Christy's+Second+Exposition+Paper

A Few Samples of Effective Practices for Implementing Online Learning

Many schools state that they are meeting the needs of twenty-first-century students, but often they are not exactly doing so.Some supervisors still believe that using an overhead projector fulfills the requirement of using technology in the classroom.Others encourage teachers to bring students to the computer lab for research but block many of the sites that those teachers may want the students to use.The bottom line is that most schools have successfully integrated technology into the curriculum, but that does not mean that the technologies that are being used are the only ones that serve the purpose of educational enrichment, and it does not mean that the technological resources that schools are spending money on truly fit the needs and learning styles of today’s students.

In response to those administrators who half-heartedly support new technologies, it may be necessary educate them about New Literacies."New literacies" can refer to “new socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses or, (as members of Discourses)”.When participating in the practice of new literacies, digital technologies are used as the means of producing, sharing, accessing and interacting with meaningful content.New literacies are valued for their highly collaborative, distributed, and participatory nature (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).By using new literacies in the classroom, teachers can engage students by tapping into the skill sets that many of them possess as a result of their participation in non-school-related practices outside of the classroom.

The key to successfully using technology in the classroom is to be willing to take chances.There is no educational method, strategy, activity, or theory will work in every situation.When attempting to infuse technology in the classroom teachers need to survey their students to find out what they already know how to do.Teachers also need to evaluate their own skills to identify where their personal strengths and weaknesses are.Then teachers need the ability to go in whatever direction they see fit, and unfortunately they cannot do this alone.They need the support of their administration.It is true that administrators will be held responsible if things go wrong, so many often choose to take a safe approach to the types of technolgy use that is allowed by students and teachers in school.As a result, many websites are blocked, students have limited (or no) access to e-mail, and posting student-created work to the internet is often impossible.However, even in the most limited of situations, teachers can often find ways to implement new technologies that will provide for meaningful learning situations, student collaboration, and the use of new technologies.The aspect of these new literacies that may catch the attention of the administration is that in addition to being educationally sound, they are also cheap.

Two types of new literacies are blogging and digital storytelling.Both are excellent ways to engage the students and make them the center of their own learning, and both are pretty inexpensive.To blog, all you really need is a computer with Internet acces and the ability to use one of the many free blogging hosts available online.Digital storytelling can be done in many ways.Podcasting will be discussed as a way for students to digitally storytell.To podcast you will need a microphone, audio recording software (which can be downloaded for free), and the internet.The point is that if teachers are given the opportunity and the freedom to encorporate new literacies and not just digital technologies in their classrooms quality thinking and learning will take place.

A blog is a website that contains text, audio, and video postings on a particular subject (Colombo & Colombo, 2007).Outside of the classroom students are involved in blogging about video games, movies, sports teams, and every other aspect of popular culture.At home students think nothing of going online and actively participating in discussions about topics that they are interested in.They use the Internet as a place to share their ideas and voice their opinions.However, many of the students who are involved in this practice are also the students who do not say much in class.If teachers set up a class blog these students will have the opportunity to apply what they use in their personal lives and participate in the class discussion without having to actually say anything in class.Caitlin Nunberg, a student blogger said, “Blogging allows everyone in the class to share their opinion, not just the loudest or most outspoken student” (Borja, 2005).

There is evidence that classroom blogs enrich learning, but some administrators are still hesitant to encourage teachers to go out and set them up.Like with any type of Internet use there is risk involved.Students may be irresponsible and may poor choices about what they post, how they comment, and the language that they use.However, if a teacher selects the right host for the classroom blog, he/she will have the ability to monitor the blog and make sure that only appropriate material is posted.With that being said, it is an extra responsibility put on the teacher, and can be a deterrent for using a class blog.

Teachers know that it is necessary to focus on the students’ ability to make meaningful connections from what they are learning.Blogs can be used to promote reflective analysis and the creation of a learning community that exists beyond the walls of the school (Downes, 2004, cited in Clyde, 2005).In addition, blogs give teachers the opportunity to not only use technology to deliver content but also as a way to help students create content.On a class blog students and teachers can participate in active discussions of the content material and take learning one step further by linking to relevant websites and inviting experts (who are not in the class) to comment on the blog posts and “joint the conversation”.

Blogs allow students to take ownership of their learning while working cooperatively with their peers.By blogging, students are able to publish their thoughts and understandings, which provide examples of individualized and authentic interpretations of the content (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004).Not all students learn best by direct instruction, and sometimes direct instruction can be the worst way for a student to learn.“Cooperative learning fosters exercises that require students to talk and listen, to write, to read, and to reflect on what is being studied rather than listen passively to a lecture” (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1994, cited in Wang & Fang, 2005).If students have the opportunity to express their views and answer questions in the form of a blog, the students who are shy or who have trouble speaking up in class will be given the opportunity to use their voice and participate in a way that they might not feel comfortable doing in school.Using new technologies, such as blogging, to differentiate instruction allows teachers to meet the diverse academic and social needs of the students (Colombo & Colombo, 2007).

The format of blogs establishes a collaborative space for readers to become a part of the writing and learning process (Richardson, 2008).After students post their initial responses to a question or post, they have the opportunity to read their classmates posts and comment.By responding to what others say, students engage in valuable discussion of the content material.

One of the major goals as a classroom teacher is to promote deep, conceptual understanding of the content material and provide students with the knowledge and skills to be able to transfer that information outside of the classroom (Higdon & Topaz, 2009).In order to make sure students are capable of this transfer of knowledge, they must have the opportunity to use, apply, synthesize and evaluate information. A class blog provides an easily accessible and diverse space for student collaboration and debate, which develops critical thinking skills.Learning specialists Fernett and Brock Eide have found that blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking.They also promote creative, intuitive, associational thinking, and expose students to quality information.Blogs provide a space for solitary reflection and social interaction (Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005, cited in Richardson, 2008).

