Ch. 1 Reading the Media in High School

The first chapter in Hobbs's book tells the reader what they should expect to see in the following chapters. Hobbs begins by discussing a lesson she observed where students were thinking critically about the TV shows they watch, and whether the shows they watch are realistic. Hobbs uses this lessons as a jumping point for her introduction into how she plans to discuss media literacy.

"The use of digital media and popular culture texts not only stimulates young people's engagement, motivation, and interest in learning, but enables them to build a richer understanding of how texts of all kinds work within a culture" (Hobbs 7). I think this particular quotation is a great way to influence administrators to allow you to use different media sources in the classroom. It is more important that we prepare our students to be critical thinkers for their future, than that they understand the canonical texts of the past. I hope to be able to teach media literacy in my own classroom. I think students would rather dive into, and think critically, about current news than they would want to dive into a 400 page novel.

Hobbs also makes a point in the first chapter to explain that, "understanding is a matter of being able to carry out a variety of performances." In other words, students need to be able to look at all different kinds of information sources and think critically about all of them. Students need to learn strategies in the ELA classroom that they can then apply to all the media sources that they are assessing at all times.

My favorite part of the chapter is where Hobbs explains the curriculum at the high school she uses in her research. This is where a teacher can get some great ideas for unit planning. The main topics in the curriculum are: journalism and information; advertising, propaganda, and persuasion; representation of race, gender, and social class; and story telling. The last topic is where students make the connections between the media and the novels/stories they read. On page 14, Hobbs shows an advertisement a teacher used for his English 11 class. The advertisement gives great incite into how this teacher plans to teach a great course in media literacy.

Webquest

For my block 3 project, I am working on incorporating middle eastern literature into a web quest. Students will be asked to choose a culture, read a novel, and then reflect on a question in their culture's feelings.

This project is aimed at giving students options of what to read, but in the end the project will be intertwined and the students will be able to learn from one another!

Will's Musings

The implications of Will's daughter discussing writing a book with her Dad, to me, means that we need to change the ELA classroom. Instead of forcing kids to read old texts, why not ask them what they want to read, let them read it, and then have them write a story in that author's style. Not only can they write the story, but you can either publish it on the Internet or actually have them made up by Apple. As THE new generation of teachers, I think we need to start spreading the word, not just to English teachers, but all teachers. The times are changing and to keep kids engaged we need to get on their technology level.

One of Will's posts on tagging, discusses the fact that people with more income and higher education "tag" more than others. To me, the income and education issue goes a little deeper with technology. One reason making standards for technology in the classroom is so difficult is because of lower income areas. Some schools just don't have the funding for the computers, and/ or the teachers that can use the technology. In these schools, students will struggle to stay focused. All they think about all day long is doing more, more, more. And using technology in the classrooms allows students to use their multi-tasking capabilities.

On Will's Wiki-watch section of his blog, he talks about one class who created business cards for their wikis. I think that is a great idea to really get students motivated to put good content on a wiki. They will want to pass out their own business cards and get all kinds of people looking at their wikis. This is a great idea for the new ELA classroom! http://weblogg-ed.com/category/wiki-watch/

Shape Shifting Portfolio

I don't think I picked up the article that I am suppose to be referencing in this blog, but I think I can manage without. My knowledge of technology has greatly changed since I started English 307 this semester. I began the semester able to read email, Google search, and use AIM. That was about all the technology background I had. Now, I can use different Mac programs, as well as Internet programs for PC.

I think the "portfolio" that I will take away from this class will be filled with many more technology applications than what I started the semester with. In addition, because I already student taught, I see the many ways I will be able to use these new technology applications in my own classroom one day.

Block III Project

Our webquest project is moving along quite well. We have decided to work with multi-cultural literature. We will base our webquest around a critical lens.

The webquest is aimed at making the critical lens essay more interactive and engaging.

Degree in Social Networking

I agree with the one commentator on Will's blog that said you could debunk any college degree. Technically you could pick up a bunch of books and study for a couple years and say you have the same skills as an English Major.

In my opinion, if you want to spend enough time studying social networking, you should be able to get a degree in it. They could then be the people that come to our schools and show teachers how to bring technology into the classroom.

Everyone is moving forward with technology and so should our college majors.

