technology jigsaw

Ok... My technology post is all below.  In the spirit of this assignment, if you wish to hear and see a digital elf reading the first part of my blog, which is highlighted in RED, then klick on the link below


http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=8342920&height=267&width=200

Technology always seems like a worthwhile topic of discussion because it changes so rapidly and always warrants updating.  I do not consider my self to be very “techie”, but I have really enjoyed some tech aspects of this class.  I think that the WIKI is a great resource and it seems that the blogs have been a great tool for communication. 

There were a couple of points that were brought up in our class Jigsaw activity that I found very relevant and would like to expand on a bit.  The first point came from the I-PED article and dealt with the idea of critical literacy, specifically, how to teach kids to be critical of the validity of their online sources of information.  I won’t regurgitate the contents of the article here, but the main idea is that before cutting the kids loose to search for information on the internet, we need to devote some class time to teaching kids some specific ways to evaluate websites.  As we were discussing this topic, Jim commented on a website that is really helpful for teaching critical literacy skills.  The website gives a long chemical name for something and then goes on to warn the readers of all of the potential problems and life threatening health concerns associated with this chemical.  However, the website has a humorous twist and is a great teaching tool because in the end you can reveal to the students that the long chemical that the website is referring to is actually just a name for normal water.  The moral of the story is that kids need to be critical thinkers and observers when it comes to evaluating content on the web. The website is WWW.DHMO.ORG…and Jim has linked it at the bottom of the technology section of the wiki.

The second point from our discussions that I really liked came from the article on blogging.  The given scenario was about a blogging pen pal type set up between some students from different schools. The article explained that the motivation and the work of the kids was much better when the kids had had a face to face interaction with their pen pal. So , personal interaction does still matter.

I hope that you enjoyed being talked at by a female elf with a beard

Radio Lab Jigsaw

This was the first time that I had been exposed to radio lab and I plan on listening to it more in the future.

My first Bachelors degree was in Anthropology, and although it was not the most practical choice of study in terms of employment, I really enjoyed the subject matter.  As part of my course of study I took a couple of linguistics classes that I found fascinating.  Accordingly, this jigsaw/radio lab was very interesting to me.

Unanswered questions from my linguistics classes kept popping into my head, especially when I was listening to the third sound clip.  I found myself re-wondering…..

·      Is cognition limited by the boundaries of language? 

·      Is there a connection between the extent of our vocabulary and our cognitive understanding or is language simply a form of expression?

·      Is “thinking” as discussed in one radio lab interview, really defined solely through our inner monologue

·      When monks stop their inner dialogue through meditation what is happening cognitively?  What about when we sleep?

·      Does knowing multiple languages broaden a persons perspectives and cognitive ability?

·      If so, does increased cognitive processes and broader perspectives affect  reasoning? Do monolingual people make less informed decisions?

I am not expecting answers to any of these questions, I only bring them up because I find them interesting and thought provoking tangents.

Another aspect of this jigsaw that I thought was fascinating involves the evolution of language and how the progression of change does not occur at a constant rate.  It seems, and I believe that this backed by research, that language evolves differently in closed or isolated communities.  This was evident in the rapid changes in the small deaf community discussed in the third segment.

To bring it back to the realm of education, it is important to remember that linguistic patterns grow and change in ways that are functional for the given community or environment.  Linguistic dialects and accents are not in anyway indicative of cognitive ability.  This might seem like a silly point, but people are often judged negatively in light of how they sound. Ebonics, southern drawls, and different verb conjugations all carry a certain amount of cultural baggage in the form of certain stereotypes.  As teachers we need to recognize these differences for what they are (simply minor linguistic variations) and make sure that we (and others) do not attach any further meaning.

Vocabulary Post (Jigsaw #2)

 Essential Question: What does effective vocabulary instruction require and why is vocabulary instruction so important?

Effective vocabulary instruction requires the use of a variety of strategies and as we discussed our articles in small groups I was definitely struck by a few common themes.  Student choice was definitely a reoccurring theme, as was morphological awareness.  The article that I read discussed the usefulness and importance of vocabulary self-selection and as a side note, it mentioned the value of making sure that the given vocabulary words needed to be present and legitimate in the context of everyday life.  The importance of this social/societal aspect in regard to the usefulness and effectiveness of learning new vocabulary is what I would like to expand on a little bit on in this blog.

Instructional techniques and strategies are readily available and easy to look up to the extent that the number of methodologies can be a bit overwhelming. However, the idea of how instrumental the environment is in the acquisition and understanding of new vocabulary seemed to be a bit less explicit.

