Kajder Conclusion

Conclusion: On the Horizon

In wrapping up Adolescents and Digital Literacy, Kajder really emphasizes a couple of things.  One, there are no easy answers in teaching English the in the 21st century.  She explains "this is a process of examining our teaching; seeing our students; thinking critically about new tools; and finding small ways to maximize the intersections" (p. 101).   Thinking about digital literacy and new media isn't just about the technology, nor is it a bag of tricks simply to motivate kids. We certainly need to think critically about the potentially negative effects of using technology and we don't want to just throw out the practices in traditional literacy that are working.


Kajder also makes it clear that this is a learning journey and that teachers have to keep learning--both with other teachers and with their students. 


Sometimes the technology won't work. 

Strategies for When the Technology Fails:

1. Do as much upfront planning as possible (including trying the assignment yourself on student computers).
2. Exhibit patience under fire.
3. Model your questioning for your students while troubleshooting or retooling the assignment.
4. Look to the students as experts. 
5. Leverage the expertise in the building.
6. Frontload your teaching with content and learning goals rather than technology-driven practices to ensure a plan B.

Through reading this book, many of my beliefs about multiple discourses and literacies has been reaffirmed and I feel like I'm leaving with some good ideas about ways to pull from the technological inspirations in this book.  


I didn't take notes on this, but Kajder uses a three question framework for the teachers that she profiles in the book that I think is simple and good.


1. I am doing _______________well but can do better.
2. What watching my students' literary practices teaches me that I want to build upon: ______________.
3. ________________ isn't working.


"We are all learners in a literary landscape that is unfamiliar but packed with new possibilities" (p. 14).

Notes from Kajder Chp 6

Chapter 6: Writing Together: Participatory Media, Collaboration, and the English Classroom

Often teachers attempt to move traditional English assignments into a technological realm, but Kajder argues that isn't really helpful.  Instead, "we need to make these changes with an eye to how authentic writing in new media spaces actually differs from traditional work" (p. 86).

NCTE says writing and collaborating with new media

• requires continual learning and identity development
• helps create points of connection between what it means to create and collaborate outside of school and inside the more traditional English classroom
• provides opportunities for relevant, purposeful work

For example, the Internet allows publishing work to be immediate and to have an audience that goes beyond the teacher or class peers.  This can dramatically change the way students perceive writing.

*I wonder too, if the Internet is changing the writing process.  Since publishing can be immediate and constantly changed/updated, I wonder if the nature of revision and editing are changing.  


Reinventing the Character Journal: Megan, an eleventh grade teacher, always has her students keep character journals as they read The Great Gatsby and she appreciates the way they encourage students to construct meaning throughout their reading.  However, she says she hates grading them and they feel so inauthentic-- so "schoolish."  Megan noticed how much her students were into pictures-- taking photographs, changing their profile pictures, decorating their binders, etc.  

Megan revised the project to be steeped in visual content.  She created a "15-Day Visual Character Journal" where students would capture one image for each day of reading, from the point of view of their character, but now summarizing how the photo demonstrated a key moment in the novel.  The class posted their photos and summaries to flickr.  

Students then had to comment on the photos, which created a sense of audience and community. 


Writing Collaboratively: Later in the year, Megan created a project to go along with the class's study of the play Othello. Megan used a class wiki to launch three levels of the project.  Level 1 was a repository in which students posted their assignments and participated in discussion. Megan also posted a FAQ page and video clips of a modernized scene.

For the next stage, Megan posted several video clips of Desdemona's final death scene and students engaged in a robust online discussion and analysis of the differences in the portrayals. 

In the final stage, Megan found a collaborating class in Missouri (through GlobalSchoolNet) for her students to work with.  The other class was going to use Megan's class's wiki to help them as they read the play. 

Notes from Kajder Chp 5

Chapter 5: Reading and Writing Multimodal Texts

Kajder begins this chapter with some grim statistics on adolescent reading-- which boils down to the idea that adolescents don't read very well.  For example, NEAP 2007 revealed that "only 31 percent of eighth graders are able to read and write with proficiency" (p. 68).  

I think many teachers want to embrace multimodal texts if it helps their students in traditional literacy; Kajder argues that when "students read to participate in social networks... they develop identity and engage in self improvement and gain information that they can put to use" (p. 69).  Students are already richly literate in many ways-- the classroom needs to open up to those ways without rejecting traditional literacy.  

NCTE's AL brief encourages teachers to expand the definition of literacy, value the literacies that students bring to the classroom, and help create points of connection between out-of-school literacy and the more traditional English curriculum. 


Reinventing the Book Report: Kajder profiles Kristen, an eighth grade teacher who wanted to re-vamp the way her students approached their independent reading book reports.  First, she opened up the format of their independent reading book to include audiobooks, but more than anything, she wanted to increase student discussion and make the product something more than just to turn into the teacher. 

She asked them to develop a multimodal response/review that presented their thinking in original images and embedded audio using Voicethread.com as a tool for created and presenting their work. 

