The Changing Tides

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Multi-layered Woman (final copy)

My mother watched the video last night (Nov. 16th), and she was overwhelmed. She had tears in her eyes and just couldn't believe that I was able to capture so much in such a short video. She was amazed that I found "images" that related to her. :) Also, the cheerleading sweater image was actually shocking to her, because she wore the letter "r" on her sweater, to spell "RAMS". I didn't know this, it was pure coincidence. Her final words were, "I love it!" My brother watched too, and he wants the link to the video.

My corrections to my video: I added a slide that says, "My name is Judy White and this is my story...", I understand that some might think that I (Mary Jo) am telling the story, but it's really my mom's "voice". Also, I added that I retrieved music from itunes to my credit slide.

See the final version of my video below this posting.

Multi-layered Woman (final copy)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Double Journal Entry # 11 " Steering the Ship"

Quote: "In summary, given the marginalization of media literacy standards/curriculum in American schools, teachers need to be able to justify the inclusion of digital tools for teaching both print and digital literacies in their classrooms. It is therefore important that teachers, particularly new preservice teachers entering the profession, learn to formulate purposes for use of digital tools to teach print and digital literacies. As teachers increasingly find that employing digital tools in their classrooms does enhance students’ use of both print and digital literacies, they will have the evidence to push for further inclusion of digital tools for teaching media literacies in American schools."

Response: I find it disheartening that the Common Core Standards are missing critical media literacy components. This article has "hit home", since I use digital media tools in my classroom. I often have to defend the use of these tools to my colleagues, but my standardized test scores portray the overall outcome of using these tools. However, many don't believe that the above average and high 5th grade test scores in RLA and Science are related to digital media tools. I want my students engaged and ready for the 21st Century, and if I don't provide this instruction, students are missing out on relevant skills. The quote above mentions justification, and stating purposes for using digital tools, I need to become much better at stating purposes and formulating responses to colleagues. Maybe I should just have a "planned" statement ready!

Reference: Beach, Richard. "An American Perspective: Justifying Uses of Digital Tools to Foster Critical Media Literacy." The Journal of Media Literacy 57. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://journalofmedialiteracy.org/index.php/past-issues/5-school-20>.

Calvin College Hekman Library openURL resolver

Additional Resource: Maybe I should just quote Julie Frechette...

Quote: "When I speak to my colleagues about using new social media, many educators fear that crossing the digital divide weakens their claims to authority and traditional means of power. For me, social networking provides a means of connecting with students through multimodal interconnectivity in new and exciting ways. Whereas traditional pedagogies reinforce individualized learning within classroom walls during school time, social media encourages continuous collaboration and shared knowledge beyond the classroom walls through global and local hyperlinks, blogs, and web-based content. To keep students engaged in Class 2.0, educators must learn to harness the power of the integrated web to stimulate enhanced global interconnectivity in the digital age."

Frechette, Julie. "Learning Beyond the Classroom Walls: Keeping Students Engaged in Class 2.0." The Journal of Media Literacy . Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://journalofmedialiteracy.org/index.php/past-issues/5-school-20/98-learning-beyond-the-classroom-walls-keeping-students-engaged-in-class-20>.