A10.5: Week 10 Reflection

Aims and objectives: This week I wanted to learn how to do a podcast and figure out what my 5th genre would be.  I also wanted to revise my first few genres, adding sources to each.  Then I wanted to learn what reproduction literacy was, and discuss my mailing list that I joined.  I wanted to get all of my assignments done thoroughly and on time.

Declarative Knowledge: This week I learned what a podcast is and how to make a podcast using gcast.com.  I also learned what reproduction literacy is.  I learned that reproduction literacy involves finding and using information, and then recreating it to express your own thoughts and ideas.  This week I learned more about my mailing list/online community I have been observing since the beginning of the semester.  I had not really thought of it as a community until this assignment.

Procedural Knowledge: I first had to decide what my 5th genre for my MRP would be.  I looked at the list of genres I made and saw which ones remained that I have not yet completed.  I decided to do the Interview Transcript so I referred to our Resource Manual for CD 424 to see the outline of an interview.  Next I saved and published the genre as a page on my weblog and then sent the link to the class list.  After this I conducted my peer reviews on Alyssa and Abby’s 4th genres.  I used the comment feature on both of their pages, and remarked on the voice of the piece, the intended audience of the piece, what I thought the author was saying in the piece, something specific to “bless,” and something specific that they may want to address.  I did this on both of their weblogs and then saved the comment.  In order to find out about reproduction literacy I first conducted a search.  Next I reflected about my online community I have been observing.  I used the post feature and commented on the people in the community, its purpose, whether it fulfills its purpose, and additional thoughts of mine about the community.  I then saved it and published it to my weblog.

Conditional Knowledge:  Doing an interview transcript will help give me practice for what types of questions to intially ask clients/caregivers.  Knowing how to do a peer response is both beneficial to me and my groupmates.  Having someone else’s perspective on your work helps you look at it from a different point of view.  It also helps me keep in mind these things when I am creating my genres.  Learning about reproduction literacy continues our education about becoming literate in a digital society.  We have learned about many different types of literacies this semester.  The mailing list has been a lot more beneficial than I orginally thought it would be.  I had never had any experience with any type of mailing list so I was not sure what it entailed.  After observing one for a while, I have learned many different things and will continue to look for different mailing lists concerning different interests/subjects.  I can use the mailing list both for educational and personal interests in the future.

A10.3: Reproduction Literacy

     I originally had no knowledge about reproduction literacy.  In order to obtain information on the subject I had to refer to sources through conducting a search.  I first found an article from the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning (EURODL) explaining that reproduction literacy is the ability to use pre-existing art, text, images, sound, or other forms to recreate your own thoughts and ideas.  They emphasize this type of literacy is important in both writing and art.  People must be able to think abstractly and be creative to use the ideas in a new way.  From all of the literacy’s we have learned about, this is the one that I feel the least successful and comfortable with.  I think you truly must be creative to be reproduction literate.  I also think that it is still important to be aware of citing sources when needed to, even with reproduction literacy. 
      I agree that in order to be reproduction literate a person must possess certain skills.  When using someone else’s work and then recreating to your own thoughts and ideas, we must still be very aware of plagiarismand sure to cite the correct sources.  I personally find this difficult sometimes because there are a limited number of ways to say and express certain ideas/thoughts.  Most of the teachers I had throughout high school emphasized paraphrasing more than just directly citing different sources.  I feel like a person has to be rather creative in order to be reproduction literate.  Personally, I an not a very artistic person so I do not really think of myself as being very reproduction literate.  However, if it was absolutely necessary I think I could handle it to be somewhat creative and use my own thoughts and ideas. 
       I do think that reproduction has and will continue to change schooling/education.  I think that there is now much more available information such as art, pictures, images, and other items that students will be able to use in order to enhance a project or help convey an idea easier in a presentation.  With most of the other literacy’s I feel like our generation was the “experimental” age that first got to test and use the technologies.  I think that as technology advances the way schools teach these skills will also continue to change using the digital world.  It is a very broad and complex concept that I think may make education easier, and also may make it more complicated.  However, I believe the benefits of reproduction literacy along with the other forms of literacy will forever remain important, especially throughout a person’s schooling/education.

