Clicktivism

Activism?

 This week's article by Harlow and Guo (2014) really made me think about events that have been happening close to home for me in St. Louis.

Since last Monday night, this city has been in the spotlight.  This spotlight has energized a lot of people, and there is a general desire for change.  This energy has created a lot of activists, but it has also created a lot of "slacktivists" or "clicktivists."  I have shuddered every time that I have logged onto Facebook since last Monday, because editorials about Ferguson and "prisoner of the moment" comments have been unavoidable.  Everybody seems to have a take on the situation.

I try not to post strong political takes on Facebook, and I tend to unfollow people who do it all of the time.  I don't think that it is an appropriate forum for strong debate, and my reservations about Facebook as means for political discussion are usually confirmed when I dare to read through a facebook comment debate that shows up on my feed.  I know that there are people out there who feel that Facebook is a great way to share their views, but sometimes I question their motives.  Usually these posts seem to be seeking some sort of affirmation.  If someone dares to question the post rather than affirm it, the conversation usually devolves into bickering.  Is this form of debate truly productive or progressive?  Is anything really accomplished?

After last Monday night, I became particularly agitated with a specific type of Facebook friend.  I am a St. Louis native and attended Washington University in St. Louis for my undergraduate program.  Most of my friends from Washington University are not from St. Louis and they moved out of the city after graduation.  However, many of them have been the most "vocal" on Facebook regarding Ferguson.  If I had to synthesize all of their posts into two sentences it would be, "I lived there, and it was so bad.  I am glad I am out."  These posts are usually accompanied by an editorial bashing St. Louis.  I think my initial frustration is sparked by my love for this city, and my belief in its people.  However my frustration really increases when I think about the motives for these posts.  Do these people feel like their posts are helping?  Do they think that they are somehow contributing to the movement by echoing the problem?  I don't think so.  I can't help but think that their primary purpose for posting these comments is very selfish.  They want to "show off" their connection to the city and demonstrate how they are affected by these events.  They type their few sentences, share an article, and pat themselves on the back for a job well done.  That is not activism.

Even though I don't think that Facebook is a great tool for political debate, I must confess that I have been astonished by the power of Twitter and its ability to organize actual activists.  A simple hashtag can unite a movement and allow people to communicate and organize on a large scale.  The picture from above was taken last Friday at a mall that is a few miles from my house.  Protestors (with the help of social media) organized a "die-in" that shut down the mall for a couple hours and sent a powerful (but peaceful) message.  These people did more than click a mouse.  They put themselves on the front line of the movement, and they joined one another.  When I look at the image above, I think about how most of those people probably did not know each other before last Friday.  However, they undoubtedly made personal connections that day.  These connections were made possible by social media, but they transcend online friendships.

I think that there are two lines from the Harlow and Guo article that really summarize my feelings about what is going on with the activists here in my city. 

"Technologies [can] not create the personal connections that are the core of activism."

"The Internet is a mixed blessing: a way to enhance communication and make it easier to get their message out on one hand, and on the other a type of pacification that might lead people to believe they [are] making more of a difference than they really [are]"


I also read the Shun, Lam (2012) article this week, but I did not have as strong of a reaction to its contents.  I agree with its overall message: technology is a good way to engage immigrant students in the classroom.  However, I did not find this article to be particularly profound or innovative.  Catering to students' interests and connecting with their cultures seems like a no-brainer to me at this point in my education and in my career.

BE ACTIVE:

I'd like to end this post with a video that inspires me to be active.  I think that this simple video shows how the internet can inspire people and spread powerful messages, but people still need to get off their computers and BE ACTIVE:

Bonus Video (When I was re-watching the above video, I saw a link to the video below and felt that it could be posted here as well.  It's a message of hope and support.)

21st Century Skills

Authentic Writing Experiences in a 21st Century Classroom

 "Can we provide our students with educational experiences that are truly worthy of their attention?" (Gura, 2014,  p. 1)

"Can we redefine and reestablish school-based learning so that it's engaging, enlightening, and inspiring?" (Gura, 2014, p. 5)

 I find these two quotes to be very inspirational, and they are motivating me to reevaluate some of the things that I do in the classroom.

