Module 6

                This chapter was full of great activities to use in the classroom; many of them, I wouldn’t have even thought of myself! When I was in middle school and high school, going to the computer lab would be really exciting class! But we never were able to do as much as what the book was suggesting; the reason for that, I think, is because teachers are not aware of all the possibilities of the internet, just yet!

                Some of my favorite activities that the book talked about were the Google Lit Trips and the Virtual talk with the author! Both would definitely get the children excited about the book, and also go beyond the information that the book provides for them. I think the worst thing that can happen to a child is that they lose their curiosity for things that they don’t completely understand or want to learn more about! These programs would definitely give them a chance to freely explore the world around them and still be learning. I also think that being able to hear the author talk about their inspiration for writing would really inspire children to start writing their own stories or to keep writing their own stories, which will greatly improve their literacy skills.

                WebQuests were something that I remember doing when I was in middle school and high school. We would get an instruction sheet, go to the computer lab, and fill out a question sheet. Now, this was not always a fun trip, but sometimes the websites we would go on would be interactive and fun. I think starting WebQuests earlier than middle school and high school would be a great way for children to learn how to navigate a website and to be able to find what interests them, that way when they get older, they will get a lot more out of the WebQuests.

                Overall, I think that the more we encourage kids to use technology as a tool for learning, the more they will use it for that purpose. Many kids, who grew up with technology, did not have instructors who knew how to utilize it properly for educational purposes, therefore the children never learned how to use it for educational purposes. Obviously kids will always use the internet for social media, but if they learn other uses for it, they might spend some of their time doing other things on the internet as well! 

Module 5

In all honesty, I knew almost no online e-book sources. Actually, I might not have known any at all. When I was really young, probably in elementary school, I got a “leap pad” for a present, and that’s not as much as an e-book as it is a really high tech book that speaks to you (which I guess is an e-book…). Then when I was in high school, my mom got a Kindle and I immediately stole it from her (and then misplaced it, sorry, mom…), which I really liked, but I always preferred the hard cover/paperback book. Reading this chapter, I was really impressed and amazed at all the different resources for e-books that are both for young children and young adults. It amazes me that there is so much out there and that it remains relatively unknown to a lot of people, especially kids, which is who it is mainly marketed towards.

                Some of the concerns of the e-books actually weren’t concerns that I even thought about. The text brought up that e-books with a lot of interactive tools can often take away from the literacy learning of the text itself and distracts young readers. I definitely agree with that, but I think that it is a good way to get younger kids introduced to e-books as a fun, recreational thing, obviously not to be used all the time, but as a gateway to more complex texts that the internet has to offer.

Again, I think that the hyperlinks embedded into the text are very helpful for kids, as well as informative and fun. Not only can they direct children to the definition of a confusing word, but it can also link children to more information of a certain topic that a text brings up, it could be historical, mythological, or cultural, and give a child a little more insight to the topic and incentive to look further into it. I think that this is probably the most important attribute to e-books that regular text does not have, other than the fact that e-books are easier to access and often free, while paper books are not. 

Module 4

                This chapter had a lot of very cool ideas in it! I really liked how the beginning of the chapter highlighted the importance of reading in a child’s life, I mean the “lack of vocabulary can be a critical factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students.” (45) that is scary to think about! I think that reading must be encouraged inside and outside of the classroom, but that can definitely be tough for struggling families. Therefore, the classroom teacher must do the best they can to encourage the students to read, write, and learn, just in case the children are not able to get that type of support at home for whatever reason. And on the other hand, parents should support and encourage their child to read and learn in any way possible, just in case the classroom environment is not as welcoming as it should be.

                I was very impressed by the technologies and websites that were talked about in this chapter. The Wonderopolis site is a great idea for kids of all ages; even I was interested in looking it up and checking out what it had to offer! I think that it is a great idea that the website changes its word, or information, daily, so that if the child is not interested in the information provided one day, they can check what is on it the next day and maybe find something that they are very excited about.  I think for older kids, too, teachers could introduce them to sites that release new articles daily on various things that might interest them. I admit that a lot of the times I use the internet, I am on social media, but I do enjoy going to sites like Cracked.com, to read the new articles they released (not all of the articles on the Cracked website are appropriate for children, but there are definitely a lot of other similar sites that parents, guardians, and teachers would be able to provide that are more appropriate). If more websites like this are introduced, kids will be more likely to less time on social media and more time on informational websites, while they are on the internet; I think a big problem is just that children don’t know of many websites that produce interesting articles and information, therefore they don’t even consider that as a resource of entertainment or information when they are online.