A10.4: Online Communities

    I subscribed to a mailing list concerning Cochlear Implants (CI).  The description said that you did not have to have a CI or a hearing loss in ordert to join the group.  This community is very informative and supportive of everyone in it.  Overall, everyone is very helpful to their fellow members, and offers any type of advice they can.  The community seems to be very close.  There is a wide variety of people in the community such as: People with CI’s, people with children with CI’s, professionals/educators, people with hearing loss,  and like myself, the general public. 

   There are several people who enjoy sharing their experiences that they have on a daily basis that never would have occurred without having a CI.  When reading these stories, I admire these people and often find myself getting excited for them being able to hear! For example, one woman wrote that she was in her car on a large freeway when she got stuck in traffic. She said she turned on the radio and heard there was a big accident so she was able to get on a different street and avoid being stuck in traffic for hours.  This is a good example of something so simple, but she made the point that she could have never been able to do that pre-CI.  I have read numerous inspiring stories just like this one from this community.  It often makes me realize the little things hearing people take for granted.
   
  The main purpose of this community is to offer support to those members in the community.  It is primarily for people with hearing loss, who personally have experience with a CI or know someone with a CI.  However, it is not specifically only for people who are already implanted; many are in the process of just beginning with their CI or in the process to see if they qualify for a CI.  There are also many people who are going through the process and have questions about all of it.  I know this through the messages that are sent daily to the group.  One particular e-mail, a lady had recently been implanted and was becoming frustrated with the way she was hearing.  One of the replies was encouraging not to give up and remember that they may never really hear “like before,” but they will hear and that is the most important thing.  I thought this was very motivating and reassuring.

     Quickly after joining this group I realized how involved everyone was with it, and the concern of the people in the community.  I feel like the community does a very good job of fufilling it’s purpose of offering support for people with hearing loss.  If one person has a question, or makes an interesting comment then that comment alone receives about 8 or more helpful responses.  Typically, I receive about 10-20 e-mails per day from the mailing list.  All of the people want to help, whether it be a simple or complex question or concern.  People in the community also often send educational or interesting information like links to different articles concerning hearing loss of CI’s.  One woman sent a link to a very interesting/educational article back in early October. 

    I am very glad that I have had the opportunity to participate in the mailing list, and I have learned a lot about CI’s.  I was not aware before this class that lists like this existed.  I have found that they are a very good source for information.

A9.5: Week 9 Reflection

Aims and objectives:  This week I wanted to do further research for my MRP.  I also wanted to decide which genre to do next, and how to revise my project prospectus.  Additionally, I wanted to pace myself with each assingment to spread them out throughout the week and get them done on time.

Declarative Knowledge: This week I first learned what genre I was going to do next.  I also learned about branching literacy.  I learned that branching literacy deals with spatial orientation in cyberspace.  I also learned that there are certain skills a person must possess in orer to be branching literate.  If someone does not have these skills, then it would be easy for them to “get lost” when using things such as the Internet and searching for information.

Procedural Knowledge: In order to choose which genre would be my forth, I had to look at the remaining genres for the MRP that I have not yet completed.  To make the Observation report I referred to the Observation Reports that we use in our lab.  Next, I had to create the genre as a page, save it, and then publish it.  I then had to send the link to the class list for them to preview it.  To peer review Abby and Alyssa’s third genres I had to separately go to their weblogs, review the third genre, and then using the comment feature post a comment concerning the voice, audience, say back, bless, and audience of their work; I then saved the comment on about their third genres.  To find out more about branching literacy, I conducted a search on the Internet.  Unlike, the other forms of literacy we have been studying, I found this to be the one with the least amount of information.  However, once learning about branching literacy I posted my reflection about it concerning what I found out, what my reaction was to certain skills with the literacy, and how it will change schooling/education.  I then saved and published the post.  In order to revise my project prospectus I first met with Mrs. McComas and discussed how to revise my essential and foundation questions.  After the meeting I created a new page and made the changes that we discussed. 

Conditional Knowledge: Doing the Observation Report as my 4th genre will help me for completing my project, and give me addtional practice with writing goals, objectives, behaviors, and impressions.  Completing the peer reviews will help with analyzing my own work.  Learning about branching literacy was very interesting, and will help me develop searching skills along with learning how to better navigate in digital space.  Revising my prospectus will help me think about the question in a different way.  I now understand that essential questions should not contain any type of bias.  This will help me in the future when coming up with research questions.

