Research and Thinking Blog #5

Palmquist, Mike, Kiefer, Kate, Hartvigsen, James and Goodlew, Barbara. (2008) “Contrasts: Teaching and Learning about Writing in Traditional and Computer Classrooms.” Computers in the Composition Classroom. Ed. Sidler, Michelle, Morris, Richard and Smith, Elizabeth Overman. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 251-271.  Print. 

This discussion compared and contrasted teaching and learning experiences in traditional and computerized composition classrooms from surveys and narratives answered by teachers and students. The best way to summarize the vital information in this article is to compile lists of characteristics of each environment.

Teaching and Learning Computer Classroom

-Student centered

-Focused more on writing (particularly drafting)

-Classroom viewed as a worksite

-Better student performance

-Whole group classroom instruction ineffective

-Higher expectations of quality work from teachers

-Increased student teacher interaction 

Teaching and Learning Traditional Classroom

-Teacher centered

-Group tended to get off task easily

-Writing was not being accomplished

-Process writing appeared to work well in this setting 

After establishing characteristics of each environment the discussion continued by organizing which activities work best for each environment. For example, classroom discussion and process writing instruction tended to work best in the traditional environment. However, in the computer classroom students tended to write more and produced better work. The overall goal was trying to figure out a way to merge the advantages of both environments. Some suggestions included incorporating more in class writing activities in the traditional environment as well as changing class location to other places such as the library. Some other suggestions included encouraging more activities in the computer classroom.

I thought this article may excellent connections between the varying writing environments. I was shocked to see that computer anxiety was a factor with today’s generation. Although percentages were low, it is still something to consider when working in a computer classroom and a barrier to writing instruction. I agreed that many teachers avoid using technologies as part of instructional techniques outside of word processing because they lack competency. The authors mentioned teacher pre-occupation with technology competency that took away from instructional time. The example in the book was electronic mail [email] lol....This shows this study was just a little dated.

Tips for future teaching and learning is KNOW the technology before introducing to students. I have been in a similar situation myself with using Microsoft Movie Maker with students. I forgot to work out the kinks with the save function and many of my students ended up not saving their work. A teacher’s nightmare!!! I also think it is important to use advantages from both environments as a sort of merger. Bring characteristics of the traditional class into the computer class and vice versa. 

Brain Rules #6 Long Term Memory Stixy

http://www.stixy.com/guest/147628




Stixy was a pleasurable tool to use. It enabled me to take notes using colorized post it notes. These post it notes make it easy to categorize information, and it was the electronic version of taking sticky notes and sticking them on different pages in a book. I begin to colorize information. Everything written on a pink sticky note was information about long term memory that would be useful to a teacher. 


It precluded me from seeing all my notes in one view. I did not like how the sticky notes and images seemed to be on a story board. I like structure and limitations with my notes. I prefer for all my information to be on one screen in one frame. However, with this tool it seemed the scroll function continued until "forever". I also did not like I could not write a caption for image. It would be nice to have the option to type on or around a downloaded image. 


I would introduce my students to this technology by having them take notes and use the different color sticky notes as a organization system. My favorite way to engage students with text is to give them a key. Students use highlighters and highlight new information, new vocabulary, fact, opinion, prior knowledge, or whatever our goal is which different colored highlighters. Instead students could identify this information and paraphrase on the appropriate notepad. Students could also upload images to the adjoining notepad to make connections. 


This is a tool that I would use in the future for organizational purposes. 

Research and Thinking Blog #4

McGee, T. and Ericcson, P. (2008) “The Politics of the Program: MS Word as the Invisible Grammarian.” Computers in the Composition Classroom. Ed. Sidler, Michelle, Morris, Richard and Smith, Elizabeth Overman. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 308-325.  Print. 

Making Connections:

Funny story I was just reprimanding my mother about Grammar Check in MS Word. She is taking Freshman Comp at the community college and I have been her resource thus far this semester. She sent me an outline for an evaluation essay that is her next major assignment. I gave her written feedback, and decided to call her about frequent sentence fragments, and strangely enough all her sentence fragments lacked subjects. As I am trying to explain this to her she interrupts and says, “Well the grammar check didn’t say anything.”      

                           Urrggggggggggggggggg!!!!!

Summary: 

McGee and Ericsson discuss the history, function and practicality of Microsoft’s Grammar Check (MGC). The historical aspects of the program reveal the strong influence of Computational Linguists (CL) on the development of the program instead of experts in composition and rhetoric. CL’s are virtually computer scientist that convert natural language into various coding. There are 4 major characteristics to take away from MGC:

1. It’s ubiquity
2. It’s near invisibility
3. It’s increasing power
4. It’s theoretical mismatch 

The everywhere existence of MGC has replaced a job duty of English teachers -- instruction of grammar. MGC is considered everywhere because most businesses and home/school pc users are using a Windows operating system, and many people heavily use word processing programs. 

