Phipps-Dorencamp,+Sachelle+Louise

1. Now that you’ve had this professional development experience, how are you defining “new literacies?” How do you think your definition has changed or evolved this week?

The word literacy, I believe, often prompts people to think about reading, but really literacy means that people are knowledgeable about a particular area of information, in this case technology. After this professional development, I would describe new literacy as the ability to incorporate web 2.0 tools, along with other forms of technology into everyday life. I do not believe my definition of new literacies has changed this week. I believe I have learned more tools to use in my new literacies arsenal, but I believe that one of the reason’s I was selected to attend this professional development is because of my knowledge of these new literacies and my ability to incorporate them into my classes.

2. Describe some new literacies that you learned about this week? What did you know about these topics before the week began and how has your experience this week contributed to your understanding of these new literacies?

One of the reason’s I was selected to become a technology facilitator is because I use technology as a support tool in my classroom. There was a big emphasis on the use of technology when I went to college, so when I started teaching I tried to incorporate as much technology as possible in my classroom. I also found that using the technology was a helpful way to engage my students, so I kept using it. I feel like I had a pretty good understanding of new literacies when I got to this workshop, but I did learn a lot of cool tools that I am excited to use in my class next year and share with other teachers. The tools I really am looking forward to using are Xtranormal, Voki, Voicethreads, Toondo, Gloggster, Blabberize, Animoto and Sockpuppets

3. In what ways are the new literacies prompted by technology? How do they affect one another?

New literacies use technology. Technology prompts the use of new literacies. It gives us the medium to use them.

4. How do new literacies affect the way we think about academic content? Describe a examples of how some specific academic content is affected by changes in the ways we reading write and thinking (i.e. new literacies).

New literacies doesn’t really make me change my thinking on academic content, but it does make me think differently about how to teach or facilitate the learning of academic content. Our students are exposed to lots of technology at home and facilitating content the same way it has been facilitated for the last 50 years does not make sense. Education needs to be up to date technologically like our students are. This will increase engagement and by increasing engagement you will automatically increase content learning. An example of this is my subject, Social Studies. I can not tell you how often in the beginning of the year I have heard statements like “I hate history” and “I don’t understand how this relates to me” but I find that by incorporating new literacies to help teach the content makes the material more engaging for the student and more relevant.

5. How do new literacies affect the way we think about our teaching practices? How do they affect the development of new teaching practices or approaches to teaching?

Good teaching is good teaching. You can have access to all the technology in the world but that does not make you a good teacher and it certainly will not guarantee a student’s success. Technology, in my opinion should be a tool used in our arsenal’s. Yes, I want my students to be globally competitive and thus they must know how to use technology, but the thinking processes, and understanding processes they must know to survive are not rooted in technology. Technology should be a support tool in education, not the end all be all of education. With that being said, I do believe that the incorporation of web 2.0 tools will be a fun way to help student engagement which will allow us to teach our students the skills necessary to be globally competitive.

6. During the week, you learning about several conceptual / theoretical frameworks for understanding the new literacies including, project-based inquiry, TPACK, Bloom’s revised cognitive theory, online identity, and global literacies (i.e. cultural competence, cultural awareness, cosmopolitanism). Describe your personal perspective on new literacies as it is informed by these conceptual and theoretical ideas.

Education is changing. Teacher centered classrooms are no longer, if they ever were, an effective way of educating our students. What all of these techniques learned at the new literacies institute have in common is that they put the student at the center of learning and the teacher as a facilitator. I believe that these new literacies help put the student exactly where they belong, at the center of their own education.

7. How does the design process you learned about in your design studio work and the video digging deeper session support your understanding of the creative process?

I thought the digging deeper sessions gave me good insight into how my students feel when I assign them PBIs. Often my students will get upset and ask, well what exactly do you want me to do? And my response will be just be creative while following the guidelines. Now I have actually undergone this process myself I see that maybe I am also a product of the old education system. When I reflect on my own educational experience in high school there were right and wrong answers and lots and lots and lots of projector notes. I learned so much more in college when I was allowed to express myself and the information I learned through projects.

8. You learned this week about how to manage, and in some cases create, your online identity. What action steps will you take (are you taking) to manage and further extend your online identity?

I don’t want anything online that will affect my integrity as a teacher, not that I do anything crazy, but even with Facebook, I post as little personal information as possible. I have an extremely unique name, so it is very easy for my students to find information about me. I also have a blog, sort of, where I post house and crafting ideas occasionally at least. I am careful not to post too personal information though.

9. If you had one more day in the Institute, what would you like to learn more about and why?

Truthfully, by the end of the institute, I could not imagine another day. I was ready to go home. These are actually 5 intense days of study, and if there were a 6th day of the institute I would suggest not adding more information, just giving the groups more time to play with the tools and creating final products.