A9.3: Branching Literacy

Prior to this assignment I don’t really have any knowledge of what branching literacy is.  Unlike the other literacy’s we have learned about and researched, I thought this one was the one with the least amount of available information.  However, through some searching I found, according to an article in the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning, branching literacy the ability to avoid getting lost in hyperspace, despite the intricate navigation paths.  They also refer to this type of literacy by “hypermedia literacy skills.”  According to the EURODL branching literate people have good multidimensional spatial orientation, good metaphoric thinking, the ability to create concept maps and other abstract structures, and the ability to overcome disorientation in hypermedia places.  

Like all of the other literacy’s, I agree that there are certain skills a person must possess to be branching literate.  I feel like I have learned more about this type of literacy and these skills through this class and conducting research for my MRP.  Finding articles is fairly easy, however once you have found those articles getting back to them is sometimes difficult.  I had to know what database I used, what keywords/phrase I used in order to find that exact article.  Working at the library, people have trouble with this type of task often.  I also find myself wandering in cyberspace sometimes when I don’t mean to.  Luckily for me, I know how to find my way back to what I was originally looking for.  I can see if someone was not very branching literate how it would be easy to get lost with the technology.

Similar to the other literacy’s, I feel that branching literacy has and will continue to change schooling/education.  When using any form of technology branching literacy skills are vital to effectively using the devices.  As we have and will continue to become a more technological world, children will have to learn the skills to use and not “get lost” in cyberspace.  I am not aware if there are currently any specific classes in early education for this type of literacy, but as college students we attended a session at the library that showed us where to locate certain articles, books, etc. and helped us learn how to navigate around cyberspace; we were also told how to get out of things when we “got lost.”  When I was in elementary school I remember going to the computer lab, and our teachers would tell us how to use the programs.  I would assume they do the same thing now, possibly with the Internet.  Technology has changed the way we do a lot of things, and branching literacy is a very necessary skill for students, professionals, and people in general to possess.

A8.5: Week 8 Reflection

Aims and objectives: One of my goals this week was to decide what my 3rd genre for the MRP would be.  I also wanted to get all my assignments done on time.

 Declarative Knowledge: This week I learned what I needed to know in order to conduct a peer review on two of my groupmates 2nd genre that we made last week.  I learned that I had to consider the voice, audience, say back, bless and address of the genre.  I also learned that I would review Abby and Alyssa’s work.  I also learned more about information literacy, and information litearcy in a digital world.  I learned that information literacy is key to higher education. 

Procedural Knowledge: In order to make my 3rd genre, I had to look at my Project Prospectus and decide which genre I wanted to do next.  I chose the journal entries.  I then went to my weblog, created a new page and made two fictional journal entries from the perspective of the father of a child with a cochlear implant.  After doing this I saved and published the page as genre 3.  Next I had to peer review Abby and Alyssa’s 2nd genre.  I separately went to both of their weblogs, and read over their 2nd genres.  I assessed both of them on the voice the piece is in, the audience it was written for, what I thought the author was trying to say, something specific that I liked about the piece, and something the author may want to address.  I did this using the comment feature on their weblogs.  In order to research and reflect on my knowledge about information literacy I first thought back to our previous assignment in the semester about information literacy and what I learned then.  Next, I found a few different websites about information literacy and then wrote a 400-500 word reflection on the subject.  I included the links in my reflection and then saved and published the post.  I did not do the next assignment, revise my project prospectus, because I have not yet met with Mrs. McComas; I will more than likely do this next week after my meeting.

Conditional Knowledge: I think learning about information literacy is very important.  I feel like we have both been learning and practicing information literacy throughout the course of this class. I also feel like we will continue to focus and learn more about information literacy in this class, our education, and professional careers.  Learning how to peer review our groupmates 2nd genre will be beneficial to know what to expect with the remaining genres.  This also gives us things to think about while creating our next genre, like another way to evaluate our work before we publish it. 

