What Our Students Do While We're Not Looking

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Deep Divers

A deep dive is when one’s attention has be caught by something interesting and they decide to find out more on the subject (Gasser & Palfrey). We do it every day, through search engines such as Google or Wikipedia. Sometimes spending hours upon hours researching the subject. Embarrassingly, the last thing I did a “deep dive” on was myself, or rather, the other person with exact same name as me who is more famous (she is a movie producer). Or how about my research the EDCI 353B paper. I spent 8 hours straight at the computer, finding fan sites and fan videos, articles, and documentaries. Youth today have access to more information than ever before, with a lot of it being credible, or more often than not, a not so credible rant or opinion on the subject.

One presentation that really impressed me was Aimee's, on online resources and information. She made this point that the online resources can be used in two ways. One was to use it for what it was intended, so a history site would offer material that could be studied, and second, the teacher could use it to teach the text, so critically analyze the point of view or bias. I really liked this idea because it is so easy to type in a word and have one million hits, many of which are not credible, but our students may not know this. We can make them aware of the amount of misinformation out there so that when they read an article online they are able to criticize the content of the information.

Grazers

It is opposite to a “deep dive” in the fact that youth are browsing surface information, scanning the content for condensed information (Gasser & Palfrey). They are able together information from a variety of sources, “absorbing news all day long on various websites, their understanding of current events is superficial and limited to headlines” (Gasser & Palfrey, p. 24). The reason for grazing is instant results. Youth of today want the information right away and would rather get the main points of the story rather than read a long-winded explanation. This becomes a vicious circle as the “pure information” articles are reducing our ability to focus our attention for longer than a minute.

What we have to compete with as English teachers would probably be the accessibility of synopsis and ready-made character analyses of books being studied. They are just a simple search away. Our students would rather find out what happens in a book, play, or poem, in a paragraph rather than read the material. We can take advantage of this and explore these sites. Offer them as a starting point, maybe to help decode some Shakespeare, but then take the information further. Help develop analytical minds.

Coauthors/Cocreators in a Digital Environment

Youth (and other internet users) are cocreators of the internet space. On the web, many sites have public access in which anyone can collaborate on creating “massive open documents” (Johnson, 2005, 170). As I discovered and as Eli presented, “fan sites” are everywhere for almost everything and anyone. They range from “capturing nuances of a show”, fan fiction, or commentary on latest events and developments.

The possibility of everyone having access to creating the environment is as concerning as it is thrilling. In a world where youth are seeking to be noticed or find acceptance, making a podcast, blog, or a video diary is one way of them getting the chance to speak their opinion. Again, educators can take advantage of this by having students create their own blog or video diary about what they are learning. For example, students can keep a chapter by chapter blog of a novel study (very similar to the “traditionally out-of-date” reflection journals). Students could also immerse themselves in the book, so they could create a video diary of a character within a novel.

My conclusion

Though education is a little behind in incorporating technology and the world of youth in the classroom, we can step up and take the initiative. I would definitely feel competent enough to lead explorations of the digital environment or cultural trends. If I was not completely sure of myself, I could just do a “deep dive” and find out more on my own time. I believe that we are life long learners. We educate students, but in turn they educate us and it is important for us to consider a variety of approaches to teaching.

Citations:

Gasser, U., and Palfrey, J. Learners (Chapter 11). From Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digival Natives. New York: Basic Books.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything good is bad for you. New York: Riverhead Books.

I do believe we need a "hook" ...

In an age where students need instant gratification, English teachers struggle to sit a student down with a book for more than 10 minutes. If we are to appeal to the students of today, we need to grab their attention somehow. What we need is a hook. An alternative text hook. Something that exists in their realities, but that we can help give them meaning and value. Their realities of communication and learning are very different from our own (Richardson, p.5). I have had these “realities” for the greater part of my life and therefore I consider myself more savvy than a generation before me, so this does not necessarily apply fully. However, this still does not mean that youth of today do not learn and communicate differently. That is to say, that I would be comfortable including technology or a cultural phenomena as a part of my “hook” for students.

Like anything included in a curriculum classroom, this hook will have:

Criteria:

1. Passion or Interest – a hook will never “fly” if the teacher does not express some interest in the subject

As seen in my presentation, I have a special interest in Japanese Animation. I could utilize that passion and bring it into the classroom. It is always more exciting if the teacher enjoys what they are teaching. By demonstrating genuine interest, students realize that there might be some worth in participating in lessons.

2. Ask yourself, how can I relate curriculum material to the “realities” of youth today? - make sure you know where the hook is leading the students.

