Final Reflections

This semester has continued to push me outside of both my comfort zone in some of the activities we participated in, as well as the traditional classroom approaches to learning.  We have redefined what qualifies as literacy, what we use to communicate information, how what we are using can be applied within a learning environment and how all of these channels tie into our day to day lives.    With changing technology, definitions of terms like literacy, place, culture and infrastructure all continue to evolve and expand to incorporate virtual existences.  There is a movement between the conceptual and the actual, and the space between continues to become less and less evident.  As the virtual world becomes the reality of our world, we need to make sure we understand the implications such dependencies on it can create. This course was eye opening in quickly students, coworkers and people all become dependent on new medias.  As we continue to learn various medias we should explore both the value and devaluation of its evolution. This course did not discuss much about the devaluation of information because of the readiness of it, or ability to find it "at our fingertips." It also did not get into discussions of media based assessment strategies or many of the challenges faced as we continue to move to a technology based learning group.  My guess is that these two topics could be entire courses of their own, alongside this one.  I have fulled enjoyed the coursework, and as stated in my individual assessment this has been one of the most interactive online courses I have ever taken-an element that is typically lacking in online courses.  Continuing to use various methods of information gathering and presentation will continue to keep material and presentations differentiated and lead to a broader appeal across audiences.

Information Literacy

I developed this literacy guide for middle school students to utilize in their research and source qualification.  The guide is a general recommendation of research and approach based around 5 main steps: Defining, decoding, evaluating, creating and communicating. 

Define/Find:

Who was the most popular poet in 2013? Who was the most popular singer in 2013?

The most important part of defining an information literacy guide is determining what you want the overall goal to be. The topic needs to be well defined, and a rubric needs to be created.   One needs to know not only what the requirements are but also how it will be evaluated.   In the case of middle school students, it may be something along the lines of online research and validated sources.  Once it is determined what the research task is, the skills of research and development begin. Various media sources can be utilized for information gathering: the internet, interviews, peers, social media, blogs, wikis, T.V. and print (newspapers, magazines, periodicals, etc.) are all sources that can utilized and validated.

Decode:

Why were these people the most popular?

Once the information gathering has begun, it is important to interpret the information to criticize.  It can be an argument in agreement with or against the information presented, but gathering it and deciphering just what the information means, and how it applies to an individual theory takes a level of critical evaluation.  There is no right or wrong when making inferences about information, however it is important to be able to back up statements with facts and details that support a hypothesis.

Evaluate:

How were they the most popular?

Once the information is gathered and organized, it needs to be evaluated and validated.  Because there are so many sources of information available to us today, not all information communicated to us is factual or legitimate.  It needs to be referenced from a validated source. Information can be cross checked virtually immediately through any of the media’s referenced above, or through multiple sources.  Generally speaking, scholarly journals and sites are considered acceptable sources; while Wikipedia, social networks and blogs may need additional clarification and facts finding to ensure the details are legitimized.  In addition, newscasts and articles may be “first release” versions and require “additional information” before all of the details are clear or validated. 

Create

What are some traits that make these individuals more successful than their peers?

Would you argue someone else in their place and why?

From here, we can create our own conclusions, and inferences from the information presented to us. We make our own argument for or against suggestions and theories presented in the research gathered.

Communicate:

Present your arguments in a PowerPoint or speech presentation.

Agree or disagree with the information gathered at this point.  Find alternative points of view and incorporate those into support of any arguments you may have.  Site any sources utilized so that authors receive credit for their work.  

Adolescents and New Media

My nephew has become my "study subject" in that so much of what we study and discuss when talking about adolescent education I tend to tie back to him and his experiences in school. Like many adolescents, he has had successes and failures. I know that most people brag about the intelligence of their family, but he is also one of the smartest 13 year-olds I know-sometimes to his discredit.   Regardless of the fact that he is family, I utilized him and his experiences both in and out of school as the subject of the interview in this module.  His statement and what I learned was at parts surprising as well as what one may assume.  

When I asked him how much time he thought he spent daily utilizing modern media, he ball parked it at 1-2 hours. When I questioned that, I mentioned you have to consider all the time you spend on the internet, gaming, your phone, texting, checking messages, and social sites-everything, he thought long and hard about that and decided it was probably closer to 3 or 4 hours every day, maybe more.  Between classes, after school, evenings, waiting after extracurricular activities, he always had a connection to others, and was always using it when he reflected a bit more on it.