A8.3: Information Literacy

What [do you know/can you find out] about information literacy?
Prior to this class, I did not really have any knowledge about information literacy. However, through an assignment from early in the semester, we read a few articles and discussed what information literacy was.  From that assignment I recall that information literacy basically relates to how you obtain and use information.  In order to find how to become literate in a digital society I had to conduct some research on the subject.  First, I found that information literacy, according to the National Forum on Information Literacy, is the ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the information for whatever the specific purpose may be.  The next website I found, S.O.S for Information Literacy, was very interesting to me because it was soley dedicated to educators to help them teach information literacy to students.  Such things like different helpful links and lesson plans are offered on the site.  Information litearcy is a dynamic concept and very valuable to us as college students.

What are your reactions to the idea that there are certain information skills?
I completely agree that there are certain skills that a person must possess in order to be information literate; especially in the digital world.  I specifically have encountered this with my own family.  I would consider my sister and I to be the most information literate people in my family.  My father, working at a phone company, often with DSL, knows quite a bit about the internet, however my mother is definitely the least information literate of us all in the digital world.  Because finding information on the internet requires certain skills like knowing where to go to access information, how to access the information, and then how to use the information I can say with quite certainty that everyone in our family has tried to teach my mom these skills at least 3-5 times each.  I think this demonstrates the fact that there are certain skills people must possess to be information literate, especially in a digital world.  I also feel that this can be attributed to a few different things like the differences in generation and how often you actually use the internet. 

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling? 
I believe that this new literacy is and already has changed education/schooling.  Before people had computers and the internet, people primarily obtained information from journals, books, libraries, etc.  Since the invention of all of the new technology, people can never even leave their homes and still have access to all of these same resources simply through the use of the internet.  I feel like this “new” literacy will continue to grow in schools at a very rapid pace.  Students have more access now to information than 20 years ago, so I can only imagine what technology will allow students to do 20 years from now.  In schools today, any student who does not have access to the internet is probably at a great disadvantage compared to their classmates. 

Week 7 Reflection

Aims and Objectives: This week I wanted to come up with a good draft for my poem for the MRP. I am not very artistic or creative so I knew that it would take me a while to come up with a good poem.  I also knew that I was going out of town over the weekend so I wanted to get at least one or two assignments done before I left so I would have a few left and could get all of the assignments done in time.

Declarative Knowledge: This week I learned some different forms of poetry.  I have not had a lot of experience with poetry so I was introduced to a few different kinds of poems.  One of the new forms was a found poem.  The poem I chose and had some previous experience with was an acrostic poem.  I also reflected on what we learned and discussed about copyrights.  This was enlightening to me because I think copyrights are confusing.  The newest thing I learned about this week was photo-visual literacy.  I did not have any previous knowledge of the concept and researched the topic to discover that it is basically the ability to use and understand images or photos.  Photo-visual literacy requires certain skills in order to be considered visually literate.

Procedural Knowledge: In order to create my poem for my 3rd genre, I had to creat it as a page in my weblog.  I then had to choose the word/words that I wanted to use and creatively think from the perspective of a mother with a child who will receive a cochlear implant.  I chose the words “cochlear implants” to be the starting letters of each line of my poem.  I then thought carefully and went back and completed each line to add meaning to my poem.  After completing my poem I then saved and published it as a page to my weblog.  Next, I reflected on our group discussion from 9/27/06. I went to the transcript of our discussion and read over it carefully.  I identified what my main contribution was, what questions our group came up with, how and if we answered the questions, and how I related what we learned to my own work. After reflecting on these areas, I posted my reflection to my weblog.  I then stopped by Mrs. McComas’s office and made an appointment with her to discuss my project.  Next, to find information on photo-visual litearcy since I did not know what it was, I conducted a search on the Internet.  After finding what it was, I also provided the links to where I found the information.  I then saved and published my reflection to my weblog and responded to my groupmates refections.

Conditional Knowledge: I am not very confident with writing poetry, but I tried very hard to come up with a good poem this week.  I hope I portrayed the feelings of a parent with a child who is deaf and must undergo major surgery.  I think poetry is a good way to express emotions and can be used effectively to display those feelings.  Reflecting on our discussion concerning copyrights helped me review what we learned and how we should apply it to our own research.  Copyrights are very important and should be taken very seriously.  This will be helpful when doing future research to be aware of the copyright policies.  Learning about photo-visual literacy was interesting because I already knew it existed, but I was not aware the process actually had a name.  Knowing that practice helps people become visually literate will help me as a student trying to understand concepts.  I also feel it will be important when working with and trying to teach people things in therapy.  Photos and images are commonly used so we should try and help people become more visually literate.

