Digital Literacy, Web Literacy, Media Literacy, Information Literacy - or Just Plain LITERACY???

We are well-into our third topic of #etmooc.  We were asked to consider the following questions:

• What does it mean to be digitally literate? 
• What is the difference between being digital literate and web literate?
• What digital competencies and skills do your learners demonstrate through their daily use of technology?

I can honestly say, that until this #etmooc, I never considered these questions before.  I thought of digital literacy as being equivalent to the ability to use Web 2.0 tools. But  I never even stopped to think what is meant by "Web 2.0 tools". 

So, today, I looked up "Web 2.0 tools" and my first hit brought me to Discovery Education which said "Web 2.0 is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. It's also about ease of use." 

As I've pondered these questions this week, I became aware of how very little I have considered this topic in the past and how little I know about it.  

On Wikipedia, I found the following definition of digital literacy:

Digital literacy is the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate and create information using a range of digital technologies. It requires one "to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms".^[1] Digital literacy does not replace traditional forms of literacy, it builds upon the foundation of traditional forms of literacy.^[2] Digital literacy is the marrying of the two terms digital and literacy, however, it is much more than a combination of the two terms. Digital information is a symbolic representation of data, and literacy refers to the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word.

In our province, we report on four strands of Language - Oral, Reading, Writing and Media Literacy.

I'm not even sure what is meant by "Media Literacy".  Is that the same as "Digital Literacy?" It seems more encompassing than Digital Literacy.  In fact, isn't every form of communication a medium and therefore part of Media Literacy?  Or should we consider Media Literacy to refer to multi-media literacy?

You see, the more I think about it, the more questions I have and the more confused I get!

So, today I decided it doesn't matter.  

What is important is that I consider what it means to be LITERATE.  To me, being literate means being able to use expressive and receptive communication skills to collaborate, innovate, create, and participate with others.  Being literate means being able to think critically about incoming information and being able to synthesize that information.  It means being able to share ideas in a coherent way so as to be understood by others.

When I was a Girl Guide, (a long, long time ago), I had to learn how to use flag semaphore, (a way to communicate using flags) in order to earn certain badges.  I never understood why I needed to learn flag semaphore.  What good is knowing a form of communication if there is no one out there to communicate with using that particular medium?  I don't know how to speak Latin, and yet I still consider myself literate, but fifty years ago, I might not have been considered literate without a working knowledge of Latin.  Years ago, you had to be fluent in Morse code to be a pilot - that is not longer the case either. 

What it means to be literate changes with time.  As the world changes, and we develop new ways of communicating with one another, we must adopt these new methods to be currently literate.  What it means to be "literate" changes as our modes of communication change.  I believe that in this 21st Century, in order to be literate, we have to have a working knowledge of digital tools in order to communicate most effectively.  And that is what Digital Literacy means to me. 

Networking in My Zone of Proximal Development

CC licensed photo  shared by Flickr user edenpictures

When my nephew Jack was five years old, he was afraid to swim in the deep end.  My sister, Jennifer, put him in swimming lessons but Jack politely refused to go into the deep end of the pool with his swimming teacher.   I had a pool in my backyard and Jen asked if she could bring Jack over during the summer to practise.   I suggested she also bring a friend for Jack, someone who could swim a bit better than himself.  

I had noticed over the years that my own children didn't try to copy accomplished swimmers when they were learning to swim, but if they saw a peer, someone who was just a bit better at swimming than they, trying out new things in the water, they would watch carefully, and then attempt it themselves.  

This observation proved true for Jack as well.  He came swimming with his little friend Natalie.  Natalie was a novice swimmer as well, but she was just a bit more daring.  As she dog-paddled across the width of the pool in the deep end, Jack studied her, and it wasn't long before he was doing it too.  The next thing we knew, he and Natalie were challenging one another to jump in, or to swim the length of the pool; they even made a "slide" out of a float and slid into the deep end laughing and screaming. 

My etmooc experience has been very similar to Jack's swimming journey.  I have enjoyed the webinars greatly, but sometimes, the information is over my head and I have to watch the archived videos again and again to try to understand.  (It is driving my husband nuts!).  I have also been following most of the Google+ Etmooc Community posts, but many of my fellow etmoocers are experienced tech users with professions in IT and much of what they share is beyond my scope.   

Just like Jack, the people I learn most from are my peers, the etmoocers who know just a bit more than I do.  I think this is why the networking component of the etmooc is so critical.  I also think this is why I have been enjoying and learning so much in the etmooc.   Reading a range of all of the posts, I have found that I understand some posts better than others - those are the people I follow and network with, we learn together that way.  

