Wiki+Reflections--+Group+5

=Synthesis for Annotated Bibliography= "Visual Literacy"

Julie Persaud I think the concept of Visual Literacy is something that is so interesting! Incorporating technology and visuals allow for students to full grasp the content we are attempting to present to them. In the articles that our group looked at I feel that we are able to see many different instances of visual literacy. Whether it is through a comic strip text structure or through reading pictures[gallery walks, images online etc.] really allow for students to activate a mindset where they decode the meaning of a text or overarching theme through images/visuals. Julie could not be more correct. It is actually fascinating to see the shifts in schools we have become such a visual society. I really notice the impact of this in schools when I was teaching second grade. I would give a set of directions even if it was only two simple steps my students would greatly struggle to complete what I was asking if I did not provide visuals. However, if I orally stated my directions and put pictures and or visual aids to explain my steps my class would have no problems completing what was required of them. Teaching is slowly changing my students are so use to living and being immersed in a visual world at times I would actually have to teach them how to be active listeners without the aids of visuals! Prior to studying visual literacies, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was concerned visual literacies would be something that would sound like a great thing to implement into instruction but I'd wonder how exactly I'd fit it in, in addition to everything else that needs to be taught. However, I was very excited to see how effective visual literacies can be and how simple it would be to implement visual literacies into daily instruction. The articles we read were great because not only did they provide explanations as to why we should use visual literacies, several of the articles actual gave examples as to how visual literacies can be used in the classroom. I have to agree with Nicole that while in the classroom, I too feel like I'm teaching my students to be active listeners and simply follow directions. I have found myself getting frustrated at times because my students aren't "getting it" but now I question my practices as their teacher. I personally am a visual learner, why did I not consider that maybe my students are too? As educators, incorporating visual literacies into our practice is the perfect way to not only incorporate the here and now, we can also provide our visual learners with visual support.

One article that I felt was super critical at relaying this idea is the Brozo and Flynt article. As our annotated bibliography states it is essential for content teachers to start making instruction relevant to the lives of our students- if we decide to ignore this our students will not only be left behind but we as teachers will not progress further. I agree with the Brozo and Flynt article in the sense that we need to take advantage of the changing times and adapt our instruction to incorporate the changes. While we must fit several things into lessons in order to follow the standards, there are ways we can overlap, intertwine, and extend using the newest information, tools, etc. By making our lessons more relevant to the lives of our learners, students will become more engaged in their studies and gain more benefits from instruction. We as educators can use the desire to connect instruction to student's mediasphere as our excuse to keeping ourselves educated on new and up-and-coming practices. We need to make it a point to create this meeting point for content, and relevance- and tie it to all those standards that are being driven into our heads. As Brozo and Flynt state our classroom instruction needs to reflect the mediasphere in which children are growing up in. We as educators will never motivate and engage students if we do not keep up with what is current and prevalent in their lives, a huge impact is the web along side visual literacies. Brozo and Flynt reveal that teachers have the privilege of creating a bridge between students’ everyday literacies and academic task using information and communication technologies. So this leaves us asking why is this not occurring in classrooms all over the nation? While it may seem difficult these articles in our annotated bibliography allow us to think about different ways to do this- that are not only new to the students, but thinking outside the box. Whether it is reading pictures, from the O'Neil article- where she provides activities and books but also ways to move forward with this type of instruction, or the Seglem and Witte article where they recognize that there are different ways to read, respond and analyze infromation within and outside the classroom.

For me personally thinking about this with the mindset of a future social studies teacher- taking a deeper look at pictures, and paintings allow for us to analyze with a critical eye in a new fashion. But also looking at aiding students' critical thinking skills through visualization strategies truly allow for students to incorporate this into their everyday practices within the area of history. Whether it is a simple do now activity, or a discussion of where students stand on a hot topic- having them realize that visualization and creation of visuals is something that can be far more intricate really will allow the students to push themselves further. I think that had I knew about the literacy levels of "texts" and "visuals" during my student teaching I would have made it a point for us to respond in different ways to reading and writing. Visual literacy provides a stem for students to branch out from the norm- and to also assist those students who are struggling readers, or have difficulty with comprehension.

