6809 - Weekly Reading #4

" For example, the Harry Potter series (e.g. Rowling, 1998) is a conventional text mirrored across multimodal realms, such as film, the Internet and computer games. Movies are promoted everywhere from television advertisements and children’s shows to websites, and accompanying merchandise is unashamedly

unrestricted in its breadth. No longer is this paraphernalia limited to lunchbox lids. Popular cartoon icons, such as Dora the Explorer, can be found on linen, clothing, stationery, camping equipment, children’s furniture and even toilet seat inserts for toddlers." (Adlington, Hansford,)

I chose this quote because I strongly agree with it.  I also opened my eyes to all of the things that children – including toddlers – are aware of and exposed to.  Not only are children reading and even writing about their favorite shows, movies, and characters, but they are seeing them everywhere.   I know a little girl (5 years old) who uses her mother’s iPhone to play a Dora The Explorer game.  She is not necessarily reading anything – but it is the fact that she is using technology at such a young age to play and learn with her favorite character from a television show.  My niece is not even three and she has learned so much from Dora.  It is crazy to me that there is so much out there in the digital space.

Retrieved at http://joyreactor.com/post/740858

I chose this image because it goes along with the quote I chose.  It is not exactly about the whole reading; however, it does prove that children, of all ages, depend on digital media to learn new things.  I know from experience that television shows, computer activities, and movies teach children so much.  Therefore, they are ready to come to school and learn the same way they learned when they were children.

- Why is it important for teachers to use digital media to support writing instruction in school?

It is important to use digital media because all of the students these days have grown up in a digital media kind of world.  As stated in the article - "Children are born into a world of digital technology with an order distinctly different from the past" (Adlington, Hansford).  Therefore, we are responsible for keeping up with the digital technology of the children's lives.  It also states in the article that these students have no trouble writing things online in the digital spaces; however, when it comes to pencil and paper - it gets a little more difficult and they tend to stray away from it all.

- What are the differences between writing online and writing in school?

There are quite a few differences.  The first difference that the article states is that "‘that’s online writing, not boring school writing..." (Adlintong, Hansford).  Students see online writing as a fun, interactive hobby; however, they see school writing as boring and not "fun".  Also, so many people can communicate through online writing.  There are so many sites that people can write on and interact with each other.  In school, your writing is judged by a teacher - never to be seen by anyone.

- How should teachers use digital spaces to support writing instruction in school?

I feel that teachers should use digital spaces to support writing in schools so that they feel that they are not doing the same "boring" school writing.  It will feel more like the online writing that they are used to.  Also, this way instead of just having a teacher read and provide comments - their peers and classmates would be able to read their comments and also give feedback.  This is exactly what we are doing in this class.  Instead of having an instructor read our blogs and provide our feedback - we are allowing our classmates to comment on our blogs.  I also had a class in my undergrad where we had our very own facebook page for our specific class.  It was actually pretty neat!

- What are some of the challenges to using digital spaces for writing instruction in school?

One challenge is definitely the validity in some of the things students are reading and then writing about.  This is why we need to teach our students the correct way of finding information.  They should also learn to triangulate the information to make sure that they understand it.  Also, another challenge is  the cost of the technology.  I know that most schools have computer labs; however, there are still plenty of schools that are struggling.  Even if the schools have the technology - the next problem is sharing that technology within the schools and making sure that they have plenty of the time to complete it.

- The authors of the reading provided some excellent examples of how teachers used the social purposes of new texts to support learning in school. Please find another example (Lesson plan or student created product) that provides a good example of how a teacher kept true to the social purpose of a new digital text to support learning in the classroom. Please provide explanation for you example.

readwritethink

I chose this because I feel that if we need our children to read and to write - we may as well utilize digital media, digital spaces, and digital technologies within our lessons.  This is an example of using e-Books to engage students in the experience of reading.

Source:

Adlington, R., & Hansford, D. (2008, July 6). Digital spaces and young people’s online authoring: Challenges for teachers. Retrieved June 10, 2013, from National Conference for Teachers of English and Literacy: http://www.englishliteracyconference.com.au/files/documents/AdlingtonHansford-Digital%20spaces.pdf