Martinez & López-Río (2015)

Just finished reading an assigned reading by these two researchers about the argument of reading on digital devices. I love this one.

1. First of all, this article is the first one I read that separates the e-readers (Kindle) from the other "general purpose computer devices" (tablets, phones, and TVs). Indeed, after doing the literature review for reading with digital devices in last July, I realized that the complexities do not only lie in the denotations of new literacy or digital literacy, the differences between the digital devices also complicate the reading practice. It is not limited to all these digital devices described above, other differences like a computer with a mouse vs touch screens, or desktop vs. laptops (movable) appear to have some extent of impact on reading. If we go back to the early stage of digital reading, all research referred to unmovable desktop and software reading. It would be something, in my opinion, to clarify at the beginning of what digital devices mean in a paper. Many up-to-date surveys are examining the perceptions of parents/teachers/ children's use of digital devices, and it could be seen that some are only focusing on mobile devices, while on the other hand, some include everything from TV, digital toys, to touchscreen tablets. One case study did conduct a research to compare a few e-readers, and its findings seem to suggest that devices do matter in the respect of enhancing motivation to read. 
2. I love how the authors use Gutenberg Galaxy to refer to the traditional print book reading. Actually, Google what it is and take a note in the article.
3. I agree with most of the view points proposed by the authors. In particular, the refute of cognitive disadvantage. A Chinese old saying is the same meaning that it is the person, the user, not the tools. Another one is that You would not stop eating because of the risk of choking. Reading with digital devices is a trend, and right now easier and convenient because it could be done anywhere, with or without internet. It reminds me of a topic of writing for CET-4 in China back about 15 years ago, which asks those who take the exams to write an essay about their preferences of print books or e-books. Most of the students, including me, as the instructor, favored more print books at that time. We have many reasons but 15 years ago, there were not many e-books yet. The pdf/epub was just about to develop and it took you some time to download. However, right now, e-books are everywhere. I do all my reading for pleasure online now, even some academic reading. As for writing, always with a laptop. People change with what is offered by the society. 
4. What I disagree is one part comparing the e-book and print book for tracking information. In my view, it is still easier to track information or notes in paper format, as the eyes could look much more compared with only one page each time in e-book format. Besides, the e-book doesn't give you the feeling of how thick the book is.

multimedia Reading

Last Wednesday, I was led to read a few articles on New York Times which demonstrates how multimedia or multi-sensory has developed in current literacy/reading. Well, those video links and "hotspot" do enhance engagement in reading, in my opinion. It absolutely holds me to read those articles longer compared with words only. We all think that pictures are more than words but here we see not only pictures, we have videos, animation, simulation, and some that I don't know how they did that. But it is no wonder a trend that what we are going to read online as a new format. Technology has made it is possible to happen.

When I think of the young readers, again, I am wondering what's going to happen to them. They may not think this is something new, or amazing, as this is their literary world, with technologies experienced everyday in their lives. But how this multimodal digital reading will challenge their cognitive development? I don't know? How it will have an impact on their reading and writing? I am not sure. What I do believe is this is what's happening now and the trend of multimodal reading will keep on going. What we have to do how to adapt to the change!

What is digital literacies?-TEAC951a/F17

I was intrigued by the changes of literacy with young children inspired by technology back in 2014 shortly after I joined the program. I think that the online reading has made challenges for young readers in a way and also facilitate learning to some extent. Technologies are tools and its success in teaching/learning depends on how they are used. I mean there is no good or bad criteria in a general sense. But I hold my viewpoint that tech has made reading/writing much more complicated for younger learners. For those who were born since 2010 when the tablet era poured in, mobile devices have experienced a big revolution moving from clicking the mouse to swiping on the screens. The swiping makes it easier for those small hands to work on those screens and thus make these devices more accessible. What's more, many apps and websites began to develop more user-friendly features in educational games, books, and videos. Researchers have done surveys to understand the perceptions of parents. pre-service teachers with those mobile devices. 