When I first started teaching, I was a little bit hesitant to try new things that were not a part of the "established" curriculum.  Even though I knew that part of the reason I was hired was the fact that I was young and willing to be innovative, I was reluctant to be too daring.  I had this sense that my department head and the administrators at the school would be happier if I didn't stray too far from the status quo.  I now realize that when I was planning for that first year, I had the wrong set of people in mind.  I was planning my curriculum based on the demands of my bosses.  It's now obvious to me that I should have been more concerned about the demands of my students.  Fortunately my approach started to change the very first day that I walked into the classroom, and I have tried to adjust to the needs of my students over the past four years.  This week's readings reminded me that I can still do a lot more.

The Five Paragraph Theme and Other Monsters

 










I have tried with all of my might to combat my students' desires to write 5-paragraph essays for every assignment.  However, when advising a student on a paper, I sometimes lead them down that path, and they don't realize why it's okay in some cases.  I try to tell them that form should not determine content, rather content should determine form.  Occasionally, content warrants a 5-paragraph essay, but that should not be the default form for every paper.

However, I feel like my aversion to pigeon-holing students into a certain type of essay could be expanded to an aversion to forcing them to do a certain type of assignment.  At least twice a year, I require my students to write a traditional argumentative essay or paper.  I feel pressure from administrators and parents to make sure that students know how to handle this traditional assignment, and I drag them kicking and screaming through the process.  Hicks (2012) perfectly describes the educational landscape that I am experiencing, "we now find ourselves with core standards that value argumentative writing over informational writing and informational writing over narrative," (p. 156).  It seems that we as educators value things that our students do not.  Why don't they value these same skills?  Because THEIR EXPERIENCES in life do not warrant acquisition of these skills.  Until teachers find a way to correlate lessons to life, students will struggle to find value in what is going on in the classroom.

I really like how Hicks advocates for this correlation between life and lesson planning.  Digital tools provide an amazing resource that can connect education to a student's experience of life.  If this connection is strong, student interest will be higher, and the final product will be much more impressive.  Why am I still so afraid to stray from the standard assignments?

When It Works
I wanted to share one success story that I have had in experimentation in my first few years of teaching.  I teach The Catcher in the Rye to my sophomore class.

Rather than having my students write a paper upon completion of the novel, I have them create a soundtrack for the book.  They need to pick songs that connect to specific moments in the book, and they need to explain these connections clearly.  Every year, almost every single student puts forth an incredible effort on this assignment.  I have used it for three years, and I have never been disappointed by the class effort on this project.  They really engage in the process and spend hours trying to find songs that connect in a profound way.  They usually create an actual album with cover art, and they have to be able to incorporate different forms of media.  No other English teacher at my school has done an assignment like this, but I am so glad that I was willing to take a chance.  Grading these projects is one of my favorite things that I get to do each year.  I need to create more assignments like it!


 

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

A Great Tool Must Be Used Responsibly

 "While I believe our culture focuses too much on the negative aspects of social media, often while ignoring the positives, there are risks that keep educators from using social media as tools for teaching digital writing.  As a result, we as teachers don't know how to use social media in fluid ways, and students are not thinking about the consequences of their digital footprint." (Hicks, 2013, p. 139-140)





I will never forget my first faculty meeting at my school.  It was the end of the summer in 2010, and I was excited to start a new job at a school that I loved.  I had been hired to teach English, and despite my nerves, I felt that I could greatly contribute to the life of the school.  At that time, the average age of the faculty was probably 50, and I had the feeling that I was hired in order to bring in some youth and offer a fresh perspective on things that hadn't changed at the school in thirty years.  My proficiency with technology probably also contributed to my selection for the job.

The first agenda item at the first meeting was the school's new social media policy.  The topic of social media was something that had been on my mind since I applied for the job.  I was a freshman in college when Facebook was founded, and so my online profile had documented four years of undergraduate fun and games.  Facebook was something new and innovative, and so during my undergraduate years I didn't really think about privacy or protecting my online persona.  There was nothing too risque on my Facebook, but there were some things that a potential employer didn't need to see.  There were certainly things that a potential STUDENT didn't need to see.  Before I started applying for jobs, I scrubbed my online profile clean--pictures of me holding red solo cups were removed-- and ratcheted up the privacy settings.

As I sat in that first meeting, I was feeling pretty confident about my "digital footprint." 

