Final Reflections: Learning Journeys Beyond EDES 501

EDES 501 has been a revelatory course for me on many levels. Most generally, the material we explored addressed the primary reason as to why I decided to take a leave of absence from teaching and return to university: During my sixteen years in the classroom from the early ‘90’s to 2009, I witnessed a revolution in the power and sophistication of technological tools; as these became cheaper, more dominant, and more ubiquitous in my students’ lives, I began to realize my students were importing skills, knowledge, and learning styles totally foreign to me. Consequently, I came to the realization I had to familiarize myself with the hardware, software, protocols, and processes of this technology to remain an effective educator. EDES 501 has assisted me enormously in this regard. Not only has it helped me to familiarize myself with these technologies, it has also led me to the conclusion that 21^st Century students are learning about and participating in literate activities differently than in the past.

This course also revealed to me the potential pitfalls of these technologies and how educators must be very careful to avoid a “bandwagon effect” when choosing web 2.0 tools to implement into activities. As responsible and professional as many educators are, I believe there are also many who often succumb to the exotic allures of these tools without investigating the unintended consequences of their use by students. This is especially true regarding free social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. While an educator must acknowledge and develop an awareness of how students are using these tools, there is a reason why they are free to use: to get something, one must give up something in return; I discovered Twitter and Facebook have darker sides to their use and can often play fast and loose with a user’s privacy. As a result, because two primary and overriding concerns of mine are student privacy and the immense harm of cyberbullying, I believe sites like Twitter and Facebook have limited educational use. I’ll retain both these accounts for personal purposes, but I will not introduce them into classroom activities.

Many web 2.0 tools, however, were revealed to be potentially powerful learning mediums, and there is no question I will be integrating them into activities when I return to teaching. I was very impressed with both Flickr and YouTube, as I discovered they allow me to set up private student accounts while exploring new learning dimensions in images and video: 

I also recognized the valuable learning potential of wikis and their ability to provide students with a participatory learning forum for material covered in class. Wikis also give learners, their peers, and the teacher the opportunity for immediate feedback as this participation unfolds. I liked the fact that Wikispaces gives me full control over who can participate in the forum and who can view student material:

The social bookmarking tool “Delicious” and personal organizer “iGoogle” are what I regard to be potentially valuable classroom tools. I envision students subscribing to meaningful and relevant blogs and websites related to material we’ve covered in class and all linked via tags; iGoogle can efficiently centralize this information while also providing students with other useful learning tools:

The multimedia tools I discovered and explored were truly fascinating, and there is no doubt I will be using them liberally in classroom activities. Google Earth 5 is an incredibly valuable tool that can reveal geographic and space concepts to students in a way two-dimensional maps and images cannot equal:

 

I was also impressed by Prezi with its ability to dynamically display images and text, taking old-style slide shows to a newer and more startling level:

Without question, I will be using Animoto in future classroom activities. Animoto is inexpensive for educators, provides multiple opportunities to meet Alberta Education learning outcomes in Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts, and its ability to coordinate text, images, and music into visually arresting and spectacularly beautiful narratives knows no equal:

It is personal blogging, however, that provides students with a communicative medium to demonstrate their learning of these tools and a means for bringing it all together. I believe that personal blogs are a safe and valuable resource for students of all ages. Depending on the blogging tool used, an educator can restrict participation and the viewing audience to just the school community, and their versatility at incorporating text, images, sound, and video provide students with multiple opportunities for literate, meaning-making activities:

Indeed, the concepts by which we understand literate behavior is changing with the advent of these web 2.0 tools, whereby literacy is not strictly defined as skills in reading and writing. Instead, they are “…a matter of ‘applying this knowledge for specific purposes in specific contexts’…This means that literacy is really like a family of practices” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 4). Further, because many students are now participating in blogs and their related web 2.0 tools, these have become “…socially recognized ways of generating and negotiating meaningful content…within contexts of participation” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 4). Web 2.0 tools have become ubiquitous in young people’s lives, and their literate behavior in these forums “…is tied to their participation in the varied practices that comprise their cultural landscapes” (Dyson, 2002, p. 562). Educators must acknowledge, learn, and adjust their thinking to these new forces and realities in their students’ personal and cultural landscapes if they are to remain effective.

Despite some initial challenges and frustrations, I have thoroughly enjoyed EDES 501. It has not only provided me with a window to look into how young people are using these tools, it has opened a door in providing me opportunities for how I may use them in future classroom activities. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Branch for her invaluable knowledge and support as I tackled this new learning. I will take this new knowledge beyond my experiences in university to benefit future students when I return to teaching.  

References

Dyson, A. H. (2002). The drinking god factor: A writing development remix for "all" children. Written Communication, 19(4), 545-577.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2007). Sampling "the new" in new literacies. In M. Knobel, & C. Lankshear (Eds.), (pp. 1-24). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Oksner, B.,Swan, C., & Maggin E. S. (1976). Superman 296. New York: DC Comics; Warner Brothers Entertainment. http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Superman_v.1_296.jpg