                I was also very amazed by the virtual field trips! Very cool! I wish we did those kinds of things in the classroom when I was in school! I think that this gives students and teachers a lot more freedom to explore and have fun. If the children show a lot of interest in a particular subject or place, the teacher would easily be able to find a VFT to take the kids on one day, instead of having to plan out an actual field trip, which would take a lot of time and money.  I do still think that real life field trips hold a lot of value, because a lot of museums have interactive exhibits and it gets the kids active and moving around; but the virtual field trips are a lot easier to plan and teachers don’t have to get it approved by the school, get the bus, and get permission slips. So, it’s definitely a lot less time and effort, but it can still be as fun as an actual field trip. I am definitely interested in what an actual VFT looks like! Also, I know that there are some websites, such as the New England Aquarium website, that periodically releases live webcam videos of the sea life that they exhibit. And I even found a “puppy cam” once, that you could go onto at any time and watch a litter of puppies grow and play! It was very fun and cute to watch. Teachers could also incorporate these videos into lessons, as a fun and interactive way for children to observe “wild” life. 

Module 3

            I really enjoyed reading this chapter! I think it is very important to connect with the classroom and with the community, and especially with the parents. A quote that I really related to, which was on page 30, was “learning isn’t just “doing more school”…” and I think a lot of kids begin to think along the lines that school is just work, especially when they get older; this is because they are not getting the attention they deserve and they are not being mentally engaged enough in the classroom. I know that even now, in some of the courses I am taking, I feel that way; there is too much work and not enough discussion about the material that I think of the class as a chore, and not a learning experience. That’s why I really like the set up of this course! We have plenty of time to go through the material, really process it, and state our thoughts on it. And by commenting on our group’s posts, it feels very interactive.

 I also think it is important to get families engaged in their child’s school life, because without encouragement from home, a lot of kids begin to lack motivation and excitement about what they are doing. I know that when I was in elementary school, I would always seek approval and encouragement from the adults in my life, and when I did not get a positive reaction, it really affected me in a negative way. So, I think connecting to the children and connecting the children and their parents/guardians to what is going on in the classroom is extremely important. So, I really liked the ideas that this chapter put forth.

            I thought that the digital story telling was a very interesting way to get the children interacting with each other and getting to know more about their classmates. When I was in elementary school, we didn’t have very advanced technology, so we could never do anything like this and I am excited to try it out when I do my VoiceThread. I think that digital story telling can boost confidence in children, because especially when children get older, they grow a fear of public speaking. Therefore, by doing an activity like VoiceThread, they can do all the talking beforehand, so they won’t get as nervous when they are introducing themselves. I also think that once they see their teacher’s own presentation, they will be excited to do their own. I can only imagine the other storytelling possibilities that could come out of projects such as this.

            One thing that I was skeptical about was the use of VoiceThread to document friendships and learning experiences as the year progresses. I think that it is a good idea, but I think it should extend beyond VoiceThread alone, especially because VoiceThread is a yearly (or monthly) subscription, so those memories are only up for a little while. (Though I do not know that much about the VoiceThread technology, this is just how I understand it from the text and from the documentation that was presented to us.) I think that the teacher could make a slide show of these photographs that could be burned onto CDs or emailed to parents at the end of the year, so the children will be able to keep them for longer. I also think that decorating the classroom with personal photographs of the children would be a very good way to make the environment more friendly and welcoming as the year progresses. 

Module 2

                When I was reading the beginning of this chapter, particularly the description of a student who meets the ELA CCR standards, I found myself wondering how they would test and teach these abilities. Being tested on the skills described would be so easy for me to accomplish, and probably much easier to the generations after me, but I don’t actually have a full skill set of how to utilize the internet; especially since all my digital skills were self-taught. So, how would all of this new information be taught and tested in a way that would be sure to impact future generations and their relationship with the digital world? Then I started thinking of how hard it must be for teachers to learn how to teach something that they don’t know that much about; because these huge technological advances are still pretty new, many teachers, and other adults, have no idea how to apply it to the classrooms and their lives. It makes you wonder how many teachers are so confused about technology, and the internet, that they decide to leave it out of their classroom completely and pretend it doesn’t exist. A lot of teachers I know have definitely done that, they have even preached the evils of new technology, instead of trying to find good uses for it. I imagine that teachers who have been teaching literacy for years will have trouble catching up with the new and complex digital age, but this should not mean that it is ignored, even if they are not strictly teaching the subject of computer skills. As the text states, “to teach a strategy for reading, writing, and communicating in both a traditional and digital environments, teachers must be aware of the process that few adult readers possess and then make the invisible process visible to students.” (19) This is definitely an intimidating idea, especially because literacy is always changing, even literacy 2.0 is already changing! And I am interested to read further into the text to see its suggestions to new teachers and old teachers on integrating new literacies into their lessons in a fun and interactive way. I know that I was very interested to read the frameworks that they laid out in this chapter!

