Category Archives: LIBE 477

Libe 477 – Final Post

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This is my final blog post in my TL diploma (but not my last post ever)! When I think back to where I started a year ago to where I am now, I have not only become more knowledgeable about library organization, cataloguing, Web 2.0 tools and resources but I have gained a new understanding of the education system and the learners I will be teaching, in the library or in the classroom, in the 21st century.

I am excited to be a beginning teacher at time when the education system and the BC Curriculum is being transformed. I have a new appreciation for inquiry based learning and how classroom teachers and librarians can support each and every student in being producers of knowledge who will contribute to the plethora of information available on the web (McArthur, 2009). I’m excited to “thin the walls [of the classroom] and open up all sorts of possibilities for exploration and collaboration” for both teachers and students (Richardson, 2012, p. 111).

There are many themes that ran throughout the TL diploma but one in particular resonated with me. The idea that creativity is not only valued but crucial to success in the 21st century excites me. Will Richardson said that education in the 21st century is not about delivery. “In one word, it’s about discovery” (Richardson, 2012, p. 60). Several Ted Talks that I have been exposed to through this diploma have also discussed creativity. I’m looking forward to helping foster creativity in students; in helping them explore their passions and connect with others around the world; in helping to maintain and expand on the curiosity students enter the school system with. It really is an exciting to be an educator and a student!

The final project in LIBE 477 has given me a first hand taste of an inquiry project. I started this project with fear and uncertainty. I had a vision for the future but it was in bits and pieces. I decided to focus on one specific area – using technology to document learning in math. I wanted my project to be something I could use in the classroom immediately and something that I could potentially share with my colleagues. The way I have designed my presentation will allow me to insert new videos of student made products once I have implemented the tools in my classroom. My initial feelings of uncertainty and fear have been replaced with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to use my learnings in my class.

Next year, it is my goal to start a class blog. I have not been able to overcome one challenge but I am working on adapting to it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not sure how I will export the videos and images students create on the iPads to the class blog if the iPads do not have an email or dropbox set up but at the moment, I plan on sharing my students’ products within our class with the projector. Small steps.

In trying out different apps to document learning I have thought of other ways to integrate these apps as tools to achieve learning outcomes. I will hopefully be able to have one iPad at our plant and butterfly observation station to document student learning. I will also be touching base with our buddy class to see if we can incorporate Book Creator into our sessions.

I leave you with my final project – a vision for how we can use iPads to document learning in Kindergarten math. I have uploaded my presentation to Slideshare. There are embedded videos in my powerpoint and to view them you must download the presentation.

Works Cited:

Finish Line. (2011). [image online] Available at: http://akshatrathi.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/the-art-of-finishing/ [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

Laplante, L. (2013). Hackschooling Makes Me Happy. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

McArthur Foundation. (2009). Re-thinking learning: the 21st Century Learner. Retrieved February 22, 2014 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw UBC library course reserve.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

Robinson, S. K. (2007). Do Schools Kill Creativity?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Contents

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After reading my previous two blog posts, you will know that I am attempting to design a presentation that can be shared with my colleagues that will highlight the benefits of using the iPad to share student’s learning in math.

I decided to create a powerpoint presentation that can be uploaded and shared with Slideshare.  I chose this format for several reasons.  One, I wanted something that could be easily edited in the future when I had better examples of student work to share and two I am fairly comfortable with powerpoint and wanted to spend more time learning the apps than figuring out a new presentation tool.  Prior to deciding to use Slideshare, I considered doing a Prezi as Prezi seems like a web 2.0 tool a lot of people are using.   When I really thought about the purpose of my presentation and what I wanted to include I decided that a powerpoint would suffice. I have used Prezi to do a presentation in the past and was not overly impressed with the style of presentation it creates.

My powerpoint presentation allows me to embed videos that I have found on the web and videos I created of sample products.  However, I discovered when I tried to upload a sample powerpoint to Slideshare the embedded videos won’t play.  A user needs to download my presentation before they can watch the videos.

