Monday, March 18, 2013
New Literacy: My conceptual understanding and classroom implications
1) Your Conceptual Understanding:
When I first posted about literacy at the beginning of this semester I only had knowledge of what literacy was, not what literacy can be. Since the beginning of class I always thought literacy was just understanding print through books. I never once thought to include new literacies like visual or environmental, just to name a few. Our group had visual literacy for our project and through this projects I saw that visual literacy is very important in today's technology centered world. Learning like everything else is fast paced and using images for children's learning is both beneficial for them and for teachers.
Our group project has made me see that images, graphs, or just visuals in general or used in visual literacy and can be more of a learning experience for all, even more so that print literacy. Images are easier for students to understand and comprehend versus actual print literacy. I found through this project that visual literacy is very important for the fast pacing world of technology. By using visual literacy through technology in the classroom, the students are getting involved with technology as much as possible. Visual literacy in our project was a great way to showcase how you could do that. That is something I never would have thought doing before this class began.
2) Classroom Implications:
To provide effective literacy instruction to diverse learners we as teachers must make literacy informative as well as engaging. Through visual literacy comprehension can be increased for students. Adding visually literacy to any subject increases their engagement in the learning of any specific topic. Our project on kerpoof.com used technology to create your own story with images and text. This is a great way for any student of any thinking level to properly engage themselves in a fun project. Visual and digital literacies are very important for today's student. It lets teachers integrate technology in the classroom.
New Literacies Final Blog
1) Conceptual Understandings
My understanding of literacy has really broadened up since this project. At the beginning of this class I thought of literacy as simply being whether a person was able to read and write. To be considered literate, I thought it meant you could read and write fluently. While I know this is still one kind of literacy, after doing this project and exploring many types of literacy, I now know literacy can mean many different things because there are many types of literacy. The new literacy I focused on was emotional literacy but by exploring my classmates projects I saw the wide variety of literacies that there are. Before completing this project I would not have known what emotional literacy is and why it is important to be emotionally literate, or emotionally intelligent. Now I know that emotional literacy involves being able to identify your own emotions and how to handle them as well as being able to tell how other people are feeling. I also found that exploring a new digital literacy that I have never heard of before helped me to broaden my definition of literacy as well. Technology is extremely popular today, so therefore it should definitely be included in literacy. Being able to use technology is basically expected of people nowadays so therefore, I found it very helpful to learn and explore a new digital technology I had never heard of to expand my digital literacy knowledge.
2) Classroom Implications
After learning that there are many different types of literacy, I would try to teach as many as possible in my classroom. I think it would be possible to include many literacies into lesson plans. For example, emotional literacy could be discussed during language arts time. One way I might do this in my classroom is discuss how characters are feeling, and why. Ask the students how they could make them feel better, or how they would handle the situation that is making the character feel what they are feeling. Visual literacy could also be used in many lessons, by making many things visual. Even though many visual items would be used in the lesson, I would keep in mind that all students are diverse learners, which means I would still use words for those who learn better with audio. Using Edmodo.com for my digital literacy I really saw how useful and helpful technology can be in the classroom. In order for students to become more digitally literate I think it is important to include technology in the classroom all of the time. For example, I could see myself using Edmodo.com in my own classroom for a space that we can all communicate together as a class outside of the actual classroom in a safe environment. In order for students to be able to use Edmodo.com they would need to have internet access. I would also give them explicit lessons during class time on how to use the website correctly, and they would be given time to practice in class so I could help as needed.
My understanding of literacy has really broadened up since this project. At the beginning of this class I thought of literacy as simply being whether a person was able to read and write. To be considered literate, I thought it meant you could read and write fluently. While I know this is still one kind of literacy, after doing this project and exploring many types of literacy, I now know literacy can mean many different things because there are many types of literacy. The new literacy I focused on was emotional literacy but by exploring my classmates projects I saw the wide variety of literacies that there are. Before completing this project I would not have known what emotional literacy is and why it is important to be emotionally literate, or emotionally intelligent. Now I know that emotional literacy involves being able to identify your own emotions and how to handle them as well as being able to tell how other people are feeling. I also found that exploring a new digital literacy that I have never heard of before helped me to broaden my definition of literacy as well. Technology is extremely popular today, so therefore it should definitely be included in literacy. Being able to use technology is basically expected of people nowadays so therefore, I found it very helpful to learn and explore a new digital technology I had never heard of to expand my digital literacy knowledge.