A7.4: Photo-visual Literacy

What [do you know/can you find out] about photo-visual literacy? 
I originally did not really know that much about photo-visual literacy. However, since we have previously learned about information literacy in this class, I had an idea of what photo-visual literacy consisted of.  After searching for more information on photo-visual literacy I found that it is basically the ability to use and understand images.  According to the International Visual Literacy Association visual literacy is developing the ability to look at an image while also using other sensory experiences to understand something.  Once these abilities are acquired, a person can interpret objects, symbols, and visible actions in order to communicate with others.  The author additionally mentions that it is hard to find an agreed upon definition of visual literacy because of the complexity of the subject. 
The Oakland Museum of California provides photo-visual literacy activities for students.  They also say that students become visually literate by visually encoding and visually decoding.  Thus, meaning that students express themselves through visual from and interpret/understand the meaning of visual forms.  Further information is provided about how our own personal experiences and opinions influence how we interpret photos.  I think it is interesting that each and every person will possibly interpret the same picture differently because of their own personal experiences.    

What are your reactions to the idea that there are certain skills?
After reading and learning more about photo-visual literacy, I agree that there are certain skills that a person must posses.  It is interesting to me that there are actually activities that can help someone improve their photo-visual literacy skills.  This demonstrates the fact that the more people practice, the more visually literate the person will become.  I am probably not the most visually literate person, but I feel like I know enough that I can walk myself through something given the context and trial and error.  I have had enough experience with it to understand photos and images.

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?
I think that photo-visual literacy has and will continue to change education/schooling.  Thinking back to my early education, I don’t believe we started really using computers or different visual forms until much later compared to schools today.  From doing Energy Express, a summer reading program for children in K-3rd grade, I know that more emphasis is now put on using diagrams, charts, or other forms of visual information then when I was in school.  We were encouraged to provide some sort of visual activity such as drawing, making a Vin diagram, or other charts for almost every book or story that we read.  This was a way to tie all of the information that we discussed together for all the children.  I also have a good friend who is currently teaching 2nd grade, and she is always telling me about their art projects and different diagrams they use.  This reminds me of the survey we took near the beginning of this semester about what kind of learners we were.  I think having more practice in schools with photo-visual literacy will improve their skills and be an advantage to the students.

A7.3: Reflection on Discussion of 9/27/06

What was your primary contribution to the discussion?
My primary contribution to our discussion was how copyrights allow for legal action to occur if necessary.  There are several requirements for fair use, and if these are not followed then something can legally be done.  I also contributed by attempting to find the answers to our questions about public domain and the use of images.  Although I did not find the exact, whole answer to each question, I did find helpful information that gave us a start for answering the questions. 

What questions emerged from your group discussion?
One of the main questions our group discussed was whether each different organization has their own set of “rules” for their pictures or logos and what they can or can’t be used for. Additionally, how to find that information for each organization.

Another question our group came up with was how long are copyrights good for? And when does something become public domain?

Our group also wondered how you correctly cite a picture or image?

What questions were answered for you in your group discussion?
 We found information from the UT Crash Course in Copyright concerning students use of images and also information about public domain.  The site showed that anything published before 1978 does not become public domain until 70 years after the author’s death, or if corporate author 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.  There are several other guidelines that are listed on this site that additionally explain public domain.  We also found that on this site it explains that students can use images for personal study, assignments, or requirements for classes.  However, I don’t believe this is the whole answer to the question so it is important to read the additional information about the subject and seek out the entire answer.

How will you apply what you learned in the readings and discussion to your own work?
During our discussion I learned several things in regard to copyrights.  I was not aware that once something is written, despite where, it is copyrighted.   Also, I did not really know about when copyrights “run out” and public domain.  Unlike before, I now see that I truly, and in a sense legally have rights for my own work.  No one can take my words or ideas and take credit for them as their own.  This also makes me realize that I have to be extremely careful when doing my research.  Remembering to cite ideas along with direct quotes is very important for the MRP.

In our group we also discussed the site turnitin.com where you turn papers into the website to basically see if you have plagarized. We discussed how it is controversial because teachers make you turn in your paper, despite whether you want to or not.  I thought this was very intersting in relation to what we read about copyrights.  I never would have really thought about the debate until our discussion.