Chapter Five
My initial reaction to the beginning of this chapter is excitement, mixed with worry. I would LOVE to use facebook in my classroom because it is so engrained in (most) of our lives that we are nearly constantly connected to it. As mentioned in the chapter, I do have a fear that my students would be more concerned with checking their own facebook profiles and others’ posts. However, I do think that once the novelty of getting to use facebook at school wore off, they would be more willing to cooperate and use facebook as directed in the class. It is a little disappointing because this level of freedom is not something I see in my near (or distant) future. A (modified) hybrid class seems more doable to me. It would allow the learner to extend lessons from the classroom, using a new technology, on their own time and in their own way. I, personally, don’t think this at home learning should be monitored by the teacher. The teacher should offer support to the student in how to use different technologies, or research different topics. Then, the teacher should offer guidance in the form of assignment instructions or guidelines. Once again, although this isn’t something that I could within my own classroom or school day, it is something I am interested in sharing with my students. It would really make learning fun for my students. I would offer projects like the ones previously mentioned in this book to my students as learning extensions.
Chapter Six
Chapter six answers a few unresolved questions that the teacher may have about the implementation of social networks in the classroom, but I feel as though many of these are beyond the teacher’s control. The first question, “Will social networking be used to free students or more tightly limit their freedoms?”, is something that I feel is completely beyond the teacher’s control, and in the hands of administration. I can only allow my students the freedoms that I am told I can allow them. While I might not necessarily agree with the restrictions placed on students, I must hold myself and my students to them. There are some aspects of education that teachers can influence that are discussed in this chapter. For example, the teacher can place important on new literacies, create time in his or her daily schedule for technology and networking, and by helping to set the atmosphere of the school as accepting of new literacies and how it can very useful to the student.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Reaction to “The Socially Networked Classroom” Chapters Three and Four
Chapter Three
This chapter caught my attention right at the beginning because the first topic it covers is keeping students safe online. This is something I have had experience with as a student (let’s be real, internet filters made research projects nearly IMPOSSIBLE in school!), and now worry about as a teacher. However, I do think the author makes a good point that our students are exposing themselves to the internet with or without adult supervision. I think it would be in the best interest of the child to let them navigate the internet with the guidance and supervision of a wise adult. We need to teach them how to interpret messages on the internet, and how to be safe in this digital environment. Next, we moved directly into a discussion of “fair use” and the internet. Once again, this is something we need to allow our students to see, and interact with before it becomes an issue later in their life (in an education setting, or a workplace). I’m, once again, thankful for the questions to consider that will help me guide my own classroom discussions over these topics, because it really seems like it might be somewhat over a fifth grader’s head. Finally, we move into more specific examples of ways to incorporate technology into our classrooms. I noticed immediately that these examples focused mainly on collaborative learning, such as the second chapter. This author really focuses on how to teach social network within the classroom community, as well as online or when using new media. I really love the idea of a class blog. It would improve my student’s writing abilities and allow them to encourage each other through the use of comments. It would allow for continuous growth in the students’ abilities. Lastly, in the interest of continuous growth, I absolutely adored making a portfolio for this class. It really allowed me to showcase my work, and take pride in it. This is also something that Mr. Kist suggests as a way to “connect the classroom”. I want to share this same pride with my students! This, again, seems very doable! The more I explore this text, the more hopeful I become for my technology limited class. I’m very curious to see what the next few chapters will bring.
Chapter Four
This chapter began with an important message that I fully believe in, and practice every day in my classroom: never ask your students to do something that you have not done. I feel to be an effective teacher and guide to your students, you must have done something yourself. As a teacher, I would create my own blog, and actively participate in this digital environment. I would introduce students to blogging by showing my own blog, comments, and responses. Then, I would introduce or refresh my students knowledge of internet safety, how to be a responsible digital citizen, and netiquette. Once blogging becomes familiar to the student, you can begin to incorporate other activities to keep it “fresh” for the student. These extensions can include inquiry projects, group work projects, and literature circles. These allow for the student to explore new literacies in a deeper manner than they have before. However, this does need the prior knowledge created by teaching the student to blog first, but once in place, offers nearly endless extension activities.
This chapter caught my attention right at the beginning because the first topic it covers is keeping students safe online. This is something I have had experience with as a student (let’s be real, internet filters made research projects nearly IMPOSSIBLE in school!), and now worry about as a teacher. However, I do think the author makes a good point that our students are exposing themselves to the internet with or without adult supervision. I think it would be in the best interest of the child to let them navigate the internet with the guidance and supervision of a wise adult. We need to teach them how to interpret messages on the internet, and how to be safe in this digital environment. Next, we moved directly into a discussion of “fair use” and the internet. Once again, this is something we need to allow our students to see, and interact with before it becomes an issue later in their life (in an education setting, or a workplace). I’m, once again, thankful for the questions to consider that will help me guide my own classroom discussions over these topics, because it really seems like it might be somewhat over a fifth grader’s head. Finally, we move into more specific examples of ways to incorporate technology into our classrooms. I noticed immediately that these examples focused mainly on collaborative learning, such as the second chapter. This author really focuses on how to teach social network within the classroom community, as well as online or when using new media. I really love the idea of a class blog. It would improve my student’s writing abilities and allow them to encourage each other through the use of comments. It would allow for continuous growth in the students’ abilities. Lastly, in the interest of continuous growth, I absolutely adored making a portfolio for this class. It really allowed me to showcase my work, and take pride in it. This is also something that Mr. Kist suggests as a way to “connect the classroom”. I want to share this same pride with my students! This, again, seems very doable! The more I explore this text, the more hopeful I become for my technology limited class. I’m very curious to see what the next few chapters will bring.