He directly stated that he communicates with his friends regularly via text.  When I was growing up, we used to write notes among friends, and pass them in the hall or in classes.  Today, this has evolved to teenagers having phones of their own and texting to each other both in and outside of class.  Very little communication is done by calling a friend anymore.  Hanging out is now a text, asking each other what is up or want to hang out; it is not calling to see if you want to come over.

Digital media seems to be a part of his life in so many ways-from availability of homework assignments online, to re-cap of lesson plans, to sports schedules and safety communications, media has started to govern his life.   In school, teachers are using the internet to make their lessons and assignment readily available to the students, as well as due dates and areas to communicate with the teachers.  Both students and parents have the ability to go online and track the progress of their children in specific classes, no longer having to wait for the mid marking period reports, or until notification is made to a parent for ongoing issues.  In addition to reporting, activities involving the internet, blogs, writing activities, and publishing to sites is readily available to students.   Some of the students dislike this, as they feel their every move is being watched, but at the same token, they use it as a tool to gauge their own progress, and address their work accordingly.    

While he certainly does use it for entertainment, but he also uses media for reference.  It isn’t all about games and fun, it is about informing and being informed. From the school related tasks to the social part of it, it has become the best way to inform of cancellation, get feedback from friends (sometimes family too).  While he is not much of an official blogger, commenting with his friends and actively posting assignments while creating dialogues in learning forums are requirements. 

Critical Media and Deconstruction

When it comes to advertising, organizations appear to depend on the fact that while watching TV or listening to the radio, we do want to critically evaluate what we see or hear.  We are programmed to be “led” to make a decision as a consumer and not to ask questions.  As a media changes the medium from which it works, we are influenced and massaged into making decisions as consumers.   While the medium of media has continued to evolve, the way we respond to evolves as well. There is no way to predict how consumers will react or engage with any given advertisement.  I was interested in exploring a bit more of McLuhan’s theories on media and people.  His theory states any great new medium of communication alters the entire outlook of the people using it.  My understanding of education and the way that we present material to be learned is that we should be altering the way we present it-not only to embrace evolving technology and develop skills to manage that new technology, but also to be able to critically analyze the response and mode of delivery.  What he challenges is the idea that marketing and sales is not pushing a product, it is selling a medium.  The medium from which they are communicated become part of us.  This is evident in how dependent we are on the technology that surrounds us every day.  It isn't necessarily the messages in the medium that drive us to it, it is the medium itself-the media.  Moving information is at the forefront of media-not selling products, but communicating and processing information.  Implied in parts of that is the advertising itself. Our job as educators and teachers is to utilize the medium’s, as they evolve, to push information back out to the public, the future consumers as well as the future citizens.  It is through evolving media that these consumers and citizens will become informed of relevant issues, challenges, tools and concepts.  Along with this comes the challenge of validating the information, regardless of how it is presented to us. If we have multiple means of getting the information, it is probably safe to assume that all the information out there is not accurate, or in some cases versions of the truth.  Today information is available almost instantaneously, and as such we have opinions of that information almost as fast, based on whatever information has been presented to us at the time.   Media should take some responsibility in teaching how to understand the information presented, but individuals also need to take responsibility for learning critical media literacy. As we are a global village, more so now than when McLuhan’s theories were evolving, we can no longer be limited by cultural and operational influences.  These boundaries, though lessened with the evolving media, their influence is still apparent on a local scale. Walking into a school one realizes the value of mobile media, walking into a business one values various electronic media, walking into a coffee shop one values the media of the spoken word, but it with music or a newscast. As we examined current advertisement this week, it is apparent that there are various implied meaning buried in advertising, from the appeal to emotion, to the characters, to the colors, to the branding of the merchandise.  It is everyone’s responsibility to understand both the limitations and values in a global world that each of these mediums present. 

Networked Democracy or Not

One of the biggest things that jumped out at me from Saskia Sassen’s lecture was her ideas on the blogosphere and their limitations on just how “neutral” a ground blogs are.  Her stance on the blogosphere is of the belief that even though blogs are set up to be interactive domains, we need to try to understand “how to pick up social logic at work that may distort the technical results that may be inferred from the technology alone (Sassen).”  What she means by this is that even though there is what we perceive to be an unbiased understanding and choices when it comes to blogs, there are still social forces at work that dictate which ones we follow, respond to, and why some are more successful than others. It is similar to how democracy and a free market economy operate, and as such may present the same limitations.