I selected several apps I wanted to test out for my powerpoint presentation (I wanted to include three samples).  I do not have my own iPad and the school is closed for spring break so I borrowed a family member’s.  I wanted to try out Draw and Tell and Explain Everything because I knew we had them on our school’s iPads but I soon discovered that they cost money.  Since I don’t own this iPad I know I would never use these apps again so I changed my plans and decided to try out several free apps.  Because I was using a family member’s personal iPad an email was set up and I could easily email the videos I created to myself which I could then embed in my presentation.  However, I can see how I could run into a problem if I had used my school’s iPads.  An email address is not set up on the iPads and we have not downloaded dropbox.  If I was to get dropbox approved for the iPads, would I then need to make sure I signed out the same iPads every time so that I would need to set up our class dropbox on every iPad?  I’m not sure how I would get the videos off the school iPads onto a class blog.  Any ideas?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have one iPad for the class or even a class computer!  Think of the possibilities.

While some of the apps I tried were not what I expected by trial and error I discovered several ways I could use these tools throughout my instruction.  I’m planning on using Skitch for our plant and butterfly unit as well as in the block centre.  Book creator was a little complicated for simply documenting a math activity but I could see this being used with our buddies.

Overall, I haven’t run into any major problems but I do wonder how I can share work from school iPads and export the products to a class blog without dropbox or an email being set up.  How do other schools do this?  Do they have one email account or several?  Do they have one dropbox or several class ones?

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Rationale

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In my last post, I decided I was going to focus on finding a meaningful way to incorporate iPads into our math lessons.  I want to focus on using iPads to share and demonstrate students’ learning in math with the class and the world beyond our four walls.

Assessment for learning is a buzz term in our district and in education right now.  According to the BC draft curriculum for digital literacy we are “[moving] toward meaningful descriptions/collections demonstrations of student learning” (Ministry of Education, 2014).  Using iPads for documentation and sharing will allow students an opportunity to reflect on their learning.

In the 21st century students must “develop proficiency with the tools of technology,” “design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes” and “create, critique, analyze and evaluate multimedia texts” (NCTE, 2013).  Using iPads to document learning in math will not only develop these skills but it will also allow students to “ask questions, work with others to find answers, do real work for real audiences and add to the storehouse of knowledge that the Web is becoming” (Richardson, 2012, p.61).

I was reading a blog post on langwitches.org about iPads in a Kindergarten classroom.  The students drew a picture for a subtraction story, used the Show Me app to take a picture on the iPad and then recorded their voice explaining their story.  The teacher posed some interesting questions for the reader.  One question in particular was “could the same [learning] have been accomplished by keeping students’ illustrations analog?” (Langwitches, 2012).  My initial response was yes, the students could have stood in front of the class and explained their picture.  This made me question the intention of my project.  However, after some reflection I realized the iPads added to the learning in a way analog illustrations did not.  The students put their stories on their blog for other people to see and comment on.  The students were practicing using digital tools at a level appropriate for their ability and the work could be used as part of a student portfolio because their voice had been recorded.  Students could revisit their work at any time and reflect on their learning.

For my project, I will be exploring a few apps that will allow students to document their learning and I will create some sort of presentation, perhaps a Slideshare or Prezi, that will allow me to communicate my learnings to my teacher colleagues, in particular those who teach Kindergarten.  This presentation will communicate my vision for 21st century education as it pertains to math, technology and documentation. In my presentation I want to explicitly explain how using iPads in the classroom for documentation in math can benefit the students, teachers and even parents.  I want to explain how the skills developed by using iPads for documentation are critical in the 21st century.  I hope my presentation will inspire others to look at the ways they are using iPads in the classroom.

 

Works Cited

Kindergarten Math on the iPad…Many Questions…. (2012, June 14, 2012). Langwitches Blog, [web log] Retrieved from: http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/06/14/kindergarten-math-on-the-ipad/ [Accessed: 17 Mar 2014].

