Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Delicious

Today's tool is Delicious, a social bookmarking tool similar to Digg, that allows you to bookmark links, which are then stored on the Delicious website. The major benefit, from my perspective, is that delicious is a social, collaborative site that allows you to share links with others in your network. I've been able to share links with others and to get suggestions by looking at the links stored in my network.

Writing and Citizenship

Because the library never posted my article or Jill Walker Rettberg's article, I'll try to walk you through them a little in this blog post and in class. Here is my original reaction to having my assignment discovered by some of the subjects of the assignment and my reaction after calming down a few hours later. At the time I wrote these entries, I had been blogging for less than a year, so my reaction is probably shaped by the fact that blogs were still novel for me.

Here are some sample student responses that we can examine: Sara C; Alex K; Derek; and Tessa R.

One of the blogs I discuss is Rhetoric and Democracy, but the primary blog I discuss is "Writing to the Moment." The final entry on this blog shows how one of the subjects reacted to the scrutiny he received from my students.

Obviously privacy concerns would likely shape how blogs were used in a high school setting, but hopefully these blogs can illustrate my perspective a little.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Blogging:An Introduction 518

In the essay “Web-logs and Literary Responses,” Kathleen C. West, discusses how she used action research to study the effectiveness of using blogging as a tool to actively engage students in her literature class. She explains that the blogging technique helped her students get involved in the reading and writing process as they responded to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953). Blogging allowed the students to express their point of view as formally or informally as they felt comfortable to do. West feels that this method of instruction “…may change the way students engage in responding to literature.” In response to a previous blog, I happen to agree with the comments made by ndark. While this use of technology is an awesome technique to use in any curricular area, it would only work in a school that is technology-rich and/or where its students have access to the Internet at home. In fact, West even points out that her study focused on three white, middle-upper class students who are a part of a “largely upper-middle-class school district.” Otherwise, like ndark, she wouldn’t have been able to complete her study. On to the topic of Aby Clobridge’s blog “Adventures with Kyle: Blogging for Elementary Students”… I like the idea of using the blog the way her elementary school uses it. Having the children write about their school mascot, Kyle the Crocodile, who travels with a host of participants is cool! The students are engaged and can participate by commenting on and creating questions about Kyle’s adventure and the adventures that they have the opportunity to take him on. Although Clobridge pointed out some kinks in the system, the overall concept is cute and sounds like fun! I do have a question, what is Web.2.0? And what does “ ‘tracked out’” mean?

West Paper

I was intrigued by the way Ms. West chose to use blogging in her high school Literature class. I think allowing students to respond to text via blogging is an innovative way to meet the timeless objectives related to Literature ( ie. analyzing and interpreting text). However, not all schools have adequate access to technology the way it was demonstrated in the paper. I currently teach at a school that has one computer lab which is used to conduct Keyboarding and Computer Skills classes. I have access to two classroom computers which are not always "cooperative." In addition, I instruct a population of students who don't have computers within their homes. While the concpet of incorporating blogging in my class is exciting, it isn't feasable.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Affinity Spaces Discussion

One of the concepts I'd like to explore from Jenkins is James Gee's discussion of "affinity spaces." These are the informal learning cultures that students (and others) can use to mentor each other based on shared interests and goals.

in thinking about Gee's concept, I'd like to offer my own use of group blogs as a case study. In my Rhetoric and Democracy course from Fall 2004 (a whole election ago!), I required students to create group blogs focusing on a campaign issue that was important to them. As you can see, they wrote about a variety of topics, including gay marriage, international affairs, and stem cell research, among other topics (you might skim the sidebar to see how others pursued this project).

While I am aware of some differences--students were required to complete this project; the topics would likely not be relevant to younger students--it might present an interesting case study for class discussion.

Blogging Debates

Next Wednesday's readings are currently being processed by the library. When they are done, all three should be available online. The first two, Jill Walker Rettberg's "From Bards to Blogs" and my "Writing and Citizenship," situate blogging in specific historical contexts. In my case, I explore how my own attempts to use blogs led to a productive debate about the public nature of blogs.

