Summer Of Developing & Discussing Digital Literacy 2017

For today's blog, I decided to explore  Kahoot ! To be honest, I picked Kahoot because it was brand new to me and the name itself intrigued me. Kahoot is an application that allows teachers to create and administer polls, surveys, and ask questions in the style of a game show! On the plus side it is also free! Prior to today's exploration, I had previously looked at and tried out different polling type applications and game show apps. However, I often found them cumbersome or difficult to use. As a result, I often relied on PowerPoint to create engaging game show style review games. However, I still found making Power Points time consuming and I just don't seem to have enough time to include them as much as I would like. I first went to kahoot.com and was impressed by the clean lines and simple interface. I simply clicked the sign up button. I was easily able to create an account by creating a username and password, providing an email, and selecting the school and gra...

Similar to most girls, I grew up playing with Barbie dolls. In fact, I didn’t just play with Barbie dolls, I loved and obsessed over Barbie dolls. For birthdays and holidays, I often would ask for the newest Barbie play set. I spent hour after hour envisioning my future and playing that future out in my Barbie world.   I cherished my Barbie dolls because to me they represented not only a fun way to spend my time, but hope and unlimited possibilities of my future. To this day, I still have all of my old Barbie dolls saved and stored in my basement because I simply cannot part with them. As a result of my fond childhood memories for Barbie, I decided to read "Deconstructing Barbie: Math and popular Culture." This chapter focused on how Barbie's physical proportions are not based in the realistic images of women. I believe I was more receptive to the author, Swapna Mukhopadhya, because I had been shown a similar image to this one as part of a college course on being a c...

Similar to most adults my age, I grew up watching and collecting Disney movies on VHS. I spent most rainy Saturdays cuddling up on the couch watching Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, or Snow White.   Although I frequently watched these movies with my entire family, I was not raised to celebrate or obsess over Disney or the Disney princesses. As a child, I was never referred to as a princess. I did not own princess dress up clothes. Even as a young child, I was taught that princesses stories were not based in reality.   My parents did take me to visit Disney in first grade because they did believe it was a part of childhood. However by third grade, I was taught that princesses were for younger children and that I should focus more on realistic stories, sports, and school. My parents were very clear in teaching me the message that life is not always a happy ending and that girls could be strong and independent from men. Although my parents purposefully taught me thes...

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Over the course of today, I spent a significant amount of time diving into the term "digital native." The terminology digital native is derived from the works of John Perry Barlow and Rushkoff. However, the term was made popular and coined by Marc Prensky is his work, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” Marc Prensky argues that digital natives are individuals born after 1980 who were raised in a society in which digital technology was an essential and assimilated aspect into daily life. Those who were not raised in a society centered on digital technology are considered digital immigrants. Although digital immigrants can become tech savvy, Marc Prensky would argue that they interact and think about digital technology in a different way than digital natives. After discussing Marc Prensky in class, I would agree with his thought that society has evolved over the course of history to be more centered on digital technology. It is simply impossible to deny that our socie...

Day 1: Update 2 Digital Native vs Immigrant After class introductions, our class dived into discussing Marc Prensky's concept of digital natives and immigrants. Prensky explains that society can be divided into digital natives and digital immigrants. Digital natives are people who were raised in a society in which technology was at the forefront and played a significant role in their lives.  Digital natives can not picture a world or a way of life without phones, internet, and computers. Although there is no specific timeline to divide digital immigrants and natives, Marc Prensky estimates that most people born after 1980 could identify as a digital native. On the other hand digital immigrants have a need to learn how to adapt their lives to incorporate technology as a significant factor in their lives. Below are two videos of Marc Prensky. The first video is him speaking about the concept of digital natives vs immigrants. The second video explains his thoughts on...

Day 1: Introductions My name is Tayla St. Pierre and I am an elementary school teacher at a charter school in Providence, Rhode Island. This summer I am taking a two week intensive course entitled: CURR 550: Digital Media Literacy.  This course is a required course in my TESL master's program. Over the next two weeks, I am excited to discuss how as a country we need to reform education in this country in order to reflect our evolving world. I firmly believe that educators need to change from the current mindset of the purpose of school. Currently, many educators still believe  that the purpose of school is to teach students information. Instead, educators need to realize that students today have access to unlimited quantities of information at their fingertips. There is no longer a need to memorize information, but to teach students the critical thinking and analysis skills in order to consume and produce information that is so easily accessible. I am excited to see w...