New Media & New Literacies

  Blog Post 5: Case Studies Case Study #1: Google Classroom Google Classroom is a Google Application that creates a digital classroom for students. Under the Classwork tab,  Teachers can upload assignments and grade them, assignment descriptions, directions and due dates can be added. Students can submit assignments and teachers have real time access to the documents that students are working on. The Stream is where teachers and students can create and comment on other peoples’ posts. Hyperlinks and YouTube videos can be included in posts as well. There is also a People tab that allows you to see the teachers and students in the class. Parents can also be granted access to Google Classroom and stay up to date.  Teachers typically use this platform as a teaching tool. Teachers can create a digital assignment and upload it for students to complete. Teachers will often post class updates on the Stream as well. The Stream is also a place where teachers will post digital conte...

 💻📱Adolescent Interview 📺📹 I decided to interview two students, one male and one female. For the purposes of this blog we’ll call them Kyle and Alexa. (Alias is one of our vocabulary words so I let them choose their aliases!) I interviewed them at the same time. Posing questions to one or the other and then allowing them to bounce off one another to answer the questions on a deeper level and to see what shared experiences they might have. Honestly this took about 45 minutes and we were still chatting as the bell rang! These friends had a lot to say, as middle schoolers typically do! Alexa does not have a cell phone but she does have a tablet with access to Kids Messenger and YouTube. She also has a TV in her room, an Alexa, and on rare occasions, access to her parents’ phones. Kyle on the other hand does have a cell phone, an XBox, PlayStation, a tablet, a TV, and an Alexa. Both students however have school issued Chromebooks that they use in school. Kyle and Alexa also use You...

  💻 Final Project Preparation📱 For my final research project, the topic that I am choosing to research is, social justice in terms of new media and new literacies. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart and it is engrained in nearly everything I do in my classroom. My current students will inevitably become adults who will participate in society and democracy. If I did not at least try to prepare them for these realities then I would not be doing my job as an educator. Empowering students to not only want to learn about social justice but to partake in the process and become a producer of knowledge is crucial, especially in our modern, technological world. Students are constantly inundated with media and its opinions; teachers need to be providing students with the tools they will need to navigate those opinions by means of questioning them and their intentions. There are many practical applications of this in my classroom. I teach 6 th gra...

Blog Post 3 Leveraging Tools, Text, and Talk in My Teaching Context      The idea that teaching technologies is a practice that influences students inside and outside of the classroom is not lost in the readings we have been provided within this module. Another objective that was made very clear is that without teachers utilizing strong pedagogical practices in our classrooms, students gain nothing from the technology provided. In “MORE THAN BITS AND BYTES”, Earl Aguilera talks about three approaches to digital literacy; on, behind and beyond the screen. (Aguilera, 2017) Educating students in what’s on the screen consists of educating them on how to navigate the physical technologies that are available to them. It also educates students on what they’re seeing online and how to interact with it in a significant, respectful, and moral way. Engaging students in conversations and activities about what’s behind the screen will get them thinking about why certain narratives ar...

 How New Literacies are Relevant to Us      I decided to read the second article, 'Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning and Justice' and the third article, 'Digital Literacy'. One of the biggest take aways I pulled from both of these readings is the idea that we're preparing our students for their futures.  I think so often we view our students as children that will stay children forever and the idea of preparing them for life, especially in the younger grade levels can be lost a bit. It's always in the back of our minds as educators but have we all really sat with the gravity of the statement that these children are our future doctors, lawyers, business owners, teachers, farmers, salespeople, etc.? Both of these readings also talk about the impact of technologies outside of the schools and in the workplace. In virtually any job, there is going to be some sort of technological requirements - are the students we're putting out into the world to ...

Defining New Literacies and Why They Matter      In this week's readings, I was able to deep dive into Digital Literacy and its context within the society and cultures I participate in. The New Literacies Theory suggests that due to a changing world and growing demands inside and outside of the workplace, the way literacy is taught needs to tailor to those new demands and embrace technology in a meaningful way. (Sang, 2017, p. 16) Life and the way society functions has drastically transformed - the way literacy is thought of and taught should be reflective of those changes. Looking back to when I was still a student in the public school system and now reflecting on my time as an educator in the same  system, I realize that New Literacies have been all around me the entire time. I remember when SmartBoards came out when I was in 5th grade. I remember going to the computer lab and learning to navigate Word and how to conduct research on complex...