Thursday, October 7, 2010

W1_Week 1 Reading (Re-posted after blog site accidentally deleted)


Too Close for Comfort: Real Time Science Teaching Reflections via Digital Video Editing
This study dealt primarily with using iMovie to assist new science teachers in improving their teaching technique.  However, the application of iMovie and technology as education tools to be used by the teacher was not missed.  While science pedagogy changed greatly over the past decades, science teaching methodologies did not change all that much.  Recent advantages have been discovered in allowing for science teachers to tell a science story through various media venues.  Science story telling permitted children to interact with the scientific information, but also allowed for the teacher to make corrections in potential misconceptions.  This created advantages all the way around.  A new movement began to update science teacher methods to bring them current with the easy access to 21st century media creation technology.  Science teachers were given the role of influencing their own practices through the introduction of technology.  This included using iMovie to create their own teacher autobiography.  This autobiography was used to critique their teacher effectiveness.  Also discussed was the tendency to lose track of goals and values as other pressures and influences came to bear upon the teacher’s performance.

Yerrick, R., Ross, D., & Molebash, P. (2005). Too close for comfort: Real-time science teaching reflections via digital video editing. Journal of Science Teacher Education. Vol 16, No 4. 351-375.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    



Literacy in the 21st Century: The Fourth R: Video Recording
Discussed the fourth R---video production.  Children have been given access to consumer friendly digital video gear.  Because the gear was easily obtained, teachers on the forefront of classroom technology incorporated digital video into such projects as creating commercials, demonstrations of skills, documentaries on subjects of interest, social studies interviews, oral history collections, and even book reports.  This technology fell into what is called the non-print literacy category.  Speaking was once the main method of communication, then print, but today communication is evolving again. The 21st century is very visual.  Young digital natives became very comfortable with the multimedia platforms of the 21st century.  Smart educators will see this and use it to their advantage.

Siegle, D. (2009). Literacy in the 21st century: The fourth R: video recording. Gifted Child Today. Volume 32, No 2. 14-19.                                                                       







In defense of writing: a social semiotic perspective on digital media, literacy and learning
This article was included because of the balance it proposed against the overall theme of using digital video production in the classroom.  The ability to produce written text precluded the ability to create sight and sound images.  Did the use of digital media technology cause students to opt out of semiotic literacy?  Society moved from “page to screen” and from “writing to image”.  This shift has had a tremendous impact on the role of text.  The dilemma presented it the conflict between signs and codes.  How children create signs (assigned meaning to the image), also affects the code (the organization of thought through rules of communication).  Digital media tended to enforce how children signed the classroom material, with both sexes ascribing different bases for signifying.  By contrast, writing demanded the use of more choosing and comparison.  Pictures can be combined at will, whereas writing implies a more systematic approach to the creation and assembling of ideas.  The argument was made that writing needed to retain its role as the dominant mode of communication.

 Skaar, H. (2009). In defence of writing: a social semiotic perspective on digital media, literacy and learning. Literacy. Vol 43, No 1. 36-42.                                                                              


Technology Integration
While the article does not deal with science, but social studies, its philosophy and theory were compatible to the teaching of science through digital video production.  Children are used to technology.  If they did not use it at school in a meaningful way then they used it at home regardless.  Discussed the conflict with teacher time, teacher proficiency on the video technology, and reaching the test standards.  The digital documentary was described as a sound vehicle for transferring student technology use with curriculum and test score goals.  This kind of project demanded a high level of critical thinking, synthesis, content connection, creativity, and student ownership.  All of these were greatly sought after skills in the classroom.  After having completed a digital video documentary, the authors observed the students had participated in authentic intellectual work. 

 Hofer, M., Owings, K., & Thacker, E. (2010). Technology integration. Social Studies Research & Practice. Vol 5, No 1. 176-183

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