The Kathleen West article is a discussion of how she used blogs for literary response. If the library's copy of the article doesn't show up online soon, then you might start by reading the version linked on this course wiki, a doc file (which may be slow to download depending upon your modem speed).

I would also like you to check out Abby Clobridge's "Adventures with Kyle," a discussion of her use of blogging in an elementary school classroom.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Why Heather Can Write

The article Why Heather Can Write would be a fair enough article if it simply focused on the positive effects technology has on amateur writers, but it weaves in many opportunities to bash public education—teachers in particular. This is where I have a problem with it. Henry Jenkins focuses on young writers who write non-original pieces On Line and have grammatically adept writers to edit their work and call that better than public education. Because I am a public teacher, I feel highly offended. Jenkins claims that Heather Lawyer uses such techniques in her Web-based “school newspaper.” Public school teachers use these strategies on the web and in the classroom. The only difference is that whereas Heather operates under the comforts of anonymity, teachers instruct under a cloud of accountability. Jenkins implies that Heather is a better teacher than the traditional public educator. But how do you know if she is doing a better job, if no measurement of her students’ knowledge is not assessed? To sum it up, I found the article to be offensive to the traditional classroom teacher. Sure Heather Lawyer was homeschooled, perhaps in an ideal, uninterrupted, with the least amount of restrictions and distractions. But let us not forget that the world is a classroom either via the internet or one-on-one under a tree, as we have learned from the great philosopher Socrates. Let us also not forget this—all students don’t like Harry Potter. What then??? Unfortunately for me, the article Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (Part One)” seemed to also focus on the obsoleteness and ineffectiveness of the classroom teacher by stating that many students who learn from participating in On Line writing associations would have otherwise “dropped out of school”. No wonder, it was written by the same author. davjosh

Monday, January 19, 2009

Why Heather Can Write

I think this is an interesting article about how young people learn reading, editing and writing. Everything students learn, is not always done in the classroom. Students have to explore every aspect of their learning, whether inside the classroom or outside the classroom. Heather is like so many students that I teach, because she picked up a book at 13 that changed her life. It's like a light came on for her at that moment. There are alot of students who experience what Heather experienced. As a reading teacher, you always hope a light comes on at some point.
Sometimes getting kids motivated about reading is half the battle. If they are reading something they want to read, they seem to like reading more. It is important that students make some kind of connection with what they are reading.
When students interact on-line or in other ways, they are still learning. I think the more students are exposed to different ways of learning, the more they learn. How they learn, and where they learn the information is not always as important, as learning itself.

My First Blog

This is my first blog, and I am really excited. I have never really blogged before now. So, I'm looking forward to it!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

"Why Heater Can Write"

As a seventh grade language arts teacher, I find this article refreshing and inspiring. My biggest challenges are presented during writing instruction. Many students lack the motivation to write and if motivated, the skills necessary to create rich and meaningful writing. Often times, I find myself on the brink of discouragement unable to inspire my students to take an interest in writing. However, reading this article has given me new hope that although my students show little interest in the writing assignments presented to them, maybe they have a found a creative outlet via the internet. In addition, this article has caused me to reflect on my own teaching practices and consider whether I can create these experiences in my own class.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Participatory Culture Essays

Here are the two readings for next Wednesday. First, a shorter column by Henry Jenkins, "Why Heather Can Write," which focuses on the relationship between "participatory culture" and media literacy. Second, a slightly longer piece by Jenkins, et al, "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture." This is a somewhat longer piece, so be prepared. In both cases, I'd encourage you to consider what Jenkins is defining as "participatory culture" and "media literacy" and to consider what role he imagines popular culture can serve in educating youth.

I'll provide you with more detailed questions in the days ahead, but I just wanted to make sure you had the material now.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Test

Good Evening!

