Week 10 Journal Post

Interview Summary

For this assignment I interviewed my 11-year-old niece who has just entered the sixth grade, and lives in a middle class suburban town in Rhode Island.  Because I live in NYC, we conducted the interview over the phone.  We were actually going to use Skype, but I couldn’t get the software working on my computer.

            I began the interview by asking her to define technology.  She defined technology as,  "a way that people use things to keep in touch, or to keep yourself entertained.”  I then asked her about her internet use and she informed me that she uses the internet for about an hour a day on the weekends, and 10 minutes a day during the week.  At school she estimates that she uses computers for two hours a day.  She listed her favorite websites as Youtube.com to watch videos, and Hoodamath.com to help her with math, an area she struggles in.

            Regarding Facebook and Instagram, she said that she doesn’t use them because her mom doesn’t allow her to, mainly because she doesn’t like the negative things that people can say and show on social media.  She does, however, text her friends using her phone and iPad.  She says she’ll text them briefly to say goodnight, or to ask about homework assignments.

            She informed me that at home she uses a computer, cell phone, iPad, video camera, television, and shares an iPod with her brother, but doesn’t use it that much.  Her favorite electronic device is her video camera.  While in elementary school, the librarian taught her how to make and edit films, and she’s become quite passionate about this hobby.  She now produces her own videos, helps the librarian at her elementary school teach younger students how to make videos, and co-edited a film about bullying for the town that will be appearing online in the next few weeks.

            I asked her if she could remember the last time she went a day without using the internet and she said on the previous day she watched her brother’s hockey game, went shopping, played soccer, made one phone call, and watched a movie, but did not use the internet.

            She informed me that she reads 20 minutes a night, and the books must be print, and not digital because that hurts her eyes.  I also asked her preference between a day outside and a day online, and she chose a day outside.

            Finally I asked her how she might help a classmate who wanted to spend less time online.  She said she would advise her to find a hobby that would allow her to meet people in person in order to make friends that she could then spend time with.

Interview Reflection

            I had a great time interviewing my niece, and I this experience confirmed my belief that adolescents can and should be included in conversations regarding technology.  From this interview I would conclude that my niece is a young adult that has a healthy balance of both the digital and non-digital worlds in her life.  I would, however, argue that this balance is due to external factors of social class, parenting, and environment.  My niece is using technology to create (filmmaking), rather than consume.  This hobby developed because she was in a public school with the resources to teach that skill, and because her parents were able to afford the equipment that allowed the hobby to develop outside of school.  My niece also values playing outside, and that’s because she has parents that have engaged her in physical and social activities at a young age.  Her Internet usage is monitored at home, and once again, this is the result of parenting that has considered both the pros and cons of new technologies.

            This interview indicates efforts on behalf of the home, the community, and the school to ensure adolescents are navigating new technologies in a safe and beneficial way.

Week 8 Journal

            For my final paper I plan on using research to show how new media and new literacies can help to create a physical classroom space that discourages traditional banking pedagogy, and encourages problem-posing pedagogy. 

            I will frame this research around the philosophy of Paulo Freire.  According to Freire (2012):

Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept [of education] in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world.  They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world. (p. 89)

A recurring theme in our discussions and readings for this course is the notion that if utilized correctly, new media and new literacies can be powerful and effective tools for students..  My goal as an educator is to equip students with the skills to recognize and alleviate the problems that exist in society.  I believe problem-posing education can only occur in non-traditional class settings.  Social media, Google Docs, Blogs, and other forms of technology require a student-centered classroom in which the teacher is no longer the expert, but instead a facilitator of discourse.  The goal of my research will be to find examples of technology use in the classroom that have empowered students to become active, rather than passive learners in confronting problems relevant to their lives.

Annotated Bibliography

Freire, P. (2012). The promise of cultural studies of education. In Noel, J. (Ed.) Multicultural education, Third Edition. (pp. 88-90). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

            Freire’s problem posing approach to education will serve as the theoretical framework for my essay.  Freire writes, “students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge.”  The essay will provide examples of how technology can be used to empower students to actively confront problems relevant to their lives and their worlds.

Gustavson, L. (2013). Influencing Pedagogy through the Creative Practices of Youth. In Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (Eds.) A New Literacies Reader. (pp. 101-122). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

            This article has been my favorite reading assignment for class because I believe Gustavson demonstrates how students can thrive when not restricted by traditional classroom environments.  Reflecting on his observations of one urban youth, Gustavson proposes a classroom space that encourages varied performances, supports individual student work methods, and offers opportunities for side by side teacher and student creativity.  This type of classroom leaves no room for banking and empowers educators to, “transform the classroom into a space where the multisited nature of the ways in which everyone makes meaning is embraced and put to work” (p. 121).

Roberts, S. (2013). The “Chalk Talk” 2.0: Using Google Docs to Improve the Silent Discussion in Social Studies. The Social Studies, 104, 130-136.

            In this article, a social studies teacher uses Google Docs to replace a traditional “Silent Discussion” classroom activity.  A silent discussion is when students conduct a conversation solely on a space for writing (chalkboard, whiteboard, smartboard, or piece of paper passed around the room).  This is a great activity that I’ve used in class, and the primary limitation is wait time for students and space limitations for writing.  By using Google Docs as the space for the silent discussion, wait time and space issues were eliminated, however, new limitations did arise.  For example, Google Docs was unable to handle numerous students typing at once, and students were unsure of who was writing what.  I will use this article as an example of how Google Docs shifted the classroom space into the digital realm, and provide my own suggestions of how this activity could be enhanced.

Suwantarathip, 0., & Wichadee, S. (2014). The Effects of Collaborative Writing Activity Using Google Docs on Students’ Writing Abilities. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 13(2), 148-156.

           

This study was conducted with freshman students at a private university in Thailand.  In the study, the students were divided into two groups.  One group was given collaborative writing assignments to be completed together in class.  The other group was given collaborative writing assignments that were to be completed outside of class using Google Docs.  The study showed that the Google Docs group performed better than the in class group, and also had more positive experiences about the collaborative process.  I will use this article to demonstrate how Google Docs can enhance students’ collaboration and writing skills, and extend the classroom beyond the physical space.

Vasudevan, L., Dejaynes, T., & Schmier, S. (2013). Multimodal Pedagogies: Playing, Teaching and Learning with Adolescents’ Digital Literacies. In Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (Eds.) A New Literacies Reader. (pp. 23-37). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

           

We read this article for class and it actually initiated my thinking around technology altering the physical space of the classroom.  This article contains three case studies, but for the purposes of my research, I will focus on the first case study about a journalism class in an urban middle school.  In this study, the altered space of the classroom (computers circled around a conference desk) and communal work, rather than a top-down learning environment, empowered students to develop community and confront social justice issues relevant to their lives.