The Director of Technology at my school spent about 10 minutes explaining the New Technology Policy.  The whole thing felt a bit clumsy to me.  The policy was clearly adopted as a response to recent issues that schools in the public sector were having.  The state of Missouri had recently adopted a similar policy for its schools and our school seemed to be modeling its policy after the state's.  However, this new policy was merely reactionary.  It viewed social media as a threat and discouraged teachers from using it in the classroom.  Actually, it not only discouraged, it seemed to forbid use of social media in or out of the classroom.

My school's policy seemed to do exactly what Hicks mentioned in Chapter 7.  It focused on the negative aspects of social media and ignored the positives.  On that first day, I felt as if I was immediately put on a leash in my classroom.  My school was not thinking about student experience.  My school was only thinking about liability.  Rather than rethinking our system in order to adapt to a changing digital environment, we seemed to be telling our students and teachers that the digital environment did not exist inside the walls of the school.

Fortunately, my school's administration has relented in many ways over the past 5 years.  Innovative teachers are finding ways to connect with students in the digital world, and these sorts of connections are fruitful ones.  This past year my school actually set aside a whole professional development day in order to equip teachers with digital tools and skills that could help them in the classroom. 

Unfortunately, I am still about weary of social media in the classroom.  I have trouble not viewing it as a threat.  Yes, it can enhance my students' experience, but are the risks worth it?  Just last year, a teacher was fired from my school for comments made on a personal twitter account.  When things like that happen, it makes me think about retreating from the online world even though I know that is not what is best for my students.

When I read Chapter 7 of  Hobbs (2011) I realized that students need guidance with digital writing.  Hobbs' examples of student abuse online made me think about my responsibilities as a teacher.  It is my job to teach them to read and write so that they are prepared to enter the world as adults.  What good is it to teach them how to read and write in a medium that is no longer relevant.  Even though students may be willing to write on Facebook or Twitter, that does not mean that they know HOW to write appropriately.  They need guidance.  They need role models.  They need teachers.  I can't shy away from modeling digital writing, because that style of writing is what my students need to see.  Otherwise, they may choose the wrong types of role models:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhS7meOZJw

Making the Case For Audio

On the Road

This weekend I spent a lot of time on the road.  It was my wife's high school reunion in Dalton, Georgia, and so we packed up the family and headed down to Dalton.  It is about an 8 hour drive from St. Louis (sometimes longer with a 4-month-old in the car). 

Recently when I have made the trip, I have found some great ways to make the drive go by quickly.  I usually pick up a few books on tape, and I have my NPR app ready to go on the phone.  And so on the way down to Georgia my wife and I listened to Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, the third book in the popular Freakonomics series, (we listened to the first two books on previous trips).  Today when we drove back to St. Louis, it was all NPR.  The nifty app allowed us to listen to several episodes of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", "Planet Money", and "The Ted Radio Hour."  Both drives went very quickly, and I often got very absorbed in what I was listening to.  I am always amazed at how consistently excellent and fascinating these NPR programs are.

Now, I must admit that I had not looked at this week's readings until today when I arrived back in St. Louis.  I was excited to see that much this week's readings discussed "audio experiences."  After spending 8 hours listening to NPR, I was suddenly reading about it as an educational tool.  The timing of this reading assignment could not have been more perfect for me.

As I started reading Hicks (2013), I was immediately pulled in when I read, "Regardless of your political stripe, NPR appeals to a variety of listeners and offers many great models for audio mentor texts" (p. 87).  These words resonated with me, and something suddenly clicked.  I had never thought of assigning an audio project, but why?  These stories that I had listened to all day were perfect mentor texts, and some were compact and simple enough that a student would not be daunted by the idea of creating one.  The technology required for such a story is nearly ubiquitous, and I believe that students would be excited to take on a different kind of challenge.

My excitement for this type of assignment continued to grow as I read Hicks, especially when he mentioned Kelly Gallagher's article-of-the-week assignment and how it could be incorporated into this type of assignment.  I consider myself a Gallagher-fan, and I actually chose his blog as a mentor text earlier in the semester.  When thinking about his article-of-the-week assignment, I agreed that NPR stories are great way to bring current events into the classroom in a dynamic way.

The final push I received came when Hicks mentioned "This I Believe" as a model for crafting audio texts.  I just spent last week reviewing "This I Believe", and I concur that it is a great resource for model or mentor texts.

