up over 100 PC's dedicated for student use -- due to state and district budget constraints.
So, the rich kids get further and further ahead in the technology game while the poorer kids fall even further behind and the public education 'solution' doesn't seem to be working so well.
Questions that need to be asked by me -- personally
I feel like an old guy now (and my students say that 41 is old), as I am more thoughtful of which technologies I will adopt and incorporate in my life. I wonder if it's due to Kevin Kelly and his insistence on the nearly autonomous state, and possibly ominous tone of a 'technocratic' life. I know that I have modified the usage of Technocratic, but in some instances we are fully reliant on technological tools (most specifically electronic ones) and many of our systems would fail with the failure of one or more of these tools.
In my class discussion, I was forced to think about the technological tools which I CHOOSE to use and those I MUST use for the completion of my work, for pleasure, for survival and so on. I benefited greatly by recognizing how reliant I am on the technological tools in my life, but it also gave me a clearer view of what I could do without or do with less of.
It also made me recognize that I am not fully invested in the technology that is available to me. A simple case in point is this blog. It is difficult for me to 'blog' (and I am bothered to even use the term as a verb -- it removes my precious verb "write" -- I don't physically place myself in front of the computer very often, so should I try a different method? Would I be more willing to 'blog' if I didn't need to sit down? If I didn't need to be alone when I was writing? If it were more directly a social action for me?
Likewise, I think that I have failed to take full advantage of the vast amount of information available to me. I can quickly find reliable information on nearly any topic I wish. Millions of others are posting blogs, news articles, songs, videos and other packets of information each minute and I could access them if I needed.
My reluctance here is the question of the filter. No matter the method I use to search for that information on the network, I must rely on some application or service to deliver that information to me. Just as with television news, I only see what is delivered to my screen. While that may sound bad, it is not as I would be inundated, or more likely overwhelmed, with the articles and web pages containing information. Without a search engine, I could not even find the sites containing the information I need, let alone weed out the irrelevant sites.
While Google and Google Reader are effective tools, am I becoming too reliant on them as they feed me never-ending streams of data, snippets and information? Am I even able to keep up with the readings since I spend so little time in front of the computer each day?
In my class discussion, I was forced to think about the technological tools which I CHOOSE to use and those I MUST use for the completion of my work, for pleasure, for survival and so on. I benefited greatly by recognizing how reliant I am on the technological tools in my life, but it also gave me a clearer view of what I could do without or do with less of.
It also made me recognize that I am not fully invested in the technology that is available to me. A simple case in point is this blog. It is difficult for me to 'blog' (and I am bothered to even use the term as a verb -- it removes my precious verb "write" -- I don't physically place myself in front of the computer very often, so should I try a different method? Would I be more willing to 'blog' if I didn't need to sit down? If I didn't need to be alone when I was writing? If it were more directly a social action for me?
Likewise, I think that I have failed to take full advantage of the vast amount of information available to me. I can quickly find reliable information on nearly any topic I wish. Millions of others are posting blogs, news articles, songs, videos and other packets of information each minute and I could access them if I needed.
My reluctance here is the question of the filter. No matter the method I use to search for that information on the network, I must rely on some application or service to deliver that information to me. Just as with television news, I only see what is delivered to my screen. While that may sound bad, it is not as I would be inundated, or more likely overwhelmed, with the articles and web pages containing information. Without a search engine, I could not even find the sites containing the information I need, let alone weed out the irrelevant sites.
While Google and Google Reader are effective tools, am I becoming too reliant on them as they feed me never-ending streams of data, snippets and information? Am I even able to keep up with the readings since I spend so little time in front of the computer each day?
Saturday, February 12, 2011
On Twitter
I just sent a message on Twitter...@MRWabe...I wonder who will read it.
More than that, I kind of like Twitter because I am limited to 140 characters and I choose not to use texting lingo or abbreviations. I think that I am pushing myself to do this as a test of what is important to say and the idea that I need to be concise. What do I really have to say and how do I make sure that the people who need to read it do read it?
