"The tortoise and the hare"

Or rather..."The ICT student and Web 2.0"
Once there was a computer who used to look down at me with contempt because sometimes I plodded along typing or surfing so slowly.
"You can never get anywhere with those slow fingers of yours. Look at me, my large monitor, my CPU full of tricks and my many many keys! I’m so quick no one would dare compete with me."

I was so tired hearing this PC brag. I said, "If I were to take up the challenge, I'm sure I could and will learn to do many things on you!" The PC, burst into loud laughter, it said, "What a joke! You, compete with me; learn to do all the things I can do, before you even start you will quit!” "If you only you had a clue you wouldn't be so sure of yourself!” I cautioned Mr. PC.

And so the race began. At the push of a button the PC leaped forward in a great bound pulling out all his tricks: internet, short cuts, navigation…but I had my own tricks too, I was armed with the tools of Web 2.0.

“I’ve won this race already," the PC thought as he saw me slowly typing, fidgeting at times; blogging, getting antsy trying to create a wiki.
“I’m not going to give in!” I often thought to myself.

"There's really no reason to hurry," the PC thought. So he went to “sleep”. "I'll come in way ahead of that ICT student, she doesn’t have a clue.”
Meanwhile, I jogged steadily along, I went to class, took notes and more importantly, practiced, practiced, practiced. So at nights when I came home, I was ready for Mr. PC!

Quietly, I created: my wiki, my concept map, even an e-book; a fabulous digital photo story and the goal of finishing my blog posts was here!
The PC was in shock, it saw me reaching the finish line faster than it thought i could. I won.

Perseverance is one of the key tools in achieving success!

A P(ain) in the... A(hem)

The APA format is a standardized system used for formatting research discourse and citation of resources. APA style, refers to the rules presented in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. It facilitates researchers who may be interested in replicating research material. This allows for a standard approach to all research and eases communication in the various fields. The APA format is frequently used by researchers, especially in the field of Social sciences. it can also help in the avoidance of plagiarism.

Shhhh...Now don't say I say but... I used to believe there was a reason for everything, until I came across the APA referencing style. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do understand the importance of citation and referencing and of giving credit where such is due and the echoes of not plagiarising still plagues my dreams (TURNIT IN...TURNIT IN!)...but hear me out! ...I feel the APA is a system designed to test the patience of those who have little to none. Seriously, why is it necessary to leave TWO spaces after a full stop? (Can someone please explain the logistics?) Why do I have to remember that some words in texts are capitalized and some are not? Not forgetting that titles of books and journals need to be italicised. APA isn’t exactly my “cup of tea”, but I HAVE TO USE IT! There are few benefits – it can increase tolerance and endurance levels. I must warn, however, it can facilitate a slight rise in blood pressure and severely accommodates the reception of migraines. Be wary! At the end of the day, yes, we all have to abide by the rules but…sigh…must the task be so tedious?

In closing I leave you my dear colleagues with a quote from John Milton “Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research”.

Digital Photo Stories

Story telling can have whimsical effects. They allow us to have vicarious experiences. We can travel to magical lands, ancient castles and even journey around the world within hours! Now we can add digital photos to further enhance this practice making it even more appealing and enhancing to our visual experience.

The task in creating these photo stories is in no way tedious. It is an easy and enjoyable process. The site below is indeed helpful to the person who wants to learn to do so:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/tips/firststory.mspx

This tool can be used in the classroom in many different ways. It is up to the teacher to make creative and wise choices that are suited to the learners.
The advantages of employing this genius tool in our classroom are numerous, these are a few:
• They can be used as motivational tools to aid in giving students a desire to read.
• They are enjoyable.
• They can be used to elicit learners’ imagination and creativity.
• They appeal not only to visual but also kinesthetic learners.
• They can provide opportunities for combining different skills.

Integrating picture stories in our classrooms can provide a more dynamic and enjoyable experience for our students; I am very eager to begin employing this tool in my classroom.

Creole or no??