Ministry of Education. (2014). Draft digital literacy standards. BC: BC Government, p. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/dig_lit_standards.htm.

NCTE Executive Committee. (2013). Ncte definition of 21st century literacies. [report] p. http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Project Scope

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Kobe drawing

Image from Flickr

In LIBE 477, we have been asked to create our vision for the future of 21st century education.  Our project can be tailored to any audience we choose and can focus on a topic within the broader topic that is relevant to us.

Currently I am kindergarten teacher and will most likely be one for the next few years.  I have decided that I want to complete a project that I can use in my classroom immediately.  I started my new position in December and have just introduced the iPads to the students in the beginning of February.  I started small and incorporated them into our Math Centres.  I taught the students how to search for apps and choose between a list of pre-selected apps that practice math concepts they have already explored with manipulatives.  To say the students are engaged when using the iPads would be an understatement.  They are mesmerized and are for more capable than I initially gave them credit for.  However, I know that the iPads could be used to transform their learning in addition to allowing them to practice math concepts.  I wonder how I could incorporate iPads into students’ mathematical learning in a more meaningful way?  When I was thinking of this question, I thought of the groups of students who instead of using the iPads are scattered around the classroom using manipulatives to explore math concepts.  Often the students who are building, creating, collaborating and producing products with hands-on manipulatives are doing exactly what we want users of technology to be doing – building, creating, collaborating and producing!  While the iPad group is content playing their practice games, the manipulative group is busy trying to find someone to share their new found knowledge with.  Sharing is such a huge part of the 21st century.  We want our students to be producers of knowledge; to share their knowledge with the world.  I have often reflected that I don’t gather the students around enough to examine and discuss students’ creations.  My inquiry project will be an exploration of how I can incorporate iPads into our math centres in a meaningful way that will allow students to share their learning with the class and potentially the world beyond our four walls.

 

As a side note on the journey of this inquiry project:

I never really understood how those students felt who weren’t able to get started on a project. I’m not going to lie.  I often felt that they were just stubborn and didn’t want to work but as I am attempting to start this project Carol Kuhlthau’s stages of inquiry came to my mind (which I had learned about in a course last semester).  Perhaps these students were stuck!  They had no idea where to start and the thought of an open topic paralyzed them!  At the thought of doing an inquiry project for my vision for the future I felt apprehension, uncertainty, anxiety and doubt (hence the reason it took me so long to get this post up).  All of these feelings are common in the first three stages of Kuhlthau’s model. While I have felt these emotions when embarking on other projects I have never felt them to the extent I felt for this project.  I’m sure by the end of this project I will feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment as Kuhlthau’s model suggests.  This project really feels like a capstone project for this whole diploma by bringing everything I have learned about inquiry, 21st century and digital literacy together.  I’m glad this is one of my last courses I chose to take.

Works Cited:

Kwan, M. (2010). Kobe drawing. [image online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperturismo/4488285832/ [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].

Library.humboldt.edu. (2014). Humboldt state university library: at your fingertips — information competence in the professions. [online] Retrieved from: http://library.humboldt.edu/ic/general_competency/kuhlthau.html [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].

 

LIBE 477 – Looking Back

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Over the last 3 weeks or so our class has done a series of blog posts on the culture of reading in schools, developing a PLN, supporting teachers’ professional development and world libraries.  I believe the postings that resonated most with me were the ones about supporting teachers’ professional development.

Solving jigsaw puzzle

Flickr Creative Commons

All of the topics have helped me learn, grow and reflect as a professional educator, however, I think that I have been hesitant to support teachers’ professional development because I am still a new teacher and was uncertain what I had to offer my colleagues.  After doing my own post and reading my group members’ posts I can see that as a teacher-librarian there are many ways I can support my colleagues.
My key take-aways from my fellow bloggers are:

Ms. K Birkland:  Ms. Birkland provided an infographic, titled “Working Together Is Working Smarter” from AASL that outlines various ways teacher-librarians collaborate.  I think this graphic provides an interesting visual that showcases the many areas teacher-librarians “play a critical role” (AASL).