Chapter Four
This chapter began with an important message that I fully believe in, and practice every day in my classroom: never ask your students to do something that you have not done. I feel to be an effective teacher and guide to your students, you must have done something yourself. As a teacher, I would create my own blog, and actively participate in this digital environment. I would introduce students to blogging by showing my own blog, comments, and responses. Then, I would introduce or refresh my students knowledge of internet safety, how to be a responsible digital citizen, and netiquette. Once blogging becomes familiar to the student, you can begin to incorporate other activities to keep it “fresh” for the student. These extensions can include inquiry projects, group work projects, and literature circles. These allow for the student to explore new literacies in a deeper manner than they have before. However, this does need the prior knowledge created by teaching the student to blog first, but once in place, offers nearly endless extension activities.
Reaction to “The Socially Networked Classroom” Chapters One and Two
Chapter One
The first chapter of this textbook holds a lot of promise for me because it informed me that it was going to show how to become a “networked classroom” in different classroom situations. As a teacher in a low-technology school, I have found it nearly impossible to integrate technology into my daily classroom life. We have a class website, and get to go to the computer lab once a week, but we don’t interact with technology any more than this. This is greatly disappointing to me. However, I am very excited to see what this textbook has to offer me in the first chapter, “Short”, which promises to show effective and engaging ways to implement new literacies in low technology classrooms. I am hoping that this book is just what I needed to inspire me to broaden my classroom horizons. Wish me luck, I am off and away into chapter two of this adventure!
Chapter Two
At the beginning of this chapter, I’m immediately immersed into a new literacies autobiography project. I absolutely adore this idea for my own fifth grade classroom. This is something I feel that I could assign as a project on the first week of school. We could brainstorm together on the first day, and then allow the students to go home and further brainstorm in a familiar setting with their family or friends. I would offer classroom technology time to allow the students to complete this project because technology resources are often limited for my students. However, I think this is a very manageable project. It is definitely something I would like to consider next year. The chapter continues on to offer suggestions to teach the difference between linear and non-linear reading styles, and reading response ideas. All of the suggestions seem very doable for my own fifth grade class. I really appreciate that the author included questions to consider as well, because it acts as guiding questions for me, as I am a first year teacher with limited experiences, and often struggle to facilitate meaningful classroom discussion. I really connected with this chapter because it showed me that there are multiple ways to respond when learning. I want to incorporate these different ways of responding to texts in my own classroom because no two students learn in the same way. I’m a very linguistic person. I enjoy responding in written forms, however, another learn may want to respond in the form of a PowerPoint. Is one better than the other? Should a teacher cater to one student’s strengths while ignoring another’s? I also really enjoyed the thought that networking can be wireless. If technology in severely limited in your classroom, you can still set up cooperative learning experiences, and allow the students to connect in collaborative working environments. After reading this chapter, I feel as though I need to be the teacher who “walks the walk”. I very much so identify with Cassie Neumann’s blog post that ends the chapter because I am also a first year teacher, without lesson plans that can be revamped, but I do think I can incorporate many of these “wireless” activities into my plans without much strain. However, I’m VERY excited about how I can continue to improve my lessons year after year.
The first chapter of this textbook holds a lot of promise for me because it informed me that it was going to show how to become a “networked classroom” in different classroom situations. As a teacher in a low-technology school, I have found it nearly impossible to integrate technology into my daily classroom life. We have a class website, and get to go to the computer lab once a week, but we don’t interact with technology any more than this. This is greatly disappointing to me. However, I am very excited to see what this textbook has to offer me in the first chapter, “Short”, which promises to show effective and engaging ways to implement new literacies in low technology classrooms. I am hoping that this book is just what I needed to inspire me to broaden my classroom horizons. Wish me luck, I am off and away into chapter two of this adventure!
Chapter Two
At the beginning of this chapter, I’m immediately immersed into a new literacies autobiography project. I absolutely adore this idea for my own fifth grade classroom. This is something I feel that I could assign as a project on the first week of school. We could brainstorm together on the first day, and then allow the students to go home and further brainstorm in a familiar setting with their family or friends. I would offer classroom technology time to allow the students to complete this project because technology resources are often limited for my students. However, I think this is a very manageable project. It is definitely something I would like to consider next year. The chapter continues on to offer suggestions to teach the difference between linear and non-linear reading styles, and reading response ideas. All of the suggestions seem very doable for my own fifth grade class. I really appreciate that the author included questions to consider as well, because it acts as guiding questions for me, as I am a first year teacher with limited experiences, and often struggle to facilitate meaningful classroom discussion. I really connected with this chapter because it showed me that there are multiple ways to respond when learning. I want to incorporate these different ways of responding to texts in my own classroom because no two students learn in the same way. I’m a very linguistic person. I enjoy responding in written forms, however, another learn may want to respond in the form of a PowerPoint. Is one better than the other? Should a teacher cater to one student’s strengths while ignoring another’s? I also really enjoyed the thought that networking can be wireless. If technology in severely limited in your classroom, you can still set up cooperative learning experiences, and allow the students to connect in collaborative working environments. After reading this chapter, I feel as though I need to be the teacher who “walks the walk”. I very much so identify with Cassie Neumann’s blog post that ends the chapter because I am also a first year teacher, without lesson plans that can be revamped, but I do think I can incorporate many of these “wireless” activities into my plans without much strain. However, I’m VERY excited about how I can continue to improve my lessons year after year.
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