Week 13

In the article, Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging From the internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies consisted of information about literacy and the Internet. The article talked about literacy in today’s social context. I found the statement, “the rapid emergence of the Internet as a powerful new technology for information and communication” to be so true. Every year the Internet becomes more involved and powerful through communication of social media networks inside and outside the workplace. In 2002 60% of all households reported having Internet access in their home. In eight years (1994-2002) the percentage of classrooms in the United States possessing to least one computer with Internet access went from 3% to 92%. I personally am amazed with these statistics. It just shows future educators how much the Internet has became so involved as well as mandatory in the classroom today. Therefore, the Internet is a rapid change that is becoming more and more popular not only in school settings, but as well as homes and businesses.

When talking about children’s literature through the Internet the definition cannot be just be limited to paper-printed media. Children’s literature also cannot just be limited to just paper-based books of printed pages, but must include books in electronic formats as well. According to this article, “definitions of literacy still must include concepts of composition, decoding, comprehension, and response, in order to understand how each of these definitional factors play out in electronic environments we must take into account current uses as indicators of current definitions of literacy.” The article mentions how media literacy scholars need to bring their understanding of critical literacies to the study of what students need to learn within the new literacies of the Internet. I think this is a great point because it is very important for students to understand how to be critical when it comes to literacy and the media. Overall, I found this article to be a great wealth of knowledge and I really enjoyed reading the article.

Week 12

In the article, Teaching about language, power, and text: A review of classroom practices that support critical literacy consisted of the author examining lessons and units that were created for critical literacy at the upper or primary grade levels. The author points out six broad categories based on student activities or tasks. The six categories are; reading supplementary texts, reading multiple texts, reading from a resistance perspective, producing counter texts, conducting student-choice research projects, and taking social action. Although these six categories have been presented as discrete, in many classrooms, activities are merged so that students are engaged in two or more of the tasks. I liked these six categories for literacy instruction. I think if used correctly in a unit or lesson they can become beneficial for the student.

In the article, Becoming Critical Consumer and Producers of Text: Teaching Literacy with Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 consisted of information for a variety of tools available online for teachers to use in their classroom with their students to become critical text consumers and producers. I liked the section about Writing with Comic Creator because I feel Writer’s Workshop is very important at the elementary level. The elementary level is when students learn how to become writers, but if a teacher does not make writing interesting and engaging I personally feel they could loose a student’s interest in the writing process. By having the students use ReadWriteThink.com the students can create their own comic strip. This is a fun creative way for students to write and be engaged in the writing process.

Week 11

In the article, Exploring the online reading comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade readers to search for and locate information on the Internet consisted of information about a study that explored the nature of reading comprehension processes while reading on the Internet. The study consisted of eleven sixth graders with the highest reading scores, reading report card grades, and Internet reading experiences. Students met with the researcher individually two different times and were assigned one task each time. The students task was to read a website that consisted of a multilayer website or a search engine. When the students were finished they were then asked to answer specific questions about their strategy used in an interview that followed the reading session. According to the authors, “reading Internet text prompts a process of self-directed text construction that may explain the additional complexities of online reading comprehension.” I found this study to be very knowledgeable since I am going into the literacy field. Especially since technology and the Internet is becoming such a useful tool for elementary level students.

In the article, Research on Instructional and Assessment in the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension consisted of information pertaining to the Internet as a tool for information regarding reading comprehension learning. I found this article to be very intriguing and resourceful. I particularly liked the section of the article about “What Might Classrooms Look Like In The Future?” As a future educator I feel that we need to be ahead of the game when it comes to technology and the Internet. According to the authors, “it is also likely that students and teachers will engage in important online reading projects to advance content area learning while they also develop greater proficiency with online reading comprehension.” I see this happening already in classrooms. Teachers are having their student’s set up blog accounts and then having them answer questions about a passage the students may have read online. This also creates interaction and discussion amongst the students.

In the article, Expanding the New Literacies Conversation consisted of information about building the importance of good theory building to inform understanding of the Internet in the schools. I think the article made a great point about Internet usage. 63% of children coming from homes where their parents make $75,000 or more annually used the Internet at school compared to 36% of children coming from households where their parents make $15,000 or less annually. Therefore, students in richer school districts have more of an advantage navigating the Internet in school and at home compared to those students who are in less privileged school districts.

Week 10

In the article, Acquisition of Information Online: Knowledge, Navigation and Learning Outcomes discussed the topic of an investigation that examined the relationship between prior knowledge and the World Wide Web browsing outcomes within the context of a genetic website. I personally found the studies findings to be interesting. The overall outcome of this study found that readers who were in the treatment group were engaged in prereading activities containing information designed to increase their prior knowledge. This group had significantly higher learning outcome scores than students in the control group. This investigation shows us that prereading assignments, if used correctly are very essential for students to use before beginning an assignment on the World Wide Web.