What if it doesn't work?
My greatest fear is that these types of audio stories may fall flat in the classroom.  Yes, they are great in the car.  But there are limited options in the car, and the audience is fairly captive.  Would students sit and listen to a podcast or story and appreciate the digital writing craft?  It may seem a bit awkward.  Where does one look when listening to a story in the classroom?

The Game Plan
Right now I am doing a unit on Poetry with my sophomores.  We spend a lot of time reading, writing, and appreciating poetry.  At the end of the unit, they turn in a poetry portfolio.  This final portfolio hasn't ever quite felt like enough of a conclusion to the unit.  The students turn them in, and they don't really get to share their work with an audience beyond me.  This year, I think that I am going to have them record themselves reading their favorite poem from the portfolio, and then spend 1-2 minutes explaining the meaning of or inspiration for the poem.  Then I plan on putting all of the readings on a CD.  I think that project might be a meaningful way to close out the poetry unit. 


Another thought on audio
I also really enjoyed reading Gura's (2014) comments on audio feedback (p.194).  It reminded me of a course that I took with Jim Marshall in the summer of 2010.  It was an online course on Young Adolescent Literature.  Rather than give us written feedback, Jim would send an audio file of his reaction to our work.  I looked forward to receiving this feedback each week.  Hearing Jim's voice made the online class feel more personal, and his reactions seemed genuine.  Jim really mastered that type of feedback, and his students appreciated it. 

When I grade papers, it never feels like I can write enough on the paper in order to fully explain my reaction.  I usually end up having 1-on-1 conferences with students who need to revise their papers.  I think that audio feedback is a nice way to achieve the same connection that a 1-on-1 conference provides.  I'd be interested in trying it in my own classroom, although I don't know if I have the same skills as Jim.

Tool Review: This I Believe

Tool Review: This I Believe

Hyperlink: http://thisibelieve.org/

Description

From the website:

“This I Believe is an international organization engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Over 125,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here on our website, heard on public radio, chronicled through our books, and featured in weekly podcasts. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.”

My description:

This I Believe is a webpage that hosts thousands of personal essays.   The authors of the essays vary in age, race, sex, and every other category.  The essays themselves have equal variation in their topics.  However, despite the variety of the authors and their works, they are united in their purpose.  These essays share the beliefs and values of their authors.  As a collection, they provide a special kind of truth.  This truth may not be universal or life changing, but it offers some clarification of life through the eyes of the authors.

Price/Availability

The website is free in a PBS/NPR kind of way.  There is no cost to use it, and there does not seem to be any limitation on the free content.  However, most pages within the site do have a “Make A Donation” advertisement, and if you explore the website for long enough a pop-up donation request will eventually prompt you to contribute.  However, if you can handle the guilt of not donating to PBS and NPR, then you probably won’t feel obligated to donate to this website. 

The website also offers instructional materials for teachers of all grade levels.  These materials are customized by state, but are only available for $19.95.

The site also has a store that sells books and CD’s, however there is no obligation to buy them.

Sample Featured Essay:

Essays that are “featured” on the website are accompanied by an audio file of the author reading his/her work: http://thisibelieve.org/essay/31232/

REVIEW

Rationale for Selecting This I Believe

As a writing teacher, I am always looking for examples of good writing for my students.  With my sophomore class, I do a unit on writing a short story.  When I was scouring the web for examples of good short fiction, I stumbled upon NPR’s three-minute fiction contest.  This website offered a cornucopia of short fiction that was well written.  Not only was it well written, but it also showed my students that non-professional writers can write great stories and be recognized!  The website is great for my classes because it provides great examples of writing and offers my students a chance at fame.  I have found a similar website for my 7^th graders and their poetry unit, but I have yet to find a great site for personal essay writing in my freshman class. 

My school is also really trying to improve the way that it helps seniors with their college essays, because our students have struggled greatly with personal writing.  They can write fiction and argumentative papers, but they get uncomfortable when it is time to get personal.  This I Believe seems to offer exactly what I need.  It is a website that provides a plenitude of personal essays, and it also provides a chance for students to be recognized!  Too often, the students feel like their only audience is the teacher.  These types of websites and contests provide a larger audience.