Vygostsky's Zone of Proximal Development suggests that I learn best when a task is just slightly out of my reach and I am supported in learning how to accomplish that task (in school, we call this "guided instruction").  Sometimes, an expert isn't the best person to support me in that learning, they simply know too much, and perhaps forget how little I know.   But if I learn with someone within my ZPD, someone who knows just a bit more than I do, we can support one another to accomplish things we couldn't do alone.

This video is a quick refresher on ZPD:

The same holds true in my classroom.  I need to talk less and let my students talk more because it is through the conversations they have with one another that most of their learning will take place. 

A Digital Math Story

On Monday, at a 21st Century workshop, I learned about the SAMR, a model for the use of technology in the classroom.   But even before I saw this model, I had already decided that if I am going to be teaching with technology, I want to use the technology to teach differently.  I don't want to use technology as a substitute for our old Blackline Masters.  I started teaching with the SMART board five years ago, I want to do more with it than use it as a fancy whiteboard.

Since I started the etMOOC (Massive Online Open Course about educational technology), I've been  contemplating how to make students creators of knowledge.  21st Century learners are collaborators, creators, and sharers.  I knew that before, but the etMOOC has been helping me to make that into a reality in my classroom. 

During that same Monday workshop, I was introduced to a new version of Bloom's Taxonomy made for iPads: 

The point, of course, is that the highest level of thinking is creating or synthesizing, so I have been spending my week exploring how I can have my students create their own knowledge. 

I liked the way +Michael Buist uploaded a video of his students' completing a math task.  You can see in the video how he scaffolds their learning and understanding.  I was truly inspired by that video.  To me, this was a Digital Math Story.

I decided to have my students create videos of their math solutions in a similar way.  I used the ShowMe app because it is free and so easy to learn and use.  My students quickly caught on and in their collaborative groups, they used the ShowMe app to explain how they used the volume of rectangular prisms to solve math problems.  As always, I was walking around the class while the students were doing their work.  I was thrilled because they all seemed to be understanding the math concepts.  I asked them questions, they gave appropriate answers.  During the consolidation of our math class, we watched one of the videos.  We made comments and asked more questions.  Everything seemed great.  But then when I got home, I watched the rest of the videos, and I discovered so many misconceptions as I listened to the conversations they were having while they were solving the problem.  It was incredible learning for me.  

The next day we watched the videos and discussed everyone's misconceptions.  We also reviewed the first part of the 4-Part Problem Solving Model, because I realized that while my students understood the math, they weren't always understanding or answering the question.  

Today, we solved another math problem; this one required that they use their knowledge and understanding of the surface area of rectangular prisms.   I asked only two groups to create videos.  I chose one of the groups because they had previously demonstrated that they made certain to understand the problem before moving on.  Then I showed their video to the class as a model for how to go through the first step of the Problem Solving model.  

One of my students posted this on Twitter.  I asked her to explain how making the ShowMe videos was helpful and she said, "When I explain it, I understand it better afterward".  And THAT is why it is so important to be a knowledge creator, collaborator and sharer in the 21st Century!

Making A GIF- If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again - And Then Ask Your PLN for HELP!

This is my very first (and only) GIF.  I cannot begin to explain all of the learning that went into my being able to create this little baby - it's the story of my backyard by the way - but the hoops I had to jump through to create this animated image are actually irrelevant.

What IS important, is that when I first began watching Jim Groom's session on creating GIFs, my immediate thought was, "This is over my head, not for me, it will be a long time, if ever, before I can do something like that!".

But all week long, people in our etmooc community were posting their GIFs.  How hard could it be?  I felt out of the loop.

With the help of my husband, (much against his wishes, he has been learning right along with me!), I managed to create a GIF using the free GIMP software suggested in the Tumblr tutorial we were sent in our etmooc Digital Storytelling introduction.

I was so proud of myself for being able to create this silly little GIF; but then couldn't figure out how to upload it to my blog or share it on Google+.  Each time I tried, it would lose its animation.  So I posted a question in the Google+ community.  With the help of +Alison Seaman and +Andrew Forgrave I was finally able to upload it.

What did I learn?  I learned that I can do things I never thought possible; that an online PLN is an incredibly powerful resource; that learning is not easy, but persistence and determination will be rewarded; and that success feels really, really good!

As I re-read this post, I realize that as a student, learning was always easy for me.  Math, Language, Science, loved them all... I never had trouble in school.  Going through this etmooc, I feel, for the very first time, like a struggling student.  It has given me so much empathy for those children whom I serve that just don't "get it" the first time around.  I think that is the most powerful piece of learning in this etmooc for me.