As a future primary teacher I find visual literacy a vital part of instruction with youger children. I believe it serve multiple academic task that address higher level thinking. Williams questions in the article,//“Reading” the painting: exploring visual literacy in the primary grades//, if we are committing a disservice to our young students by not encouraging them to think critically about text and limiting their view of literacy to only print based experiences. I truly believe we are we, as a society, forget just how much students are capable of doing even in grades as young as first and second. William’s demonstrates through a lesson with second graders that young children can achieve high levers of Bloom’s Taxonomy thinking with visual literacies when taught correctly. Visual literacies are a wonderful tool to expanding and further print instruction. Being able to personally see how influential they can be for students’ comprehension it is certainly something I will make a point of incorporating into the curriculum as a new teacher.

While I gained a lot of wonderful information from the articles, the greatest idea that I walked away from this research with is that visual literacies are fabulous tools in the classroom for ALL types of learners. For example, students who struggle with reading don't have to become discouraged and frustrated with reading when visual literacies are available. Students can look to the visuals as a resource, information database, clarifier, etc. By incorporating visual literacies into our practices, not only will we be able to provide our students with lessons that incorporate their here and now mediasphere practices, we will also provide valuable reading experiences/opportunities to all levels of readers. When students have visuals to look at when reading, the "text" no longer seems as intimidating and instead, provides the student to make a friendly interactions with the text. In my future classrooms, I not only will challenge myself to stay "up" on the new technologies, practices, etc. I will also be sure to think about ALL of my learners when creating lessons and be sure to incorporate visual literacies whenever and wherever possible.

BLACK Julie

RED Nicole

BLUE Jillian

= = = = =Julie:=

Evaluating online information seems to be a tricky area. Not only as an educator is it difficult to note when a source is credible but after reading these two articles it showcases the way in which it is even more difficult as a student at times. The information that is out there on the internet can come from an average citizen and can be edited by that many more. Thinking about it in that way can be overwhelming and scary. The Evaluating article not only offers insight into when we should evaluate, but also details why and how to do so. I began reading this article negatively asking myself, how am I supposed to know if a website is the "best" or not? Mid-way through the article, I realized all the hyperlinks, funny looking words/letters in my search bar, and the paragraphs below the links on my search engine were put there for a reason, and I can use those resources to help me determine if a website would be good to use or not. Now having this information, I can start to incorporate these skills into my practice and reiterating to my students.

Something that I took away from this is in the beginning of the evaluation article. It mentions that as teachers with all this new technology It “means an increased responsibility for teaching students how to recognize bias, how to balance information with other sources, and how information fits in a larger context- in other words, teaching students to consider everything they see, hear, and read on the Internet with a critical eye” (162). I think another important point to make here is when we teach children to be critical with what they find on the Internet we are teaching them to be critical thinkers overall. According to Blooms Taxonomy this is a very difficult and abstract concept. I personally can say I was never taught to questions textbooks, reading material, print, or media until my freshman year in college. I had absolutely no idea that the News, Newspaper, commercials and movies had hidden agendas and specific target audiences and were in fact bias. It seems silly but learning that the news or CNN did not portray facts and that most had an agenda was baffling to me. Such a great point! A lot of those people that bring us our news are funded by other people who have political agendas- keeping that in mind when watching them allows you to hone in on that. I think this is an excellent point too Nicole. While we have been told over and over that we need to reach for more critical thinking, prior to reading the articles, I hadn't ever considered the idea of looking at websites with a critical eye. I had hear that Wikipedia wasn't reliable because it could be edited by anyone, whenever, however, I not am questioning whether half of the websites I review daily are actually "reliable sources". By asking critical questions about the website, we can help determine if it is reliable or not. That brings us back to the point of how to get all of our students to the level of being critical thinkers asking critical questions.