Tool Review Rubric

	Exceeds expectations	Meets expectations	Does not meet expectations
Credibility of website developers - Who funds website? - What is mission of website? - Is the content biased?	✔
Relevancy to context - Is the material on the website beneficial to my classroom? - Do the essays serve as mentor texts for my students?	✔
Appropriateness for target audience and level - Are the topics of the essays appropriate for a 9th grade classroom? - Are the essays challenging enough for 9th grade students?		✔
Website design and usability -Is the website easy to navigate? -Is the information organized in a logical way?	✔
Performance of website features - Do pages load quickly and easily? Do audio files load and play without delay	✔

Credibility

Credibility was an extremely important factor for me.  I teach my students to be critical of the information that they consume, and we are always on the lookout for bias.  I was very pleased with the credibility of this website.  It is an “established” brand and is funded by users who voluntarily contribute.  Dan Gediman, the executive producer of This I Believe says, “The goal is not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs. Rather, the hope is to encourage people to begin the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.”   I believe that the website lives by this idea.  The variety of opinions on the website ensure that the content does not have an agenda or bias.

Relevancy

I had a very specific reason for choosing This I Believe.  I wanted to bring it into my freshman classroom and use the essays as mentor texts for my students’ personal writing.  After poking around on the website for a few minutes, I immediately realized that I could find essays that were beneficial to my classroom.  There are essays on just about any topic that might come up in a Language Arts classroom, and they are organized in a user-friendly way (more on that later).

Appropriateness for Target Audience

Appropriateness is always a concern when bringing something new into the classroom.  You don’t want to expose your students to inappropriate material and you also don’t want to bring in material that is too challenging and might frustrate them easily.  You also don’t want to bring in material that is not challenging enough because it will bore them.  This website has every type of essay that you could hope for, although they are not organized by intended audience.  You can search for an essay based on the author’s age, but not on the age of the appropriate audience.  This complaint is a small one, but it might not be a great idea to turn younger students loose on the website.  There are essays that deal with addiction, morality, race, and other serious topics.

Website Design

If a website is frustrating or difficult to navigate, then it does not matter if it has great content.  I found the design of This I Believe to be very easy to navigate.  It has featured essays, but you can also browse by theme or search by topic, author, or even age of the author.  There is also an Educators tab that has easily accessible lesson plans and ideas for the classroom.

Performance

Performance goes hand in hand with design when it comes to evaluating a website.  If a website cannot perform quickly and effectively, then users will get frustrated and look for a better performing website.  The pages load quickly and easily.  The audio files that correspond to each featured essay load instantly, and the sound quality is professional.  Note: The website also is mobile and tablet friendly!

The Verdict

I think that This I Believe is a great tool for the classroom.  The sheer abundance of essays and topics makes it a wonderful resource, and I think that students would enjoy exploring the website and reading/listening to the essays.  A teacher might need to screen and select essays for younger students, but older students could navigate the website on their own.  The wealth of information on the website could not be easily replicated in the print world.  I don’t think that there are comparable resources out there that are as extensive and as well organized as This I Believe.

PUTTING IT IN THE CLASSROOM

English Language Arts Standards (CCGPS) that apply:

ELACC9-10RL2: Determine a theme or central idea of text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

ELACC9-10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

ELACC9-10RL6:

Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

ELACC9-10RI10:

By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.  By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

ELACC9-10W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

ELACC9-10W6:

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

How do I get started?

It’s easy!  Just go to http://thisibelieve.org/ and start exploring.  The toolbar at the top makes exploring easy:

If you want to brows the essays, just click on explore:

Some Ideas for Literacy Instruction:

·      A unit on personal narrative writing that uses the essays as mentor texts

·      Select a theme from a novel and explore related essays with that same theme in order to initiate conversation

·      Select an essay as a means to introducing a text.  For example: Use an essay on race to introduce a text like To Kill A Mockingbird

I hope this helps you teachers out there!  I highly recommend this site for the classroom!

Presentations, Filmmaking, and Writing

"Good presentations need not be limited to one speaker standing in front of an audience.  Digital writers can be much more creative than that." (Hicks 2013, p. 67)

I enjoyed reading Chapter 4 of Hicks.  This chapter pointed out many problems with presentations, and I realized that I had just been accepting these problems without really trying to address them.  Yes, I use PowerPoint Presentations in my classroom.  Yes, I use the standard themes and templates.  However, I always thought that my presentations were somehow different from the ones that I could not stand sitting through.  Surely my use of videos, pictures, and audio gave them enough variety that they really grabbed the attention of my students.  Given the limitations of PowerPoint, I felt like I was doing great work. 