Digital Storytelling - What Is It?

I thought I was on information over-load after the first three weeks of the etMOOC (Massive Open Online Course) I signed up for.  Last weekend, we were introduced to our new topic: Digital Storytelling.  I have been to workshops before on Digital Storytelling, actually even created some of my own "stories" using Movie Maker, so I thought this week would be easier.

I was wrong!

It was suggested that we start the week by considering the definition of Digital Storytelling as found in Wikipedia:  "Digital Storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'".  I soon realized that there are as many different definitions of Digital Storytelling out there as there are computers!  Everyone has a different idea of what Digital Storytelling is.

My children say I process slowly; actually, their term is "Mom's buffering".  Well, I have spent most of this week "buffering".  While I've been reading, viewing, and listening to all of my fellow etmoocers' different submissions, their "stories", I've been trying to decide what "story" means to me.  I believe the term "digital" is actually irrelevant - what interests me is what do we mean by the word story.

This buffering time made me realize that without consciously thinking about it, I had come to see the word "story" as being synonymous with the word "narrative".  I  no longer believe that to be true.  I believe now that a narrative is just one form of "story".  How narrow is our thinking so often in Education!  In our school board, we teach the children that there are six forms of writing:  Narrative, Persuasive, Report, Recount, Explanation, and Procedural.  Isn't that just so silly?  Why do we always try to pigeon-whole things in Education?  Isn't almost EVERY good piece of text persuasive?

And so what are my blog posts?  Are they recounts?  No - I don't think so.  Are they informational?  Certainly they contain bits of information, but they are definitely not reports or explanations.  I think of them as reflections.  What form of writing does THAT fit into?

And so I have discovered that I fell into the educational trap of thinking in black and white, thinking in the box, and was shocked to realize that at some point in my adult years, I had narrowly limited the story to a narrative!

STORY is so much more!  I have been trying all week to put into words what STORY is.  STORY is sharing your vision, your passion, your understanding, your wisdom, your pain, your joy, yourself.

One simple activity we were asked to do in the etmooc was to create a Six Word Story.  Here is one I created with the app Phoster.

I was also inspired by a video I saw in our Google+ Etmooc Community shared by +Alec Couros.  It was a video of a bicycle journey in Barcelona at the turn of the century.

 It made me think of some video footage that my husband took from a motorized rickshaw in Bangalore, India in 2010.  I spliced the footage together rather quickly and sloppily using Movie Maker and then uploaded it to Youtube - my first ever submission to Youtube - no applause necessary.

My husband named it "Chaotic Passage".  I think it makes an excellent metaphor for this Etmooc learning journey I have been on.  Learning is rarely smooth, there are twists and turns, obstacles and distractions along the way.  And if you're lucky, tu peux voir des vaches dans la rue!

Why Are We Doing This?

In my last post I mentioned that I used Google Docs for the first time ever with my students to create an on-line survey.  This may sound like an easy task, and in the end it was, but for my students and I, getting there was not so easy.

I love using technology.  I find all of the digital tools exciting, fun to use, and actually, in the end, they do make my life easier.  But I also find technology very intimidating.  I'm ashamed to admit this because the people in the etmooc are so tech savvy.  But I have decided to come clean because it dawns on me that I'm probably not alone.

When I look at a webpage, I'm still overwhelmed.  I grew up in a linear world where there were no hyperlinks.  Following the instructions on a webpage can be really challenging for me.  I've often read the instruction to "click on the tools icon from the settings menu" only to spend 10 minutes scanning the page unable to find the settings menu!  When this happens to me, and it happens at least once a week, I call my son Jordan over to help.

This is usually how the conversation goes:

ME:  Jordan, come help, PLEASE, I'm trying to add a widget to my blog but I can't find the settings button, and I'm getting REALLY FRUSTRATED!!!

JORDAN: Sorry Mom, can't help, don't blog.

ME:  I KNOW you don't blog!!!  But you will be able to understand these instructions.

JORDAN: Just do what it says on the page.

ME: PLEASE just help me find the **%&** button!!!

JORDAN (saunters over, glances at the screen, grabs the mouse, clicks the menu):  It's right there! How could you miss that?!?!?

So when I decided to create on-line surveys with my students to help them learn about Data Management, this was a daunting task.

