Describe the most striking revelation you had about the teaching of new literacy skills to your students as a result of this course.
The most striking revelation I had about the teaching of new literacy skills involved how detailed the 21st Century Literacy skills are. I had not thought about the numerous skills the students required to complete the internet research projects that I had assigned in the past. Eagleton and Dobler (2007) assert “Reading on the Web is similar to reading in print, but … web reading is more complex than print reading.” Students must learn not only to decode and comprehend the material they read on the web, but also they must transfer the information to their own application. They must be able to take notes, summarize and transform the information to fit their needs.
Describe how the knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence your teaching practices going forward.
As a computer teacher, having to use the new literacy skills in this class has given me new insights into the complexity of the tasks I expect my students to complete successfully. During this class, I have used some of the activities with my students. I was surprised to realize that although my students thought they were able to use search engines to find information, they actually struggled with some of the activities from Eagleton and Dobler (2007). For instance, when I used Handout P-9 Internet vocabulary with my 8th graders, only a handful of students scored 80% or higher. Even those students were surprised at how poorly they did. I also used Handout E-7 Middle School Website Evaluation and Handout E-9 Is It True? My students were surprised to find that some of the web sites were actually hoaxes. I plan to use more of the QUEST inquiry in the future, since the few activities I was able to incorporate went very well, and the students seemed to be able to apply the information they gleaned in my computer class to projects they were completing for other classes.
Identify at least one professional development goal you would like to pursue that builds upon your learning in this course and develops your own information literacy or technology skills. Describe the steps you will take to accomplish this goal.
Since my school district requires veteran teachers to set their own professional development goals at the beginning of each year, I had already chosen to set a goal of collaborating with the academic-area teachers helping them integrate technology into their projects. I plan to do this by using existing projects set up by the English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies teachers and helping the students make those “paper and pencil” assignments into digital stories, voice threads, or electronic presentations. In order to do this I need to work closely with the other teacher. But more than working with other professionals, I must further develop my technology literacy skills with those programs that I want the students to use.
I have already taken the beginning steps of talking to the ELA and Social Studies teachers at my school. The students have successfully completed electronic presentations about the American Revolution. The Social Studies teachers were pleasantly surprised at the results, and were even able to clear up some misconceptions the students demonstrated in their synthesis.
Further steps include my designing future projects and completing them before I assign them to students. Another step would be to continue taking these technology integration classes to advance my own knowledge and understanding.
Reference
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press. November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.
The most striking revelation I had about the teaching of new literacy skills involved how detailed the 21st Century Literacy skills are. I had not thought about the numerous skills the students required to complete the internet research projects that I had assigned in the past. Eagleton and Dobler (2007) assert “Reading on the Web is similar to reading in print, but … web reading is more complex than print reading.” Students must learn not only to decode and comprehend the material they read on the web, but also they must transfer the information to their own application. They must be able to take notes, summarize and transform the information to fit their needs.
Describe how the knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence your teaching practices going forward.
As a computer teacher, having to use the new literacy skills in this class has given me new insights into the complexity of the tasks I expect my students to complete successfully. During this class, I have used some of the activities with my students. I was surprised to realize that although my students thought they were able to use search engines to find information, they actually struggled with some of the activities from Eagleton and Dobler (2007). For instance, when I used Handout P-9 Internet vocabulary with my 8th graders, only a handful of students scored 80% or higher. Even those students were surprised at how poorly they did. I also used Handout E-7 Middle School Website Evaluation and Handout E-9 Is It True? My students were surprised to find that some of the web sites were actually hoaxes. I plan to use more of the QUEST inquiry in the future, since the few activities I was able to incorporate went very well, and the students seemed to be able to apply the information they gleaned in my computer class to projects they were completing for other classes.
Identify at least one professional development goal you would like to pursue that builds upon your learning in this course and develops your own information literacy or technology skills. Describe the steps you will take to accomplish this goal.
Since my school district requires veteran teachers to set their own professional development goals at the beginning of each year, I had already chosen to set a goal of collaborating with the academic-area teachers helping them integrate technology into their projects. I plan to do this by using existing projects set up by the English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies teachers and helping the students make those “paper and pencil” assignments into digital stories, voice threads, or electronic presentations. In order to do this I need to work closely with the other teacher. But more than working with other professionals, I must further develop my technology literacy skills with those programs that I want the students to use.
I have already taken the beginning steps of talking to the ELA and Social Studies teachers at my school. The students have successfully completed electronic presentations about the American Revolution. The Social Studies teachers were pleasantly surprised at the results, and were even able to clear up some misconceptions the students demonstrated in their synthesis.
Further steps include my designing future projects and completing them before I assign them to students. Another step would be to continue taking these technology integration classes to advance my own knowledge and understanding.
Reference
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press. November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.
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