Learning Innovation Lab - analysis
Who was their audience? Were they effective in presenting to them on every page? Why or why not?
Dearborn
Dearborn’s audience was fellow elementary educators. Dearborn seemed to focus on educators who might be reluctant to use technology in the ELA classroom. In my opinion, one of the most effective strategies that she used was to include surveys of the other teachers at her teaching site. Her student samples and testimonies, with analysis, were also effective. I appreciated her simplicity and straightforward tone. Her graphics and text were well balanced. Overall, I would say she was effective in reaching her audience.
Gottfried
Gottfried’s audience was fellow high school ELA teachers. Her driving question was more complex than Dearborn. Perhaps because she is teaching high school, I immediately noticed much more text than Dearborn’s site. She was incredibly thorough! At times, I did get a bit lost and saw the effects of how her DQ shifted over the course of her studies. It is a good lesson for me, since my DQ has also shifted, to really hone in on the NUT of my capstone and keep the presentation simple. I think Gottfried was effective in reaching her audience, but could have been even more effective if she had simplified her information.
Saslow
Saslow’s audience is high school science teachers. His goal is to provide a tool for all science teachers to be able to design engaging science lessons in alignment with the vast array of standards available (and with no adopted textbook, I believe). He also wants to use the most innovative, research-proven teaching practices. I appreciated the very detailed, step-by-step build-a-lesson design of his website. It was clean and thorough. If I were a science teacher struggling for a tool and resources, this would be useful. (I also want to steal some of his web tools - like how he got pages of documents into one graphics box so you could scroll through it. It kept the visual layout clean, was not overwhelming as a text block and allowed the web page visitor to scroll through the documents IF they chose.) Very effective.
Who was their audience? Were they effective in presenting to them on every page? Why or why not?
Dearborn
Dearborn’s audience was fellow elementary educators. Dearborn seemed to focus on educators who might be reluctant to use technology in the ELA classroom. In my opinion, one of the most effective strategies that she used was to include surveys of the other teachers at her teaching site. Her student samples and testimonies, with analysis, were also effective. I appreciated her simplicity and straightforward tone. Her graphics and text were well balanced. Overall, I would say she was effective in reaching her audience.
Gottfried
Gottfried’s audience was fellow high school ELA teachers. Her driving question was more complex than Dearborn. Perhaps because she is teaching high school, I immediately noticed much more text than Dearborn’s site. She was incredibly thorough! At times, I did get a bit lost and saw the effects of how her DQ shifted over the course of her studies. It is a good lesson for me, since my DQ has also shifted, to really hone in on the NUT of my capstone and keep the presentation simple. I think Gottfried was effective in reaching her audience, but could have been even more effective if she had simplified her information.
Saslow
Saslow’s audience is high school science teachers. His goal is to provide a tool for all science teachers to be able to design engaging science lessons in alignment with the vast array of standards available (and with no adopted textbook, I believe). He also wants to use the most innovative, research-proven teaching practices. I appreciated the very detailed, step-by-step build-a-lesson design of his website. It was clean and thorough. If I were a science teacher struggling for a tool and resources, this would be useful. (I also want to steal some of his web tools - like how he got pages of documents into one graphics box so you could scroll through it. It kept the visual layout clean, was not overwhelming as a text block and allowed the web page visitor to scroll through the documents IF they chose.) Very effective.
Driving Question Notes and Evolution
6-29-17
My previous driving question in 790 was to explore the impact of free, voluntary reading (pleasure reading) on reading proficiency in middle school students. The results of my action research showed me that increasing pleasure reading time as a single factor was not as effective as it should have been. One hypothesis as to why my results varied so drastically from the results I found in my literature reviews is that my population has specific qualities and needs. Using the SITE model helps understand these learners.
My student population is about 65% special needs or at-risk. Many of them face significant obstacles to reading proficiency. Some have never mastered learning to read, yet they are at the stage in school and life where they need to read to learn. Here the idea of mediacy enters. Mediacy is described by Paul Strassmann as, "the ability of individuals to successfully cope with communications in their civilization." Literacy and mediacy working together can help them succeed.
Another significant obstacle for my students are affective (emotional domain) perceptions. Anxiety, depression, frustration from learning difficulties often color their perception of school in general and of learning tasks. In the SITE model, paying attention to these influences would be understanding their sociocultural motives and values. As Baggio notes, positive graphics can be a powerful tool to influence the affective perceptions of students. Enter the SITE model’s technical subcontext. Perhaps digital resources could be used to support their reading.
“How can teachers leverage digital resources to support reading success for at-risk & special needs students?”
7-6-17
Why-How-Ladder evolution & Instructor Advice to “Keep it Simple!”
If you want a student to enjoy reading for the rest of his life, well, it starts with one encounter. Make the first encounter a positive one, and he is more likely to repeat. And repeat. And repeat. So begin with one experience. Obviously, we can’t get a “do-over” of childhood, but we can build one enjoyable experience with reading. Why not simplify the driving question to focus on one lesson? Provide an experience where a student gets invested in her reading choice in the hopes that she continue to be invested in choosing books of interest and therefore continues reading in general. Use digital tools to help the student take away obstacles and connect to the book and to other readers.
So now the provocation, or driving question, becomes “How do we use digital resources to create an initial positive, enjoyable experience for a reader?”
