Week 14 Semester Review & Reflection

Below is the link to my Prezi review of the semester
https://prezi.com/p/1-n_athdb9t5/

Week 13 Assignment # 1 Keystone Assignment

Below is the link to my Keystone assignment
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A2Jp2LCCHqWWRRoueilu27AKXxb4O7I89aD200dmswc/edit?usp=sharing

Week 12 Assignment # 1 Analysis of educational “affordances” on glogster

Glogster

       Writing is one of the most powerful modes of communication, allowing individuals to exchange ideas and transmit knowledge. While, reading is important because it supports content area learning and the development of critical literacy skills. However, many experts posits that reading and writing are changed in a multimodal environment as the reader engages with texts in ways that might be different than those intended by the writer. With multimodal tools like glogster, the reader decides which signs to attend to first, which links to follow, then synthesizes the meanings of modes and semiotic resources to construct a unified message. Glogster enables writers to compose multimodal messages merging video, images, text, hyperlinks, and audio. The writer is limited to the space provided on the poster, but can easily add and link pages to include more content. 

     To me, Glogster can be used in the classroom to increase interest in the course through the use of visual literacy skills, to make teaching entertaining and provides creative and artistic learning opportunities. Moreover, it can be used to addresses writing, speaking, and listening skills with the audio-visual items, to enable permanent learning and to create curiosity in students.

Click here for my Glogster:  https://edu.glogster.com/glog/writers-biography-5ddb332d0c52d/3apjutfr8wm

Week 11 Assignment #2 Voice Thread

Below is the link to my Voice Thread
https://psu.voicethread.com/share/13299885/

Week 11 Assignment # 1 Article Reflection

Using Voice Thread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success for All Students

      Some of the important ingredients for learning success in school includes the ability to engage and sustain attention, participate actively, maintain high levels of motivation, and complete assigned tasks. However, we see many students who are at risk or has a disability experience difficulty in these areas. According to authors Stein Brunvand and Sara Byrd article; Using Voice Thread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success for All Students we see them delves into practical ways web based learning tool can boost the learning skills and motivation of those students who are struggling with their academics.What I really liked was that students were able to use multimedia platform to explore subject areas(Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science), express their ideas, and share all at their own pace and learning level. This is exciting because traditional education has left educators often making herculean efforts to engage students, motivate them, and differentiate instruction for those struggling with the general curriculum and instruction. But, in this 21st century with digital native students educators have to go beyond building student knowledge and skills,to tap into educational strategies that are aimed at increasing school engagement, stimulating motivation, and learner independence. To this extent the authors posits that; “Innovative technological tools, programs, and software can be used to promote student engagement, motivation, and ultimately enhance the quality of the learning experience for students with disabilities.” 

      Voice thread is a great tool because it is flexible, it can be used with students in general education, with students considered at risk, and with students with disabilities. Moreover, it can be used in whole class, in small groups, or independently in a classroom, computer lab, at home, or anywhere else an Internet-enabled computer can be found. It enables teachers to capitalize on student learning strengths and preferred learning modalities by encouraging active participation in the learning process. This allows students to take responsibility for their own learning and allows passive learners to become more actively involved through interaction with the instructional content as well as their peers. Teachers can provide instructional “input” through many means which include auditory means (e.g., teacher recorded messages or peer recorded messages) and visual means (e.g., reading text on the screen and looking at pictures/graphics, photographs, images, and video clips). On the other hand, students output could include verbal expression (i.e., students record their responses/interactions) or written expression (i.e., students type their responses). Teachers can differentiate the learning experience for students by structuring the use of these input/ output modalities to best meet the needs of the learner.

      In conclusion, there are many web platforms that strategically provide instruction and new ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts. However, teachers and educators need to go through all these tools to find the one that best suits the needs of their students and use it to help them succeed in everyday classroom activities.

Week 10 Assignment #1 Issues with New Literacies and the Curriculum

Below is the link to my video on New Literacies
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cqXlepU2Tx

Week 9 Digital Story

Below is the link to my digital story
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cqX1fKUfsU

Week 9 Assignment # 1 Article Reflection

Assignment #1: Read the article, The impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation, and write a reflection.

     Reading motivation is a large part of the driving force that help students to concentrate on their positive or negative opinions about reading. Learners who read for pleasure usually employ approaches to help themselves comprehend much better. The problem here is that young adults in the digital age are devoting more time to accessing digital-media information than information from traditional printed texts. Therefore, the authors’ posits that this change has been one of the factors that correlated with young adults’ negative reading achievement. They further went on to explain that this habitual multitasking behavior that is brought upon them from digital media information has contributed to short attention span, reduced engagement in sophisticated reading tasks, lower reading scores and the lower comprehension abilities.