2) Classroom Implications
After learning that there are many different types of literacy, I would try to teach as many as possible in my classroom. I think it would be possible to include many literacies into lesson plans. For example, emotional literacy could be discussed during language arts time. One way I might do this in my classroom is discuss how characters are feeling, and why. Ask the students how they could make them feel better, or how they would handle the situation that is making the character feel what they are feeling. Visual literacy could also be used in many lessons, by making many things visual. Even though many visual items would be used in the lesson, I would keep in mind that all students are diverse learners, which means I would still use words for those who learn better with audio. Using Edmodo.com for my digital literacy I really saw how useful and helpful technology can be in the classroom. In order for students to become more digitally literate I think it is important to include technology in the classroom all of the time. For example, I could see myself using Edmodo.com in my own classroom for a space that we can all communicate together as a class outside of the actual classroom in a safe environment. In order for students to be able to use Edmodo.com they would need to have internet access. I would also give them explicit lessons during class time on how to use the website correctly, and they would be given time to practice in class so I could help as needed.
New Literacy- Conceptual Understanding and Classroom Implications
Conceptual Understanding
My original definition of literacy that I posted was several people's individual conceptions about what literacy was. Only one of them talked about technology, but overall everyone of those people agreed that literacy's main goal is communication. Through researching visual literacy and using a digital literacy to go along with it, my understanding of literacy has grown. Before this project, I thought of literacy as one big idea that encompassed everything- visual, communication, culture, technology, etc. I thought of it as something very general, which I think is reflected in my original definition. But now, I know that there are many different literacies, each one having very specific definitions and are all inter-related in trying to communicate a message. By researching visual literacy, I came to understand that pictures, graphs, videos, models, etc., are all different ways in which people communicate. The main sense used to comprehend the message is sight, but the other senses can also be used to supplement this- thus, the overlapping of literacies. The digital literacy used in my group's project also demonstrated how important it is for students to be taught how to use technology- that technology alone is it's own kind of literacy. Digital literacies are extremely useful for supplementing development of other literacies as well while allowing students to be even more creative with their message.
Classroom Implications
Based on my new understanding of literacy, I believe effective literacy instruction focuses on integrating all the literacies into daily lessons and assessments. Diverse learners come from all different backgrounds and all have varied ways of learning and preferred ways of communication, so it would be wrong to focus on one type of literacy over another. Making sure students are competent in each literacy will help them to grow up to be global citizens.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Notes on New Literacy
1. What am I learning about
the new literacy I am researching?
The new literacy I am researching is emotional literacy. I have learned that emotional literacy has a lot to do with whether or not someone is able to describe how they feel and if they understand how others are feeling. When relating this to my future students, I think it is important to be emotionally literate because understanding how other people are feeling and being able to empathize with them is important. I have also learned that emotional literacy involves being able to manage emotions. I also think that this is an important quality to learn to have because as humans we all experience many emotions and it is important to know how to handle and manage them.
2. What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
My digital literacy is Edmodo.com. I have learned that this is a great way for all students/parents/teacher to interact with each other. By exploring Edmodo.com I have learned that this digital literacy can go along with emotional literacy. This website can provide students a place to share how they are feeling in a comfortable way. As the teacher, I can control who can see what posts, which makes it a private comfortable space. In addition, Edmodo.com is very organized and includes a planner so the students can see exactly where they are supposed to be in their learning.
The new literacy I am researching is emotional literacy. I have learned that emotional literacy has a lot to do with whether or not someone is able to describe how they feel and if they understand how others are feeling. When relating this to my future students, I think it is important to be emotionally literate because understanding how other people are feeling and being able to empathize with them is important. I have also learned that emotional literacy involves being able to manage emotions. I also think that this is an important quality to learn to have because as humans we all experience many emotions and it is important to know how to handle and manage them.
2. What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
My digital literacy is Edmodo.com. I have learned that this is a great way for all students/parents/teacher to interact with each other. By exploring Edmodo.com I have learned that this digital literacy can go along with emotional literacy. This website can provide students a place to share how they are feeling in a comfortable way. As the teacher, I can control who can see what posts, which makes it a private comfortable space. In addition, Edmodo.com is very organized and includes a planner so the students can see exactly where they are supposed to be in their learning.
Digital and Visual Literacy Notes
1. What am I learning about the new literacy I am researching?
The definition of literacy that I posted is different from that of visual literacy in that my definition focuses on words- understanding, writing, speaking, and reading. Visual literacy, however, is the process of understanding through picture only with minimal words.