I was practicing the audio component, for creating an E-book for one of my lessons. I was using one of my younger cousin's voices, I mimicked what she had to say, she looked at me in utmost confusion, she said, “...but Mandy, you are speaking 'badly'.” By “badly” she meant, I was asking her to do the forbidden! Speak as she calls it “Dialect.” O the horror!!

“It is the nature of the West Indian Creole-influenced language situation that is responsible ...for the language education problem at the ...school level.” (Craig (1999) 23).

Creolists have worked at gaining recognition for Creole languages as autonomous languages in their own right and not mere “broken” or “bastardised” versions of a European colonial language.

In our Trinidadian classrooms there is an existence of two codes, Standard English, the official of education and Trinidadian Creole. Whenever the Creole is used as a language of instruction, the result is almost always a negative reaction. It is believed that even though the official code receives attention in the teaching and learning scenario not enough attention is given to the Creole even though it is the native language of the majority of speakers.

It is not a question of whether which language is good or bad; right or wrong, it is our aim as teachers of literacy to give students the opportunities to use both codes BUT teach them to CODE SWITCH. They need to be aware of the uses of both codes; it is only then a balance can be achieved. I believe teachers’ language attitudes towards Creole usage in the classroom, need to be examined, in order to put an end to this stereotype.

Assessment

In an attempt to come up with suitable assessments for my lesson plans, I came across an interesting article: McKenna, M.C & Walpole, S. (2005) How well does assessment inform our reading instruction? The Reading Teacher. Vol.59 No.1 84-86

Assessment is commonly linked to “high-stakes" testing. The discourse seeks to contrast this view and the norm in the classroom to alternative forms of assessment that can work alongside other measures of assessment which would alert teachers from the onset to problematic areas of reading development; promote diagnostic assessment as an aid; offer progress monitoring and examine outcome measures.

The discourse helps one to realize that this (assessment) is a universal issue. It mirrors the reality of situations faced by teachers within the bounds of the classroom, where at times, a tug-of-war between teaching and learning occurs. The article purports the idea that alternative assessment can be used as a tool for monitoring and that there can be co-existence between assessment and instruction; it seeks to compliment to the core. It demonstrates that if the problem is identified from the onset a crisis can be avoided. Assessment should not simply be summative but a continuous process of monitoring.

As educators we are sometimes faced with the decision of whether we teach for assessment purposes or teach so that adequate learning among our students can occur. We are often forced to choose between the two. This is so mainly because of the inescapable high-stakes tests, for example;S.E.A and CAPE. As a result, one may view the alternative assessment as a detractor in attempting to accomplish this. As a result very little weighting is given to alternative forms of assessing in our classrooms in most instances.

It is my hope that I can now use all the new (Web 2.0) tools and information I have gathered in this course to not only teach literacy but to assess literacy in fun and interesting ways that would motivate my learners.

"Photo-take-outing easy guide"

Aim…snap…flash…PICTURE TAKEN! Seems simple, right? Yes but this process is very wrong.
Taking a picture is not as cut and dry as it may appear; there’s an art involved in doing so in order to obtain the “perfect photo”.

Kodak. com offers some helpful tips that everyone should know when attempting to take a photo. Below is my interpretation of such.

1) Take the picture at the same level of the object. – If the object is a child who is 2' tall, do not stand at your height 5’ 7” and look down to take the picture; simply bend your knees and stoop to the level of the object being photographed.
2) Be wary of your back ground – your background should be plain enough not to detract from the real focus of the picture.
3) When taking pictures outdoors it is wise to use your flash- this aids in minimizing the appearance of shadows.
4) Get as close as possible to the object being photographed- do not stand too far from object.
5) Some objects are better photographed in a vertical direction.
6) Before snapping your picture be certain you have the correct focus.
7) The rule of thirds- this relates to what part of the image the human eye is readily drawn to. It provides a background for photos and allows the photo itself to relay a story.
8) It is wise to know the distance your flash can go up to, so you would be aware of how close you can stand to the object being photographed.
9) Pay attention to the light. The darker the object, the more light may be necessary.
10) You dictate the position, style, line up of your photo. Step out from the mundane “form a line and say cheese pictures”; instead a semi-circle may be more suitable.
11) MY OWN RULE: Most importantly, HAVE FUN DOING SO! ENJOY THE TASK!

