Weekly Reading #3

1. What findings in the Media Ecologies: Quantitative Perspectives surprised you the most? How does the finding change the way you think about young people, technology and learning?  What surprised me the most was that the Kaiser report found "that media engagement does not crowd out time spent with parents, pursuing hobbies, or doing physical activity."  This tells me one of two things. 1) It's just not an accurate statement or finding, or 2) Our young people are proficiently effective at integrating media use in their daily lives.  Even me, as an adult.  I have to have noise.  When I am completing my on-line homework, I also have the television on, or I am listening to music.  Way back when I was in high school, I had to have complete silence to do homework.  Times are definitely changing. 

 I saw a commercial several years ago that intrigued me.  The gist of it was how people are constantly multitasking when it comes to media.  The commercial actually coined the term "tele-visa-phona-netting" (not sure about spelling), which my family still uses at home.  When I call for my children, they often say to me, "Just a second, I'm tele-visa-phona-netting".  When they say this, I know that they are probably playing an Internet game, while watching television and talking to a friend on speaker phone.  

2. What are the benefits to a genre-based approach to understanding youth engagement with digital media over a categorical-based approach?  When trying to understand youth engagement with digital media, the Genre-based approach takes into account the whole picture.  It allows us to view how an individual uses many different digital media together and steers us away from wanting to view how the individual uses each individual media separately; television, computer, music, etc.

3. What aspects of Michelle's (Box 1.2) computer use at home have implications for computer use at school?  Michelle has some good experience using a computer with Internet access at home.  Although her time appears to be limited due to mom's fears, she is able to use it to play some games and help with her homework, an area that will benefit her with her schooling.  Her experiences at home seem to be somewhat oven-ended whereas her experiences at school appear to be more teacher-driven.  It sounds as though, the teacher-driven activities are more difficult for her because she considers them boring.  One thing that I found great was that her experiences at home made it possible for her to help her friends (many not having access at home) at school.  This has to be good for her morale.  

4. As you read about Clarissa (Box 1.3) consider the affordances of digital technologies that help Clarissa shape her identity and the role they play in literacy engagement. Do you think there are positive implications for these affordance in school-based literacy instruction? If so, what are they. If not, what are your concerns?   I do think that there are positive implications in school-based literacy.  As a teacher, I try to allow for creativity, but the constraints of school curriculum makes it harder than I ever thought it would be.  In my classroom, we have writing stations with writing prompts and we do different writing activities in which I instruct students to "imagine" and write about things they would like to be or do, and then we share.  It would be great to create a public classroom journal in which students could type entries and read the entries of their classmates and make comments on the writing.  "Our Classroom Blog."

5. In the section titled Messing Around we read about the sophisticated and creative technology practices young people are developing on their own outside of school. Do you think it is important for teachers to know about and understand these practices? Why?  I, myself, love to "mess around" on the computer.  It's a stress free environment and it allows the freedom of looking and finding interesting information that's specific to me.  Not my kids.  Not my husband.  Not my students.  Just me.  Everyone needs a little freedom to find themselves.  I think that it is terribly important to know about and understand how our students are interacting with technology.   First, it allows us to see just who they are and gain a little insight in how they think technologically.  Second, it allows us to find ways to engage them in school using means that they will enjoy and be interested in.  If they are interested and engaged, they learn.  One thing that bothers me about technology and school is that many teachers (especially the veteran ones) do not know about and use different technologies.  As a non-traditional student, I did not grow up using much technology at all.  It is a struggle for me to try to "catch up" let along "keep up" with what's new.  Listening to my students and having two teenage sons helps.

6. Should schools support students' in "geeking out"? What are the educational and ethical implications of "geeking out"?   Schools should support students in "geeking out" within the restraints of the rules.  I believe that it creates individuals and shows them for who they are.  The ethical implications are just that, ethical.  One of the definitions of ethical is "being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice."  This should be no different in the school setting.  All students must sign a "usage agreement" for the privilege to use school computers at the beginning of the year.   In my classroom, I go over that agreement with my students when I hand them out, and we discuss it.  The rules of the agreement need to be followed or the privilege is lost to the student.

7. The young people studied for this book lived in urban settings in California or New York City. Do you think young people in West Virginia behave in similar ways and develop the same kinds of digital literacies? Provide examples from your own experiences with young people in West Vriginia.   I think that young people in West Virginia behave in similar ways and develop many of the same kinds of digital literacies.  My nephew, a mere two years old, can already use an Iphone, IPod, and IPad to look at pictures and start a game for his 10 year old sister.  It's the wildest thing to watch.  That little finger swipes to change from picture to picture, and when he comes to a video, he pushes the arrow to watch.  It's incredible.  He's only two!!!  I have 10 nieces and 3 nephews in all, and we all live in different cities.  They range from 2  - 25 years in age, and I am happy to say that they help to keep me up to speed.  We have a family Facebook page to keep in touch, as well as texting, and sending recent pictures in a metter of seconds.  We are all very close and technology actually allows us to feel very involved with one another even when we can't see one another.  Just this year, I had 14 of my students (some past students) that sent me a friend request (declined).  They are only in grade school.  I have also had several students that talk about cheat codes and even shopping with mom online.  One of students this year was always talking about Skyping with her family that lives out of state.  What a great way to be able to watch her grow up without actually being able to see her in person.  The world is definitely getting smaller.