     To address these problems of eroding reading and writing skills in young adults and college student higher education institutions use reading diagnostic assessments (placement tests) to determine whether or not first-year college students have the required reading skills for successful standard entry level college courses. Furthermore, they are creating developmental reading classes where students learn various strategies and techniques to achieve academic success through extensive reading and writing assignments. As great as this may seem, the problem still existed because little has been done to examine whether or not developmental readers prefer interacting with digital texts, whether or not the readers demonstrate superior comprehension skills through the use of dynamic new media technologies, whether or not reading in a multimedia environment requires many different types of literacy skills, and whether or not college reading professors are ready to adopt digital text in their courses.

      With all these questions in mind a variety of theoretical stances have been studied, but the author postulate the use of the 3D model, which suggests that educators should focus on three dimensions of literacy technology learning: operational, cultural, and critical dimensions. They believe that the operational dimension concerns the competence of using a language system and operating computer and network technology to read and write; while the cultural dimension involves the use of technologies to make meanings in authentic social contexts; and the critical dimension focuses on optimizing or assessing technology to support and exercise critical thinking. Moreover, they believe that using blogs, wikis, digital video, concept maps, and Google Earth, were all great ways to delve into this theory and exercise new literacies in supporting college reading instruction. The reason they preferred blogs was because it has greater flexibility, and offer a richer learning environment than traditional course-management systems. Moreover, it enhances social interaction, provide a channel to build a sense of community, strengthen communication skills, and helps with writing for a real audience.

      According to authors HUI-YIN HSU AND SHIANGKWEI WANG the solution to this issue is that developmental reading professors should recognize the existing challenges posed by and faced by the underachieving college freshman, they should explore pedagogies that encourage students to improve their reading performance through technology, they should give students the opportunity to practice new-literacies skills,and should devise various strategies for using multimedia resources that maintain student interest after the novelty of a given technology wears off.

    In conclusion, because motivation is one of the key factors to assist learners’ reading comprehension. Educators needs to find and use whatever strategies or pedagogies will help them connect college learning with students’ technology-saturated lives. In this way, our higher education systems will better prepare college students to succeed in the twenty first century work forces. Teachers should go beyond their traditional roles by providing opportunities for their learners to become motivated and substantially improve their reading comprehension proficiency.

Week 7 Assignment #2 Second Life

Second Life

After talking to my cooperating teacher, I learned that she had never heard about Second Life (SL) but was excited to look at new ways to incorporate technology into her language instruction. We brainstormed ways in which she can incorporate SL into her lesson plan to add depth/ quality and came up with a few:

• We can create a virtual classroom or take virtual field trips that will promote more social interaction and help educators save time by making lessons relevant.
• Second Life can be used to explore a specific topic that the class will be studying or has already studied, students can visit and explore interesting topics in a more concrete manner rather than abstract which will enhance their learning experience.
• Since SL supports the playback of audio and video files, has text, images students can create their own scenarios or teacher can flip the classroom which will add enthusiasm and motivate learning.

Week 7 Assignment #1.2 Using ADDIE model in Second Life

Second Life

One of the most important purposes of an educational environment is to promote social interaction among users located in the same physical space. However, technological advances has enabled the use of innovative learning tools like virtual reality for the purpose of education in a way that collaborative. Virtual reality is a tool that assists students with learning and knowledge retention, it allows students to explore and move around their classrooms while learning. According to authors; Shiang-Kwei Wang and Hui-Yin Hsu, one of the newest forms of this technology is Second Life which is a platform of endless possibilities. They believe that, “Educators should explore the possibilities of engaging and improving online learners’ motivation, thereby increasing the likelihood of achieving desirable learning outcomes.” From the article we can see that Second Life (SL) was designed to enriched learning by experience, providing a near-real life experience that strengthens a sense of social presence or encourages multi-level interaction that exemplifies the (1) relationships between students and content, (2) relationships between instructors and students, and (3) relationships among students. Moreover, this tool promotes educational efficacy and constructivism in a way that allows learners the freedom to discover information relevant to his or her interests in an attempt to construct their own meaning.