First, I thought we would use Poll Everywhere which I found through a Google search.  This turned out to be a really handy tool and I thought it would be perfect because it included a VIDEO on how to use it!  We watched the video and created our polls, but discovered sharing the link was not easy. This seems to be a really great tool for a teacher to use in real-time with her students if they each have a device and can respond  in real-time.  I will definitely use this tool, but it was not helpful for what I wanted to do with my students at this time.  My students became frustrated, I became frustrated.

I quickly opened my Survey Monkey account.  I thought I could just have them create their surveys via my account; I'd used Survey Monkey once before.  But we were running out of time, the period was almost over, and I had forgotten how many steps it is to set up a survey on Survey Monkey.  It is an excellent tool, but I wanted something quick and easy - it takes me forever to navigate the steps of creating a survey!

My students started complaining... "Why are we even doing this?" "Why can't we just write our survey questions and go survey the kids in the other classes?" "Why can't we just collect our data by hand and draw our own graphs?"

I had a moment of doubt.  Why were we doing this?  Was it because I wanted to use technology for technology's sake?  Was this exercise in futility helping my students to learn about Data Management? 

I had to think - What were my goals?

• I wanted my students to see that an increased sample size really does make your data more meaningful
• I wanted my students to see that your population, (who you choose to survey), will impact your data

Yes, mucking through the technology was worth it, using on-line tools would be the best way to achieve those goals.

But now I had a new goal as well.  I wanted my students to see that sometimes, we have to go back to the drawing board.  I wanted my students to understand that sometimes learning is messy and bumpy.  Sometimes things don't go the way you plan.  So you have to re-assess, start over, and create a new plan.

I told my students we'd pause for the day, and start over tomorrow.  For homework, I found a Youtube video on how to use Google Docs to create an on-line survey.
This is the one I chose:

We watched it together as a class.  They caught on so quickly, thank goodness, because I couldn't find the button that lets you add a new question!!!!  (They told me he showed us how right in the video, but somehow I missed it!)

I can't wait until tomorrow, we are going to analyze the results of our survey together!

Two Weeks into ETMOOC; How Have I Changed?

I am two weeks into my first ever MOOC - Massive (Gargantuan, Humongous, Ginormous) Open On-line Course (Community?) and I'm looking for signs of learning.

I signed up for this course, a newbie on Twitter, to learn more about digital tools.  I wanted to learn about how to help my students become "connected learners".   I hoped that the mysterious Twitterverse would begin to make more sense to me; I wanted to learn about Digital Storytelling, VoiceThread and Google Docs.

I am getting SO MUCH MORE than I bargained for!

Yes, I have learned how to use Google Docs - today my students and I created our very first Google Survey  for our unit on Data Management (we tweeted it, we emailed it, I think I should probably post it on Facebook - we can't wait to start reading the results!) I am using Twitter regularly to connect with other educators, I have even been using TweetDeck to manage the lists and hashtags I am following! I'm getting in there and tweeting, no longer just a lurker.  Last week, I created a Twitter account for my class!  We are now looking for other mid-level classes to follow (@SixesRSuper).

I've got a Diigo account to collate, high-light and annotate my e-reading material, and I've signed on to Google Reader to help manage all of the amazing educational blogs I've been following - so much simpler!

But that is not what I'm excited about.  I'm excited because I've discovered there is a WHOLE BIG WORLD out there that has welcomed me, that I am a part of, a world of other passionate excited educators who want to collaborate with ME!  That amazes me...

After I clicked the submit button, and signed on for this MOOC, I went to Youtube to get an idea of what I had signed on for. I found this video by Dave Cormier.  At the time, I was doubtful that it could happen the way Dave portrayed in the video.

But much to my delight, it happened!  I have met wonderful and inspiring educators that I have connected with. Together, thanks to Sheri Edwards, we are a neighbourhood.

I have learned how to learn from other educators just like myself.  I wanted to learn how to "connect" my students, I learned also how to "connect" myself.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

I am not just learning HOW to connect by WHY connect.  I never anticipated how much THINKING I would be doing in this MOOC!

On his blog, Dave Cormier writes this about learning:

(It is) "Not a series of remembered ideas, reproduced for testing, and quickly forgotten. But something flexible that is already integrated with the other things a learner knows. Most things that we value ‘knowing’ are not things that are easily pointed to. Knowing is a long process of becoming (think of it in the sense of ‘becoming an expert’) where you actually change the way you perceive the world based on new understandings. You change and grow as new learning becomes part of the things you know."

As defined by Dave, I AM LEARNING.  

Last week, I was sent a link to a blog post entitled:
Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Teaching by Krista Moroder.
Basically, she reminds us that good pedagogy should always be our focus.  Technology is only the tool that helps good educators do their jobs even better.  I would now change the title of this post to:   Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Learning with Technology. 

