Literacy for the iGeneration

Once again it’s taken me a week to get my reflections on the class up on the blog, but I have a good reason. I’ve been concentrating on getting my revision of an article done, and I did it. I submitted it last night. So, one thing I can cross off my list.

It felt as if it was a long time that we had had class. Two weeks. In a semester, that’s an eternity. But as noted in previous posts we kept in touch through the forum. I’m glad we did that. It was really informative to see what the students are thinking. Actually, more came out in the forum that it does in class. The one section is more talkative than the other class, so the forum was particularly good for the quiet class. This reinforces my belief in the need for multiple modes of communication and representation. Oral conversation sometimes just doesn’t get at what needs to be explored. By providing multiple venues for getting at the same thing, more voices can be heard. The forum was a new functionality made available by edublogs and it came at a great time. It worked out better than I anticipated. My next task is to go through the posts and categorize and identify themes. That will inform the last few classes.

I also shared two articles from NEA today with the students. One article was about teachers losing their jobs by posting personal information related to drugs, sex, etc. on the Internet. This raises the question of the separation of the private and the public, but the reality is, as public employees, teachers are under greater scrutiny than someone who works for a private corporation. We do live in a society of surviellance.

Danielle A, Kerri, and Kraig shared the digital stories they had put together out of their work in New Orleans. They did a good job of structuring the story, layering in sound and animation. The stories were evocative. What was more interesting to me though, was what they talked about afterward. What their intent was with the creation of the story. I’m always interested in the metacognitive piece. That’s really what a learner carries forth.

I then very quickly went through a miniworkshop on the certification process in response to the students’ request. It’s interesting, I didn’t share with them anything that isn’t already on the Internet through the NYSED website. It’s really something they could have done on their own. But – how would they even know to go there. What I tried to do was provide the basic information but also provide them with the links so that they can find the information on their own when they need it. It’s really tough walking the line between supporting students and doing it for students. It’s making me think more and more that we need a course or at least a minicourse in information seeking. I’m considering next year having the librarian do a session on it.

Which leads me to a consideration of what it is that I really wanted students to be doing this semester, but what I’m not really seeing them do. This came out quite clearly in two separate conversations I had with individual students. They basically said that they were confused because there aren’t set assignments and they don’t know what is expected of them. I told them that I want them to seek answers to their questions and bring those back to the class. I’m looking for students to step up as leaders and to be making the transition from students to professionals. But I’m not seeing it. And I’ve come to the realization that I need to be more direct about this expectation, and also to recognize that the students have been socialized in such as way that they expect heavy direction. I fear we’ve become a nation of direction followers.

I tried throughout the semester to set students up as information seekers. I gave the early assignment to ask a question, seek an answer, and summarize it. They did it as an exercise, but never really saw it as going beyond that. I had them set goals, but I don’t see them actively working to achieve those goals. I had them seek grants, I had them design their classrooms. I fear whenever I assign them something to do, they see it as a one shot thing, not an exploration of something that will be useful in the future. I’m hoping I will see evidence of the integration of some of what I’ve taught into their teaching identities in the end of the semester self-assessment and maybe the wiki.

We ended the class with a 40 minute lesson planning session. It’s interesting that one student referred to this as a “speed planning” session. What they’ll learn is that most lessons are actually planned in less time – once you have the materials in place. What actually takes time is planning collaboratively.

So here we go into another week. I feel as if we’re circling the airport these days. I’m looking forward to landing and I’m sure the students are too.