Mme. Leslie:  Mme. Leslie reminded me that every educator comes to the table with a different perspective and a different ability level.  She also reminded me that teacher-librarians “need to be good listeners” “in order to best respond to the needs of the staff” (Leslie, 2014).

Kacy Morgan: Kacy mentioned that teachers need time to explore the resources.  Perhaps, that means the teacher-librarian teaches a class something and instead of the teacher assisting, the teacher could learn with the students.  In a teacher’s already busy day, having 30 minutes to sit down and explore a resource with students might make a difference in their confidence and their ability to use this tool in their classroom.  Kacy also mentioned that students “can be your greatest assistant in learning technology” (Morgan, 2014).  My thought is that a teacher-librarian could set up a technology group who could be called upon to assist teachers in their classrooms.

Leisbet Beaudry:  Leisbet spoke about a workshop she attended that sparked a collaborative project with a grade 2 teacher.  This project continued the next year and the teacher had plans to show other teachers how this collaboration benefited the students and herself.  This example helped me understand that teachers are one of a teacher-librarians best marketing tools.  Start a small project with a teacher and that teacher will spread the word to other colleagues.  I don’t need to jump right in by running a professional development session.  I can start small by supporting one teacher and this may in turn bring me other teachers to support.

 

Works Cited:

American Association of School Librarians. (2014). Working together is working smarter. [image online] Available at: http://www.ala.org/aasl/research/ncle-infographic [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Beaudry, L. ( 2014,February 16, 2014). Supporting teachers learning ict.Beaudry Library Journey, [web log] Retrieved from: http://beaudrylibrary.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-teachers-learning-ict.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Ben-Avraham, Y. (2011). Solving jigsaw puzzle. [image online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epublicist/8718123610/in/photostream/ [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Birkland ( 2014,February 28, 2014). Supporting teachers’ ict curriculum. Ms. K Birkland’s UBC Blog, [web log] Retrieved from: http://mskbirkland.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-teachers-ict-curriculum.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Leslie, J. ( 2014,February 21, 2014). Supporting others. Mme Leslie, [web log] Retrieved from: http://mmeleslie.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-others.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Morgan, K. ( 2014,February 19, 2014). We could all use a little help from our friends. Kacy Morgan LIBE, [web log] Retrieved from: http://kacymorganlibe.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/we-could-all-use-a-little-help-from-our-friends-inquiry-blog-post-3/ [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Developing World Libraries

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Mumbai Guy on phone November 2011 -2-5 Closeup

Image from Wiki Commons

When I began exploring library projects in developing nations the majority of my results were organizations raising funds for book purchases or for organizations collecting weeded/discarded books. I understand that many of the books we weed are actually quality books that we have duplicates of. For instance, last year our school library had four copies of “Because of Mr. Terupt” because it had been a previous contender in our Book of the Year contest. Now that the votes were in and a winner selected, circulation had decreased, we really only needed one copy. As these books were up to date and were in great condition, they could potentially have been donated. The encyclopedias I weeded that were from 1992 are another story. If they aren’t good enough for our students, why are they good enough for someone else’s students?

When I dug a little further, I came across Library For All. This organization’s mission is to provide developing nations with the “tools to learn, dream and aspire to lift themselves out of poverty”. (Side note: Can developing nations really lift themselves out of poverty?) The concept that Library For All presents is an interesting one. They are “building a digital library and educational platform, designed for low bandwidth environments”. This library “will be stocked with millions of ebooks, course material and resources from publishers and Open Educational Resources”. The organization also wants the platform to be available on a variety of low cost devices. They say they have overcome many of the disadvantages of traditional book donations. By using their platform, information will be culturally and linguistically relevant and up to date.

