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.