I was taught that these were reliable sources especially the news and that we did not question them. I think Julies quote is very significant. It states that we should teach children to question what they hear, see, and read on the internet with a critical eye. This is one of the most important quotes from the reading. If we can teach children do be critical readers we can apply it across content and curriculum. This is a powerful tool in aiding learners. Not just for Internet use but in many aspects of every day life. I constantly question what I see and what I read. One college class with an amazing professor freshman year taught me to always think about the messages that movies and commercials are sending and who their target audience is. I know am able to extend this to research articles I read. I am always wondering how accurate a study is or how much an article is portraying the authors personal thoughts and opinions. This is a great skill to have. I on the other hand find myself believing mostly everything I read and not critically thinking about why it can or cannot be true. I begin reading, and take a significant amount of time to get to the end of the reading to finally find that something wasn't true all along. I become frustrated and "change my topic" to something easier hoping I'll find better results. Personally and as an educator, this is something I need to work harder on.


 * I’m interested to hear what both you guys [Nicole and Jillian, and the rest of the class] think about this, and what they have experienced when it comes to teaching how to use the technology they have to find valuable sources? Have you created rules about what they must look for before using a source? Are there criteria that your students know by heart and implore when reading? What other techniques outside of what is presented in the article are there?** Julie I think you bring up another very valid point. Maybe Jillian can shed more insight but as a teacher I think this is one of the hardest things to teach, especially at the elementary level. How do you teach students to be critical thinkers on the Internet? I know this is personally difficult for me because if a website appears legit enough I would absolutely believe what it says. As a teacher I would love to learn how to peel back the layers and check what is authentic on the Internet. This would be a great topic for a professional development day in schools because I cannot teach students to be critical thinkers and check their Internet facts if I myself do not really know how to do that! Something I would love to see would be the professional development you mentioned. Tying this in with our other classes, we always talk about hoping to get to that level of critical thinking- but it is so hard and as you mentioned Nicole how can we teach that if we don't fully grasp it ourselves. This NEEDS to be a professional development workshop because I think all teachers need to know how to do this. This is a very good question and I too think this is such a difficult task for educators. I also am concerned about the amount of time a task like this would eat up. While we could do it in increments, I personally know how difficult a time my students have with remembering what we did day to day let alone a project like this that might have to take place over several weeks. In addition to this, I know I have students that I could teach the evaluation task to and they would grasp it immediately. I then would also have students that would really struggle with the evaluation. How do we go about scheduling equal time to spend with each student individually or in small groups to teach this skill since I think this might be the best way to go about doing it? Lastly, at what age would we begin teaching this strategy? While the sooner, the better, at the first grade level, I personally am still trying to teach my students critically thinking while reading let along critical thinking involving websites.

= **[|Tree Octopus]Topic: Guiding Literacy Learners’ Transactions With The Internet: Evaluating Websites** = *Julie and Jill check this website out! I know you have probably seen it but it proves my point. I would easily believe something like this. You have to go through so many layers to find this is not real, as a new teacher I do not know enough about technology and websites to have been able to do that. Definitely a skill I need to learn! See exactly! This is something that we could possibly show our students that as far fetched and wacky as it seems, it looks real, and is presented in that way! I remember seeing this in Kathy's class and I was shocked when I read the title because I had never hear of such a thing. I can only imagine the field-day students would have over this article.

