Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Entry #4

This week's focus has been on using digital technology such as blogs and wikis to motivate and engage students in the writing process. Throughout chapters 2 and 3, Hicks (2009) maintains that these types of technologies are considered "new literacies" and are re-designing classroom settings and reading/writing workshops (pgs. 27-28). Rather than striving to create a teacher-led classroom as was traditionally done in the past, Hicks argues that we should be working to create a student-led classroom where the students are allowed to choose what they want to write about and how they want to write it (with some structure and guidance, of course!).  I agree with Hicks, and I believe that teachers do a disservice to students if they do not try to incorporate technology and digital media into the curriculum. One of the specific goals of the Common Core Learning Standards is to effectively "prepare students to compete successfully in a global economy". If we do not teach students how to become literate in digital technology and collaborate with others using online tools and resources, then we are setting students up to fail in today's 21st century society. While students in today's modern day and age may be proficient in browsing the web, it is the teacher's responsibility to teach them specific tools that will help them pick through and critically examine what is oftentimes an overload of information available on the World Wide Web. Hicks (2009) discusses the use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication -- or Rich Site Summary) as a great tool that students can use to automatically have relevant information on a certain topic emailed regularly to their accounts (pg. 19). I think that this is extremely helpful and would provide students with trustworthy and quality websites to keep in mind, even for future research for a different class or topic.

One of the greatest aspects of tools such as blogs/wikis is the ability to be interactive, yet informative. Teachers can use blogs in the classroom to have students collaborate and engage in the writing process, but we can also use them as informational texts on topics that are relevant to today's students. One instance of a blog that generated so much interest and energy from the current generation of students was the Kony 2012 Invisible Children blog (http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/tag/kony-2012/). Blogs have the power to kick-off an entire movement, and get today's students interested and involved in politics and current events. Through the use of blogs and wikis, teachers can easily incorporate news, current events, and politics in the classroom and have students interact with and add to these types of blogs -- generating interest in global issues, while still engaging in the writing process and with digital technology. 

1 comment:

  1. Ashley, you make some interesting assertions at the start of this entry:

    I agree with Hicks, and I believe that teachers do a disservice to students if they do not try to incorporate technology and digital media into the curriculum. .....

    I think that this is extremely helpful and would provide students with trustworthy and quality websites to keep in mind, even for future research for a different class or topic. ...

    After making such assertions, what you need to do next to is to explore how YOU will meet these standards. For example, given what HICKS states, what will you do? What challenges do you forsee? How will you attempt to overcome these difficulties?

    Use each entry to try and challenge yourself to dig deeper into the intricacies of the issue as they will relate to your professional expertise.

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