Milton Chen came to UNL to give a speech last Tuesday. It was a wonderful experience! He talked about "Creativity in the classroom", "Close the gap of word between rich and poor" and in his lecture on Tuesday night, he answered a few questions from twitter. Then he asked the audience "How many of you do not have a twitter account? I looked around, not many people raised their hands. I chuckled, as i was thinking of my own experiences with twitter. I was forced to open an account with Twitter. Personally, I felt overwhelmed with all these social media! Facebook, Linkedln, Wechat, Blogger, and Twitter. I lost track of them and i am annoyed by the reminder of the popping up messages from time to time that whose talking, not necessarily to me, but in a group that i joined in. So when i was asked to open a twitter account, i said ok, but what is the use of that? I do not have anything to do with it. Why should i join? What's fun? What's exciting about it?
With the heavy load of work and family life, i substantially reduced the posts on Facebook and Wechat. Now what is Twitter?
I logged in my Twitter last October or November. What was that? i know that many people were talking at that block of time, but Gosh, what was the topic? i did not find it but watched.
But i could not this time, since it is a course requirement. Not complaints. But if you had an advisor who is crazy about tech, and who showed up in every social media you could imagine, you would know what i mean.
ok, so let's see what happened. Missed Breakfast talk on Wednesday morning at 5:30 twice, as i changed my schedule of sleeping routine. i will not go to bed till 4am or 5am so it would be impossible for me to get up at 5:30 in the morning! So Wednesday night at 8pm? Finally made it a few times and i think that i gradually got the sense of it!
It is a big online discussion. People from all places speak at the same block of time, exchanging views and ideas, and most of all, resources. I happened to ask a question about "google classroom"? i am now so behind of google with its so many applications. So got an answer and then when i went in oh, my Gosh, how i love it! See, this is twitter, this is social media! You could get a quick response within minutes of your posts. People are trying to collaborate on these platforms! It is inevitable that i need to associate with these as an educator, student, and future researcher as they provide valuable resources there! Just there, why don't pick it up!
Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube and other social media platforms reflect the attitude of some people, i could not see all of them. I could not ignore either part. I need to hear voices all around. If i do want to hear voices from every level, it seems that there is no other way around but join in them!
I don't know if there's any group chat about home literacy, parenting in literature. I may need to remind myself to check and join, if no, create one!
Another thing i need to constantly remind myself is how to use all these social media. What is the role of me in each of them? I need to sort it out!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
turn your writing into a picture book with the app of Puppet Edu-Observation 1
Date: March 25th, 2015
Time: 9:00-9:45
Place: Rousseau Elementary
Classroom: ELL with Terri
This one will be lengthy. As I will try to record everything i did and then followed with my reflection.
Arrived before school was opened, Terri went through what Carin and I needed to do with the 4 kids. Two girls and Two boys. One Chinese boy came from China in January, so he had his special list to do. Terri planned to share the folders in a way later.
So Carin and I went to the media center, waiting to the kids. Later, one girl and one boy came. Carin and i planned to begin when they all came, so we asked the boy to finish his cover while explaining to the girl what we were going to do with her research project. The later, the other boy and girl showed up. So We took one of the girl's cover and picture out and let all the others watch at first. The girl took two pictures of her own cover and poem and then went to the Flickr Creative Commons to search for more pictures about her animal's food, habitat and fun facts. Carin reminded that we may not have enough time to do one by one. So i went to have another girl and helped her project. So we first got the four kiddos all set of their pictures. Then we began the recording. The first girl read hers and all the other children watched. Carin held the Ipad and turned the page for her. In the mid of her reading, i took a boy and went to another table for recording.
We finished the recording in time. Collected their folders, thanked the kids and Terri and left.
Later Carin sent men an email, telling me that one of the boys' recording did not work. It kept only the first page of his voice.
Reflections:
Time Management:
45 minutes with 4 kids and two of us helpers went pretty fast. We had to do them at the same time. So possibly because we are new users of the app, but Carin asked me to imagine how could we do with a full class of kids. My answer would be to do with 1/3 or 1/2 earlier, train them and ask them to help.
App Challenge:
Pretty nice easy control app. Well, i need to pay more attention to the point of turning to a new picture. I don't think that Flickr Creative Commons offered much choice of pictures. And indeed, this step took a lot of time. Children would like to have a best picture and it took them some time to decide, maybe the time a little bit too long. So we had to nudge them to go ahead.
As time was limited, i began recording when Carin took another one. Though i chose a faraway table, the voice of the girl could still be heard distantly in the boy's recording. So where to record is another challenge. And helpers did need to know what the paper or research is all about so you could help turn the pages at the right time.
ELL learners
The children were excited. They tried to help and learn. They were engaged but when Carin and i each attended to one child, the left ones had nothing to do. So it is a concern for class management.
