I've always been fascinated by code-switching in language, particularly since taking History of the English Language as an undergraduate Literature major. I recognize that as someone born and raised in the Appalachian mountains that I code-switch between the Standard English I learned in school and a Southern Appalachian dialect I grew up hearing and using around my friends and family. As I've grown up, I've begun to understand more concretely when and why I code-switch though I do not feel I have a solid mastery of intentionally switching. I know that when speaking with my mother and grandmother I use my dialect register almost exclusively. I am so conversant in this way that I can even articulate a definition for abstract phrases and vocabulary such as "all ya'll" as it differs from "ya'll," "y'uns," and " I know I am likely to slide into this dialect when I am in agitated emotional states, and I speak faster and louder in this register (contrary to popular beliefs about Southerners and their drawl.) I am also well aware that I have fewer vowel sounds than many Americans (I can neither hear nor pronounce a distinction between pin and pen no matter how much I try).
It had not previously occurred to me that I code-switch into digital speak as well. I am fluent in a digital dialect as well (perhaps more than one). I have personal accounts on a variety of social sites and understand that different sites have different codes. I can converse fluently with my father on subjects of web design with abbreviations like SEO and CSS amongst others. Another instance, the world of tumblr blogs has it's own subset of digital language. Many areas of the site are driven by fans of various things that discuss "fics," "ship wars," and "cons" with ease while mediating an abbreviated language of simplicity and emotion using things like:
rn - right now
atm - at the moment
s/t - something
gpoy - genuine portrait of yourself (referring to something that describes your behavior or personality very well)
Users make liberal use of emoticons and "speak" with gifs, the "keymash" is an accepted response that coincides with exaggerated emotions in which "sobbing uncontrollably" or "i'm dying" refer to feeling emotionally overwhelmed or laughing at something.
All of this is just a basic example of digital fluency, video game and virtual world users have still different codes, while frequent texters have another. Language growth is moving continuously, giving "communication skills" teachers whole new worlds to handle in the classroom. What do we accept from students? When is it acceptable to speak in a digital dialect? Should we teach these dialects alongside Standard English? Is digital speak becoming a new form of Standard English?
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Safari
Starting to realize just how much I've been missing out on using Firefox exclusively for the last six years or so. I needed to run updates on some of my software and decided to allow Apple to install Safari 5 at the same time. I feel like I've been doing so many things the hard way for so long. The Reader function is quickly revolutionizing the way I interact with the internet.
File under: moments when trying new things pays off.
File under: moments when trying new things pays off.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Four Ages of Thinking Technology
What percentage of today's curriculum and classroom time fosters each generation thinking skills?Should this change? Why?
I think at the current moment, that the greatest percentage of our time in class and the curriculum focuses on 3rd generation skills followed by 2nd and 4th tied for time and 1st lingering around the edges of the others. This definitely needs to change. The greatest percentage needs to be on 4th generation technical and digital skills that scaffold, support, and expand upon the first three generations of thinking skills. There should be an equality and a balance to our learning in which each part compliments and aids the other parts.
I think at the current moment, that the greatest percentage of our time in class and the curriculum focuses on 3rd generation skills followed by 2nd and 4th tied for time and 1st lingering around the edges of the others. This definitely needs to change. The greatest percentage needs to be on 4th generation technical and digital skills that scaffold, support, and expand upon the first three generations of thinking skills. There should be an equality and a balance to our learning in which each part compliments and aids the other parts.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Problem Areas in Breakaway Digital Literacies
Several of the problem areas mentioned in a discussion of the breakaway literacies of the digital palette are complaints that have plagued me continually as I've grown into an educator. I see the variations in skills my students have in the digital realm daily. I know that they know how to navigate social media, online or integrated gaming systems, smart phones, and ereaders, but they struggle with the most basic of web 2.0 tasks.
As an education system, we are wholly failing our students by barricading technology at the door. When we set up firewalls and blocking technologies to prevent them from accessing certain materials without teaching them why we do it, without teaching them how to safeguard themselves at home or in public, when we tell them no phones allowed in schools and ban social networking broadly, we are failing them. I have sixth graders in my tutor group that can't type in a web address and go directly to it. They have to hunt and peck type some part of the address into a bing bar and hope the search result they click is the right one. They can't navigate site menus or search for quality information. The extent of the skills they display on a computer are to use them for overly simple web games and to make powerpoints with information they copied and pasted directly from a website without citing anything.
Our students desperately need to be taught how to function in a digital world. We are doing them more harm than good by banning and limiting the ways they can interact with technology. I have hope that the problems will begin to resolve as more and more young, millennial, web-era teachers graduate and enter the field. The improvement is happening, but it is still happening too slowly.
