For the reading this week we were asked to look at participatory culture and identify new media literacy skills that we think we could incorporate into our current teaching positions. Here is a summary of what our group wrote.
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Sara:
For her position working in middle school math classrooms Sara identified play, simulation, and collective intelligence as skills she felt could easily be incorporated. Play could easily fit into Sara’s math class in both geometry and algebra lessons through interactive Web 2.0 tools like Geogebra and Desmos. Additionally, Sara could integrate simulation through a real-world game about a lemonade stand in which students must plan a budget to purchase items needed and adjust the cost of the lemonade for things such as weather. It allows them to keep track of data over a determined period of time and then analyze success through profits. Sara also supported the use of cognitive intelligence in the classroom through the use of collaborative groups which supports a participatory culture in that there is “some degree of social connection with one another.” (Jenkins, H., et. al 2006)
Additionally, Sara wrote about how influential Scratch can be in giving users the experiences necessary to develop many of the new media literacy skills. Scratch offers its users the opportunity to create original work, share it with a supportive community, receive constructive feedback and even remix shared projects. “Through our observations of the community, we have developed forms of participation in the community that emerge from these varying processes of appropriation.” (Brennan, K., Monroy-Hernandez, A., Resnick, Mitchel. 2010).
Christina:
Christina, also a middle school teacher, identified play and cognitive intelligence as skills she has and can continue to incorporate into her classroom. Play is integrated in Christina’s class through the use of discovery time while the students are using the iPADS. Students in Christina’s room work often in small groups that change with each new task. This allows them opportunities to collaborate, share, and learn with each other. Even though the group work takes place in the formal classroom environment, students are still building supportive communities with each other and perhaps even bringing into the class some social networks they have built on their own. It reminds me of the Rheingold article about Theory of Knowledge, when he asked high school teacher Amy Burvall what is TOK? “One of the key premises is that personal knowledge should result from careful inquiry and examination of evidence rather than simple acceptance of claims.” (Rheingold, H. 2014) I think that Christina’s use of small group work in her class allows her students the opportunity to dig deeper into their learning by shaping and changing their knowledge based on new information learned from peers.
Kevin:
Kevin easily identified quite a few skills that he already incorporates into his sixth grade classroom. They are; play, judgement, and collective intelligence. Kevin uses play through 21st Century Skill stations, gamification and game-based learning as much as possible. Through text-dependent analysis and Passion Projects judgment is being integrated as students are responding to questions with support of information (from reliable and credible sources), writing analysis statements and peer editing. According to Kevin, “Collective intelligence is a new media literacy often integrated into my classroom through jigsaw lessons and collaborative problem-based learning activities.”
One point that Kevin made that really stuck out to me was that young people are already consuming information from sites for both personal and educational needs. He then connected to the text by Brennan, Monroy-Herandez, and Resnick that we should not just assume that since young people are using and interacting with media that they are effortlessly understanding and that they are creators of content. This is something that must develop and must be done as part of a supportive community. Kevin stated that “As teachers, we need to use the new media literacies to empower our students.”
Kym:
For myself, a early elementary teacher, I identified play, performance, simulation, and distributive cognition as skills that I have incorporated in the past as well as ones that I plan to embed into future learning opportunities. Play occurs naturally in second grade as the students regularly use the room itself as a way to problem solve through learning centers and activities. Performance is one that I haven’t utilized but can incorporate into our engineering unit as students study about pollination. STEM activities offer themselves to simulation in that the students are working collaboratively to create a model to solve a real-world problem. Finally, I identified distributive intelligence as the last skill that easily fits into a second grade classroom. I think that this is achieved through the use of Chromebooks and Web 2.0 tools.
Community building within the classroom is also a theme of my post. Teachers need to be trusted by supportive administrators, even under the constraints of standardized testing and curriculum, to incorporate new media skills into their daily lessons. Students must feel comfortable sharing and taking risks individually and with peers.
Formal Classroom:
Even though we have various settings for our classroom instruction I noticed some similarities in what we felt we could incorporate into our classrooms. The first is that we are all comfortable incorporating play into the classroom and many of us felt it is already something that we do. Collective intelligence and simulations lend themselves well to fit in all of our rooms as well as we spend a great deal of time teaching our students how to work collaboratively as teams, offer constructive feedback, and revise their knowledge based on newly acquired learning. One thing that I wondered while reading my group members posts were what type of time constraints they are under as middle school teachers? How often do they see their students and for how long? This occurred to me only because I know that this past year incorporating STEM and PBL I had to be more flexible in the schedule of the day and that allowed me more time to use Web 2.0 tools. If I only had my 2nd graders for 40 minutes at a time I am not sure what we could accomplish! I am certain they have this all figured out but through my elementary lens I found the thought of limited time overwhelming.
We agree that a teacher does not have to be comfortable with new media skills to incorporate them into the formal classroom, rather he/she must be receptive to them and willing to learn alongside their students. Christina stated, “Teachers can even learn from their students on how to use technology – my students are constantly showing me new tips and tricks that I was not aware of!” Along with willingness to embed Web 2.0 tools and new media literacies; the room itself should be an environment that supports the use of these.
Overall, the responsibility of writing the group summary was intimidating. I wanted to make sure that I adequately summarized my group members work and I ended up finding it a rewarding experience. Each time I read and reread their posts I found new connections and learned even more than the time before.