One thing for reading aloud their book. i think all the other three kids were feeling good about the reading aloud part, except the Chinese boy. He came to Lincoln in January, and he's a 3rd grader back in China, as i asked him. No time to know more yet. So he began to whine when i prepared for his recording. And when he began, i knew why. Although his paper looked great, neat and spellings all correct, there are many of them he could not read. I felt sorry about it. So i had to murmur some of the words to him or use my fingers to help him skipping words so that he could keep on reading. If we could ask him to read his paper instead of doing recording directly, it maybe easier for him. So for this part, i suppose that we need to take the speaking part of ELL learners into consideration.
I enjoyed the 45 minutes. I think that the children did most of the time. I am not sure the recording thing, since it seemed to arouse different feelings, one girl told me that she was excited. Well, some showed concern.
I would love to see what's going on next but i could not make it for Tomorrow as Thursday is a school day for me too.
Time: 9:00-9:45
Place: Rousseau Elementary
Classroom: ELL with Terri
This one will be lengthy. As I will try to record everything i did and then followed with my reflection.
Arrived before school was opened, Terri went through what Carin and I needed to do with the 4 kids. Two girls and Two boys. One Chinese boy came from China in January, so he had his special list to do. Terri planned to share the folders in a way later.
So Carin and I went to the media center, waiting to the kids. Later, one girl and one boy came. Carin and i planned to begin when they all came, so we asked the boy to finish his cover while explaining to the girl what we were going to do with her research project. The later, the other boy and girl showed up. So We took one of the girl's cover and picture out and let all the others watch at first. The girl took two pictures of her own cover and poem and then went to the Flickr Creative Commons to search for more pictures about her animal's food, habitat and fun facts. Carin reminded that we may not have enough time to do one by one. So i went to have another girl and helped her project. So we first got the four kiddos all set of their pictures. Then we began the recording. The first girl read hers and all the other children watched. Carin held the Ipad and turned the page for her. In the mid of her reading, i took a boy and went to another table for recording.
We finished the recording in time. Collected their folders, thanked the kids and Terri and left.
Later Carin sent men an email, telling me that one of the boys' recording did not work. It kept only the first page of his voice.
Reflections:
Time Management:
45 minutes with 4 kids and two of us helpers went pretty fast. We had to do them at the same time. So possibly because we are new users of the app, but Carin asked me to imagine how could we do with a full class of kids. My answer would be to do with 1/3 or 1/2 earlier, train them and ask them to help.
App Challenge:
Pretty nice easy control app. Well, i need to pay more attention to the point of turning to a new picture. I don't think that Flickr Creative Commons offered much choice of pictures. And indeed, this step took a lot of time. Children would like to have a best picture and it took them some time to decide, maybe the time a little bit too long. So we had to nudge them to go ahead.
As time was limited, i began recording when Carin took another one. Though i chose a faraway table, the voice of the girl could still be heard distantly in the boy's recording. So where to record is another challenge. And helpers did need to know what the paper or research is all about so you could help turn the pages at the right time.
ELL learners
The children were excited. They tried to help and learn. They were engaged but when Carin and i each attended to one child, the left ones had nothing to do. So it is a concern for class management.
One thing for reading aloud their book. i think all the other three kids were feeling good about the reading aloud part, except the Chinese boy. He came to Lincoln in January, and he's a 3rd grader back in China, as i asked him. No time to know more yet. So he began to whine when i prepared for his recording. And when he began, i knew why. Although his paper looked great, neat and spellings all correct, there are many of them he could not read. I felt sorry about it. So i had to murmur some of the words to him or use my fingers to help him skipping words so that he could keep on reading. If we could ask him to read his paper instead of doing recording directly, it maybe easier for him. So for this part, i suppose that we need to take the speaking part of ELL learners into consideration.
I enjoyed the 45 minutes. I think that the children did most of the time. I am not sure the recording thing, since it seemed to arouse different feelings, one girl told me that she was excited. Well, some showed concern.
I would love to see what's going on next but i could not make it for Tomorrow as Thursday is a school day for me too.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
parental involvement in the new literacy
For 880J, we have two required readings. The first one is about how teachers use technology at home and in their classrooms. For the lit review part, i read something quite contrary to what i have read. As the data in the paper showed that low income families have a low digital experience. I read an article published in 2010 in Britain, which said that low income families have almost the same amount of time used on technologies. How could a report in 2013 find things otherwise? Maybe one in America and the other in Britain? Anyway, i lost interest in reading it as it goes on presenting all the data in percentages. i am sorry for my unacademic way, but as this is a blog, i would like to post my true thoughts here so that i could trace back.
On the contrary, i enjoyed reading the second one "preparing students for the 21st century". Personally speaking, it provides teachers some practical ways so that we could integrate technology into our own classrooms. I haven't checked the links after each of those "projects" yet but i am sure that it will be beneficial. I should say that this article agrees with my philosophy of teaching.
