Odle,+Jennifer+Burns+-+Closing+Reflection

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? Every time I think of the word literacy I think of reading and literature. It was hard for me to change my thinking, however now my definition has changed considerably. Now when I hear the word literacies I think about technology and new ways to use it in my class lessons and assignments in the form of blogs, social networks, and online collaboration.

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? Blogs, social networks, digital storytelling...these are just a few of the new literacies I am looking forward to using this year. I started a blog last semester however I never actually put it to use. I plan to use it this year as a parent communication tool. I am also more interested in using my edmodo for the purpose of keeping up with students and for posting and turning in assignments. The possibilities are endless now that I have a better understanding of how to use the web 2.0 tools for more than creating projects.

3. In what ways are the new literacies prompted by technology? How do they affect one another? I cannot see one without the other. New literacies have changed the way we learn as well as how we communicate through the use of technology.

4. How do new literacies affect the way we think about academic content? Describe an examples of how some specific academic content is affected by changes in the ways we reading write and thinking (i.e. new literacies). I no longer think about academic content as just coming from a textbook. Now I can see slope being taught using digital storytelling and videocasting.

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? They make me think differently about how I present material to my students. We can't lose site of the change in times and that students learn differently than we did or how students did 5 years ago. We now teach using more technology and hands on activities as opposed to paper/pencil and textbooks.

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. I think that literacy is constantly changing and becoming more of a necessity in life, in and out of a classroom.

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? They made it more realistic...more like solving real world problems. It has broadened my ideas and I think it will help my students develop a deeper understanding of the concepts they are working on.

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? At this point I am not taking any steps to further extend my online identity. Right now I am just trying to make changes to my lessons that will allow me to incorporate more of the concepts I have learned about this week.

9. If you had one more day in the Institute, what would you like to learn more about and why? I would just like to develop a deeper understanding of some of the web 2.0 tools before I try to use them on my own.