As my classmates were explaining the main points of the given articles, I kept making connections to the theories of Vygotsky and Brofenbrenner.   Of the hundreds of thousands of words that we learn throughout life, I would argue that only a very small percentage is learned through direct instruction.  In my opinion, the articles focused a bit too much on specific strategies of vocabulary instruction at the expense of devaluing the importance of the surrounding societal, familial and educational environment.  After all, the top educational systems in the world vary greatly in their methods of content delivery, but what they have in common is an overarching societal buy-in to the importance of education. 

The importance of the role of family and community in the process of literacy development is evident in the Literacy histories of the members of our class.  As professor Lattanzi pointed out, the mention of school in our literacy histories was almost nonexistent.  Keeping this in mind, I think that it would be worth looking into more aspects of peer relations, family situations, and community programs.  With this agenda in mind, I have linked a couple of articles that expand on the notion of the importance societal values regarding education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/best-education-in-the-wor_n_2199795.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-17th-global-education-ranking-finland-south-korea-claim-top-spots-901538#

Motivation Post (Jigsaw #1)

As we completed our Jigsaw activity in class, I left feeling that I had gained some useful, hands-on information on how to motivate students.  The article that I was an "expert" on was titled Texts That Matter and the main idea was that   "Instead of focusing on how to get students to remember what they read, our best bet is simply to provide texts that are more memorable."

I think that this is great advice, but what really made the jigsaw activity useful was being exposed to the reoccurring themes that surfaced in all the articles.  According to the class interpretations of the articles, it seems that the role of motivation in literacy hinges on a student centred approach to instruction.  Student motivation and buy in requires that there is a certain amount of intrinsic motivation stemming from the active involvement of the students in the selection of the medium of instruction. To put in more simply, the kids should be able to choose a way to approach the given subject matter.  Therefore, the teacher needs to provide a VARIETY of QUALITY material. This idea of student selection seemed central to every article.

My school pays for me to attend one educational conference each year and the best conference that I have attended is The Brain Conference, which took place in Geneva a couple of years ago.  The conference is put on annually and the location is always changing.  One of my favorite speakers from the conference was Judy Willis, who is a neurologist turned teacher.  Judy's main focus is pinning educational pedagogy to current brain research and one area that she discusses is motivation.  Not surprisingly, she hits on some of the main topics that we have been discussing in our small groups in class, such as, student buy-in (intrinsic motivation).  Judy presents her ideas about motivation through a framework that she calls the video game model.  The video link that I have posted below is not really as much about video games as it is about the specifics of what is happening neurologically in regard to motivation.  I found this video fascinating and very applicable to the classroom.  If you do not want to watch the whole 24 minutes, you can start it at about 11 minutes and still get the main idea.  Just click on the link below (for some techie reason, the blog would not let me imbed the video directly on the page).

 

Judy Willis, Neurologist and Teacher, on Motivation

Literacy History

Literacy History

Long-term memories are often connected to emotional events and my first memories involving literacy are no exception.  At the age of five, I was madly in love with Dianne Hackworth, my kindergarten teacher.  I can’t really say if I loved books at the time, or if I just enjoyed being read to by Dianne.  Either way, I had an early connection to literature and the emotional aspect of that connection has remained with me as the cornerstone of my literacy development. 

Throughout Elementary, Middle and High school I progressed through what I would call a somewhat formulaic literary development.  In Elementary school (and younger) my mother read to me on a daily basis.  Some books that I enjoyed included Dr. Seuz, Shel Silverstein, Where The Wild Things Are and Breakfast With Francis, just to name a few.  Perhaps what I was really enjoying, as much as the books, was the emotional connection with my mother.  I say this because during Middle and High school, when I was reading on my own, I went through the motions and enjoyed the required school novels, but I did not really love reading.

When I reflect on the rebirth of my love of books, which did not happen until I had begun university, I realize that again it was an emotional connection that sparked my interest.  My mother gave me a copy of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet that had been given to her as a gift from my father when they were dating.  A short note on the inside of the cover read, “to my Kathy for being herself”.  I loved this book, which is now over 45 years old, and have read it many, many times.  I have kept the book with me throughout all of my travels and eventually gave it to my wife when we started dating.  Admittedly, it was a selfish gift because I only “gave it away” when I knew that we would always be together.  Regardless, the content of the book, and the emotions that I associated with it, spurred my love of reading, especially in regard to religious, poetic and philosophical texts.  In time my love of this genre (if you can call it that) broadened to include anything involving Anthropology, travel and historical fiction.

Today I simply love to read and I try to make it part of my daily routine.  I still primarily love the above-mentioned topics, but I can appreciate the classics of any genre from fantasy to westerns.  However, regardless of what I am reading, I would say that the source of my interest in literature is emotional.  I love the realization and recognition of universal truths and the feeling of being reminded of something that I already knew. As Khalil Gibran expresses, any great idea that is conveyed to us “already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge.”