Networked Media

Log of my Networked Media Usage:

-Visited websites for information
-Visited community websites to communicate with friends
-Visited and posted on forums
-Posted creative and intellectual works on blogs
-Used online simulations with students
-Used United Streaming videos with students
-File sharing within my school and department
-Received and wrote emails for work, social, and organizational reasons
-Entertainment - World of Warcraft, massively multiplayer online role playing game (playing and communicating with friends) ; YouTube ; On-Demand cable
-Ventrillo - communicate with multiple friends around the country at one time through oral communication
-Phone - my telephone is connected through the cable modem

I found the Hypertext Garden's article very disorienting. I was concerned that I would miss something because of all the twists and turns the links provided. I was not comfortable with the non-linear fashion of the text. This does not mean that the non-linear organization is a bad thing. It definitely helped to get the idea of the article across. After I was finished reading the article I felt as though I had accomplished something and I also better understood the author's points. The rigid navigational tools websites have can limit creativity and hide important facets of the website. The website demonstrated how the shortest path may not always be the best. The ideas of this piece are completely opposite from what we teach our students. How do we incorporate this new type of literacy, that students will experience more and more, in the classroom. If we do not conform to rigid structure how do we make sure that readers do not get lost in the creative work. Clear boundaries and sign posts are important but if they are not used well readers may get more than a little disoriented.

Hypertextuality in children's literature is another example of how our students use and come into contact with media that is very different from the type of literacy we teach in the classroom. Teachers often may emphasize form over content. The options students have in which to express their creativity are very limited. Students need to have experience with creating texts in which their creativity is allowed to take them outside of form. They also need to have experience creating texts that are more like the ones they will come into contact with in their lives. This is not to say that students shouldn't learn how to read and write in more traditional literary ways. There is still a place and a need for students to have these skills. However, this should not be the only type of literacy students are asked to engage in at school. Students need to be able to write non-linear, multi-modal, multi-perspective narratives. They should experiment with textual form, imagery and graphics. Limiting expression to fit literary rules and norms may now be an outdated form of literacy.

I am currently reading "Nothing But the Truth" to my students. This book uses hypertextuality. It has multiple perspectives and voices. It also uses visual aspects that I have difficulty reading aloud to the students. My students have never been as engaged or interested in a book I have read aloud before.

The instant messaging study also supports the idea that students need a new type of literacy that incorporates the new technologies that have become a part of life. It also recommends that teachers use the literacy skills students are developing through their use of IM in their classrooms to engage students in more traditional forms of literacy. Students may be more engaged if the literary learning in the classroom has a greater connection to social mediation of identities, is multi-modal, more imaginative, collaborative and innovative. Students, over IM, build their own multi-threaded social narrative. Teachers need to be more flexible in their reading practices.

The complex ways in which students chose to use literacy over IM was encouraging. Some of these literary exercises could be used in a literary classroom. Over IM there was a complex use of language by students which included narrative strategies, metaphors, and nonlinguistic and visual elements. Students were spelling and punctuation conscious. They were also aware of tone and voice in writing. They were conscious of word choice and audience. They designed a hybrid spoken/written literacy. Students also valued context and self-monitored.

I have used PowerPoint in my class before. I never thought about what negative consequences it may have had for my students. It had become a transparent tool to me. I did not use PowerPoint in the ways that the article listed. I have never used the default because I have my own ideas of what I want to present to my students and how. I often include pictures, demonstrations, actual objects, class discussion and narrative along with the slides. I have never used the bullets. I have however said, "That will be addressed later in the presentation." Yikes!

I recently learned about action buttons in PowerPoint slides. These buttons can help relieve the linear nature of PowerPoint slides. They allow the presenter to go to any slide at any time with a click. It makes the PowerPoint presentation more like a website.

I am the most concerned about the idea that PowerPoint presentations leave the students passive. Students should never be passive in their own learning; they need to be actively constructing their own knowledge. They should decide what is important and what is not. We should not over-simplify the content and we need to make sure to still include multiple ways of knowing in our classrooms. Breaking content down into bite sized pieces may not be what is best for our students minds. When will their critical and analytical thinking skills be exercised?

Has PowerPoint changed my view of my content area? I have not used it enough for this to happen. When I do use it I use in in my own creative way. I do need to be aware of the effects the way I use PowerPoint may have on my students. I should also take a look at other technologies I often use in the classroom that may have become transparent to me. What "bad" habits have I fallen into? What invitations have I accepted?