            My favorite teaching framework was the internet reciprocal teaching method. I think that an open dialogue between the teachers and the students, as well as an open dialogue among the students, is extremely important in a child’s life. Children must be taught that they are equals to authority figures, and their peers, and that there must always be a mutual respect between them. The set up of the internet reciprocal teaching method does exactly that, while teaching them important literacy 2.0 skills. The teacher teaches his/her students the basics, then guides them as they learn to be independent and help themselves through more information, and finally the students teaching other students; this is exactly what they are going to encounter as they grow older, and it will help them feel more independent and respected. They will not always have everything handed to them and they will have to figure a lot of stuff out on their own, so being taught how to help themselves and help others, as well as working together with their teachers and fellow classmates, is a great idea and a great approach to teaching literacy 2.0. I am excited to read further into the book! And I am starting to really like blogging!

Module 1

First, I would like to say that I am very excited to blog my very first blog post!  I’ve never really blogged before and I don’t often read blogs, so I’m excited to see where this goes and how it all works!

            I would like to start off with a quote that I really liked from the text: “Literacy opens the door to the world and has the power to change lives.” (Johnson 1) I strongly agree with this, it is the reason that I want to be a reading specialist and work with children on their reading and writing skills. But literacy has so much more to offer now, with the addition of the World Wide Web; to tell you the truth, I was very uncomfortable with books becoming digital. I personally enjoy reading traditional text more than I like reading online text; upon reading this chapter, I have changed my mind quite a bit, but I still have a few doubts.

            One of my biggest concerns with introducing young children with online texts and the internet is that I have no clue if it can affect children’s eye sight and/or attention span in a negative way.  I know that when I stare at a computer screen for too long, my eyes become extremely irritated and I start having trouble focusing, so I can only imagine what it would do to the eyes and brain when they are still developing. But on the other hand, I realize that one must do everything in moderation, so it would just be a matter of finding out how much time a child should spend on the computer, before it becomes dangerous to their health.

            Another thing that I worry about is that the internet is largely unfiltered in a few ways. One is that there are a lot of websites that are inappropriate for children, but this can obviously be fixed with parental controls and monitoring. Also, many websites (especially social media) are not filtered for grammar mistakes and informational mistakes; but with parental guidance, this too can be avoided.

            There are a lot of things that I liked about online text, while I was reading this chapter. One of the things that I liked was how easy it is to access great information using the internet. You can get all the information right at home and without putting a lot of effort into searching for it. This is very appealing to kids, who obviously can’t drive and don’t have disposable income. It also helps parents, who don’t always have time to go down to the library with their children or the funds to buy new books. The Fox study shows that “quality of goal setting and comprehension monitoring was associated with interest.” (8) Therefore, if it is easier for kids to learn more about their interests, they are more likely to take in the information and have pleasure in doing it; if kids are taught at an early age to take advantage of the internet and learn how to use it, it will be easier for them to learn and prosper.

            Something else that I really like about the internet is something that I am doing right now. Blogging. I think that kids have a lot of trouble expressing themselves and that can hinder their ability to learn and understand things. With traditional texts, there is no way to publically comment on what was read. With online text, there is a new power with blogging and commenting online that traditional texts simply cannot do. This interactive feedback not only allows the writer to express themselves publically, but also allows them to be more engaged with the world around them, which will help them be more open-minded. And as the book points out (12), connective writing gets the writer to strive to write better and think more in depth, this is because the writer knows that many people will be reading and judging their writing.

            Overall, the first chapter opened my eyes to the many possibilities that Literacy 2.0 has to offer and I am very excited to continue reading and to see what my blog group has to say.