“Hooked on Reading”
7-13-17
Will reading ever be obsolete? Is it still necessary for people to be literate with words?
In his introduction to the TPACK model (https://youtu.be/eXLdqO0fY3w) Punya Mishra makes a provocative statement. He says that technology has not only changed how we teach (pedagogy), but also what we teach (content). He points out that information no longer comes in a drip, it comes in a deluge. We don’t teach knowledge, per se, of a content area anymore, we teach how to access and filter information. I would add that information and knowledge are not synonymous. Knowledge is constructed and becomes part of a person’s mind. It is usable. It is information put to action by a whole host of other skills, character qualities, and choices. So I asked myself this about reading - is it information? Is reading in danger of becoming obsolete through that lens? No, it certainly provides information. It is the skill and process by which we access information. Certainly reading will change with the times. Already the physically bound book is making its way into the annals of the past. Reading, writing, publishing, storing information - all of it will be digital. Those of us who love the smell and heft of a book will need to visit a museum or make our bookshelves our own museums. Probably reading will become more reliant on what we used to call textual clues - pictures, charts, photos. Now infographics and videos will BE text. It’s a matter of semantics. But I’ll maintain Should I maintain ...that reading itself will not disappear?
9-2-17
After our first 703 class discussion, the theories of Marshall McLuhan are much on my mind. Literacy...Mediacy… Transliteracy… is it just semantics? Will reading from a page in a linear fashion become obsolete? Do I need to adjust my driving question to reflect the predictions about how the digital media will actually change the human brain and our way of thinking, learning, communicating, and organizing society?
Possible new DQ:
"How do we leverage digital resources to empower students to be transliterate?"
"How do we use digital transliteracy to support literacy?"
6-29-17
My previous driving question in 790 was to explore the impact of free, voluntary reading (pleasure reading) on reading proficiency in middle school students. The results of my action research showed me that increasing pleasure reading time as a single factor was not as effective as it should have been. One hypothesis as to why my results varied so drastically from the results I found in my literature reviews is that my population has specific qualities and needs. Using the SITE model helps understand these learners.
My student population is about 65% special needs or at-risk. Many of them face significant obstacles to reading proficiency. Some have never mastered learning to read, yet they are at the stage in school and life where they need to read to learn. Here the idea of mediacy enters. Mediacy is described by Paul Strassmann as, "the ability of individuals to successfully cope with communications in their civilization." Literacy and mediacy working together can help them succeed.
Another significant obstacle for my students are affective (emotional domain) perceptions. Anxiety, depression, frustration from learning difficulties often color their perception of school in general and of learning tasks. In the SITE model, paying attention to these influences would be understanding their sociocultural motives and values. As Baggio notes, positive graphics can be a powerful tool to influence the affective perceptions of students. Enter the SITE model’s technical subcontext. Perhaps digital resources could be used to support their reading.
“How can teachers leverage digital resources to support reading success for at-risk & special needs students?”
7-6-17
Why-How-Ladder evolution & Instructor Advice to “Keep it Simple!”
If you want a student to enjoy reading for the rest of his life, well, it starts with one encounter. Make the first encounter a positive one, and he is more likely to repeat. And repeat. And repeat. So begin with one experience. Obviously, we can’t get a “do-over” of childhood, but we can build one enjoyable experience with reading. Why not simplify the driving question to focus on one lesson? Provide an experience where a student gets invested in her reading choice in the hopes that she continue to be invested in choosing books of interest and therefore continues reading in general. Use digital tools to help the student take away obstacles and connect to the book and to other readers.
So now the provocation, or driving question, becomes “How do we use digital resources to create an initial positive, enjoyable experience for a reader?”
“Hooked on Reading”
7-13-17
Will reading ever be obsolete? Is it still necessary for people to be literate with words?
In his introduction to the TPACK model (https://youtu.be/eXLdqO0fY3w) Punya Mishra makes a provocative statement. He says that technology has not only changed how we teach (pedagogy), but also what we teach (content). He points out that information no longer comes in a drip, it comes in a deluge. We don’t teach knowledge, per se, of a content area anymore, we teach how to access and filter information. I would add that information and knowledge are not synonymous. Knowledge is constructed and becomes part of a person’s mind. It is usable. It is information put to action by a whole host of other skills, character qualities, and choices. So I asked myself this about reading - is it information? Is reading in danger of becoming obsolete through that lens? No, it certainly provides information. It is the skill and process by which we access information. Certainly reading will change with the times. Already the physically bound book is making its way into the annals of the past. Reading, writing, publishing, storing information - all of it will be digital. Those of us who love the smell and heft of a book will need to visit a museum or make our bookshelves our own museums. Probably reading will become more reliant on what we used to call textual clues - pictures, charts, photos. Now infographics and videos will BE text. It’s a matter of semantics. But I’ll maintain Should I maintain ...that reading itself will not disappear?
9-2-17
After our first 703 class discussion, the theories of Marshall McLuhan are much on my mind. Literacy...Mediacy… Transliteracy… is it just semantics? Will reading from a page in a linear fashion become obsolete? Do I need to adjust my driving question to reflect the predictions about how the digital media will actually change the human brain and our way of thinking, learning, communicating, and organizing society?
Possible new DQ:
"How do we leverage digital resources to empower students to be transliterate?"
"How do we use digital transliteracy to support literacy?"