Week 7 Assignment # 1.1 Theories and practice of Multimodal Education

    Multimodal Education

   It is becoming quite evident in this “new media” age that a transition from print-based education to multimodal education is occurring. Even Though, many traditional roles for teachers remain necessary; they act as facilitator, instructor, model, and so on. However, they are three additional roles teachers need to adopt in order to facilitate children’s navigation of complex, multimodal, electronic worlds, these include teacher as resource manager, teacher as co- constructors of knowledge and teacher as design consultant. In the article; “Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education: The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms”, authors Dawnene D. Hassett and Jen Scott Curwood posits the idea that that teachers’ and students’ interactions with the characters, plots, and visuals of interactive children’s books can highlight new shifts in literacy learning. They suggest an approach that is multimodal. To them, a multimodal approach in the classroom can be a source of creativity for both teachers and students because it focuses on the combination of text, audio and image as individual modes and how these can be creatively combined to produce meaning, encourage interaction and learning in the classroom. Furthermore, as Siegel noted, “language arts education can no longer ignore the way that our social, cultural, and economic worlds now require facility with texts and practices involving the full range of representational modes.” To me, this approach to teaching and learning is exceptional because teachers combine two or more multimodal learning modes to provide a well-rounded educational experience. They help their students to construct knowledge through the use of pointed questions and open ended questions. Since school environments have diverse student populations with a wide variety of learning styles, a multimodal approach helps each student achieve academic success in their own way.

Week 6 Assignment #2.2 Edmodo in the classroom

       Write a paragraph on how ELA teachers can use Edmodo to enhance their ELA instruction. 

          In this day and age of smartphones, apps, social media, and always-connected devices, students are having a harder and harder time keeping their focus on their teachers. Yet the idea of 21st century learning is encouraged and deemed necessary, a tool like Edmodo is great for digital natives. It is a safe environment where both students and teachers can learn across all areas. This platform is based around groups with a common interest or purpose, such as a classroom learning community. It provides a secure and private environment since, the administrator or teacher is the one who invites the members of the group. This controls who can and cannot interact with the members of the group. The thing I like about Edmodo is that instead of teachers competing for their students' attention, they can engage them with real conversations through the devices and interfaces they’re already familiar with.

        Edmodo can be incorporated into the ELA classrooms in a variety of ways to enhance instruction and elevate the learning experience. It can be used to consolidate all of classroom activities in one place. The teacher can post assignments, allow students to take quizzes, create polls for students to respond, and provide links for useful information. Moreover, the teacher can facilitate project based learning in his/her classroom by leveraging Edmodo’s small-group feature, or he/she could use Edmodo badges to help motivate students to push their learning and increase their practice time on new topics. Also, he/she can enable students to tap into individualism and build self-esteem by sharing their writing projects with each other in Edmodo or they can help students understand key historical and literacy events by reenacting them through role playing activities in Edmodo.

Week 6 Assignment # 2.1 Response to Articles

Assignment 2.1 Read the two articles Middle School Science Teachers’ Confidence and Pedagogical Practices of New Literacies and Using Social Networking Sites to Enhance Teaching and Learning in the Science Classroom and share your Reader Response. 

    The two articles; Middle School Science Teachers’ Confidence and Pedagogical Practices of New Literacies and Using Social Networking Sites to Enhance Teaching and Learning in the Science Classroom were very eye opening to me. Prior to reading these articles new literacies seemed to be geared at English Language Arts but I was astonished to see that they can actually be used to enhance or facilitate inquiry learning on many levels, as well as they can provide new strategies for presenting the nature of science in the classrooms. As a science teacher in the elementary classroom I am excited with the idea of learning strategies and techniques that will enhance my students inquiry skills. I believe that when teachers engage students in the scientific inquiry process, they can actively develop their understanding of science but when they incorporate new literacies in the classroom the Science lesson takes on a new meaning and come to life like the example unit on Humans Impact on the living environment. 

     The other thing that really stood out to me was the teachers ability to use new literacies in the science classroom. I usually like to incorporate videos, Powerpoints etc into my science lesson but to me I feel limited in what I can and cannot do. However, I believe that school administrators and curriculum directors needs see the interconnectedness of new literacies and scientific literacy. Moreover, they need to increase teacher and student access to technology, provide professional development opportunities to enhance teachers’ ICTs integration skills and design a way to connect teachers’ strong ICTs skills to their classroom practices.

    I totally agree with the article; Using Social Networking Sites to Enhance Teaching and Learning in the Science Classroom. To me, the integration of social networking sites and ICTs provides meaningful ways for teachers to enrich students’ learning experiences and cultivate their new-literacy skills. In our fast paced world students need immediate feedback and motivation, thus enabling social communication and integrating ICTs motivate them in the learning process. Moreover, their opinions and thoughts are valued by their peers in the collaborative discourse and argumentation process within a scientific context.