However, if I am being really honest with myself . . .

Presentations can be so much more dynamic than what I have accepted as good work.  At some point PowerPoint was new and dynamic, and I can recall my early exposure to PowerPoint when I was an undergraduate.  It felt new and exciting, and my professors who made these presentations seemed to be more exciting and more fascinating than professors who were still doing the "old-fashioned" style of lecture.  However, those undergraduate days were 10 years ago, and the technology has become stale to a modern audience/student.

When I think about those days of PowerPoint being exciting and new, I realize something else about that experience.  It was the teacher who made the class exciting more than the presentations.  The teachers who were using PowerPoint 10 years ago were the ones who were willing to try something new in order to grab the attention and focus of the students.  Teachers like that, who are willing to take risks for the benefit of their students, will have their students' full attention regardless of the technology.  I am willing to bet that those same teachers have moved onto other ways to present information, because they have had to adapt to the needs of a new generation of students who are no longer impressed by a view basic slides and links.  I'd imagine those teachers are using more dynamic resources like Prezi.

Last year, a teacher at my school gave a presentation to the faculty.  The subject of the presentation was summer school.  It was mostly an informational presentation that was not necessarily filled with exciting news.  However, the presentation was different than others that I had experienced before.  He zoomed in and out of this concept map, and I found myself pulled into what he was presenting.  I now realize that he was using Prezi, and I am interested in exploring the possibilities that Prezi offers.

For my mentor text, I selected: The Ten Most Common Rookie Presentation Mistakes

I think that this presentation is excellent.The Home Image is the silhouette of a man giving a presentation, and then there are red "thought bubbles" around it.  As soon as I saw the first image of the presentation, I wanted to start clicking around and zooming immediately.  I felt like there was something there that needed to be explored.

Each thought bubble has a relatively small amount of information, but all the important thoughts are there.  Someone presenting with these slides accompanying them could easily supplement the slide with their own thoughts and elaborations.  The slides are also supplemented with videos, pictures, and fun bits of information.  The highest compliment that I can give this presentation is that it is fun to explore.  I wanted to see what happened next, and I feel like I also absorbed some great information.  I would love to create something that looked like this presentation.

Movie-Making in the English Classroom?

Gura (2014) also inspired me this week with his 20-Shot Short Story and Digital Move Projects.  As a film and media studies major in my undergraduate years, I spent many hours editing video and putting together projects.  However, as an English teacher, I have been hesitant to incorporate these types of projects in my classroom.  I have been afraid that the students will not have access to the technology or won't understand how to use it.  I also fear that they might not get much out of a movie-making assignment.  My greatest fear though is that I would have no idea how to grade such a project.

Gura does a good job of defending these types of movie projects.  He explains that a good film can demonstrate a thorough understanding of the text.  I was also reassured when I was reminded that cameras are fairly ubiquitous these days, and it probably would not be a problem for most students to get their hands on something that can record video.  I could probably take a class day to explain the basics of video editing and then let them explore the programs on their own.  Experimentation is how I learned after all.  Grading may be difficult at first, but I think that I will adapt and learn as I grade more of these types of projects.  Having students write about the film-making process can also assist in the evaluation of the final product.

Digital Writing - A Refuge for the Quiet Ones

Please Don't Call on Me


As a student, I was never a very active participant in class discussion.  I'm not sure why exactly.  I enjoyed school, and I usually was interested in my classes.  I suppose that growing up with three older brothers made me hesitant to join a conversation.  My commentary was usually not appreciated in the conversation between brothers, and my thoughts were often met with teasing.  I developed a pretty strong self-censoring ability at an early age.  I tended to over-think things in the classroom, and I was always hesitant to join in on the conversation.  However, I secretly appreciated it when a teacher would sometimes force me into it.

Now that I am a teacher, looking at things from the other side of the desk, I want to reach out to those students who are hesitant to join in.  I realize that a quiet student is not necessarily unengaged or unmotivated.  Sometimes this type of student just has trouble finding their voice or finding an entryway into the conversation.  Yes, I could try to pull him in forcefully.  Perhaps he is just waiting for me to do that.  However, it is clear to me that another avenue to thoughtful contribution is online.