Now that I’m aware of all these useful tips, I am armed with camera in hand and ready to be the best “photo-take-outer” I can be!

What about writing?

Reading and writing go hand in hand!

“Mastery of content is not only demonstrated through reading but through writing." Integrating writing with reading enhances reading comprehension because the two are reciprocal processes.” Knipper and Duggan in “Writing to learn across the curriculum: tools for comprehension in content area classes” offer a repertoire of writing strategies that content area teachers can put into practice throughout the reading process to strengthen students' comprehension and extend their critical thinking. Such as learning logs, journals and fast writes. Writing to learn engages students, extends thinking, deepens understanding, and continues the meaning-making process.

Writing across the curriculum can bring about the positive results. By applying different writing strategies to the classroom situation students can become more engaged with the subject matter. They tend to understand the information and concepts more deeply, students can remember ideas longer and apply that learning in new situations. Teachers can use writing to prompt thinking, to facilitate discussions, to enhance concepts, to assess both formatively and summatively, and for reflection purposes. Some strategies include: “fast writes” which help students organize and state what they are thinking at the moment; “journals”, which either simple or complex, can also help in this area. Dialogue journals can be a great way to increase fluency in writing and work with the class content. “Learning logs” are similar in that they are done during class time and may not necessarily be graded.

The concept of writing to learn is indeed an important one. Through the use of the strategies by teachers, students who exhibit difficulty reading and writing can interact with expository text in a more meaningful way. Writing is just as important as reading!

E-books.

I read this article given to us by our lecturer. I found it quite insightful…So, I decided to BLOG about it by doing an overview of said article.

An overview of the article “Using E-Books to Promote Vocabulary Development”
Higgins, Norman and Laura Hess

“The effectiveness of any instructional program depends on how it is used, for what purpose it is used, and with whom it is used.” (Higgins, Norman and Hess)
This statement is fitting especially when it comes to the use of e-books. “Most electronic books can read whole stories, phrases and individual words aloud”. Many of these e-books have “added multimedia enhancements...to promote reading achievement”.

Several investigators have sought to compare the effects of print and e-books on reading achievement. Matthew 1997 reported that “children who read...electronic books performed significantly better on story retelling than a matched group who read printed books, but there were no differences...on a story comprehension test.”
Lipson and Wixson (1996) provide guidelines for promoting vocabulary development, which includes:

• relate an unfamiliar word to a known synonym
• use the unfamiliar word in a different context, and
• ask the reader to define the unfamiliar word in his/her own words

It remains to be seen if these guidelines can be implemented with e-books as well as the effects of doing so.
The authors used these guidelines in their study in conjunction with “the animation features of e-books” to determine the effectiveness of selected vocabulary-building activities on learning and retention of unfamiliar words.

To conduct the investigation the authors used a third-grade class of 10 boys and 12 girls. 6 boys and 5 girls in the control group and 4 boys and 7 girls in the experimental group using “The New Kid on the Block: Poems by Jack Prelutsky” (1993).

Results of the investigation.
The results confirm the effectiveness of supplemental vocabulary instruction together with the animations in an e-book yet the author question their practicality and efficiency. They concluded that the supplemental activities are not difficult to implement and the efficiency could be improved if the same results would be attained when the adult worked with more than one child at a time. Further research must be done on the correlation between effectiveness of activities and number of children participating at the same time.

A bit about (concept) mapping it out!

Concept maps have always held a certain measure of appeal to me. I remember as a child being taught to construct essays by firstly creating “a map” of my ideas. This has stuck with me; so much so, that I often employ this concept as an aid in helping my students become more efficient writers.

Concept maps are indeed very intricate tools. They are visual representations of connections among concepts. Concept maps can be used as a valuable learning strategy to aid in the enrichment of thinking and learning skills in our students. Apart from the obvious use, that is, using Concept maps to present ideas, the article; The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them by Joseph D. Novak & Alberto J. Cañas Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition has shed a measure of new light on Concept maps to me. It made for a very interesting and insightful read.