Coming back to the four models introduced in the paper, i think that parental involvement should also be taken into consideration. Parental scaffolding, especially for young kids would be of great help to let the children adapt to this new type of learning to read and write. Classroom teachers should find out a way digitally connecting parents when they incorporate these projects into their classrooms. I believe that most parents would like to be involved and they would like to know what's going on in their children's school life. Just a text would be great, isn't it!
Two things i remind myself at the end of the writing here:
1. Try the technology incorporation with struggling readers first. Alway try them first. I read in Best practice to try them first and read the positive example of Daryl here in the paper. Changing a way of reading may have great impact in the way of learning to read. It is another way out!
2. Critical thinking of the websites should be introduced to the beginning readers too. Don't just suppose that they are too little to do this kind of metacognitive thinking! They could and just trust them and show them how to do it. It is such an important skill to learn and it will be too late until something going wrong. Kids could surf online without any instructions and it is better teach them what should do and should not do as early as possible. Teachers' responsibility and do do parents.
At the age of New literacies, we, teachers and parents do face great challenge as no one knows to what end it is going?
I heard an undergraduate student talking about her view of technology yesterday. I did not ask her any question about it, God knows and she suddenly went to a long lecture that she would never ask her children (when she have) to play Ipad or go on to computer at home. Her opinion is that children have enough computer time at school and they have had too much time on screen. When the kids got back home, they should be doing exercises and family chores and keeping away from all the things connected to internet and computer!
I was amazed to hear the comments from a young girl but kept on listening without asking any questions. We'll see into the future if she could do that! I certainly doubt!
On the contrary, i enjoyed reading the second one "preparing students for the 21st century". Personally speaking, it provides teachers some practical ways so that we could integrate technology into our own classrooms. I haven't checked the links after each of those "projects" yet but i am sure that it will be beneficial. I should say that this article agrees with my philosophy of teaching.
Coming back to the four models introduced in the paper, i think that parental involvement should also be taken into consideration. Parental scaffolding, especially for young kids would be of great help to let the children adapt to this new type of learning to read and write. Classroom teachers should find out a way digitally connecting parents when they incorporate these projects into their classrooms. I believe that most parents would like to be involved and they would like to know what's going on in their children's school life. Just a text would be great, isn't it!
Two things i remind myself at the end of the writing here:
1. Try the technology incorporation with struggling readers first. Alway try them first. I read in Best practice to try them first and read the positive example of Daryl here in the paper. Changing a way of reading may have great impact in the way of learning to read. It is another way out!
2. Critical thinking of the websites should be introduced to the beginning readers too. Don't just suppose that they are too little to do this kind of metacognitive thinking! They could and just trust them and show them how to do it. It is such an important skill to learn and it will be too late until something going wrong. Kids could surf online without any instructions and it is better teach them what should do and should not do as early as possible. Teachers' responsibility and do do parents.
At the age of New literacies, we, teachers and parents do face great challenge as no one knows to what end it is going?
I heard an undergraduate student talking about her view of technology yesterday. I did not ask her any question about it, God knows and she suddenly went to a long lecture that she would never ask her children (when she have) to play Ipad or go on to computer at home. Her opinion is that children have enough computer time at school and they have had too much time on screen. When the kids got back home, they should be doing exercises and family chores and keeping away from all the things connected to internet and computer!
I was amazed to hear the comments from a young girl but kept on listening without asking any questions. We'll see into the future if she could do that! I certainly doubt!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
digital! digital? digital?!
What is digital? What should be regarded as digital literacy? i am lost, to be frank! Some researchers gave so broad a definition that even "toys" that could talk are counted as "digital". I welcome the idea but still feel not confident about what it refers to? Multimodal? New Literacy? I don't know. All i could do is read, read, read and keep on reading!
But there is one thing that i do feel confident: it is the trend that technology highly involved into literacy learning, in particular with the widespread of tablets. It is a change that we are uncertain as we could not answer "to what end". Because of this uncertainty, some of us are afraid of this change, unwilling to cooperate. It is a mixed feelings toward technology used in language arts or any other disciplines. Well, we need to accomodate ourselves to the change, one way or another.
Another thing in my mind that i have to remind myself from time to time: technology is a means not an end. Ipad is supplemental or maybe parallel to prints, but neither of them would replace each other in a long run. Just like typewriter never replaces pencils, right! The question remains "to what extent?"
But there is one thing that i do feel confident: it is the trend that technology highly involved into literacy learning, in particular with the widespread of tablets. It is a change that we are uncertain as we could not answer "to what end". Because of this uncertainty, some of us are afraid of this change, unwilling to cooperate. It is a mixed feelings toward technology used in language arts or any other disciplines. Well, we need to accomodate ourselves to the change, one way or another.
Another thing in my mind that i have to remind myself from time to time: technology is a means not an end. Ipad is supplemental or maybe parallel to prints, but neither of them would replace each other in a long run. Just like typewriter never replaces pencils, right! The question remains "to what extent?"
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