Hi all,
I notice that you haven't posted much on this blogger. Please make sure you post based on previous assignments on the schedule. Kristi, thanks for posting your new literacies learning here. Your posts are the only ones I can see for the NL project though!
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Kristi King-New Literacy Blog Post 3/18
In doing the New Literacies Project, I was happy to have
taken the time to learn a new literacy and a new technology. Kidblog.org is a
technology that was completely unfamiliar to me. Therefore, in order to get the
most out of the technology, I had to take my time and learn the ins and outs of
the website. This helped add to my knowledge about technology. As students
explore with technology, they should be given time to explore that technology
and independently figure out some of the features of the program. No one person
has all the answers when encountering something new. Students need to be given
instructions on how to use technology after it has been explored. Therefore, as
a teacher, knowing the technology I am introducing to my students and knowing
it well is important for myself as well as my students.
I enjoyed the affordances of Kidblog. As a teacher using
Kidblog, I have the ability to create a safe, user-friendly blog page. I have
the ability to approve posts and comments before they are made public. I can
also make the blog page public or private in which students would have to have
a username in order to view posts or comment. This ensures internet safety,
which is important as students access technology. The blog page theme can be
changed so that it is usually appealing for students. The organization of the
page makes this technology accessible for all users.
Kidblog allows for teachers to provide effective literacy
instruction for students in regards to emotional literacy. Emotional literacy
is “the ability to recognize, understand, and appropriately express our
emotions”. As a teacher, students can use the blog page to respond to prompts
focused on developing emotional literact. Through this project, I learned that
emotional literacy is imperative in students’ academic performance. I learned
that literacy can be taught through technology once students gain basic
technology skills such as typing, getting onto the internet, using navigation
keys, and basic open/close actions. As a teacher, I would instruct students on
how to navigate around the blogpage.
As far as emotional literacy, students will have to know the
definition and importance of emotional literacy. This will help motivate students
once they learn the benefits of being emotionally literate. Students will have
to learn how to appropriate express emotions and respond to the emotions of
others. This would be developed through activities, some with the blog. I would
provide this support by conducting lessons that will help students understand what emotional literacy is. I would like
to do skits or read books that promote emotional literacy before introducing
students to the blog.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Notes on Learning
Throughout the research on this new literacies project, I am learning that there is still so much technology available to learn about! I don't know if I will ever become a digital native when it comes to technology. Becoming an expert at any type of technology takes a lot of time and concentration. I am learning that you have to spend a couple of hours really playing (for lack of a better word) with the site in order to find out the benefits of it. I am also learning that there are always improvements to make to current technology and that one type of technology will more than likely never have EVERYTHING you desire to see in it.
I am learning a lot about my new technology as far as becoming emotionally literate and learning the Kidblog site. Emotional literacy involves giving students a medium to express themselves. Adding technology to this type of literacy makes it more engaging for students, especially on kidblog. I am learning that with blog posts, it is important to have restrictions as far as what you will allow students to post or comment. The kidblog site allows for teachers to closely monitor these posts, even before they are made public. Allowing students to have a choice in what emotions they share is an important part of emotional literacy. Students should never be forced to share more than they want. Teachers can prompt students on what to focus on as far as blog posts. One part of becoming emotionally literate is learning how to respond to others emotions, be it through non-verbal cues, comments, responses, etc. Teachers can help student become emotionally literate in this area via Kidblog by prompting students how to respond to people's posts. One prompt could be "how would you feel if you were in the bloggers position?" or "have you ever been in a situation like this?"
The affordances of this technology in comparison to writing manually is that students will have an excuse to hop onto the computer, and what student doesn't enjoy that! Using kidblog gives students a sense of ownership as they log onto a safe site with their own username and password. Students will have the freedom to respond to posts without being worried about their writing being legible. Shy students are given a voice to respond or post without being worried about speaking in front of large groups of students. I feel that my students in my placement would love kidblog. They have journals that they write in regularly, so kidblog would just be like a technology based journal--at least that is how I would use it in my future classroom.
Kidblog allows for students to upload images that may correspond with their blog. This helps build visual literacy in students as they learn how to connect images to what they are writing or feeling. I love kidblog. It has so much to offer, plus it is safe and easy to use. Before using kidblog, students would have to learn what I like to label as "internet lingo". They would have to know what certain icons mean. Students would need to know basic technology skills, such as typing. Students would be taught how to upload pictures. The down side to kidblog is that the activities would more than likely require students to have a computer at home. If a school had laptops available for students, then I would have students take time out of their day (either in the morning when they arrive, before/after lunch, or before school ends) to write a journal/blog post.
I am learning a lot about my new technology as far as becoming emotionally literate and learning the Kidblog site. Emotional literacy involves giving students a medium to express themselves. Adding technology to this type of literacy makes it more engaging for students, especially on kidblog. I am learning that with blog posts, it is important to have restrictions as far as what you will allow students to post or comment. The kidblog site allows for teachers to closely monitor these posts, even before they are made public. Allowing students to have a choice in what emotions they share is an important part of emotional literacy. Students should never be forced to share more than they want. Teachers can prompt students on what to focus on as far as blog posts. One part of becoming emotionally literate is learning how to respond to others emotions, be it through non-verbal cues, comments, responses, etc. Teachers can help student become emotionally literate in this area via Kidblog by prompting students how to respond to people's posts. One prompt could be "how would you feel if you were in the bloggers position?" or "have you ever been in a situation like this?"
The affordances of this technology in comparison to writing manually is that students will have an excuse to hop onto the computer, and what student doesn't enjoy that! Using kidblog gives students a sense of ownership as they log onto a safe site with their own username and password. Students will have the freedom to respond to posts without being worried about their writing being legible. Shy students are given a voice to respond or post without being worried about speaking in front of large groups of students. I feel that my students in my placement would love kidblog. They have journals that they write in regularly, so kidblog would just be like a technology based journal--at least that is how I would use it in my future classroom.
Kidblog allows for students to upload images that may correspond with their blog. This helps build visual literacy in students as they learn how to connect images to what they are writing or feeling. I love kidblog. It has so much to offer, plus it is safe and easy to use. Before using kidblog, students would have to learn what I like to label as "internet lingo". They would have to know what certain icons mean. Students would need to know basic technology skills, such as typing. Students would be taught how to upload pictures. The down side to kidblog is that the activities would more than likely require students to have a computer at home. If a school had laptops available for students, then I would have students take time out of their day (either in the morning when they arrive, before/after lunch, or before school ends) to write a journal/blog post.
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