Finally I think that the second article, which presented a study, offered an interesting, but assumed perspective. Providing students with some prior knowledge helps them with their search. Allowing them to understand the basis of what they are searching for, and have a feel for the content means that they can search and navigate freely and effectively. While reading the articles I was thinking how I do feel this would work if we provide students with guidance in choosing/helping them understand the basis for their research. By together pooling their prior knowledge and developing the idea they want to research, I believe students will most definitely be able to search the internet more easily because we will have provided them some direction. Once students become closer to "experts" with this activity, we can use the gradual release method and allow them to do the steps on their own. This will slowly but surely get our students to the level they need to be involving research. While Lawless clearly notes that increasing prior knowledge leads to more time utilizing multimedia resources and other things on a webpage, I think it is something that also may have to do with their evaluation capabilities. Bringing the two articles together I think that understanding what some correct facts are allows for navigation to become easier. **How have you started a unit or project that involves the internet? Do you explicitly allow them time to read an article on their topic before they begin more thorough research?**I feel as though in the past during student teaching my students already had general background knowledge to go off of so that spending more time on the prior knowledge is not always necessary. Julie, this is an excellent point. I think it is all about reading your student's needs and their strengths. Why bore and burry them with spending significant amounts of time on prior knowledge if they have a strong prior knowledge coming into the unit. This is where we as teachers can shift our lessons to spending more time on different parts that students need more help/work with. I think Lawless bring up a really good point that correlates with what Julie said and connects with our discussion from last week. I know I asked this and Jill shed light on it previous. Lawless quotes “They also are now responsible for efficiently and effectively finding and evaluating these texts, apprehending in- formation across multiple modalities simultaneously, and orchestrating dynamic strategies that facilitate learning in these complex environments (Alexander & Fox, 2004; Grabinger, Dunlap, & Duffield, 1997). Students are responsible and doing this in every day life. However my question lies in the fact with how as teachers are we suppose to address this and promote this in our classrooms? Test and the common core are not really taking notice of what an impact these Web 2.0 tools are having in students’ literacy lives. So how as teachers, especially in low performing schools, do we fit this into our ever changing and rigorous curriculum/course load? Nicole as we have all addressed before, we have so many things we MUST meet as educators in the classroom involving preparing our students for "the test". While we WANT to incorporate technology and teach our students how to evaluate resources for accuracy, I personally know how difficult a regular day is to get through with just barely meeting what I need to in order to cover my standards. I would love to be able to incorporate more technology, and I gradually am, I just wish the students were also tested on this as many would "ace" technology tests as they come to the classroom with SO much prior knowledge.

I also found this while googling internet litearcies and wikis. While I would be a critical reader when viewing this articles content I thought it helpful for our Wiki and the class as a whole. Let me know what you guys think! [|Wikipedia Internet Literacy's]

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**Topic: Initial Reaction to Richardson/Journal Articles:**
Julie: Looking at the two articles and the text book reading I realize that the use of Wikis in class is not as far fetched as I had originally thought. In the two journal articles I realized that Wikis can become a forum where students who originally were not engaged or focused were able to gain that interest in the content. It allows for students to utilize the knowledge that they have about technology to be developed and also for it to be recognized in an academic setting. Throughout the past several courses and especially in this course, we have focused on children having multiple literacies and students being encouraged to access those multiple literacies often. In connection to the Tarasiuk article and Julie's comment regarding students knowing more than we do at times, I really enjoyed how the article discussed the student's literacy involving the internet. Although he didn't necessarily have the strongest in-school literacy skills, by the teacher taking the opportunity to get to know his/her students, she was able to see that her student had strong internet literacy skills and she was then able to make accommodations in the classroom to best fit his needs. I think that often we as educators forget that the students know more than us, but knowing that and incorporating it into the classroom, having them teach each other, and teach us how to use the technology - and then actually using such things like Wikis for educational purposes needs to happen more. As Richardson mentions Wikis pose pedagogical challenges at times. Collaboration is a key aspect of Wikis. "In using wikis, students are not only learning how to publish content; they are also learning how to develop and use all sorts of collborative skills, negotiating with others to agree on correctness, meaning, relevance, and more. Collaboration is essential skill we teach it in the classroom. Wiki’s are a wonderful tool in the sense that they allow students to demonstrate their ability to collaborate and practice this important proficiency by adding on and expanding one another’s ideas. In essence, students begin to teach each other" (61). The author goes on to mention that if as an educator you try to implement too much structure it may take away from everything that Wikis strive to accomplish.

The uses are endless when it comes to Wikis, as Richardson mentions you can use it as a resource for both your interaction with students, or fellow teachers. As the Luce-Kapler article mentions students really found it important to things like pictures on a regular basis. It was a way for them to not only interpret, but also to show what was happening in every sense of the word. The article also goes on to discuss how with Wikis there is the opportunity to not only have in class time for interaction with this technology by also out of class time to develop and make more out of the collaboration.