Ian Quiellen, in an article he wrote about Library For All, says that this model differs from “just handing out sets of low-cost tablets and laptops” (2013). He says that often with those programs, users struggle to locate free content on the Internet (Quillen, 2013). Library For All will provide the content. I believe Library for All’s model is a great one that has room to grow. Library For All’s content is currently education texts and visuals and is focused on providing this information to teachers and students in a classroom setting. If this model is to be used for developing nation’s libraries, the content must be expanded. There needs to be other contributors to the program (besides Scholastic and Penguin) to ensure a variety of materials.

I think Library For All has a great idea that over time can be adapted to provide developing nations with a library platform that can be used on low bandwidth devices.

Library For All Intro Video from Library For All on Vimeo.

Works Cited

Library For All Intro Video on Vimeo [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/74216200

Quillen, I. (2013, June 18). Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries | MindShift. Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/library-for-all-free-digital-content-for-developing-countries

 

LIBE 477 – Supporting Teachers

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As a teacher-librarian I not only support students’ learning but I also support teachers’ learning.  Every staff member is at a different place in their learning journey with ICT so it is important to provide a variety of opportunities that will allow each teacher to grow.

Last year, I continually had informal discussions with teachers about tools and resources I was using in hopes I could form a relationship with them that would allow them to see me as a valuable resource.  Often, teachers would come to me for assistance or recommendations for tools to use with their class.  One way I could have furthered this learning would be to host “Lunch and Learn” workshops.

Another way I could help support the professional development of the staff at our school would be to post links to interesting articles, web 2.0 tools or teaching resources on our school’s HUB.

In addition to my two above ideas, I think a wonderful way to support teachers’ ICT development is through collaboration.  Collaboration, working together to teach students, can have a positive effect on both students and teachers.  In true collaboration, I believe the teacher and teacher-librarian learn from each other.  The teacher-librarian can share his/her knowledge of current pedagogy with relation to ICT, knowledge of 21st century skills and knowledge of web 2.0 tools.

I found a video on this website that touches on what a teacher-libriarian offers.  The website also provides links to other ways teacher-librarians can support staff.

Works Cited

Library Resources (2011, February 6). How your teacher librarian can help you #2 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc-2q8dK3r8

Teachers Connecting with Teacher Librarians – Information Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2014, from http://www.connect2tls.info

LIBE 477 – PLN

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Personal Learning Network

Network learner

Image from Wiki Commons

For those of you who don’t know PLN stands for personal learning network.  According to Wikipdia, a PLN is “an informal learning network that consists of people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from” (PLN, 2014).  As an educator, having a professional PLN is essential to developing and growing my teaching pedagogy and practice.

The video below is interesting because it says that a PLN is “not a thing or a plan” but a “mindset that starts with a question: How do my relationships make me a better teacher?” (Youtube).  Thinking about it in this way makes me expand my idea that a PLN is based on web 2.0 tools to an understanding that my PLN is all around me whether I am online or not.  There are several ways I have already developed a PLN and, after doing some research for this course, several ways I would like to increase my PLN in the future.

Currently, I belong to a Discovery Education Network group on Edmodo.  This group consists of educators from the Surrey School District who attended a 3 session workshop called Den Stars as well as educators from around North America.  In this Edmodo page, we discuss how we are incorporating Discovery Education into our classroom as well as other web 2.0 tools.  In addition to being a Den Star, I often check my Flipboard magazine set up to import tweets from #sd36learn, #sd36LC and #tlchat.  In the future, I would like to not only gain information from these posts but also contribute information to the feeds.

I have had a personal twitter account for sometime but recently set up a professional one. Now I have to start sorting through the people I follow to move them to my professional twitter account.  I see Twitter as a great way to keep informed and connected to those who are taking the same diploma program as me.  We are all working towards a similar goal and can definitely learn from one another.  I am like a hidden twitter user though.  I do not tweet!  One of my goals is to contribute to discussions on Twitter.  Can you have a PLN without really contributing?

