Linville,+Carrie+Inscore-Closing+Reflection

__**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? As an English/Language Arts teacher, I suppose I've always thought of "literacy" as the ability to read and understand basic print text. But after this week at NLI, I can better appreciate literacy to include an interpretation of video, audio, images, and other digital media. I think "new literacies" suggests the many new approaches necessary to prepare students for success in the 21st century.

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? Some new literacies I learned about this week include PBI (problem based inquiry), online reading comprehension, and scaffolding instruction. I think I was the most familiar with scaffolding because of my experience in differentiating instruction for EC and low performing students. This week had helped me realize that even though students spend a great deal of time on the computer, they may still require scaffolding for new activities and uses for the Internet.

3. In what ways are the new literacies prompted by technology? How do they affect one another? I think that technology has the potential to help students (young and "veteran") become more literate and knowledgeable about the world around them. It also seems that learning such as problem based inquiry is possible because of technology; I can't imagine sending students to outdated encyclopedias for information or viewing presentations on white tri-fold boards. Technology enables students to see a global perspective on current issues and express themselves creatively through multimedia products.

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 think that all academic content becomes more relevant through new literacies. Students will be much more willing to research the science and social studies topics that interest them, especially if they can (quickly) receive details from a variety of perspectives and interactive media to accompany topics. For English/Language Arts, I think that the "publish/share" portion of the design cycle is especially important because too often students write papers, poems, stories, etc. that are only viewed by their teacher. For students who aren't particularly motivated by grades, having a captive audience of their peers could be a better reason to perform.

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? New literacies prompt me to consider the relevance of content and appropriateness of products that I ask my students to create. More than anything, new literacies allow for greater choice when it comes to selecting material, delivery of material, and means of synthesizing material.

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. My personal perspective of new literacies after considering ideas from this week is that there should be an emphasis on inquiry, student role in engagement and learning, creative products, and shared responsibility for global problems.

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? The design process served as a reminder about the importance of beginning with a question. Whether you're an educator, student, engineer, or artist, it is crucial that you have an idea where you want to end up and pose an appropriate question that will get you there. It never fully realized the value in the final stage in design--publish and share. Whether they will admit it or not, students (of all ages) like to receive recognition and praise for their work. It is also through this final stage that others can learn from your research and creativity.

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'm not sure how far I would be willing to extend my online identity. I have a Facebook page (of course) that is for personal use, but I try to be careful about content that I post. I also have an Edmodo account that I would like to make better use of in the coming months. Although I have attempted a blog page for my students to follow and respond to, it was not as successful as I would hope. I may consider Twitter **//if//** I'm fortunate to get a smartphone; it seems pointless in the meantime because I'm not connected to the Internet 24/7 like iPhone users. I am proficient at maintaining our system-sponsored teacher webpage during the school year and I would like to continue to work with improving this site. I have recently created a Collaborize Classroom account, but I'm not sure to what extent that "counts" towards my online identity. I will primarily use the site for online discussions with students, but I may consider sharing lessons with other educators.

9. If you had one more day in the Institute, what would you like to learn more about and why? I would like to learn more about questioning and research techniques for the classroom. My students struggle with conducting effective research, paraphrasing content, and correctly citing sources. While I really like problem based inquiry, I could still use some help with how the issue of plagiarism is handled using this teaching method. How do we combat the urge students have to "copy and paste"?