More than that, I kind of like Twitter because I am limited to 140 characters and I choose not to use texting lingo or abbreviations. I think that I am pushing myself to do this as a test of what is important to say and the idea that I need to be concise. What do I really have to say and how do I make sure that the people who need to read it do read it?
Friday, February 11, 2011
I will leave myself
Ok, so I love my children, right?
So I want to leave a bit of myself for them
and so they have my letters, and journals, and notes and snippets
in my handwriting, because that technology
carries a bit of my moods, personalities, feelings, dreams and hopes,
in the mode and penmanship of that day...
So I want to leave a bit of myself for them
and so they have my letters, and journals, and notes and snippets
in my handwriting, because that technology
carries a bit of my moods, personalities, feelings, dreams and hopes,
in the mode and penmanship of that day...
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
If it's not Literacy...
Wysocki & Johnson Eilola present a fairly good case for the possible overuse of the term Literacy, but I think that the issue truly lies at the essence of what we expect people to be able to do, use, manipulate and construct. Literacy, which once, as I understand it, meant 'the ability to read' is certainly thrown around a great deal. In my school, I have heard it used for reading fiction, reading non-fiction, being able to read signage and directions, computer literacy, smart-phone literacy, technologically literate, etc... Additionally, it has been used in reference to one's ability to write.
I think that Literacy is just a term that we are using to speak of one's ability to solve problems. The problems may appear in the tasks of decoding symbols to make words, decoding words, sentences and paragraphs to create meaning, inscribing symbols to paper (writing), deciphering mathematical computations to create solutions, etc... It is the identification of a task which needs to be accomplished and then using the tools, whether they be intrinsic tools within our minds and rationales, or extrinsic tools such as pencils, keyboards, computers, electronic files and so many more.
We need to address the ability of the learner (students and teachers alike) to evaluate the situation and then use whatever medium and tools are available to receive information, transmit information or create some product for a consumer which could come in the form of an evaluator, production manager, customer, or any variety of person in the social and economic chain.
Does it hurt to use Literacy as this word? I don't think so. Is it minimizing those who struggle with literacy of the written word? I don't think so, but it also is a convenient tool to identify skills that we may need to use in order to function n our societies.
I have always viewed Literacy as just that: the ability to function in a given social circumstance, whether that circumstance is created by physical proximity to people, hypertext, audio transmission, print on paper, music, or even sounds generated by tools such as whistles and commands. In each instance, the participants are more successful when they 'read' the situation correctly and interpret what the appropriate response should be and then act on it. That seems to be Literacy to me.
I think that Literacy is just a term that we are using to speak of one's ability to solve problems. The problems may appear in the tasks of decoding symbols to make words, decoding words, sentences and paragraphs to create meaning, inscribing symbols to paper (writing), deciphering mathematical computations to create solutions, etc... It is the identification of a task which needs to be accomplished and then using the tools, whether they be intrinsic tools within our minds and rationales, or extrinsic tools such as pencils, keyboards, computers, electronic files and so many more.
We need to address the ability of the learner (students and teachers alike) to evaluate the situation and then use whatever medium and tools are available to receive information, transmit information or create some product for a consumer which could come in the form of an evaluator, production manager, customer, or any variety of person in the social and economic chain.
Does it hurt to use Literacy as this word? I don't think so. Is it minimizing those who struggle with literacy of the written word? I don't think so, but it also is a convenient tool to identify skills that we may need to use in order to function n our societies.
I have always viewed Literacy as just that: the ability to function in a given social circumstance, whether that circumstance is created by physical proximity to people, hypertext, audio transmission, print on paper, music, or even sounds generated by tools such as whistles and commands. In each instance, the participants are more successful when they 'read' the situation correctly and interpret what the appropriate response should be and then act on it. That seems to be Literacy to me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)