Concept mapping permits a conversion in the ways in which learners as well as teachers can map out the information that they that they have come across. The idea of Concept mapping is not solely limited to that of an activity used merely to brainstorm but it may assist students in navigating through complex domains of knowledge. Concept mapping tools can be engaged as a “hands-on” approach in the classroom to enhance the learning process. Teachers’ may also use concept maps as a resource for providing information about students’ understanding.

The implementation of new approaches to teaching or learning has often been met with some measure of resilience. This at times result in the use of “sticking to what we know” that is, traditional forms. We as educators must not be afraid to try out new ideas, new approaches and see what works best for our students.

"Blogging in the classroom"

Reading and writing through the use of computers has permitted a change in the way we think about literacy and learning (Vacca and Vacca). According to Vacca and Vacca; “Digital texts and media make possible for interaction with texts in ways not imaginable a short while ago”. To help capture and maintain students’ interest and by extension, encourage opportunities for interaction with technology outside the classroom; as well as use what they already know, teachers can now try to capitalize on students digital immersion to embrace reading and writing skills. One means of accomplishing this is via the social tool of blogging. Blogs are “interactive and collaborative.” (G. Jones 2005) Blogs can be used as a medium to facilitate knowledge sharing, reflection and debate as well as act as a vehicle for self expression and self empowerment. (Blood 2007)

Blogs can be implemented to enhance reading and writing skills. It can be employed in a variety of ways:
• To teach vocabulary- students can encounter new words in the process, in doing so their vocabulary can broaden.
• To promote peer learning/teaching - in commenting, reading and making posts, students can both teach and learn from each other.
• To foster a sense of creativity and ownership- students feel a sense of pride knowing that their work is being ‘published’ and read by others
• Helps develop expression - with constant practice students are better able to express themselves in a way that may not have been possible in the classroom environment.
• Foster critical thinking skills- In creating a blog; students have opportunities to create their own topics and source material; this can foster critical thinking.

There are always limitations which one may encounter in an attempt to implement new ideas. These may include:
• Time constraints - both for the teacher and student. Sufficient time may not be readily available to the teacher to continuously read posts and make comments on said posts.
• Availability of resources- Internet access as well as access to a computer may not be readily available to students and teachers to perform this task. There are many schools without computers and Internet access; some children may not have the tools available in their homes.
• Technological know-how/skills (both teacher and student) - Both parties may lack the skills necessary to partake in the activity.

MY READING REALITY

• As the child stood in front the class; with his reading book in hand, I could see the discomfort in his eyes, his face contorted; he scratched, he fidgeted; he seemed unable to find the page of the reading lesson. …Unknowingly to me, all of these “antics” were made because of his inability to read which came as a shocking surprise.

• I sent a note home to a parent one afternoon; the next day as I arrived at school, the parent was there waiting on me. I was a tad concerned as to why she was there because nowhere in the note did I ask to see her. As our conversation ensued…it was revealed that…she was unable to read, she could not even read the note I sent home for her.

Reading has always been one of my passions; and for a while I think I existed in a fantasy world by holding the assumption that this was the same for many others. When I became a teacher, I assumed that students would perhaps share this same passion for reading that I possessed. Unfortunately, such was not a reality as I soon discovered.

Fresh out of teachers’ training college placed in my second school, I was eager; in fact, I was VERY eager to put into action all that I learnt. However, this enthusiasm soon dwindled when “the real” situation of my classroom was presented. Many of the 6 and 7yr old children who sat before me could not even spell their names! Many of them could not read, few of them belonged to homes where both parents could read. This was all new to me. I didn’t know what to do! I had no idea where to begin. However, I am never one to give up! I tried many new strategies I found online and slowly engaged my students’ interest but this was not sufficient.

The teaching of Reading is no easy task. Having little to no training in the area of direct literacy instruction I sometimes felt powerless and I too became overtly frustrated when attempting to teach these students “the basics”. This is why I decided to become a reading specialist. It is my hope that to some extent I can help expel this daunting reality; so that in our classrooms there will be readers, motivated readers!