This is my first post and I am extremely excited!
My name is Adowa and I am a middle school Languae Arts teacher at an alternative school in NC. I am two classes away from obtaining my Masters in Education. I am an alumni of an HBCU and hope to pursue my Doctorate in the coming future. I am the wife of an incredible Ghanaian man and the mother of two beautiful children under the age of 4. I am looking forward to learning about the various uses of technology that can be applied to my teaching.

Test Blog

Hello everybody,


This is my very first blog. I have never done this before, however, I am looking forward to doing blogging more in the very near future. Right now, I am taking English 518 under Dr. Chuck Tryon. He is introducing us to the fascinating world of blogging. My main objective is to become more computer savvy so that I can utilize this information in my classroom. Another reason for taking this course is so when my older children come around, I will actually know what I am doing!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

More Education Bloggers

Just a quick pointer to an education blogger I found via Twitter. Dr. Delaney Kirk is a professor of management and the author of Taking Back the Classroom.

She offers some useful suggestions about the relationship between digital media and pedagogy, including a recent pointer to this article by Lisa M. Lane on course management systems and pedagogy. As someone who finds most course management systems (CMS) unwieldy, I'm probably not the best advocate for CMSs such as Blackboard and WebCT, so it's worth checking out Lane's perspective.

Update: While I was revising the syllabus tonight--yep, I'm a procrastinator--I came across another helpful resource, Project New Media Literacies, a research-based initiative associated with MIT's Comparative Media Studies program. The program was headed up for some time by Henry Jenkins, who is the author of a number of texts we will be reading, including this "white paper" report funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Update 2: Another resource: Dan Gillmor's Center for Citizen Media. As we'll discuss in class, blogs have provoked a number of debates about what counts as journalism, how we become "media literate," or even what media literacy means. In particular, I'm interested in discussing Gillmor's "Principles for a New Media Literacy," which we might adapt for our own student populations.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Tracking Teaching Strategies

One of my goals this semester is to work with you on finding interesting teaching strategies that you might be able to implement in your classrooms in creative ways. We'll be doing this in part by working together in some form on compiling blog posts for a teaching carnival that I will host on my personal blog on March 23.

But I will also try to highlight other creative teaching strategies and interesting pedagogical discussions and would encourage you to do the same. One activity that I'd love to try this semester, perhaps in a freshman composition class is a variation on George Williams' Sticky Notes and Flickr activity, which he used to address the question of whether or not Gulliver's Travels is a novel, and which he described on his blog.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Blogging with Elementary School Students

Through a contact on Twitter, I came across the work of Abby Clobridge and Eric Hinsdale on The Library of Tomorrow, an organization devoted to helping students, teachers, and librarians manage information in the digital age.

Some of their work may be especially relevant to students focusing on elementary education, including Abby's recent post on "Adventures with Kyle," an experiment with blogging in an elementary school classroom. Abby's account is very pragmatic, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of certain blogging platforms and addressing what kinds of blogging assignments and activities worked best.

We'll revisit Abby's post later this semester, along with some other research on K-12 blogging, but I just wanted to provide you with some sense of some of the material we'll be addressing in the class.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Note on Links

I'm slowly but surely building a collection of blogs and other resources in the right margin of the blog, including many of the web resources created by and for the students in this class. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to mention them.

Welcome to English 518

This is the official course blog for Dr. Chuck Tryon's English 518 course, Technology in the Language Arts Curriculum, taught at Fayetteville State University. In this course, we will consider how various digital communications technologies, such as blogs, microblogs, wikis, and social networking and bookmarking sites, can be used for K-12 teachers in the language arts classroom.

You can learn more about the course from my personal blog, The Chutry Experiment, where I recently wrote about my plans for the course. Or you can follow me on Twitter, where I have also received advice about the course. Finally, you can see some of the texts I've considered discussing by looking at my delicious links, especially those focused on English 518, a tag I'll also be encouraging my students to use as well.

One of the major projects in English 518 will be to produce, in collaboration with my English 110 students, a wiki focused on local history and culture tentatively called The Fayetteville Project after Walter Benjamin's famous, sprawling analysis of 19th-century consumer culture, The Arcades Project.