Digital Media Literacy Blog

Question- What is the relationship between Turkle and Wesch? Do you see them as allies, or opponents in this discussion of new media and technology? As I dove into both of these articles, I had trouble making a connection between Turkle and Wesch's ideas and main points. Turkle relays the idea that conversation is becoming a dying art because technology is consuming the ability and desire to do so. Turkle does an exemplary job at holding onto the negative impact that technology has had on human relationships. One of my favorite lines from the article reads, " We are tempted to think that our little “sips” of online connection add up to a big gulp of real conversation" (pg.2) Connections made through technology tend to give people the sense that that is enough to create real conversation and connections that are equal to what could be in person.  In turn, Wesch's article revolved around a much broader idea of communication and relating it to student succe...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TVUrr1NHXWfdf4pW4_pWimwGkT67kjQrappf9Qz3wVA/edit?usp=sharing

We made a digital poster to challenge the way that our stores are set up and organized by gender. There is a Chapter in Rethinking Popular Culture and Media By Marshall and Sensoy that talks about the toy aisles in stores how the conflict they present. "Miles of Isles of Sexism" was mentioned in a classmates blog and my partner Stefanie and I ran with it by making this  digital poster  . I think our thinking process was triggered when Stefanie and I discovered we both read the same classmate's blog and were interested in what the content was challenging. Stefanie suggest we make a gender collaborative shopping aisle and we just went from there. At first, I tried to brainstorm my own idea and was having a tough time. I found the process a lot easier when I had another person to collaborate with. I think this just speaks to how important collaboration is, especially for analytical and critical thinking, and abstract projects/concepts. I liked the fact that we go an option...

Question: Write about your chapter on your blog in a way that will help teach it to the rest of us who have not read it. Include major argument (thesis) and any supporting examples the author uses to explain his or her point. I chose to read The Politics of Children's Literature by Herbert Kohl (pg.81-88). Kohl spends the chapter trying to highlight that children's literature that focusing on telling the stories of an individual do not tell the entire truth. There is underlying stories, people, and conflicts that lead up and build the story that is told in the stories kids read. Kohl chooses to focus on the stories of cultural icons and how they focus on the surface level story because deeper details "are usually considered too sensitive to be dealt with directly in the elementary school classroom" (p.81). Children's books are vehicles to relay information, but only tell one story because that is all kids are believed to be able to bare/handle. Kohl gives in...

Ever used Flocabulary? If you have not, you should definitely give it a try!  Flocabulary is website that gives teachers access to curriculum-based concepts through hip hop music. Nowadays, it seems like the only music on the radio is hip hop, hence why the kids LOVE this. As an elementary educator, I basically sing on a daily basis anyway so finding beats and rhythms that the students can relate to helps out the classroom in a big way. I mainly use this resource to reinforce concepts after whole group instruction by assigning the lyric video to students to watch in a technology station during reading centers. They can listen through twice, and then work on the activity assigned to them as practice through the site as well. My only complaint about the site is that there is little to no differentiation in the assignment pieces to accommodate all students, but the song piece is typically enough. I have students that log on at home and watch the videos over again. If the students rea...

Question:   What is your relationship to Disney and animated children’s culture?  What role did these texts play in your life as a child, if any? In that of any children you share time with? How do your memories challenge or reflect Christensen’s claims? How does Frozen meet or challenge your memories of princess culture Growing up, I used to tell my pediatric doctor that my dream career was becoming Cinderella and living in her castle in Disneyland was my future home.... so Disney was kind of a big deal to me. As a child growing up, I loved watching Disney films, to the point that I watched at least one daily. I would dress up in princess costumes and imagine I was in the movies with my sisters. I relived each movie as if I was preparing for my future role as a princess. To match my dramatic play during the day, we also had the Disney story books ready to go for bedtime. Every night I would be read to sleep with a story about a princess being saved by a prince, or foll...

Here is the video interpretation of the song "What About Us" by P!nk. The song has a very strong political position and we now view this song as P!nk's way of being "one that moves" https://animoto.com/play/kSzDCN8UV8FgMXwMEuy0gQ

Question:   What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky (per our discussion in class and/or per the article above?)  Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology? As I dove into the Boyd reading, I really do feel that automatically associating every millennial and/or young persons as "digital native" creates an assumption that every youth can access technology in many different forms and do it successfully. This is not always the case. Just as individuals carry their own identity traits concerning culture, gender, etc., they also carry an understanding of technology in their identity. One line that stuck out to me in Boyd's work right at the beginning was the line " The rhetoric of 'digital natives,' far from being useful, is often a distraction to understanding the challenges that youth face in a networked world" (Boyd, p.176). Children and teens live in a world where technology is a center of attention, knowle...

As a 24 year old, people would expect me to be "one" with technology and knowing the digital universe. Well, I actual find myself crossing over between a digital immigrant and native. I was raised in a household with very little technology because my parents believed that it was more important for us to be out playing sports and perfecting our craft. Being a kid was all about being active and having fun. My parents taught me that technology would just interfere with being a kid. Yeah, we watched TV, but we had a timer on while we watched it to let us know when we had reached our limit of TV time. It wasn't until I had to walk home from the bus stop in high school that I had received my first cell phone, and had my first encounter with technology. I absolutely loved it! I felt like I finally had the chance to join the rest of the world. But this is an idea I still question to this day. Does technology really connect us with the world? Or does it disconnect us in mo...

Hello Everyone! My name is Victoria, but prefer to go by Tori. I have just recently landed my first full-time teaching job for the upcoming school year as a second grade teacher at Blackstone Valley Prep in Cumberland, RI! Woo-hoo! I'm extremely excited because I get to teach with a multicultural curriculum as I finish up my TESL program here at RIC. Last school year I worked as a part-time teacher in Cranston Public Schools, so I did get some great experience from that.  I really will miss working in that district but BIGGER THINGS ARE HERE! I also work part-time at Lakeshore Learning Store which is a lot of fun. I get to network with a lot of teachers while I'm there. When I'm not teaching or working, I really love to sit outside and read books, or go bowling, or shopping. I am obsessed with Old Navy and Gap. Also Target, but what teacher isn't. I have two lovely cats who I consider to be my children named Romeo and Juliet. When I'm home with them and...