Changing Literacies; Changing Pedagogies

“. . . immersion in digital environments may lead to new ways of thinking about and using texts, and . . . it is those who have grown up with digital technology who may be most likely to understand the potential of digital affordances.” (Burnett, 115)

There's a great deal to unpack here so I'll attempt brevity. Personal experience and empirical observation tells me that challenges around creation of digital texts—and here I will use our class and the types of texts we are creating as examples—can be frustratingly singular, personal and time consuming.

I made the switch to MAC in grad school because the OS is more robust and reliable than windows when using powerful media editing programs like Premiere Pro and other Adobe Suite Products (this may or may not still be true but I now understand when people say “once you've tried Mac, you'll never go back”). I have a Mac laptop and an I-Mac desk top. I also have a laptop with windows 7 in case I need a back-up.

Any operating systems (OS) degrades incrementally over time, which is why there are OS back-ups—essentially a snapshot of the OS that can be used to restore it to a point at which it was more efficient. OS degradation is often user unique based on types of programs used and frequency of use. This means that issues can often be machine-unique; fixes that work for one computer may not for another.

Work arounds require time and research. It took the better part of a week for me to come up with a means for creating our illuminated texts based on my version(s) of presentation software (PowerPoint, Pages (Mac) & Apache Open Office) and their ability to convert .ppt files to video. My issues were around formatting retention and export capability and, as someone with a tendency to obsess about problem solving, I wanted a solution that answered every challenge to create something that fit all the requested criteria. The solution I arrived at is simple and works but the journey was challenging.

Technology pedagogy is basically a curricular add-on; nothing is or should be removed to make room for it (i.e., readin', writin' & 'rithmatic). The time it can take to meet certain technology challenges may represent a significant reduction in time for engaging with other aspects of a specific pedagogical blueprint.

I believe this is an important aspect of technology pedagogy as relates to our journey that must be taken into consideration when planning for a particular class or project and we need to be cognizant of strategies to minimize the impact. It is an ancillary challenge inherent in the act of “immersion in digital environments.”

I believe, from the posts and completed products, that we, as a class, have the imagination and skill set to understand the potential of digital affordances. I believe the difference in approaches to digital text creation between us and the digi-natives will be largely based on acquired digital research habits and a lifelong familiarity with issues regarding technology. Web 2.0 represents a real sea change in terms of what can be achieved and by whom.

“To support all students, regardless of their level of expertise, time was set aside, time was set aside within the regular lectures for a number of weeks to with snap shots of a digital portrait in progress.” (Kerin, 135)

Well . . . my own previous observations were addressed in the very next chapter. How convenient.

“. . . "teaching composition by traversing “old” and “new” media.” (Leander, 149)

I'm glad this received attention. The idea of composition has been central to my notions of pedagogy for some time. There are very few pedagogical events that cannot be described or explained using the composition metaphor. 

Sentences and equations are compositions, made up of separate parts or ideas, combined to elucidate a larger concept.

The composition metaphor as a conceptual underpinning for project-based teaching helps create teaching strategies that are both easily definable and easily accessible. The notion of a class based on the study of composition utilizing digital and print based media is a powerful way to bridge the gap between 'resistance' and 'replacement.'

Illuminated Text

Changing Literacies

“. . . the identifiable 'author' of print culture is not always at the centre of text production. . .” (Carrington, 77)

I think this is a really profound observation, which took me by surprise but makes a good deal of sense.

Prior to the Italian renaissance, works of art and architecture were rarely identified with an individual. People did not sign their work; it was simply considered a necessary contribution to the greater whole based on a particular individual's skill set.

One of the recurring themes of this class is the importance of pedagogical strategies for teaching collaboration; that is to say we prize collaboration as a necessary skill set for 21st century students.

The 1990s witnessed an upsurge in the “cult of personality” zeitgeist (the Kardashian's are perhaps the most prevalent and disturbing current example).

 People often outlasted their allotted 15 minutes of fame (re: Andy Warhol) and hung around our psyches longer than was necessary or deserved.


Collaboration seemed to fall prey to the need for individual recognition (a prime and awful example is the race between French and American scientists interested in gaining notoriety for finding an AIDS cure, and not sharing information that could have save countless lives). 
If we are going in a direction that favors collaborative effort for solution finding, I'm all in.


“These web pages may be 'spoofs;' just all lies. How do we know?” (Davies & Merchant, 81)

This highlights the need for the pedagogical imperative of critical thinking. While critical thought as a pedagogical outcome is something desired by most educators, it seems to be woefully under-addressed in schools across the country and regarded with suspicion by a great many adults in contemporary American society. 
Greater adoption of Digital technologies in classrooms will necessarily create an even greater need for attending to the critical thinking skills of young students. 