MGC is considered nearly invisible because the settings in Word is automatically set to have Grammar Check on. Another aspect of invisibility is in the words of Fred Kemp, “computerize any activity without having to completely rethink the activity, including all the assumed behaviors that have become virtually invisible.” In so many words, the activity of trusting and using the suggestions of MGC is an assumed behavior the actually system itself has become invisible. 

MGC is considered powerful because of the population it is targeting. The Natural Language Processing (NLP) has helped contributed to CL’s a level of grammar comfort of advanced writers. Advanced writers are usually college educated, and fit other characteristics of the status quo that has “power” in this society. 

The obvious theoretical mismatch is lack of consultation from experts in the field --English instructors, composition instructors and rhetoricians. 

Take Away:

Become critical users of MGC. 

Implications in the ELA Classroom:

As a ELA teacher I try to teaching grammar during the editing and proofing step in the writing process. It brings grammar in context instead of isolation. This ways students are  practicing grammar with their own writing they have developed not just some made up fantastic sentences completely out of context. In Urban Education this is not much of a problem due to the issue of access. However, in a suburban demographic this was quite frustrating. Students would not even proofread their papers and would solely rely on grammar check. If you re-read the suggestions it just doesn’t make sense. I have personally grabbed a grammar book to find justification for MGC’s rationale and ended up being stumped. My suggestions for districts is to turn off grammar and spell check functions in the word processing programs. 

Is Web 2.0 a New Literacy?

"The more a literacy practice that is mediated by digital encoding privileges participation over publishing, distributed expertise over centralized expertise, collective intelligence over individual possessive intelligence, collaboration over individuated authorship, dispersion over scarcity, sharing over ownership, experimentation over ‘normalization’, innovation and evolution over stability and fixity, creative innovative rule breaking over generic purity and policing, relationship over information broadcast, do-it-yourself creative production over professional service delivery, and so on, the more sense we think it makes to regard it as a new literacy."
--Lankshear, Colin, and Knobel, Michele. (2007). Researching new literacies: Web 2.0 practices and insider perspectives. E-Learning, 4 (3), 224-240. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2304/elea.2007.4.3.224

Yes! Yeah! Absolutely! Of Course! Duh! Are you kidding me?!? Indeed! Indefinitely!!

If we understand the definition of literacy we can understand how it applies to daily activities. Literacy does not constitute reading and writing ONLY...that is old school.

According to my ultimate resource Merriam Webster.com literacy is the state of being literate. Classic dictionary lingo. Literate as a adjective means "having knowledge or competence". Literate as a noun means "educated person". For the sake of this quote I am going to expound upon the adjectival meaning of literate.

So everything unfamiliar we encounter requires some form of literacy. Web 2.0 are tools that technological advances have made a part of everyday life. These tools have become so popular that it has even changed the way we communicate socially. It truly has changed human interaction and possibly retarded social communication forever. I keep thinking of the Toyota commercial.

http://youtu.be/TUGmcb3mhLM

Brain Rules #5 Short Term Memory Prezi

I <3 the prezi software tool!! I must admit my first prezi was not very creative or impressive. However, I can see the use of this tool for many purposes outside of this assignment and even outside of teaching. I love the templates they provide to get users started. The first template that caught my eye was the resume template. I think it is a unique way to present information whether it's content delivery or content knowledge. I did choose to use the template labeled "information", which I regret. I missed many of the prompts or template suggestions because they were grayed out. I think I could have organized my notes more efficiently if I had just created my own layout.

A major downfall of this tool was the zoom feature. I felt if my hand was too lazy on the mouse I either zoomed in or out in a very dramatic way. Also, I disliked the lack of structure. Were there any margins or boundaries? I felt like I was in a galaxy with zero gravity. I realize their can be too much freedom in an electronic environment and it is ok to provide some boundaries. Lastly, I did not like the order of the slideshow. The slideshow started from the end  and ended with the introductory information.

I would consider this tool to be a sophisticated version of Power Point. It would be awesome to use for a review of a concept or skill, and also wonderful for supplementing another strategy. I would not use this tool as the primary source for content delivery. Also, this would be an amazing tool to use for collaborative work of professionals or cooperative learning situations where students have to collaborate to produce a product.

http://prezi.com/rxozkemsgywf/edit/#44