Reinventing Our Schools

According to "Ed School News," Baltimore City Schools have taken a huge step in the technology direction. I was actually quite interested in the program the school district is going to be using. The program is called SAFARI, and it is a type of library program that allows teachers to access different educational games, videos and activities. This a great step for a city school district. Bringing technology into a large districts allows all the teachers and students to create a school community. In addition, the Baltimore district created groups of teachers to work on ways the new technology could be used in the classrooms.

Teacher technology groups are something all districts should use when bringing in new technologies. Teachers need to understand the technology and how they can use it in their classrooms, otherwise they will not use it.

As the Technorati report states, blogs are booming. Which means technology is booming. Which means our students will be more interested in interactive-technology based classrooms.

Webquest Project

My group has chosen to work on a webquest as our block III project. My hope is to create something that I will be able to use in my classroom. Something that will activate students’ creative and critical thinking processes.

A webquest is an interactive website used in the classroom. It allows students to navigate through their thought processes on the internet. For example, the teacher might start by posting a question for thought and depending on the answer, the student chooses they will be taken to another website, etc.

The webquest is an engaging activity for the multimodial learners.

Multimediators

Students learn more when they are engaged and motivated to learn. In other words, using technology will help students with literacy difficulties. O'Brien discusses students in reading lab situations that excelled in literacy skills when they were presented with projects that they were interested in. Helping students to excel in reading and writing in today's world means bringing technology into the classroom.

In my opinion, if the "struggling" students do not know how to use technology, they will want to learn because their peers are using technology constantly. So, whether they are completely familiar with technology or not will not effect their overall motivation.

For the most part, we will be dealing with the multimediators. These will be students who “multi-task” much more than I do (which are quite a lot). Therefore, in order to gain attention it will be important to give students projects where they can use multiple skills. "When students perceived that they were successful, and they set personally relevant goals, and see that they were improving, they would read and write more..."(O'Brien 30). Students will want to be successful, so give them something they can excel at....Technology!

According to O'Brien our content in skills needs to change because the brains of our students are changing. The human mind may be biologically different now than it was back when the canonical texts were the most important things. Our students are capable of much more than just reading a book and responding. We need to make sure that we push our students to excel by giving them literacy projects using technology.

Zines

Once again, I agree that letting students be creative motivates them to learn. Allowing students to write in their own way about their own topics gives students freedom. When they have freedom, they feel they have some kind of ownership over their work. Not only that, but they will also feel as though they are a part of the classroom community.

Letting students be creative is motivating!

Tech. Chat

Well according to one man, to even use the world technology to refer to the use of "digital tools" in the classroom is ignorant. Although, in my opinion, the times are changing and that is someone who will be left behind. Words and their meanings change and evolve into news things just as often as "technology."

The most important question in this chat was the one about the roadblocks of implementing technology in the classroom. Monetary problems are the cause of an administration who lacks awareness about technology. Surely, some districts plainly do not have any money, but there are ways to receive grants from the government. I think once again the government needs to spend a good amount on the budget making sure schools have up-to-date technology. But this means that the administrations need to be on board as well. Which means we need to find ways to teach the administrators about the importance of technology to our students and their future lives.

Technology Counts

The introduction to "Technology Counts" begins by telling us how they first began to fund technology for schools. Technology has changed immensely in the past 10 years. So much change has occurred that, as most of us know, most schools are struggling to keep up. The introduction mentions teachers using the internet, podcasts, cellphones, and I-Pods to teach. But is that really the case?

The answer is no when you look at what a few students have to say. The first student to comment talks about all the technology he uses at home before and after he goes to school. But while he is at school he is forced to be someone that he is not. At school he is told he cannot use the computer, and he cannot access useful websites. Yet, when given the chance to perform an assignment using technology he feels as though he is able to excel. Technology is something that today's students are extremely comfortable using. So why are we taking that away from them, and forcing them to do things they will not put creative effort into?

Using blogging in the classroom promotes, what one teacher called, "educational social-networking." In other words, students use the blog to have discussions they might not feel comfortable having in class. Blogs give the shy student a forum to shout, and give their opinions that they might otherwise keep to themselves. But of course, this only works in situations where computers and internet are available for all students.

I agree with the article that we need to ask our students how they think we could bring technology into the classroom. Ask them how they would choose to fulfill an assignment, or teach a certain lesson. They may have better answers than any adult!