In the classroom, as teachers, we must highlight the need for critical thought and model the ways in which can be practiced. 

As a university student I understand the need to base most of my research work on peer-reviewed texts and know how to identify them; the internet represents a whole world of information that may or may not be either true or even safe and the standards for judging are in a state of creation and flux. 

While this is all very heady stuff and exciting, it also represents a dynamic challenge that puts educators at the front line. 

“Teachers do need to be prepared to learn from pupils . . .” (Merchant, 108)

For a brief period in grad school I entertained the idea of using the virtual world site Second Life as the basis for my thesis project. Second Life allows a great deal of leeway to users for creating their own environment. There are tools for crafting 3D buildings, clothes, vehicles and any number of other items; in other words, a seemingly infinite variety of possibilities were available.

A Dwelling in Second Life

Users  loyally immersed in Second Life society attend church together, go to concerts and plays and are generally able to mimic real or first life. Some of my fellow theater practitioners built a 3-D Elizabethan stage, designed sets and costumes and performed classic plays by the likes of Shakespeare, Marlowe & Kyd.

Ted Cruz as Henry V?

I was tempted to create a documentary-style theatrical event in the virtual world for my thesis project which would mean being actively immersed in Second Life for two years, creating a complete and polished event and write a 100 page thesis regarding that event. 

After a few months of immersing myself in the Second Life world, I found that I could not suspend disbelief regarding the artificiality of the virtual world, and the exercise became boring. I saw no point beyond the novelty, which soon wore off. 

It seems to me that, in some instances, the lure and possibilities presented by new digital technologies are more exciting in the imagination than in actual practice. While gaming seems to have profound pedagogical implications, virtual worlds seem to be little more than an extra layer between a real and imagined social life.

Young students, those we have referred  to as digital natives, seem to view digital technology in a way less cluttered than our own. They do not share an older generation's fears of the unknown (Y2K anyone?) and are more likely to immerse themselves in technological advances with abandon developing an intuitive sense of how to move around in virtual realities and digital media engines with greater aplomb and ease than, say . . . me. This is why I celebrate the notion of teacher as a classroom's learner in chief as opposed to a mere tour guide.

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Digital Native Presentation Redux

I have gotten an embed to work at last. 

There is joy.

The first published version with sound & transitions attached.
Not great sound . . . not even very good sound, but sound nonetheless.

Digital Texts in and Out of School

“. . . the everyday lives of students in our classrooms are inflected by a range of digital technologies that allow and encourage the production and use of an expanding palette of digital texts.” (Carrington & Robinson, 4)

The range and variety of software engines available for creating digital texts has expanded to offer a means of scaffold development for students with a number of diverse learning styles and preferences.

A few posts ago I spoke/wrote about designing a classroom with the goal of a shared digital learning experience in mind. It is a challenge I find at the heart of all the articles for this week's assignment.

The text we are currently using was published in 2009. In the six years between it is probably difficult to assess changes in public perception regarding the place of digital technology in education. I imagine that it is becoming less and less a dark place full of terrors and much more an obvious choice (I binge watched the first season of Game of Thrones a few days ago).

Perhaps it is also a good time to discuss and share our observations and perceptions regarding our shared on-line learning experience in terms of the challenges we have encountered and the strategies we have used to meet those challenges.

I met with the Dean of the Education Dept. this morning. We discussed the reasoning behind FSU's on-line course availability. She told me that the course offerings were an answer to the growing number of on-line universities created to make education available to a wider range of students.

While that may be true, I do not believe it should be considered a stand-alone reason; rather, as financial motivation seems now to always be the strongest prompt for change, the competition argument provided the best opportunity to start a program aligned with the current direction of the pedagogical compass.

“How do we ensure that every child has the ability to articulate his or her understanding of how media shapes perceptions of the world?” (Willet, 16)

If young students aren't being educated as critical media consumers in school, it is likely most of their choices are modeled for them at home where critical education is not always a priority.

As an avid media observer, researcher and consumer I must say that my current perception of media's impact on the way people see themselves and the world in which they live is in free-fall.

So many people constrict their on-line consumption only to sites and programming with opinions and observations that agree with their own already developed ideologies and world views, it has promoted a corrosive and dangerous digital divide that is currently playing itself out in the streets and on our media delivery systems.

