The New Media Literacies

My assignment is to watch the video The New Media Literacies and comment on what I think about it. First I need to explain what new media literacies is. It is a set of skills needed to deal with and function in current media environment. These skills are important because they help us not only be a consumer, but a producer of media. There are eleven skills necessary in this new world.

The skills are listed as followed.

1.Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving.

2.Performance:the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation & theory.

3.Simulation: the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes.

4.Appropriation: the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content.

5.Multitasking: the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

6.Distributed cognition: the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities.

7.Collective intelligence: the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal.

8.Judgement: the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources.

9.Transmedia navigation: the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities.

10.Networking: the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information.

11.Negotiation: the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

I do believe that these are 21st century skills that will be needed to be effective artists, citizens, & workers. I personally posses the skills of play, appropriation, multitasking, collective intelligence, and networking. I am sure with a little more research, studying, and practicing that I can acquire the rest of the skills.

The Networked Student

My blog assignment this week is to watch and comment on the video The Networked Student. This video was produced by Wendy Drexler. I found the video to be very informative. It was a short video, but it made you think about the direction in which teaching is going. Am I prepared to be a teacher of a networked student? At this time I am not sure of the answer to that question. The video starts with a student taking an American psychology course. There is no textbook and the teacher never lectures. She is a student of connectivism. She believes that learning occurs as part of a social network with many connections. Technology is used to make these connections.

Connectivism makes students take control of their learning and personal learning network. Students are to connect with others. The student is to develop a personal network on the subject of the American psyche. He uses different tools to develop his network. Goggle scholar is one tool used. He then shares bookmarks about this finds and creates a blog. By using the blog the student is able to post comments about his topic and also read what others have to say. He is building a knowledge base. The student uses his mp3 player to subscribe to Itunes U. There he is able to gain access to audio/visual podcast of this topic. Next he develops a wikispace where he shares his knowledge about what he has learned.

During this whole process the student is developing his personal network. The teacher is there for guidance. The teacher's job is to help students extract relevant information and to guide them in their journey of learning. The teacher's goal is to help the students maintain their learning network so that they can use it in the future. I think that making students take some control of their own learning is great. Students need to know that staying networked through twitter, blogs, learning circles, or friends gives you a arrange of information, but it also can give you support. If you would like to watch this education video you can find it at http://is.gd/2cgBb. This is a great video for new teachers to watch.

This Is How We Dream

My assignment this week is to watch and interrupt the video, This Is How We Dream. I had a hard time listening to the video, the guys voice drove me crazy. I did not find the video very interesting, but I do understand that technology is the future and we need to be prepared to write with media. The old school way of learning, pencil to paper, is out the door. We need to know how to incorporate media tools into our learning. This is going to be extremely important for students to have the knowledge of media tools and apply them into their work.

In the video the Richard Miller discusses some of the incremental changes of media. Work space is now defined as the desktop. We can research any topic anywhere. Long gone are the days of pencil paper writing or even using libraries. Our society has advanced from pencil to paper to laptops. Mr. Miller discusses how he wrote an article regarding the Virgina Tech killings. He wrote this article without stepping foot into a library. He used the web and his on thoughts to research the topic. He discussed how this article can be found both in print and a web based document.

Mr. Miller discusses how we need to compose with text, images, and film. We need to collaborate different techniques into our work and use visual and audio sound into are documents. Richard Miller elaborates on a project he did about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He composed his information from research on the web and information around campus that he collected. His use of different media tools made his presentation more visible. I believe that Mr.Miller wants everyone to expand their ideas into society, we need to be producers of multimedia. It is a must that we know how to write with multimedia. I am personally still learning to write with multimedia. All this new technology is new to me, but as a teacher I am willing to continue to learn. I feel that students in todays society are going to have to be able to write with multimedia if they want to succeed in the future.

iPods in Instruction

My assignment for this weeks blog is to discuss the use of ipods in classroom instruction. I read the article on Duke University's use of ipods. I found it to be very interesting. I think it was a great idea the university had. Duke University gave all its first year students in 2004 a free ipod to use as part of class instruction. The students use of technology in the classroom with the ipods was a success. Again it goes back to the term head fake. Get the students involve in something that they might not necessary like, but do it in a matter that they will have fun and learn at the same time. Like incorporating the ipod into classroom instruction. Teachers can show that the ipod is used for more things than just listening to music.

I have to say that as I did this assignment I was a little unsure of the use of ipods in instruction. My 8 year old daughter has an ipod and I had no idea of the different things available for her use other than music. I learned that ipods can be used with students who struggle with reading. Stories can be downloaded to the ipod then the student can listen to the audio while they read. This will also help with reading fluency. Movie maker on ipods can be used to create your own tutorial. Students can listen to podcast of a variety of subjects and give reports on them. Older students can download study guides. Educational games are available to use to reinforce classroom materials. Ipods can be used with Hooked on Phonics programs. There are endless possibilities to use ipods in instruction with the classroom and at home. I found the following website to be very useful and plan to use some of their ideas with my own children's ipods.

100 ways to use your ipod to learn and studybetter

iTunes University

My assignment for this blog is define how iTunes Univerisity might be helpful to teachers or students. As I am new to all this technology I had to do some research myself about iTunes University. iTunes U is free educational content. It offers a chance to view or download information to devices. You have access to course lectures, lab demos, audio books, and a whole lot more. The information available to both teachers or students from iTunes Univeristy is remarkable.

This is a great tool to have and use for students or teachers. Teachers can use iTunes to download class lectures, give an introduction to a class, or even post class notes. Science teachers can use it for demos for labs. Teachers can also post podcast/video cast for their class. Students can view universities, class lectures, academics at a university, or even alumni information. There are a variety of categories students can explore in iTunes Univeristy. The one thing I learned about it is that it makes learning available on the go. If you are like myself and are not familiar with iTunes University watch the video at the following sitehttp://is.gd/2c3RH. I hope you find this video helpful.

Dr. Christie's Site

I found Dr. Christi's site to be very helpful. There was a large number of different resources available for educators. I found the website easy to explore. Her introduction was very welcoming. I like how she stated that we are all co-learners. Students and adults must be willing to learn together. I strongly agree with her. We as educators must be willing to continue to learn in every aspect of education. As I was exploring the site I came across Google Earth. I was not familiar with this so I had to view the introduction site. I was amazed at this wonderful tool.

This is a great tool to incorporate into your lessons. I took a visual tour of Google Earth and how it works. I love how it brings learning alive. It makes learning fun and enjoyable. As a teacher I would definitely use this in science, history, and even math. I watched a lesson where a teacher used Google Earth to measure 3 ships between Spain & Africa at the tip of Gibraltar. The students used the ruler tool in Google Earth to measure and compare the 3 ships. How neat is that to actually locate, see, and measure the ships. Math is now much more interesting and fun. I can only image the fun a class would have using Google Earth in a science or history lesson. You can learn about geographic content, weather, or different countries in a new exciting way.

I think this is a great example of using a "head fake" as Randy Pausch would say. How wonderful it is to have this tool available to use as teachers. Learning is no longer boring pen and pencil work. Educators can use Google Earth in a variety of ways to make difficult subjects come to life. Students will still learn, but in a different way. I think the key factor is that we are incorporating technology with learning.

Elementary Teacher Websites

Here are the websites listed in our video podcast. I hope you find them helpful.

http://elementaryteacherresources.com
http://edhelper.com
http://education.com
http://starfall.com
http://funbrain.com