In researching PLN, I came across an interesting blog post.  Kate Kingslensmith writes about PLNs and provides an in-depth list of ways to create a PLN.  Take a look at it here.  She also has a link to the stages one experiences when developing a PLN.  I have set up many of the web 2.0 tools Kate has suggested, like Twitter, Delicious and Digg Reader, but feel that I have not used them to their full networking potential.  I know that I have not necessarily been a contributor in the exchange of information.  I have been more like an information taker than giver!  While I don’t see this stage in Kate’s steps of PLN development, maybe as I become more comfortable with the tools, I will understand how I can be a contributor to someone else’s PLN.

As the Youtube video mentioned, not all of my PLN is online. I have created my own network of other kindergarten teachers who I can bounce ideas off of and who I gain new knowledge from.  We do this, sometimes through email, but also in the lunch room or at workshops.

Going forward, I would like to really focus in on using one or two tools to develop my PLN. I think if I narrowed my focus, I would gain a better connection to other educators and have more confidence in asking questions and sharing my experiences and knowledge.

 

Works Cited

Personal learning network. (2014, January 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:57, February 10, 2014, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personal_learning_network&oldid=591462441

Klingensmith, K. (2009, May 5).  PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy | Once a Teacher… Retrieved February 10, 2014 from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/

LIBE 477 – Fostering a Reading Culture in School

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Giving Choice

I had an interesting conversation about reading in elementary school with my husband, who doesn’t see himself as a reader but will read articles on the web for hours. He will read biographies of musicians and health books on vacation.  Daily, he reads discussion boards for topics relevant to him and he listens to podcasts to and from work.  I was asking him how school and his teachers could have helped develop his love of reading.  His answer was “They couldn’t do anything.”  “I just didn’t want to read.  I liked reading during silent reading because I could read Goosebumps but after school there was so much else to do. Why would I want to read?”  If you ask my husband now if he likes to read, he will say not really.

This conversation made me think about how educators help to develop students’ concept of being a reader.  Many teachers send home slips of paper saying “Read x number of books and get a checkmark on the poster. Read x amount and get a prize.”  While, I don’t agree with giving prizes for reading this idea of reading books is making our students who read other things think they aren’t readers.  I’ve been in libraries that enforce the “one fiction minimum policy” for students and have been in classrooms where students must read a book during silent reading.  Isn’t reading a magazine, a newspaper, an atlas or a non-fiction book still reading?

Kid Reading The Onion
Image is from Creative Commons.

I think that one of the best ways to foster a reading culture is to open up our concept of reading.  We need to give students choice.  Students thrive when given choice (it can be a closed choice!).   Clark says that in order for students to become lifelong readers they must develop an “unconscious delight” for reading (2011, 7).  She says that if readers “are left alone to discover that reading is pleasure, not a chore, they move on to other authors and other genres without our intervention” (2011, 7).   “By narrowly defining what is considered “allowable reading, “ educators and parents basically have stymied the essential stage in literary appreciation – Unconscious Enjoyment – in a child’s journey toward becoming a lifelong, avid reader” (2011, 8).  Clark’s opinions resonate with me.  Give children choice and they will develop their interests and passions.  They will find what they enjoy reading and this will help to develop a culture of reading in school.

In my class this looks like children reading just-right books, non-fiction books (usually skipping around the book), pictures in books, books we have read together, books they have created, books from home and big books.  They are reading words around the room (poems, names, colours etc.), books on the computer, magazines, menus and cards.  They are trying to read anything and everything.

Here is a video I watched in LIBE 441. Faye Brownlie speaks to the importance of choice in reading. The discussion about choice starts at 17 minutes.

Works Cited

Clark, Ruth C. (2011). Readicide-killing the love of reading in our schools. Knowledge Quest, 39(4), 6.

Spiegel, Eric. “Kid Reading The Onion”. Photograph. Flikr, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. <http://flic.kr/p/8SorP7>.

