MAT 675 What digital literacy means to me as a learner and as a teacher

21^st Century learning and teaching involves understanding digital literacy from multiple levels.  No one can ignore the rigor of how digital media plays such an important part of our daily lives from both perspectives.  One ideal compliments another in that in order to become a more effective teacher one must become a better learner.  Students who have grown up in the digital age are often more adept at digital literacy than many of the teachers who use it in the classroom. 

Learning about new technology involves time.  Time to dive in fully, and not just to get your feet wet, but at the pace technology improves in our modern world, I think it is necessary to dive in headfirst when contemplating learning a new software or device application.  Technology is a meaningful tool that helps develop our thinking processes going on inside our head.  We first need to identify the steps toward the reasons of wanting to learn new forms of digital literacy.  We must focus on the reason why we want to learn and how it will help us in order to truly engage in the process of learning the use of new applications.  Without this reasoning, becoming discouraged and deflated happens relatively soon when the communication between software and understanding fails.

Much like a lesson plan outline, I find it best to have an objective and a learning goal to formulate the intrinsic motivation necessary to push through the failures and inevitable setbacks that come with learning new games and programs.  When I set out with these goals in mind, I find the engagement more compelling and I am able to better self-assess and self-manage my progress.  I do not give up so easily when I can review why I wanted to learn the application in the first place. 

Most often I use technology as a tool in the classroom to enhance my teaching and to differentiate instruction.  I use multimedia to leverage both my own learning skills, and also to provide more connections with my students who are often more entwined with technology than myself.  I could not even describe myself as an effective teacher without the support of knowing how technology plays such an important role in 21^st century education.  Therefore, developing a framework to incorporate technology in common core standards is just the responsible way to teach in today’s digital age.  Students respond more and engage more effectively when they can relate and visually connect to a variety of mediums.  Technology enhances teaching from a one-dimensional domain with textbooks to a multifaceted world of indexing and imagination with our computer at hand.  This process builds reality in a much more meaningful way that students can assess their own interest and have better buy-in to their own learning.  Thematic learning takes on a whole new meaning in the digital world for students to synthesize multiple sources and make connections that otherwise might seem impossible without technology. 

As a teacher, this means I must keep pace with digital literacy in order to affect a difference.  These are the attitudes and thinking that will bring success to our economy and to the business age that relies so heavily on technological progress.  With the rapid pace that technology changes in its uses we can no longer afford to become overwhelmed with time constraints associated with a learning curve.  We must hit the ground running and not be afraid to code our own paths. 

I feel that digital literacy goes beyond mere skills of using technology as a reference to insert pictures into PowerPoint’s and emails.  Being literate means that we can teach the how’s and the why’s of choosing the images and for what reason did we choose this source or that website.  Teachers can go beyond the scope of cut and paste and begin to have students focus deeper meaning to the advocacy of why they chose to use the source in their presentation or their report.  We can teach students how to disseminate facts from certain biases inherit in many media sites.  We can even begin to compare multiple sources for criticism in more logical formations.  And we can do it all with our fingertips in seconds right in the class without ever having to leave.  This provides for improved discussion forums that can be backed quickly with reliable sources that improve interest and make for more authentic connections.  Understanding that 21^st century education involves both learning and teaching means I am responsible for both realms.  Otherwise I think the line becomes blurred between who might be the teacher and who might be the student.  I would hate to be left behind by my own students just because I don’t know how to log on!      

Assignment 3A - Motivation

In describing an event from school when I was inspired to perform, I recall the time I had to make an I-movie and I knew nothing about the project.  My inspiration was that I wanted to keep straight A’s, but it was overtaken by the fear of not knowing a thing about this app.  From the moment I began school I have always been inspired by the MIT philosophy of learning; “from head to hand.”  This action of building, making, creating and producing versus just passively watching is still what inspires me today.  The idea of making an interesting movie with edits, split screens, lead-ins, etc. was so far from my reality I knew I would need to find the intrinsic motivation just to get started.  I ultimately received an A on the project and jumpstarted the idea that I just found another way to display learning.  To me this was an epiphany.  I could show my knowledge from another media source that was completely foreign.  This greatly increased my confidence as a teacher and I will value that lesson forever.