She didn't show the students what to do with the technology; rather she showed them (briefly) how to use it as a writer and let them figure the rest out (and they did). 

To spur discussion, she required that students randomly select three peers' projects to view and comment on-- either orally or written-- which would be embedded in the project. 


When we open up what counts as valued communication in the classroom, we:

• provide students with the opportunity to produce something unexpected, new, and creative
• foster students' confidence
• encourage innovation
• model for students that learning and knowledge isn't a tangible "thing" but an activity

 

Notes from Kajder Chp 4

Chapter 4: Information Navigation and Critical Evaluation

Informational litearcy is important; it's almost too obvious to talk about.  We are inundated with information.  Kajder compares finding information on the internet to trying to take a sip from a water hydrant (btw, I feel like I've heard that analogy before).  

Some fun facts from Michael Wesch in 2009:

1. There are over 1.5 billion online users.
2. The information newly created and posted online today with be the equivalent of 60 new books per second.

*That is an overwhelming amount of information floating around out there.  It kind of blows my mind.

Two extremes of students-- those that are digitally savvy, using terms to help them sift through information like pipes, feeds, and tags ...

and the majority of students "who still move from screen to screen, unable to filter between the sites and information they wand and can use and those that won't push or lead their thinking any further.  These are often the kids whom I see follow tangent, lose significant 'chunks' of time (sometimes without realizing it), and end up satisfied with following only the first two or three links found when conducting a Google search" (p. 50). 

*Ha, this rings sooo true to me.  I am continually frustrated with how poorly my students search for information.  Sometimes they can't even distinguish advertisements from opinion sites (blogs) from news/informational sites.   

Kadjer points out that the skills needed to work online (identifying important problems, locating information, analyzing usefulness, synthesizing information, and communicating the solution to others) is essentially the same steps that a smart reader takes when working with a print text.

*This is important! I've found that many of the students who struggle working online also struggle with print, which makes sense since it really is the same skill set.  In some ways, this is exciting-- that explicitly teaching digital literacy could improve traditional literacies. And many of the same reading strategies that I use probably can also be applied to the digital world.  I think this realization-- that digital literacy and print literacy use similar skill sets-- demystifies teaching digital literacy and reassures me a little bit,

 Conducting Online Research: Kajder describes a teacher named Erin who created an activity to help kids conduct online research (and this is something that I will definitely steal and adapt because it makes so much sense!).  Erin created this activity to help kids who "look really busy when in front of the computer but who, when asked, can't tell me about their strategies for finding information or selecting specific sources; students who don't take notes beyond writing a clumsy URL when they read; students who stick solely to material they find on websites without intentionally considering the merits of other texts.... " (p. 54-55). 


Essentially, she gave groups of students 3x5 cards with one of six Web search tools: Google, Kartoo, FlickrStorm, Keotag, Similicio.us, and PodScope.  Students were asked to investigate the site, identify how is worked, and try searching using different keywords listed on the board (Shakespeare, Cooper High Schoo, commas) and then report back to the class their findings. 


For the second part of the lesson, students considered when each site would be useful (they used the common search terms to help them compare/vet sites).  Then Erin opened the class up to a discussion of how they determined the accuracy of information and what purpose they might have for each site.   Using their entries in their journals, students picked a topic and had to decide which search engines might provide the best results. 




Using Resources, Supporting Thinking:  Kajder outlines another of Erin's lessons that I think is really great.  At the beginning of the lesson, Erin has her student freewrite about their strategies for organizing/holding onto information found online, and then followed with a larger class discussion. 


Erin then showed the class her Diigo account that she'd used in a graduate school class. Diigo stands for Digest of Internet Information, Groups, an Other stuff and it allows you to:
1. Bookmark sites
2. Highlight information on the page (allows you to see the markup from your Diigo site)
3. Add "sticky notes"
4. Save bookmarks by tagging


*I am not familiar with this tool but it sounds dynamite!  I wish I'd used it throughout my MEd, and I will definitely start to explore it for my classroom and my personal life.

Erin's students were really excited, but before they started creating their own Diigo sites, she had them create a list of user rules since their Diigo sites would be shared among the class.

Next, the class worked in small groups to find and share compelling sites and resources on adolescent lit for the class Diigo site, which created a lot of discussion of the sites within the groups.

*I can totally see the positive effect using Diigo would have in our PBL classroom.  I'm psyched about it!

 

Notes from Kajder Chp 3

Chapter 3: The Twenty-First Century English Teacher

Much has been made of the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant," and Kajder, while acknowledging the intent behind these terms, generally finds them limiting. 

*I basically see myself as a digital native, although I'm not as proficient or as connected as many people my age.  I don't have a smart phone and don't spend a ton of time on the internet.  However, I do maintain a blog (other than this one) and I am active in a few online communities (regularly reading mostly quilting and DIY home decor blogs). I few comfortable "playing around" with technology and I feel like most technologies are fairly intuitive to me.