As an education system, we are wholly failing our students by barricading technology at the door. When we set up firewalls and blocking technologies to prevent them from accessing certain materials without teaching them why we do it, without teaching them how to safeguard themselves at home or in public, when we tell them no phones allowed in schools and ban social networking broadly, we are failing them. I have sixth graders in my tutor group that can't type in a web address and go directly to it. They have to hunt and peck type some part of the address into a bing bar and hope the search result they click is the right one. They can't navigate site menus or search for quality information. The extent of the skills they display on a computer are to use them for overly simple web games and to make powerpoints with information they copied and pasted directly from a website without citing anything.
Our students desperately need to be taught how to function in a digital world. We are doing them more harm than good by banning and limiting the ways they can interact with technology. I have hope that the problems will begin to resolve as more and more young, millennial, web-era teachers graduate and enter the field. The improvement is happening, but it is still happening too slowly.
A Nifty Audio Tool I Found Today
I was contemplating how I could record a quick snippet of audio on my Windows computer without using my webcam or a great deal of resources and decided to check around on the internet and found this:
http://vocaroo.com/
It is incredibly easy to use, free, quick, no account required. It's awesome. You just record and then share or download the file.
You can also download or embed a vocaroo widgit. Like so:
Powered by Vocaroo Voice Recorder
Pretty awesome, yes?
Does not provide storage at the site. So, if you want your recording forever, download it and store it elsewhere.
http://vocaroo.com/
It is incredibly easy to use, free, quick, no account required. It's awesome. You just record and then share or download the file.
You can also download or embed a vocaroo widgit. Like so:
Powered by Vocaroo Voice Recorder
Pretty awesome, yes?
Does not provide storage at the site. So, if you want your recording forever, download it and store it elsewhere.
Questions for Digital Education
Answering and contemplating a few questions from the first chapter of my digital textbook.
Can we say with confidence which [educational operating] system is the most effective?
I don't think we can, at least, not at the time in which it is operating, not with the efficiency necessary to choose preemptively. I think at our current point in time, most people have to have experience with a system before they can offer any real feedback to it. I see this with the system we've created with NCLB. I think many people (most people?) thought the system would be effective, but the longer we've stuck with the system, the more flaws we have discovered. Effectiveness takes time to discover and evaluate, and that limits the levels of confidence we can maintain.
Can you think of other "educational operating systems" with which you are already familiar?
I think most of us are intimately familiar with far too many systems. There are the classroom operating systems we ourselves put into play, the systems of the classes we attend, the systems for working with administrators and colleagues, government systems, secondary government systems put in place by funding initiatives (I'm thinking particularly of the operating system that controls the grant-funded YMCA program I work for).
Do some work better for beginning teachers or experienced teachers?
I think so. I know many schools maintain operating systems specifically designed to aid BTs, pairing them in careful ways with mentor teachers and support staff, but I am not sure the same is true for experienced teachers. (Difficult to say without being one.)
How will a teacher communicate and lead instruction about curriculum content and the core P3 digital literacy activities? What will be the balance of instructional time between teaching solo or as part of a team?
I think the balance of instructional time is already shifting more heavily to focus on teaching as a part of a team and letting our students teach as part of a team. We no longer live in a society where one teacher standing at the front of a classroom imparting knowledge is logical, or even well-accepted. Teacher communication is rapidly becoming refocused from lectures and whole class instruction to small group instruction. Teachers impart instructions via websites and emails and students guide their own instruction following teacher models and structures. Students have the ability to navigate and create their own education more than ever before and teachers need to be able and willing to give them the work space to do so.
Can we say with confidence which [educational operating] system is the most effective?
I don't think we can, at least, not at the time in which it is operating, not with the efficiency necessary to choose preemptively. I think at our current point in time, most people have to have experience with a system before they can offer any real feedback to it. I see this with the system we've created with NCLB. I think many people (most people?) thought the system would be effective, but the longer we've stuck with the system, the more flaws we have discovered. Effectiveness takes time to discover and evaluate, and that limits the levels of confidence we can maintain.
Can you think of other "educational operating systems" with which you are already familiar?
I think most of us are intimately familiar with far too many systems. There are the classroom operating systems we ourselves put into play, the systems of the classes we attend, the systems for working with administrators and colleagues, government systems, secondary government systems put in place by funding initiatives (I'm thinking particularly of the operating system that controls the grant-funded YMCA program I work for).
Do some work better for beginning teachers or experienced teachers?
I think so. I know many schools maintain operating systems specifically designed to aid BTs, pairing them in careful ways with mentor teachers and support staff, but I am not sure the same is true for experienced teachers. (Difficult to say without being one.)
How will a teacher communicate and lead instruction about curriculum content and the core P3 digital literacy activities? What will be the balance of instructional time between teaching solo or as part of a team?
I think the balance of instructional time is already shifting more heavily to focus on teaching as a part of a team and letting our students teach as part of a team. We no longer live in a society where one teacher standing at the front of a classroom imparting knowledge is logical, or even well-accepted. Teacher communication is rapidly becoming refocused from lectures and whole class instruction to small group instruction. Teachers impart instructions via websites and emails and students guide their own instruction following teacher models and structures. Students have the ability to navigate and create their own education more than ever before and teachers need to be able and willing to give them the work space to do so.
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