For example, using the idea of Johnson's Sleeper Curve (2005), who's to say that we cannot use that to our advantage in the classroom and explore or analyze the complexities of a TV series, or an episode of The Simpsons that references all things “pop” culture. We can turn those analyses around and use them to show these same complexities in Shakespeare. In this case, the complexities of “pop culture” are an excellent tool to use in relation to Shakespeare's complexities.

Rules

1. No "taking" the identities of students – they have their own subcultures and take great pride in their “individuality”. It is fine to use a little of their subculture to get their attention. However, if we use the subculture too much, it is like us taking what is most enjoyable to the students and making it “uncool” because it is now a part of their school experience. Be aware of overusing their "realities" too much.

2. The Curriculum is Boss – I am not suggesting we use an all-alternative-text approach, but I am suggesting that we use alternative texts as a stepping stone to curriculum material. Once we have jumped to the first stone, we can easily jump to the next with the support from the first stone. The hook will support, or lead to, curriculum material.

Some Ideas:

~ A hook could be as simple as assigning a written assignment that demonstrates student's understanding of a novel. Write an Instant Message conversation between two characters. They must explore what those characters are feeling towards one another or what they are sharing about themselves.

Something like this could easily add to character analyses.

~ How about taking a modern twist on a classic scene? Students can either act or write up a screen play in which they will portray some Classic novel in the setting of today's age. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the content by accurately “translating” content, such as conversation, in our modern language or cultural context.

This activity explores scenes with a deeper level of understanding of the material because students must analyze and interpret the content by dissecting the scene bit by bit.

Citations:

Gasser, U., and Palfrey, J. Learners (Chapter 11). From Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digival Natives. New York: Basic Books.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything good is bad for you. New York: Riverhead Books.

Richardson, W. The read/write web (Chapter 1). From Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press.

Defining the phrase ...

The phrase “Alternative Texts” suggests different mediums in which text can be read. When I began this course I believed that the alternative texts that we would be exploring might be magazines, newspapers, and a few things online. It was definitely a shock to find that most of what we were to cover was online information and technologies. Not only that, but “texts” were so broadly defined as sound, images and text – basically anything visual or auditory - that youth encounter. Our class defined what alternative texts were through the many excellent presentations by fellow classmates. Examples of texts were audio books, online comics, fan fiction, video games, foreign films and tv shows, websites such as Youtube, Google, and Wikipedia, cellphones, blackberries, texting and instant messaging, and technologically advanced educational tools like the interactive white boards or specially designed software. Through each of these a message is projected to the viewer/reader where youth of today can either see the message bluntly displayed or symbolically suggested.

I have taken the opportunity to use my favorite computer game, The Sims 2, (an alternative text) to create an image definition. Meet Jayne. She explores many types of alternative texts.

Other definitions:

“Everyday youth see from between 400 to 600 advertisements.” - Surviving High School

“Digital Natives pick up bits and pieces of news and information as they go about their day... they in fact engage more with the material than those who are used to more traditional news formats, by virtue of writing a past about the idea on a blog or sharing it with a friend on Facebook or over instant messaging.” (Gasser & Palfrey, p.241)

“[W]e are creating what author Douglas Rushkoff calls a “society of authorship” where every teacher and every student – every person with access – will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet.” (Richardson,p.4)

“Media literacy has developed a better account of the nature of the sensory, esthetic, and symbolic qualities of visuals, sound, and the moving image, and therefore, of multimedia.” (Livingstone, p.110)

Citations:

Gasser, U., and Palfrey, J. Learners (Chapter 11). From Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digival Natives. New York: Basic Books.

Livingstone, S. Internet literacy: Young people's negotiation of new online opportunities. From Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected.

Richardson, W. The read/write web (Chapter 1). From Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press.

Teen Files: Surviving High School (video). Arnold Shapiro Productions. (2000?) See also http://challengeday.org/

This is my first blog

Until now, I have never kept a blog. To me a blog is equivalent to a diary save for the fact that this is a little more public.

Now we have this blog for our EDCI class. I was a little apprehensive at the beginning of this course. I was unsure whether or not to stay in it, but I'm glad that I did because now I know so much more about what the youth of today are growing up with.

Just think, I was in Grade 3 when I had my first experience with the internet. Back then, my teachers were showing us cool websites like dictionary.com. Now kids are starting internet surfing younger than that. The only difference was that this was new to us in a classroom setting. Most kids will come into school already fluent surfers. It is our challenge to tap into that knowledge and use it to our classrooms. If we can. Are we up to this challenge?
*daunting music*