Finally I think it was extremely interesting to see how in the Tarasiuk article the teacher was able to guide her students through various texts through Wikis. It is difficult to find something that every student is capable of navigating, but for these students they were able to flourish through technology. Incorporating theories of new literacy studies, and recognizing the potential success of using Wikis in the classroom, this teacher managed to use Wikis to keep track of information as they read various novels. I think this is a great way to use the technology. It allows for them to post relevant information, and to see how their peers organize information, and other content. This activity allowed students to work collaboratively with their peers and work closely with their "at-home" literacies (technology) in school. I think students have more excitement and respect for their work, learning and teachers when they can connect it with something they know how to do well.

Overall I think that once I fully grasp how to use a Wiki myself, and navigate it- I will be able to use this technology in the future with my students. I think it has a lot of potential to be used in a variety of ways in a social studies classroom. It is also important to note what Luce-Kapler found in her study of Wikis. Children are so ingrained to responded in such a way that she noted navigating a week was extremely hard for the sixth grade students she worked with. "Most of them regarded each story as a discrete creation for which one student would receive credit (not surprising because assessment focuses on individual performance). (p. 218). Julie noted collaboration is essential skill we teach it in the classroom. Wiki’s are a wonderful to allow students to demonstrate their ability to collaborate and practice this important proficiency by adding on and expanding one another’s ideas.

Nicole:

I agree I think Julie has very valid points about a Wikis actual use in a classroom. The readings helped me gain a firmer understanding to what a Wiki actually is. As Richardson describes a Wiki as simply being “…a Web site where anyone can edit anything anytime they want” (p. 55). Of course being a cautious new teacher my immediate reaction is to be hesitant. How can a Wiki possibly be beneficial or trustworthy as a source of factual information if anyone at anytime can write what ever they want? Again Richardson reveals to readers that are truly more online editors who want to portray and provide accurate information than those who want to give false information. The ideas for Wikis in the classroom are endless. With a little help Richardson shows audiences that students can create Wiki book-reports, poetry wikis, history report wikis, wikis for individual countries, health wikis, and the list goes on.

As new teachers we hear time and time again literacy is not just what students do in the classroom. However, schools and state test are constantly telling us if your student cannot answer these comprehension questions or read this passage they low in literacy. I am interested to see if our system will change at some point in order to include litearcies outside of school as I agree with Nichole. If we are encouraged to use multiple litearcies both home and school in our classrooms, shouldn't the state tests and schools be encouraged to make some changes as well in order to better fit our student's literacy abilities? Author Tracy Tarsiuk discuses the importance of schools learning and being able to expand their notions of literacy instruction. She reveals through personal experience the significance in treating and teaching reading and writing as a way of communicating using multiple tools and resources to achieve literacy. I think this is extremely significant given the world of technology we are immersed in.

**NOTE: Blue is notes I added to Julie's discussion. If the idea of a Wiki is to collaborate sometimes expanding on some else's ideas is a way to do that. I do not know if this was is right but that was my understanding of what a Wiki is suppose to be.

Jillian:

Prior to these readings, I wasn't positive how a wiki worked and how it would be useful in the classroom. I found it interesting that Wikipedia was seen as one of the best sources of information from Steve Jobs. Throughout school I was always told to not use Wikipedia because anyone can edit and it isn't reliable information. However, I think using a wiki or even Wikipedia would be a great way for students to collaborate with their peers and others regarding what they have studied, know, and want to know. Students can use the wiki to gather information regarding topics they want to know more about. While the students will need to use additional sources beyond Wikipedia, Wikipedia will provide them with a good starting point for basic facts. I also liked the idea of having students post their own findings on wikis so they can see the responses, edits, and additions people make. This would be a good project for secondary students because they can read the wiki to see what information is included, gather additional information that isn't included, and work on perfecting their writing/findings in order to get it prepared to publish on the wiki. Students can track the wiki every day to see the changes that are made and to study how to post, edit, etc. Rather than focusing on the things our students cannot do, we need to focus on the things they can do. If students are literate involving technology, we need to make some accommodations so our students have more access to technology activities that will help enhance their other literacy skills.

Note: The information in the RED are also my edits. I too gathered that wikis are tools we use so people can post additional information and edit information at any time.