Taylor,+Donald+Eric+-+Closing+Reflection

Now that I have had this professional learning experience, I would define "new literacies" as the way students understand an ever-changing world and their places in it. I think my definition has evolved over the course of the NLI to include a greater focus on the students' places in the world. Prior to the Institute, I thought of new literacies only in terms of how students make sense of the world around them; now I realize the importance of helping the students find their own identity in the digital world.

In particular, I learned about the role that publishing and sharing plays in today's education. Most of today's teenagers are well aware of how to make their opinions known through blogging, tweeting, Facebook, etc. We as teachers must understand how to harness the students' need to share and make sure that our students are well-informed and prepared to share in a proper forum.

For me, the most concrete example of new literacies this week was the comparison of the two letters written by young women in 1999 and 2012(?). The differences in the impact that these two letters had can all be attributed to today's access to technology. In 1999, the letter was addressed to a small group of manufacturers who found it easy to ignore. In 2012, the letter, although aimed at the magazine publisher, was written in a way that invited the public to join the author in her sentiments, which made the letter grow to proportions that could no longer be ignored. This fact illustrates the power that technology has given to new literacies. Moreover, the new literacies and the need to be heard have given impetus to technology to make publishing more widespread and accessible.

Going back into my classroom, I am prepared to change the emphasis in my classroom from my understanding of the content to the students' understanding. Giving students an opportunity to take on more of the responsibility for their own learning then publishing of their findings gives the students more power of their educations. I am ready to give kids the keys to their education and allow them to step into the driver's seat.

As I stated earlier, I believe that "new literacies" are essentially the ways that students gain an understanding about their place in the world; therefore, I feel that global literacy, online identity, and project-based inquiry are essential. Each of these concepts grants the learner a greater understanding of how our ever-shrinking world is continuing to evolve. Project-based inquiry serves as a framework for students to develop their connections to the global community through global literacy and online identity. New literacies are not possible without these elements.

I appreciate the design process we followed throughout the week. If anything, it cemented some of my own methods and ideas of creative, project-based learning and gave labels to some aspects of the process that I had not been able to identify previously.

Learning that I had such a large online presence was quite an eye-opener for me. To paraphrase one of my colleagues, I have always been careful not to post anything that I wouldn't want my grandmother to read. But this week has given me a greater appreciation for the ease with which things may be recalled (e.g., my principal was able to locate my birthdate and several of my previous addresses and phone numbers, along with my blogspot, in just a matter of two to three minutes). I think I will use this activity to show my students just how widespread their online identity can become.

Finally, if I had one more day at the Institute, I would like to have learned about some of the other Cool Tools sessions that I did not get to see on Tuesday and Wednesday. Although I could read more about the tools on this wikispace, I like to see the tools in action to get an idea of how I could use that tool in my classroom.