Week 5 Assignment # 2 Philosophy on Gaming

Philosophy on Gaming and game design.

   To me, teaching and learning is constantly evolving, the content remains the same but the methodology can and has varied over the years. The traditional classroom is no longer meeting the diverse needs of our learners thus the use of gaming can be instrumental. Strategic games improve the functioning of the brain and creates a dynamic that can inspire learners to develop skills and build an emotional connection to learning and subject matter. Moreover, through gaming students can develop their critical thinking skills, creativity, teamwork, and good sportsmanship. They mirror the way the human mind was designed to learn and motivate players to take risks and actions, persevere through failures, set and achieve increasingly difficult goals, and devote attention, time, and effort to acquiring knowledge and skills. Also, the nature and timing of learning activities through gaming can be tailored to the child’s needs and interests.

Week 5 Assignment #1 Scratch Project

Below is the link to my scratch project
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/334634279

Week 4 Assignment # 3 Gaming

Below is the link to my Screencast-o-matic video for the game I chose
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cq6VlQu6kd

Week 4 Assignment #2 Gaming Lesson Plan

Below is the link to my Lesson Plan
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NspBG412YLo0vYbj8_oLQf7pNvX6O7sQl0P0Bajnmp0/edit?usp=sharing

Week 4 Assignment # 1 Gaming Literacies

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how?

Gaming Literacy

It is quite evident that digital gaming is already making headway in education. Despite what cynics say about gaming, in the classroom, it can have a significant and positive impact on students. Many of the techniques like choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning and consequences can be used to motivate students intrinsically or extrinsically. Furthermore, I believe that other elements like Mystery, Action, Challenge Being at risk, the uncertainty of outcome, the opportunity for mastery, the visible signs of progress and the emotional content are the driving forces behind the success of gaming. Gaming is that tool that all educators can use to keep students engaged and actively participating in their own learning. To me, the more engagement students have, there is a greater motivation in the learning process.Therefore, instead of trying to dissuade them from gaming, we as educators can make the most of students’ passion by creating easy access to gaming. 

Text: The myths are everywhere about gaming but it is clear that gaming can be used to develop new learning environments. It is not a brainless activity like many believe, in fact it is a transactional process that occurs between readers, text, and context to promote critical thinking and problem solving. According to Hsu and Wang; “players need to be able to read text to understand the information presented in the games and they are provided with immediate feedback that helps the players understand rules or functions, narrates the story,and enables characters to converse with one another. Furthermore, in gaming the players need to identify the main idea of textual information and use their prior gaming knowledge and experience to construct meaning and progress through the game.

Visual-graphic elements:The visual graphic element determine the look and feel of the game and make it all the more desirable for children to play. More importantly, the players need to be able to see and interpret the meaning attached to the graphics and animations. They also allow players to have choice and control over what they will do with any new information they receive and help them develop a faster stimulus-response, foster learners’ spatial skills, and detecting information in the visual environment.

Audio elements: To me, a video game’s sound design is one of the most important factors when playing a game. The elements are used to make the gaming experience entertaining and interactive. They serve to immerse the player in the game through dialogue, thematic music, and sound effects. Moreover, game audio and sound design plays an important role in creating a lasting, memorable gaming experience.

2. What is the goal of the game? The name of one of the games my five year old loves is Splash Math (https://www.splashmath.com/teacher/home).The goal of the game is to provide a personalized learning path and practice unlimited Math problems. It gives a real-time reports dashboard and provides exciting and engaging math practice for students.

3. What are the rules of playing this game? The rules of the game is very simple, there are several categories that the child can choose from. Once he selects a category for example Numbers to Ten, Adding or counting with counter, he has to master several skills before moving on. Each activity has several questions that he has to answer, if he gets the answer wrong he gets three chances before the game give him the correct answer. If he gets it right, he is congratulated and given another question.

4. Does this game have any scenario design? (Refer to the journal article page 5.) If yes, is this a fabricated or embedded in curriculum-related content? This game does not have any scenario design.

Week 3 Assignment # 2 Minds- On

Assignment #2 Minds-on “New Literacies Definition and Components.

1 . Which ideas from the PPT reflect what the ELA teachers you interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy instruction?

The idea from the PPT that reflects what the English Language Arts(ELA) teacher I interviewed was doing to integrate technology in her literacy instruction is the fact that I saw her use technology (smart board, document camera and various software) as tools to showcases how a laptop complements and extends traditional literacy learning and supports student engagement.