In the article, Becoming Literature in the technological age: New responsibilities and tools for teachers discuss the topic of literacy in this technological age as well as exploring a variety of tools available for educators and students. I found this article to be very helpful in the technology field when assigning a web-based assignment for students. I think Flaming Text will definitely come in handy in the future when assigning online projects for myself as a teacher as well as the students. This website seems very useful and easy to use to complete projects for the students. Overall, I really learned a lot from this article and I know I will find it to be very useful in the future.

Week 9

In the article, A Good Teaching Technique: WebQuests describes the new teaching tool WebQuest. The author provides detailed information about the structure of good WebQuests. The author also includes the strengths and weaknesses along with the challenges teachers or administrators might face. I felt this was a very beneficial article because it included not only the strengths of WebQuest, but also the weaknesses of WebQuest.

In the article, “I Guess It Was Pretty Fun” Using WebQuests in the Middle School Classroom focuses on ten suggestions for teachers to take into account when assigning an assignment using WebQuest. I liked how the article touched upon collaboration. Especially in today’s society students do not get to collaborate much outside the classroom because of all the electronic games there are out on the market. Overall, I feel that WebQuest is a fun, great way for students to collaborate and work together as teams do to complete a project.

Week 8

In the article, Evaluating the Importance of Common Components in School-Based Websites: Frequently of Appearance and Stakeholders’ Judges Value was an interesting study. Only eight of the seventy schools that were included in the study incorporated more than 50% of the recommended features in their site. I found this to be a very interesting statistic because it shows me that schools are not going out of their way to improve their site. The study also indicates that parents and students appear to disagree about specific types of data that are useful in a website. It is very common for parents and students to disagree. For example parents and students disagree on types of TV shows that students should not watch or video games that students should not be playing. Therefore, I do not find this statement to be out of the ordinary.

In the article, Using Websites Wisely consisted of ways to assist teachers to help students work online in a meaningful way. I found the article to be very helpful when assigning online work to students. The article also lists websites to use to help students learn. Overall, I feel this article had a lot of useful knowledge.

In the article, Making the Most of Your Class Website consisted of different types of websites you can use depending on your purpose for the classroom website. I never realized that there were different types of websites teachers could set up. I found this article to be very useful because I do plan on setting up a classroom website when I become a teacher. The article assisted me with determining the purpose of my classroom website. As well as to take into consideration that all students have sufficient access to the Internet and are computer savvy to do web based work. Overall, I feel this article will be useful to me when setting up my classroom website.

In the article, Elementary Classroom Web Sites: Support For Literacy Within and Beyond the Classroom consisted of a study based on how elementary classroom Web sites support children’s literacy. I found the Literature-Based Approach section to be very interesting. This approach was the least supported instructional approach, with 35% of Web sites included a feature regarding children’s literature. Only 32% of Web sites featured a link to children’s book authors. I find this to be very interesting because in literature book authors are very important as well as the instructional approach. Therefore, I found this article to be very knowledgeable regarding classroom Web sites.

Week 7

Chapter seven, Fun with Flickr is about a website where you can upload digital photos or videos that you take from a fieldtrip or throughout the day in the classroom. You can then share them on the web with parents and other community members. Flickr is free as long as you do not publish more than two 500MB videos a month and more than 100MB photos a month. Otherwise you have to create an account, which is $24.95 a year. By having an account it gives you unlimited photo and video uploads, unlimited storage ability, and unlimited viewing ability. Another great thing about Flickr is the privacy settings. When posting a picture you can make the comments that are posted under the picture private so only people you want to see them can see them. I also liked the idea that each photo that gets uploaded to Flickr can have “tags” or keywords associated with it by the publisher, and those tags are then searchable around the world. It is another great way for people to connect with others from around the world.

In the article, Photostreams to the People consisted of information about Flickr. According to Peggy Garvin, “Flickr began to develop The Commons when the Library of Congress proposed using the popular site to expose more people to its photo collections and to experiment with Web 2.0 interactivity.” I found this fact to be very knowledgeable in how Flickr was developed. I found the section on Social Media and Public Institutions to be very interesting and controversial. According to Peggy Garvin, “the 2009 CIL panelists each judged their participation as a success, citing the positive feedback from the public and the press and the rewards of richer contacts with their users.” I think this is a great positive reinforcement for teachers to know when deciding if they want to use Flickr in their classroom.

In the article, The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms I enjoyed reading. According to Larry Myatt, “now, more than ever, we need to connect the dots and make way for the powerful visual thinking lying dormant within our classrooms to surface in order to make sure our young people have the chance they deserve to pass the hurdles we put in their way.” This is so true because according to Larry Myatt, “the classrooms are likely to have anywhere from 4 to 10 students with special needs, ranging from those who require minor accommodations to others who need teachers to make substantial adjustments to their planning, instructional materials, and assessments.” By implementing new technology in the classroom I feel it will help students learn better academically through technology based interventions, especially the students with a learning disability.