Viewing is a major part of visual literacy, as you must depend on your sight in order to begin to comprehend .
From using this literacy, I have learned that there can be other senses besides sight that help a person understand visual literacy.
For my students in my classroom, they would need to have the vocabulary necessary to describe the picture. Being able to describe the picture and tell a coherent story would be skills needed. To help them develop this, questions such as "what is happening in this picture? who is doing what? what do you think will happen next?" will help scaffold and allow students to work on developing story telling skills.
2. What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
The digital storytelling technology we are using is useful for teaching because it allows students to be creative and share their ideas in multiple different ways.
I think it might be especially challenging to make a story without words since so often stories depend on the words to convey meaning.
This technology is limited in allowing the audience to interact because they can read the story and react to it, but there is not really any place for them to respond. The technology lends itself to younger aged students by having simple features that allow them to create their own stories, but is limiting in communicating ideas because it does not allow voice-overs or showing how to use the technology. That is why it might be useful to use Jing to show how to use the storytelling features more explicitly.
The definition of literacy that I posted is different from that of visual literacy in that my definition focuses on words- understanding, writing, speaking, and reading. Visual literacy, however, is the process of understanding through picture only with minimal words.
Viewing is a major part of visual literacy, as you must depend on your sight in order to begin to comprehend .
From using this literacy, I have learned that there can be other senses besides sight that help a person understand visual literacy.
For my students in my classroom, they would need to have the vocabulary necessary to describe the picture. Being able to describe the picture and tell a coherent story would be skills needed. To help them develop this, questions such as "what is happening in this picture? who is doing what? what do you think will happen next?" will help scaffold and allow students to work on developing story telling skills.
2. What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
The digital storytelling technology we are using is useful for teaching because it allows students to be creative and share their ideas in multiple different ways.
I think it might be especially challenging to make a story without words since so often stories depend on the words to convey meaning.
This technology is limited in allowing the audience to interact because they can read the story and react to it, but there is not really any place for them to respond. The technology lends itself to younger aged students by having simple features that allow them to create their own stories, but is limiting in communicating ideas because it does not allow voice-overs or showing how to use the technology. That is why it might be useful to use Jing to show how to use the storytelling features more explicitly.
Notes on my new literacy learning
1) What am I learning about the new literacy I am researching?
I am studying visual literacy learning and through visual literacy learning students will learn how to see and comprehend through pictures. We are going to be using a picture story made by the students, using Kerpoof.com. The students will then work with a partner to see if the partner can tell what the author (first student) is trying to say with their story. This is visual literacy. A lot of the other definitions I have read by others shares this common theme.
As I am learning more about this new literacy I am seeing the many different ways for students to learn visually. Students can make their own movies on the website we are using. They can create their own stories and pictures as well. It is a really good technology for students to learn from.
For my students in my placement, they would really have to just explore websites like Kerpoof before using them. It may be challenging for the students before actually creating their own stories. Visual learning websites need practice because there is so many features.
2) What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
The website Kerpoof we are using is great for teaching. It can show students how a story can be created through their own interaction. Using pictures is especially helpful for students because they can see the story visually before actually reading about it. This is great for ELL students as well. Seeing is universal. Using the create-a-story feature on Kerpoof will show that visually learning is fun and exciting. This project will be great for the students and me as a future teacher. This website isn't just good for this project, it's good for future lessons on literacy or other subjects.
I am studying visual literacy learning and through visual literacy learning students will learn how to see and comprehend through pictures. We are going to be using a picture story made by the students, using Kerpoof.com. The students will then work with a partner to see if the partner can tell what the author (first student) is trying to say with their story. This is visual literacy. A lot of the other definitions I have read by others shares this common theme.
As I am learning more about this new literacy I am seeing the many different ways for students to learn visually. Students can make their own movies on the website we are using. They can create their own stories and pictures as well. It is a really good technology for students to learn from.
For my students in my placement, they would really have to just explore websites like Kerpoof before using them. It may be challenging for the students before actually creating their own stories. Visual learning websites need practice because there is so many features.
2) What am I learning about how my digital literacy is developing as I use a new technology to create my product?
The website Kerpoof we are using is great for teaching. It can show students how a story can be created through their own interaction. Using pictures is especially helpful for students because they can see the story visually before actually reading about it. This is great for ELL students as well. Seeing is universal. Using the create-a-story feature on Kerpoof will show that visually learning is fun and exciting. This project will be great for the students and me as a future teacher. This website isn't just good for this project, it's good for future lessons on literacy or other subjects.
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