Leu and his colleagues have proposed the idea of New Literacy and new literacies a few years ago. I think that I feel that right now, the differences between the upper case and lower case is more conceptual than practical. When taking teaching and learning into consideration, we are talking more about TPACK. It is easier said than done though, as teachers are not only taking care of the individual differences of their students, the up-to-date content area, but technology is changing every day! 

The more I think of digital literacy, the more complicated I think the problem is. It is different reading on a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone. It is different to read on Kindle or Nook. It is different when multimedia is incorporated into reading. Reading on a desktop computer with mouse definitely involves different skills with touchscreen tablets. So how would we define digital literacies then?

930K Quantitative research in reading Day 3

Well, it's hard. I'm slow in reading. Trying to keep up with the post every day is hard. Now it's 2:17 but i still have one chapter to go. I love the assigned books though. It would be a even better course if it was taught in fall or spring so that i could have more time in reading and again. Right now, there is absolutely no time to read back!
The goal of the course for me: understand the tables in research paper, making sense of what they are and whether they are there
Second goal is that i may come up with a nice instrument or design to make a proposal for my own research. Though it is one of the assignment, i really would like to put it  into a pilot study or real in life so that i could make it to AERA. I don't know if i could make it. But i will have a try.

      I love the way of dealing with real life data in my content area. It makes more sense to me. I would like to learn something more with Excel and definitely SPSS. Khan Academy's instruction is enjoyable, too though i dozed off from time to time watching them.
     Hopefully i could be ahead of the reading with the weekend coming up and so that give myself some time to work on the papers and think what i would like to come up with.

observation 2

Class observation 2

Date: 3/6/15

Time: 1:15 math block

Site: Rousseau

Teacher: Ashley

Student: 1^st grader (differentiated)

            I did a short introduction at first and answered a few questions about China ( I got one at the end of the block when they prepared to go out for recess).

            One boy asked me to sit beside him and I did that. However, when I took out my Ipad for note taking, I found out that it was a distraction for her. So first, I put my Ipad on his table and showed him what I was typing. Then I opened the Evernote (audio note got something wrong) and audioed the lesson and occasionally took a picture. I just laid it beside him and it turned black after a while.  I hope that he will be not so much distracted in this way.

            Ashley showed me that she used ipad with reflectors and Apple TV connected. So what she did on her ipad will be on the screen, so that every kid could see what happened.

            At the very beginning, she used educreations to write each calculation on it and she gave one of the kids the Ipad to draw the answer.

            Then when the kids went to quiz, she used Ipad as a timer shown on the screen, so that the kids could keep track of time.

            She then wen to the Second Grade Math Magic and gave different kids to choose the answer on the Ipad with each question. At the same time, the other kids used their whiteboards. As this app has to pay for more exercises, she only covered a few.

            After working on the homework, they went to Geoboard. The kids were excited to do this. So Ashely made a square, then the kids were asked to make ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32. They would not let it stop but the time ran out.

            Reflection:

            I should have taken a picture of the seatings of the classroom but forgot.

            As for the apps, kids definitely showed interests. As for the educreations, it seemed they just feel ok. The second Grade Math Magic was a new one as it was introduced on 880 yesterday. So kids were pretty knew but it was like a quiz. I got the Ipad on my hand at that time, so the kids were looking at me. I think they would like to have fun. But the Geoboard was a hit. It was not new to them. When they heard the word, they got excited. When they began the learning, I should say that everybody raised their hands and would like to have a try on Ipad. Compared with other two apps, which only some of them raised hands, this app did make a difference. My supposition is those two apps are presented like a quiz, while this one is a game. Indeed, the knowledge passed down in the Geoboard is more advanced (fractions) than the other two (one is addition and subtraction, the other is about time). Well, if it’s a game, it should be fun and everybody would like to have fun. Learning should be fun! Right?