“Changing Results for Young Readers: Faye Brownlie, Reading Instruction: Evidence-Based Practice.” YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2014.

LIBE 477 – Reading Review Blog #3

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Research Synopsis

For those new to my blog, this post is my third post for an assignment I am doing for a library course at UBC.  I initially started out wondering how to incorporate technology and digital literacy skills in a play-based kindergarten classroom. Along the way I have narrowed my topic and am now in the process of learning more about digital storytelling in kindergarten.

In my last blog post, I listed 5 resources that I found to be helpful in understanding how to use digital storytelling and why I would want to use digital storytelling in the classroom.  While gathering these resources, I came across many others.  I chose the 5 I did because I wanted a variety of sources.  I have academic papers, magazine articles, a blog, an interview between educators and a news article that all speak towards the idea that digital storytelling helps students develop traditional literacy skills as well as New Literacy skills.

Marsh & Vasquez’s interview “Aligning Instruction to Developmental Needs in Critical and Digital Literacies” has actually made me question my entire notion of “developmentally appropriate practice” (2012).  This reflection could be dedicated to entirely different blog post! However, their interview has also created a foundation to better understand the other resources I have chosen which discuss digital storytelling more specifically!  Marsh & Vasquez suggest that even young children can engage in the practices we generally see with older students who are using web 2.0 tools if these practices are “framed in ways that are meaningful to [students]” (2012, 154).  Marsh says “anything is possible if you stage it in ways that are meaningful to children and embed playfulness and creativity at the centre of pedagogy” (2012, 154).  Vasquez says that we can’t just hear about the latest technology and incorporate it into our classroom (2012, 154).  “We need to be sure we are actually starting from young children’s experiences” and build it into what is going on in our classroom (2012, 154).

In the other resources I have selected, the authors discuss their experiences with digital storytelling in kindergarten.  Candreva (2010) states “digital storytelling provides opportunities to practice and reinforce developing literacies and allows teachers of young children to use instructional technology in transformative ways” (3).  While, I wish this quote said that digital storytelling allows students to use technology in transformative ways, I believe this is what is at the heart of every resource I have found.  A common theme among the resources is that digital storytelling allows students to learn 21st century skills including planning, collaborating, constructing meaning and sharing as well as developing traditional literacy skills such as oral language, fine motor skills and printing with paper and pencil (Candreva 2010 & 2012, Liotti 2010).  Matt Gomez’s blog as well as Liotti & Haggety’s paper (2010) provide many examples of how to incorporate digital storytelling into the classroom as well as a list of web 2.0 tools that can be used to create digital stories.

After reading through all of my resources, I believe that my students could benefit from using digital storytelling.  As Marsh & Vasquez said, I need to “kid-watch” and incorporate this technology into the classroom by starting with the “children’s experiences” (2012, 154).  Currently, the majority of my class is obsessed with princesses and princes.  They use our costumes as royal outfits; they write in their journals about queens and kings; they make crowns in the art centre and they have an elaborate recess game they play.  Perhaps, I could find a meaningful way of using this interest to make a digital story with the class.   Initially, we could create a class story so that students could become comfortable with the tools as well as the process.  As students become more comfortable with this new method for storytelling, I could gradually release control and students could create their own story.  Now, I need to find the time in our already very busy schedule to do this!

 

Citations

Candreva, C. (2012). Digital storytelling in kindergarten: Merging literacy, technology, and multimodality. 72(9), 3230-3230.

Candreva, C. (2010). Paving New Pathways to Literacy in the 21st Century. School Talk , 15(2), 3.

Gomez, M. http://mattbgomez.com/category/digital-storytelling/

Liotti, N., & Haggerty, K. (2010). Falling into Technology. School Talk , 15(2), 4-6.

Marsh, J., & Vasquez, V. (2012). Aligning instruction to developmental needs in critical and digital literacies. Language Arts, 90(2), 151.