Recently, I've seen the term "Web 2.0" thrown around a lot and Kajder does define this term early in chapter 3.   Web 2.0 learning environments are "collaborative, multimodal, self-directed" instead of "individual, print-based, and teacher/curriculum-based" (p. 35).  Another term for Web 2.0 is digital or new literacies. 


Kajder points out that none of the these ideas are new-- "what is new is the opportunity to do this work with an expanding tool set" (p. 36). 

*This very much echoes the Dewey that I was reading last night.  I probably need a specific post for this, but Dewey (1925) contrasted traditional education with progressive education. 

 
Some people are clearly against embracing digital literacies in the classroom-- why "pander to the tech-obsession of of digital youth?" "why emphasize 21st century skills over the 'foundational' ones of the 19th century that students have yet to master?" (p. 37).  And yet, we "pander to students through direct instruction and high-stakes assessement" (p. 37).  

**I'm soooo hearing Dewey again and I think Dewey would tell Kajder that this tension is important and fodder for a critical lens of our pedagogy.  I certainly don't want PBL or digital literacy to simply be a reaction against traditional literacy-- it should take what's working with traditional pedagogy, but also move in a direction that is more authentic. 

A constant thread throughout Kadjer-- "we as teachers have to be constantly learning" (p. 36)... not necessarily learning how to use tools or where to point and click but "leaning new ways of engaging with media and developing literacies that move our own work as readers and writers" (p. 36). 
 
*I remember Bob Fecho, in my writing pedagogy class, emphasizing that teachers of writing have to be writers themselves. 

Kajder then profiles three teachers who consider themselves digital teachers.  I noticed several commonalities-- they all mentioned seeing learning as collaborative and social in nature; they each were engaged in their own digital learning (through blogs, online forums, their own writing, etc); they all expressed hesitation and doubt-- no one was 100% sure all the time, but they were each willing to try something new in their classrooms; and they all sought out ways to make their students' work connect outside of the school walls.

There is "power in engaging within a broader English curriculum, one that brings together traditional practices of reading and writing and new literacy practices fostering information literacy, working in online communities, and composing through new media" (p. 48). 

Back at It

 After two lovely vacations, one on Hilton Head Island and one over the holiday break in Western Michigan, I am back and thinking hard about my learning objectives for the summer and my teaching goals for next year.

Not only did I enjoy a beautiful escape from the Georgia heat and a superfun time with my family, but I also had some time for some much needed pleasure reading.  I read several books that I really loved-- The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dumont, The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, and I'm Here to Win by the triathlete Chris McCormack. 

I also started Education and Experience by John Dewey, which I'll talk more about later.  

Yes, vacation is wonderful!

Notes from Kajder Chp 2

Chapter 2: Digital Youth

In this chapter, Kajder gives an overview of current research regarding the digital lives of adolescents.  She then profiles three students and explains their digital lives both inside and out of school. 

The takeaway: kids have incredible technological skills and confidence.  Technology is natural and intuitive to them and an integral part of their daily lives.  

For many students:

• online access is a given (phone or computer)
• when online, they typically engage with more than medium at a time
• personal note, as I write this, I am listening to music on Pandora, intermittently checking my email and Facebook

• they use the Internet for more than simply accessing information; they are using it to create content and products and interact within a community 

Content creation-- "internet use for digital use is as much about pushing content up online as it is about pulling content down" (p. 15)


This is really cool to me!  Students are active participants in creating things on the web-- blogs, Facebook profiles, MySpace pages, photo editing and sharing, video creation on YouTube, composing fan fiction, etc.  As a PBL teacher, this really excite me-- that students will be doing what they are already doing, just in an academic context. 

They are active participants rather than passive consumers. 


Information Use--"Digital youth are a generation marked by unprecedented access to information" (p. 16)


Three main ways of information use (Palfrey and Gasser)

• Grazing for information (just google it) 
• Making sense of information, put in a frame of context 
• Participating in a "feedback loop," share information through the internet

Networked Participation--"Digital youth engage in social networks for a multiple purposes, but what is striking about this work is the characteristic of the sites used for these interaction and the nature of students' engagement as readers, writer, and communicators" (p. 17).

They are connected to others across time and space.

Through this, they see the power of the written word and are using language as a way to be connected to others.




Students need to be consumers and producers of information-- teachers need to create a "space where new media converges with traditional literacy practices... a new space for more students to find success and to be intentional in choosing the media through which to express their thinking" (p. 19).




What I got from the student summaries--

• Technology was a natural extension of their ideas.  They didn't say "I want to use Photoshop," Instead, they figured out what they wanted to do and then found a tool to create their ideas.
• Most of the techonology they used was never explicitly taught to them; they just intuitively figured it out (and then took great pride in that).
• Students are way smarter than me when it comes to technology.  I just need to trust in their abilities and get out of the way!
• Community-building seemed inherent and the use of technology brought kids together in ways that I think paper and pencil does not.