            One thing: the homework Ashely went over with the kids has a question (Tell which is greater without finding the answer. Explain. ½ of 60 or ¼ of 60). So Ashley took  some time and did draw and illustrated in order to explain the question. But in the Geoboard thing, it matched so well, that if she could go on saying that look at here 1/8 square does look bigger than the 1/16 squares, right? Why ? It would be such a nice scaffolding.

            Another thing I noticed was that not every child could have the chance to touch the Ipad in class though Ashley tried to reach everybody. Then if every kid had one, it would be difficult to track what they did on their Ipad. So how to manage the use of Ipad would be another challenge the classroom teachers face.

            So I suppose that the apps used today in the classroom went pretty well. It is possible due to that the kids know about them or it’s easy to use without instructions. Secondly, the last two apps, especially the Geoboard is designed pretty much like a game rather than a quiz. I love to see a classroom full of engaging faces!

            

bit of reflection

i just hangout with Carin and we exchanged some ideas of courses we take together and definitely we talked about 880J. Both of us believed that we have learnt a lot from the course. Although i am not with you all the time, i felt that the ardor of everybody and was excited too when we were trying a new app with students.

Well, i am thinking a few questions that may be answered if we could have a discussion together:
So what happened to students of different grade levels with the same app?
What happened when the same app is used for different purposes? Say Across fields?
I truly believe that there are so much going on for technology integration and so much that we need to learn from peers, instructors and even students. I rather feel that technology is not a thing that adults could say they are better than children. They may be not, as children are more quick to learn these kind of digital media.

ISTE Standards for Students

    Ok, ISTE means International Society for Technology in Education. At the introduction part, it talks about the necessity for students to be a digital skilled person in literacy

    Well, if you go to the http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf, the standard for students, you could see that it has 6 areas covered there. A first look would be ok, it's good and simple. But then i come to the question, to what age or grade level? It would be difficult for Kindergartners with a senior high student with the same one. Apparently, the standards just offers us a general guideline. i would say it better than none. Right! We could go on expand the standards anyway. I suppose it includes the area that i should think of. Besides of the age/grade level groups, i would argue it sets up different standards for different stages of development. Standards is what we used to measure. SO it need to be more exact.
   As i went through these 6 areas, i was thinking of Ashley's class with their theme poem and story jumper project. First of all, this technology integration is only part of their writing project. It is another way of writing. Not replacing the way of writing with a pen. However, it shows that students need to be taught of basic computer and online searching skills at a very young age by now. It is a new challenge to kids, as they now do not focus only on their writing, which is already a complicated a process, but they have to cope with the typing, basic computer skills, arts, and etc. I totally understand the way that you raised your hand, but it is just a click then the problem could be solved. But you could do nothing until somebody comes to help! Waste of time and you see that you are left behind!
    Collaboration can also be seen during their writing. Children are always talking to their shoulder friends even if they had trouble themselves. They were trying to help and it is nice of them to share with each other!
    Well, the last area is really difficult for young kids, i believe. Ashley told the kids that they could finish their picture book at home if they wanted to. The boy stood beside me told me that he could not because he did not have firefox on the computer at home. It shocked me first for him to know firefox, and then i told him it would be fine for him to use IE or chrome or safari too. Well, i don't know if he could understand with only a few sentences of my explanation. But how could we explain such a difficult thing to a 1st grader? Are they ready? Are we ready? I remembered that i met a similar problem two years ago when i applied to change my visa status online by USCIS. I had to call the custom service for a reason and then i was transferred to the technical department. YES, you had to go on their website then on a particular browser which i had to download at the time while holding on the phone. Thinking back, it was hard for me, because i had to understand him over the phone to explain in technical terms of what it looked at.
    Technology is changing our life, our way of living and thinking, to what extent we are not sure. I totally agree that there should be a standard but should be more detailed than this one. Looking the Core standards, i simply could not finish reading them in minutes. I need hours to understand what it is talking about!