When a student completes a writing assignment and hands it in the teacher is usually the only person to read the student’s work.When a post is added to a blog it is available for anyone to read including parents, school administrators, and even professionals in the field.Will Richardson believes that students are more careful with their grammar, logic, and writing style when they know that there is the potential for millions of people to read what they write (Borja, 2005).If posting student work to the internet motivates them to edit their work before they hand it in, then that is all the justification that is needed to allow for classroom blogs.Requiring students to blog encourages them to think about the content material, make sense of it for themselves; reflect on what they have learned, why they have learned it, and what they can do with what they now know.The process is just as important as the product and the outcome is worth the risk.

In //DIY Media// (Knobel & Lankshear, 2010) Erik Jacobson states that “recent studies have found that one in every two American teens have used digital technology to create media content and that one-third of them have shared this content on the internet” (Lenhardt & Madden, 2005; cited by Jenkins, 2006).Even though students are participating in these practices on their own, they can still benefit from school-based pedagogical interventions (Jenkins, 2006).Teachers and administrators need to acknowledge that students are “doing it themselves” and therefore use what the students already know how to do in order to create an environment where students are excited about learning and motivated because it seems like the teachers are “doing cool things” in the classroom.

According to Wikipedia (2010) a podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication.Chris Shamburg says that “Podcasting offers an inexpensive way to create and share compelling media that correlates to authentic activities outside of classrooms.With podcasting, students can create original content as they ethically and effectively collect and remix the work of others and become participants in culture, politics, and society (Knobel & Lankshear, 2010).Shamburg states (Knobel & Lankshear, 2010) that educators need to believe that podcasting can be a vehicle for teaching “powerful ideas”.This concept comes from Seymour Papert who said, “One comes to appreciate how certain ideas can be used as tools to think with over a lifetime” (Papert, 1980).When podcasting students must collect and organizing material created by other people – including research findings and reports, music, quotes from texts online, sound effect files, among others – and then synthesize this material into an original product (Knobel & Lankshear, 2010).

An important reason why teachers should consider using podcasts (and why administrators should allow them) is that many students already have MP3 players.Teachers see high school students walking down the hall with their earphones in on a regular basis.The words “put your iPod away” are used so regularly.It would be amazing to see the look on the students’ faces when the teacher says, “take your iPods out – we are going to use them”.

Two excellent places to find classroom podcasts are the Education Podcast Network and the podcast directory within the iTunes Music Store (Fryer).There are hundreds of websites that provide podcasts that teachers and students can subscribe to and also those that provide teachers and students the opportunity to create their own podcasts and post for others to hear.There are various types of podcasts that teachers can use to enhance students learning.

Media reviews of articles, movies, novels, video games, etc. can be an easy way for students to get started.A teacher may want to give the students the opportunity to practice podcasting by having them do a sample project based on an interest of theirs.Fictional dramatizations can be used to record students acting out scenes from a play in Language Arts class or historical events in a Social Studies class.Students can also research important locations and do an audio tour of them.Historical interviews can be done of people who lived through certain events or the students can take the role of people who were there and they can interview each other.A great way to engage a future sportscaster would be to do a commentary of a DVD.Students can write and record the equivalent of a play-by-play as they narrate what is happening in each scene (Knobel & Lankshear, 2010).No matter the form that is chosen to create a podcast, the students are always engaged, they are creating, and they are using content information as they learn how to do more than just recite facts.

Podcasting appeals to auditory learners.Not everyone learns best from reading, and by listening, some students will find it easier to retain the information.In addition, when schools subscribe to, or create, podcasts they are available to listen to at the students’ convenience.That can be while they are on the school bus, walking home from school, or lifting weights in the weight room.The idea of having “school work” available for you to use without having to have a book or notebook open can be extremely desirable for students, and therefore beneficial to their overall learning. In order for schools to keep up with the times and truly become twenty-first-century learning centers it is important for them to participate in the best, most effective practices.Students are digital natives who have skills that most schools are not taking advantage of.If school leaders follow the lead of the students they will encourage the use of new literacies and digital technologies in ways such as blogging and podcasting that far surpass the simple use of online textbooks and basic Internet research.

References

Borja, Rhea R. (2005).'Blogs' Catching On as Tool for Instruction, Teachers use interactive Web pages to hone writing skills. //Education Week//. //25//, 1,17.

Clyde, Laurel A. (2005).educational blogging. //Teacher Librarian//. //32//.

Colombo, Michaela W., & Colombo, Paul D. (2007). Blogging to Improve Instruction in Differentiated Science Classrooms. //Phi Delta Kappan//. //89//, 60-63.

Ferdig, Richard E., & Trammell, Kaye D. (2004). Content Delivery in teh 'Blogosphere'.. //T H E Journal//. //31//, 12-20.

Fryer, W.A. (n.d.). //Classroom audio podcasting//. Retrieved from [].

Hidgon, Jude, & Topaz, Chad (2009). Blogs and Wikis as Insturctional Tools, A Social Software Adaptation of Just-In-Time Teaching. //College Teaching//. //57//, 105-110.

Jenkins, H., with R. Purushotma, K. Clinton, M. Weigel, & A. Robison (2006). //Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century//. Occasional Paper. Boston, MA: MIT/MacArthur Foundation.

Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) (2010). //DIY Media: Sharing, Creating and Learning with New Media//. New York: Peter Lang.

Richardson, Will (2008). //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms//. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Wang, Jenny, & Fang, Yuehchiu (2005). Benefits of Cooperative Learning in Weblog Networks. Retrieved May 1, 2009, from ERIC database in EBSCOHost. http://eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/c4/82.pdf.