Online discussion boards and blogs give a voice to a student who doesn't want to speak out loud.  Gura (2014) points out that online message boards are a great way to force even the shy kids to participate, "Participation in instructional social networking experiences is mandatory in my class.  I will allow shy students to opt out of facing an entire class, but the relative anonymity of the online experiences means 'You must participate!'" (p. 74).  I think that this approach can be really effective when it comes to handling the shy ones.  Even shy kids want to be heard.  The message board allows them to share their thoughts without the vulnerability of face-to-face discussion.  Gura (2014) shows the same benefits can occur through blog writing, "Blogging, my students had figured out, was the next best thing to texting.  The thrill of participating in social media was contagious" (p. 82).  As an English teacher, I sometimes know what it's like to have a room full of silent students.  Blogging can clearly energize these students and get the conversation going!  It doesn't always have to be spoken conversation!

Too much of a good thing?

It's clear to me that technology is a tool that enriches the classroom.  This fact is clear to most teachers.  Purcell et al. (2012) found that approximately 75% of teachers felt that the internet and digital resources have had a mostly positive impact on students.  However, the same study points out that the abundance of resources and stimulation that can be found on the internet also offers distractions.  There is fear that the internet age is creating generations of students with shorter attention spans.

The real challenge for teachers is finding a balance.  If I sign out the computer lab so that my students can blog, I need to make sure that they stay on task.  Yes, the excitement of blogging may lead to more conversations, but we can't go to the lab every day.  Eventually the novelty of the blog may wear off, and the students may spend the lab time in very unproductive ways.  Varying the lesson plans and giving students focused tasks can help combat the distractions that come with computers.

Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright and Fair Use

I am in my fifth year of teaching high school English, and reading these articles has made me realize just how blissfully ignorant I have been about copyright and fair use.  When I have shown a film, borrowed an assignment from a colleague, or used an image or audio file to enhance a presentation, I have never really thought about my legal permissions.  In fact, Hobbs (2010) might as well have been describing me when he wrote, "many teachers feel they doing God's work and that copying to any degree in the service of education is permitted," (p. 56).  I really have had that mentality in the classroom.  When I am trying to think of dynamic ways to enhance the classroom experience for my students, I don't really think about copyright.  If I can find something and think that it will help my students, then I will use it.  I suppose that I consider education to be "God's work" and I also rationalize my use of copyrighted materials by telling myself that I am just a "little fish" and no multimedia company is going to come knocking on my classroom door.

Although some sections of the reading made me feel like I was ignoring copyright laws, as I continued to read I actually felt empowered by the material.  The Center for Social Media (2009) made me realize that I do have a right as an educator to use copyrighted material as long as I do it responsibly, "As an important first step in reclaiming their fair use rights, educators should employ this document to inform their own practices in the classroom and beyond," (p. 14).  It is my duty to educate myself about fair use so that I can make an informed decision about what to do in my classroom.  However, if I do make an informed decision, then as an educator, I am granted an additional degree of leniency in regard to fair use policies.  Hobbs (2010) highlighted this special provision of the law, "If an employee of a nonprofit educational institution has made a rational and reasonable fair-use determination, he or she is not likely to be targeted for an infringement lawsuit" (p. 59).

(Chart courtesy of: http://www.artpromotivate.com/2013/07/public-domain-fair-use-copyright.html)



When I consider my own classroom and my use of copyrighted material, I think that my practices would fall under fair use because I "transform" the original material and re-purpose it for the classroom environment.  However, I am still not certain if this "transformation" is a proper defense.  For the purpose of discussion and for my own enlightenment, I would like to share an assignment that I just gave to my 8th grade class.  Perhaps my commenters could share their thoughts on whether or not this example is a case of fair use.

My eighth grade class is finishing up a unit on Detective Fiction.  We have read several detective stories from our short story anthology, and we have discussed the qualities of the genre.  As a class, we have established some rules for Detective Fiction, and my students are going to attempt to write their own detective stories.  After reading detective fiction for 3 weeks, I like to reward the students by watching an episode of The X-Files and then I have them write a brief essay on whether or not the particular episode ("Field Trip") qualifies as a piece of detective fiction.  (Note: I personally own a copy of the DVD with that episode).  I like this assignment because it challenges them to apply what they have learned to a different medium.  I think that the original purpose of the episode was for entertainment, and I am having my students analyze it and assess its ability to adhere to the rules of a particular genre.  Is this acceptable?  Should I alter my unit?