2. How can you help change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum?

I can help to change this teacher’s instructional practices in literacy by first of all helping her to understand that her most important role right now is to assist students in becoming critical consumers and informed creators of information in these new online contexts. She can provide instruction in how to critically evaluate the relevancy, accuracy, reliability, and perspective of information created for a range of purposes and audiences. Since, this teacher already use a variety of technology in her classroom, I would suggest using learning centers, writing prompts, graphic organizers, digital worksheets, and Kahoot to supplement what she already uses in her daily routines. Her role is to seek out peers who use ICTs responsibly, actively and share effective strategies applied to a range of literacy purposes and settings.

3. What professional development and/or resources will they need in order to make these changes?

Attempts to integrate ICT into the classroom are influenced by such things as the availability of the necessary technology infrastructure, support for teachers, accessible change models, teachers’ practices, curriculum constraints, assessment practices, education policies, and professional development. Since, this teacher already have the technology infrastructure and she is eager to learn and use technology to enhance her literacy instruction, I would recommend STAR-online which is a web-based Virtual Teaching and Learning Community (VTLC) system, which provides interactive, self-paced, and collaborative development. Also, I would recommend TECHNOSKEPSI, HANDLEARN, and ENVETI because in these programs teachers are taught how to integrate online technologies and web-based tools in their teaching by participating in workshops that are offered face-to-face and supported within an online learning environment.

4. What ideas do you have for grouping students so they will have equal access to technology in the classroom?

When it comes to technology in the classroom, I believe every student should have their individual laptops but because of budgeting constraints many schools are unable to do this. So I recommend grouping students in mixed ability groups where they can help each other navigate the devices as well as the various software used to improve literacy, comprehension and integrate ICT in their classroom.

Week 3 Assignment 1 Theory in Practice

In the article; Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies by Diane Barone, Todd E. Wright, we see how new literacies can be woven into or implemented into the everyday classroom to motivate students and improve achievement. Many teachers may identify with past models of literacy that are paper and pencil bound; however, with the advent of the internet we have seen a greater demand for students to move in the direction of using innovative text formats like multiple media or hybrid texts; or new reader expectations like reading nonlinearly;as well as new activities like website publication. Therefore, we cannot ignore the changes in literacy emerging from new technologies. Instead, we need to be equipped to incorporate different technological tools into our instruction not only to engage, but to help students learn in a way that is natural for them. Moreover, I believe that preparing our students to understand and adjust to these literacy demands is critical to current and future expectations for pleasure, future college or work. 

Furthermore, In the article; New Literacies and 21st-Century Technologies, by the International Reading Association, the authors posit that the Internet and other forms of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are redefining the nature of reading, writing, and communication. These technology can help to extend traditional literacy experiences with comprehension of information on the Internet; through the effective use of search engines, web pages, email, instant messaging (IM), blogs, podcasts, e-books, wikis, nings, YouTube, video, and databases to locate information; evaluate and synthesize Internet sources, word processing and productivity tools to make charts, graphs, diagrams, or apps like flowcharts, popplets,etc; communicate using e-mails, text,chat, video tools, imaging tools, audio recording tools,etc; as well as to use word processing programs. Moreover, the technology can be used simply in classrooms by accessing the internet on a computer, using a word processor, or presentation software. Technology can also be used to create authentic writing projects, communicate with peers from school and outside of school, and proudly display work for families and friends to see. 

The reality is that even though, literacy educators have a responsibility to integrate these new literacies into the curriculum to prepare students for successful civic participation in a global environment. Many teachers are reluctant or hesitant to use these new technologies because the Internet and other ICTs require new social practices, skills, strategies, and dispositions for their effective use; in other words, teachers have to learn the new technology and then figure out the best way to incorporate it into their teaching and learning activities. Then by the time they learn it and get the handle of the technology it become antiquated because something newer or better has replaced it. Nevertheless, it is crucial that teachers seek out professional development that is personally relevant, actively engaging, and cognizant of the developmental process through which they can integrate technology in their classrooms as well as establish a vision that includes the integration of new literacies within the literacy curriculum because new technologies are here to stay.

To conclude, in the article; Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging From the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies by Donald J. Leu, Jr., Charles K. Kinzer, Julie L. Coiro, and Dana W. Cammack, it became clear that these new information and communication tools allow us to identify important problems, quickly gather information, critically evaluate the information we locate, synthesize that information into a solution, and then communicate the solution to others. The new literacies required to effectively use ICTs to accomplish these functions are central to success in an information age because it produces critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Week 1 Assignment 1 Voki Introduction

Below is the link to my Voki video
http://tinyurl.com/y6nhm8bz