Multiliteracies

Today’s readers become literate by learning to read the words and symbols of today’s world. They analyze multiple representations of a variety of texts, pictures, artwork, data and videos. Ultimately, 21st Century literacy is where aural, oral, visual and digital literacies merge. This new literacy gives students the ability to read and produce words, images, videos and new media. There is a profound shift in the way students express themselves and communicate with their peers. As educators we need to adapt to this new literacy or become irrelevant to our students. The students are operating in a multi-modal and multi-layer environment which is modular and portable. Students have moved into an interactive and collaborative arena that connects them to their world. When you consider this university class, EC&I 832, is a perfect example of the ability of students to convey information, create new content and work with new literacies. Our class relies on multi media, online web tools and our ability to communicate together. Our students are going to insist that we begin to create the same type of learning environments for them. Simply consider the deep understanding we are developing beyond a teacher instructing us. We are free to develop our own interests and delve as deep as we desire to. What would happen if our students were able to develop their interests and create content based on those interests?
Thoughts inspired by http://www.youtube.com/user/peakdavid

What role do multi-modal and print-based texts play in the life of the 21st century learner?

A tongue in cheek view of “New Literacies for a New Age”

Members of the research team at Project New Media Literacies discuss the social skills and cultural competencies needed to fully engage with today’s participatory culture. Featuring Henry Jenkins from MIT.

 

Playing in the Sand

I’m playing in the sand with some new web tools. I’ve been frustrated by how difficult it has been to embed different media into my blog posts. I decided to try one of the compatible medias to see how easy it would be. I chose PollDaddy because I have never used a poll on a blog before. I also was involved in a discussion  earlier in the week about the value of polls for classroom data collection and math literacy. I can see how my class could design polls or surveys, collect data then graph the results. I think the results could lead to some rich learning and discussions.

I created a PollDaddy account, created a poll and saved it. I then opened up a new post and chose “create a poll” from the upload/insert options. One of my options was to link to my PollDaddy account and then…ta da…I had a poll. Well, at least I think so because I haven’t published it yet so I really don’t know if it is embedded in the post. Wish me luck and if you read this post please respond to my poll.

I checked and it worked! I showed my husband and he said I should find out who everyone thinks is going to the gold medal for Men’s Hockey. I made a poll and put it on my class blog for my students to vote on. I’m adding it here because I used a very cool background, plus I want to see what everyone thinks.

 

Iditarod Global Collaborative Project

We’ve just finished working on a collaborative project following the Iditarod Trail Dog Race. The project was tied to our Social Studies, Science and Language Arts curriculum. This is the second year of the collaboration with the project beginning in early February . Students worked with partners in classrooms in the United States and Canada. There were around 150 students working together in ten groups. The students worked on background assignments: history, weather, geography and musher information for four weeks prior to the race starting. Once the race began, the first Saturday in March, the students followed their mushers and wrote blog posts about their mushers progress in the race.

Last of the Iditarod <!– 03/18 –>
	Lance Mackey won the Iditarod race. And he has a six to 8 houre lead.Our guy Mitch Seavey is at Shaktoolik and so far he is in 5th. Iditarod <!– 03/10 –> Today for the Iditarod my musher Ken Anderson and he is now in 18th place and he now has 15 dogs on his sled.He is at acheckpoint his average speed is 6.05.Stay tuned for more info.

The feedback from the project was great.

What I really liked in the 2009 Iditarod sled dog race was that I learned about Alaska. Did you know that the biggest volcano in Alaska is called Redoubt? Jeff King came in 12th place and has had better runs. What was your favourite part of the 2009 Iditarod sled dog race? 0kiwifruit0
In this year`s iditarod project I learned that you have to look after your dogs.Also you have to look after your sleds because when Dede broke her sled.I also learned that Lance Mackey won 3 times in a row. googlyeyes

In this years Iditarod project I learned about Balto.I also learned about the weather in Alaska.Then I learned about the trail in Alaska . I learned about that it takes a long time from Anchorage to Nome.This is what I learned about the IditarodBabyBash What I learned from the Iditarod race is that you all was have to feed your dogs first before you eat. The musher get water by digging a hole in the snow so you keen put a barole in the hole. Then they put snow in the barole to make the snow melt and they made water. When the musher gets close the the other musher they have to say “trale”. When a musher sees a moose in there way they can kill the moose or scare it away. What I like about the Iditarod is the place’s that the musher are in because when a musher is in 40th place and two days go by and that musher is in 3th place it so neat how fast they can go. what I learned about the iditarod What I learned about the iditarod was that its not all about who comes in first. It’s out having fun,doing something you and old friends can do together. The iditarod is alot about sportsmanship. What thrilled me the most was how helpful the people of the iditarod are when something happens out on the trail. The most thrilling thing I saw on the iditarod was how everyone helped each other like when some one fell asleep on the trail when they were still moving and fell off there sled, they woke up when they hit but there dogs werent stopping, they ran to catch them but endead up catching a ride with another racer. This is what I learned about the iditarod. I’m already looking forward to working on the project next year. I’m glad the students enjoyed working on and learning about the Iditarod Trail Dog Race.