I was 5 years old when John Kennedy was assassinated. The period we refer to as the civil rights era (an unfortunate and misleading description; the African American struggle to gain equal rights has been a constant endeavor since the country's inception) was already 6 years old.

Watching violent events play out on the relatively new medium of television, especially the assassinations of three iconic public figures, riots in major cities and an unnecessary war more than half a world away, frightened me and shaped many of my world perceptions. 

I can only imagine how the world view of pre-teen and teenage children today are impacted by watching, often in real-time, people like themselves-- not soldiers and politicians--being killed violently for reasons no one seems able to explain.

As teachers, do we shield them as much as possible or do we teach them how to use information technologies to expand their knowledge base and assure them that periods of great change are historically often accompanied by violent acts perpetrated most often by people who fear change and pass with time?

“The creation of a profile page depends on the rapidly evolving affordances of the digital media involved.” (Dowdall, 43)

Sharing identity with one's community of involvement is among the most important elements necessary for exploring the sharer's own identity. Just as meeting with friends for parties, communal sporting events, etc., represent opportunities for us to create and refresh our own evolving stories. There is a constant negotiation between what we believe about our identities at a given moment and the changes in our perception of our own identities based on reflective thought and evolving level of maturity; in other words, our identities are in a constant state of change. We don't believe the same things about ourselves or the world at the ages of 15 0r 20 or 30 that we believed at the ages of 6 or 8 or 12. Profile pages represent a pragmatic cognitive tool for creating and re-creating identity.

Beyond Digital Natives

Link to Digital Native Presentation

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sbhiggs-2858551-presentation-01/

“. . . definitions of the term “literacy” have been brought very much into question as researchers grapple to find ways in which to describe the rapidly changing discourses associated with text analysis and production (Levy, 152).”

Those things we have commonly referred to as “text” seem to be getting a definitional makeover, as we can attest to regarding the work associated with this class. 

The ability of a child to express him/her self intellectually via pencil and paper and therefore accepted as a measure of literacy has historically been judged by a set of criteria adopted by a largely middle class educated white constituency; neatness, spelling, clarity of thought and grammatical accuracy. 

Over time researchers have discovered that signs of true literacy deserve a much greater set of criteria, including elements such as cultural background, socio-economic status, regional affinity, level of accessible education opportunities over time, etc. 

Digital technology, as we have seen, offers ways for a wider population of young students to express themselves with greater clarity using a host of media. 

The changes wrought by ICT challenge outdated testing and placement models.

“. . . younger generations have grown up with digital technologies as part of their everyday world and so behave and think differently to older generations to whom these technologies have been introduced later in life (Bennet & Maton, 169).”

My father passed away last June. He grew up in an area near Monongah, WV known as Davis Ridge. 
A few years before his passing my father and I drove to a hill overlooking Monongah where the town’s mail was delivered when he was young. He told me there was a pole approximately 30’ feet tall with a hook at the top. A single engine bi-plane with an opposite facing hook on the underside of the aircraft would fly in and a bag containing Monongah’s mail would be transferred from the hook under the plane to the hook on the pole. 

Sometimes this took multiple attempts and, during inclement weather, mail delivery was delayed. Mail delivered in this fashion was referred to as “air mail.” 

If we use the concept of familial generation here to represent what is meant by generational, my father is only one generation removed from me, a student taking this course. 

I believe that the term “digital native” as discussed in these chapters will eventually give way to another taxonomic identification that will more clearly define this generational divide. 

Meanwhile, it is necessary to come up with a means of labeling and creating some conceptualized container in which to place a “group” so that the social sciences can begin the task of designing theoretical paradigms for gathering salient data.

The difference between the ways my father and I understood and understand mail delivery is one of degree. He simply had access to empirical and practical knowledge of a mail delivery system that was different than the types I am used to based on the abilities and limitations of available technologies. 

This does not necessarily mean that I somehow have a greater understanding of the mail delivery system and therefore have utilized it with a greater proficiency than he was able to. Yes, children born in the 1990s have grown up with digital technology but this does not necessarily translate to a change in generational aptitude. It does, however, translate to a change in generational access.

“. . . the term “Digital Natives” can be a constructive way to reach parents and teachers and can be done in a fashion that is true to sound research and about youth practices with respect to digital media (Palfrey & Gasser , 186).”

I reference my response to the previous chapter.  Although the term “Digital Natives” has been identified by the authors as “awkward,” it still has immediate efficacy as a step towards gaining some clarity for identifying evolutionary changes regarding new technologies and their use as tools in primary and secondary education.