New Media & New Literacies

  Blog Post 6 - Integrating Gaming and Simulations Into My Classroom🎮🎲      A game that I use consistently in my classroom is Jeopardy. This is an AMAZING way to make reviewing information fun and engaging. The application I use is Factile . I use this so regularly that I've even purchased a subscription for it and I make games when we're getting ready for a test or at the end of a unit to assess what the students do and don't know. Pictured below, you can see the games I have created for my 6th grade classroom so far. Game Bank      For the purposes of this post, I’m going to be using my ‘Bud, Not Buddy’ game to show examples of how the game works and how to navigate the website. When you make and edit a game, you get to create your own personalized Jeopardy game. You’ll start by creating categories that align with the content being taught in class. Then, you can create your own questions and answers to questions. Category Edit Question Edit  ...

  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...