As in democracy, blogs are appealing as they are open to all individuals (with a network connection). The general openness of what you are looking for and what you prefer to follow, allows everyone to participate, and gives followers multiple choices in terms of what they may want. Open access means options to choose from. This is also appealing to the bloggers themselves as they can be as public or private in terms of being found and visited. 

O’Baoill makes very similar connections between democracy and blogging taking note of perhaps another perceived limitation: while the blogosphere is technically inclusive-anyone can start a weblog.  It is the propagation network that serves to privilege some over others (with external relationships a significant factor).  This ties back to not only how businesses become successful, but how business people continue to have new opportunities presented to them and positions offered of them.  The value of networking, making connections, and using those connections to be successful cannot be undervalued.

What I didn’t agree with in Sassen’s comments was here analysis in that given we are so busy, we choose which blogs we want to follow.  We will inherently select the ones that our friends follow, so that we can stay on top of current trends and discussions with them.   While that may be the case with younger bloggers and followers, I believe that one of the appealing parts of blogging has more to do with the privacy associated with it, and the choices that each participant or writer. I do not necessarily it is driven by popularity within social circles, but perhaps more by popularity by themes or content.  Because they are so accessible, bloggers have the option to pursue any interest, not just those that are popular or similar to friends’.    

Reflective Blog-Sociotechnical Change

Sociotechnical change and aggregated service sites. Sociotechnical change is a new term I have not yet heard describe the social and technical changes we have happening in the world around us.  One of the biggest pieces to this movement is surrounded by a name that most would consider synonymous with the internet-Google.   What Google offers people in a single location to find multiple social outlets.  By logging into one site, you have email, IM, virtual calls or phone calls, document access, shopping access, site and more consolidated into a single site you log into.  This is an incredible feat in today’s day and age, and as Google continues to diversify and expand their service offerings for a growing online community. What Google manages to do it is expand a network so that individuals are able to reach out to a potentially larger and more varied pool of culture and information (Varnelis, 2008 ).  Facebook is taking subtle queues from Google and partnering with games, photo-sharing, reminders, contact lists, apps and settings in many online devices like laptops, phones, and tablets.  Again, what this does is centralize your information and allow you the option to “share” what you would like through one interface.   What this is limited to is what Jenkins refers to as the Participation Gap-who are the ones that will be left behind in this online movement and social importance and pressure of being part of a participatory culture?  As technology continues to evolve, there may be a larger gap made more apparent in the socio-economic differences of students-those that have access to computers, social networks and technology accessible to experience with and those that do not. It has become more and more apparent that understanding technology and having the ability to participate in this online society is more important and almost required for a successful future as a contributing citizen.  What should concern us as educators is the challenge of filtering the information available at the click of a button and legitimatizing sources in a world where so many options are available to us, and where ads are targeted directly at online readers and users based on their likes, browsing history and previous purchases. 

What Counts as Literacy....

It was not until after I completed my paper did I realize that even the title of the article "Online R U Really Reading?" speaks to a new dialect of language that has evolved with the onset of the online world. The "texting" language that has evolved in the last few years has given different meaning and as well as created new words we now use in day to day language and communications.  We are constantly encouraged to work to engage and incorporate diverse learners and cultures into lesson planning and course content.  Being able to manage, utilize and engage in an electronic world is important in today's day and age-for learning as well as in business.

Literacy is not just understanding how to read, write and analyze, but also how to engage and think.  It should not matter what the context or environment is in which we engage students. As educators, we should be able to adapt to the environment in which material can and is presented.  In addition, as assessors and evaluators we should be able to recognize the opportunity that the online environment brings to literacy and continuing education.

I found it a bit ironic that this article debated the effectiveness of literacy in an online forum as presented to an online class.  Certainly there is value in engaging online, and allowing individuals to demonstrate skills like research and web navigation (both of which are vital business traits today) while conversing, analyzing, participating, reading, qualifying sources, and writing about them.  These are all activities that we do in traditional classrooms via traditional means-reading from a book, classroom discussions, and submission of papers/quizzes/tests to demonstrate knowledge. There is a tremendous value in not only understanding online literacy, but in applying what makes it so appealing to our learning and instructional styles and approaches.

Introduction

Hello everyone. First time blogging ever; looking forward to interacting with everyone