Conversely, in describing an event where I was completely deflated was when I was given an assignment to write an opinion paper regarding bilingual education.  In this paper I referenced hyperlinks to websites that supported my opinion.  I referenced them and cited them.  I thought the paper explained my position well and I made sure it was objective.  In explaining my objective opposition the teacher complained that my thoughts were scattered and disorganized.  She made reference that she could not find the hyperlinks I listed.  She would not give me an opportunity to re-do or direct her to the links and simply gave me a C- on the paper.  I was deflated and knew that this was not a fair grade for the work.  I reported the incident to the Master Teacher for the course and requested a review.  From here, I was commended on the paper based on the rubric that was provided.  I was able to explain my position paper and all the references and ultimately received an A on the paper. 

In the “do’s” and “don’ts” of motivating my students I am outlining the positions I feel most strongly about:

Do’s

·      I will make sure student readiness aligns with the tasks at hand.

·      I will use consistent, frequent, and targeted praise to improve upon success.

·      I will create lessons where students do not have to fear failure.

·      I will adhere to “head to hand” learning that engages students.

·      I will differentiate instruction allowing for multiple ways to prove learning.

·      I will create a positive environment that promotes risk-taking.

·      I will encourage higher-order thinking and investigation by asking “what if” and “open-ended” types of questions.

·      I will connect lessons to the real world.

·      I will own the respect that I give to my students and will always give them a chance to explain their work and/or improve upon it.

Don’t’s

·      I will avoid negative punishments and focus on the positive reinforcement.

·      I will not criticize effort.

·      I will not create unpleasant consequences that may hinder relationship building.

·      I will avoid excessive lower level thinking questions that rely heavily on lower order thinking knowing that understanding involves activity.

·      I will not ask students to do things they are unprepared to do.

·      I will not use discouraging words in the classroom.

·      I will not isolate students if performance falls short of projected goals.

·      I will not tolerate low expectations from any of my students.

MAT 671 Applied Best Strategies

My name is Paul Mandry and I teach Next Generation Science Standards to 7th and 8th graders at South Tahoe Middle School in beautiful South Lake Tahoe California.  I retired a little over 5 years ago after spending 23 years as a PGA golf professional down in Southern California.  I have 3 beautiful children who questioned why they had to attend college when I myself never went...so, I took on the challenge and soon realized how much I love learning science and how much I love teaching kids.  It keeps me feeling young and motivated.  I am now only 3 classes away from a Master's in Education and I am eager to start teaching.

One of the most promising aspects of teaching I have come to enjoy is how diverse the student backgrounds are in the classes which I have observed and subbed in.  Not only are there cultural differences, but also the level at which the students learn and absorb the information is quite different.  Effectively teaching these differences requires that we as teachers understand how to differentiate our strategies to meet multiple learners.  I started out studying Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and that has really helped me identify multiple motivating strategies for teaching content.  Along with this strategy builder is the ideas presented in the many books I have read from Carol Tomlinson, who is a leader in differentiated instruction.  What I take into account before preparing any lesson involves three key student components:  readiness to learn, interest level, and the learning need to progress to the next level.

Readiness to learn helps me identify what the students background knowledge consists of.  I like to open new discussions with simple open-ended type of questions which help me determine the level of understanding from both a class level and an individual level of comprehension.  The principles I use are evidence-based questions regarding why things happen, how they relate to students' themselves, and what do they understand about the way we might already use the principles in question.

This type of questioning helps me assess where I need to focus my attention or if I need to move ahead or slow down to allow everyone to successfully understand the concept.  I generally will break the classroom up into one-thirds.  One third that needs more support, one third who is on track with understanding, and one third who already grasps the concepts and need more stimulation synthesis to improve understanding.  Which brings into clear view the interest level that each student has for the subject matter.  This allows me to reflect upon real-world applications that students can use along with the information to keep them interested and motivated to learn more about the subject.

And then once I can differentiate learning objectives, I then like to focus attention on how to differentiate learning products.  With the idea of multiple intelligences, I like to offer multiple ways in which students can demonstrate they have learned the objectives and goals set forth in the lessons. This can be through oral demonstration, written, technology based PowerPoints, web-based presentations, I-movies, graphs, models, or many other ways that project the interest and the ideas of the learning objectives.  This is why I like to begin at the end, so-to-speak.  If my students clearly understand what they are to know and learn then we can begin to construct ideas in collaboration that will peak interest levels as well as satisfy the learning standards of the common core goals.

These ideas are based on what works best for me as I teach strategies and modifications to reach diverse learners, and it comes from the practical learning experiences I have been exposed to at National University.  I have taken the personality tests and have determined what works best for me is the idea of structure and flexibility.  It is clear to me that classroom management along with cooperative rule setting by myself and my students allows me to conform to basic principles that are rigorous to learning, but open to new ways of displaying that learning.  I like rules and I like ingenuity that stays within the boundaries of an educational setting.