I don't recall anyone actually using the term "pedagogy" in this MOOC, but really, all of the conversation that has taken place is NOT about technology but about pedagogy.  I've been thinking about pedagogy in ways I never thought about it before.  I have been examining why and how we get our students to collaborate.  I've been considering whether education should be a "bazaar or a cathedral", I've been thinking about whether we are growing "consumers or creators" and tonight my brain is on fire thinking about how a rhizome can be a metaphor for learning! "Learning is about preparing for uncertainty" - now really, that is a game changer, isn't it?

Why Collaborate?

So much has been happening this week: working on report cards, meeting with colleagues on our School Improvement Team to plan for our up-coming School Effectiveness Review, and following the "happenings" on #etmooc.  And all the while, I've been "curating" (which to me means absorbing the new information and giving it time to curate while I reflect on it) - that's my new word of the week.

My cousin has been following my blog, she's always had a keen interest in Education.  Lynda and I frequently like to analyze the current education system and discuss our "ideal" for what education could and should be.  She is an excellent "critical friend" for me as I reflect on my practice.

This week, Lynda said: "I don't understand why the big push for collaboration?  What is wrong with individual ideas?  Individual work?  Why have we decided that committees are suddenly productive?"  

So the goal of this blog post is to synthesize all that I have been curating this week so that it somehow makes sense to me and to use that newly gained knowledge and understanding to help respond to Lynda's question.

I participated in Alec Couros' Blackboard Collaborate Session on Connected Learning.  In the chat box, people commented on how much more they appreciated their PLN (Personal Learning Network) over their PLC (Professional Learning Community).  I have been deliberating over those comments all week.  I've also been reading all of the posts by Sheri Edwards whom I have connected with from our etmooc community.  Sheri has been synthesizing all of the blog posts on Connected Learning we've been reading - her most recent post is called "Building Neighborhoods".

I believe it was Ben Wilkoff who coined the term "neighbourhoods" to describe like-minded individuals with a common vision who connect together to share ideas and learn from one another.  Sheri has created a neighbourhood via our blogs, a wiki, twitter and a diigo group for middle level educators.  I am so honoured and excited to be included in this Personal Learning Network.  Sheri says, "These neighborhoods support each other in efforts to transform education, to make changes for our students' futures".

I now see my PLN as a group of educators who share a common vision, who question together, seek answers together, and explore together.  How is this different from the Professional Learning Community I am a part of at my school?  I choose to be a part of my PLN, but I didn't choose to be a part of my PLC.  Does that make the PLC any less important?  I don't think so.

The difference is that a PLC might not share a common vision.  In fact, our opinions might be quite divergent.  That can make working in a PLC sometimes less than easy.  How does this relate to Lynda's question about asking our students to collaborate?  When we work together in a PLC, we have a common goal - student achievement.  But we don't always agree on how to achieve that goal.  Working in a PLC often involves having to defend my beliefs and philosophies.  It also demands that I listen to and consider the opinions of others.  Could I get things done more quickly on my own?  Definitely!  But working with people who think differently than I do forces me to re-evaluate my thinking.  I wouldn't do that if I only ever worked on my own or with people who think the way I do.

I think someone posted this video sometime in the last two weeks on Google+.  Margaret Heffernan expresses the importance of listening to divergent opinions far better than I ever could.

So what does this have to do with our students?  I think our students need to be "connected" to like-minded individuals that help them to "grow" their beliefs and understandings.  But I think they also need to collaborate with people who may or may not agree with their beliefs, because it is only through questioning that we really get to test out our understandings and theories.

This means that as educators we have a job to do.  We can't just group our students and say "work together".  We have to explicitly TEACH them how to work collaboratively together toward a common goal.  How do we disagree?  How do we respond, question, re-think?  How do we learn from one another?

And I think we need to give our students time to "curate" all of the new ideas that they are being exposed to. I know my brain needs plenty of time to curate!

My "Ravenous Demand" - #etmooc

My husband is away in Texas tonight.  My kids are at a concert.  I have the house to myself, and that is a really good thing, because it meant I could spend the night at the computer reading, absorbing, collaborating, learning, reflecting.

Week #1 of my first-ever MOOC is not even over yet and I feel as though I have been pushed and pulled and stretched in every which direction.  I no longer remember who shared, posted, linked what; BUT, I remember all of the new things that I learned.  And I had a small epiphany this week that I shared with my students.

One of the themes this week was "How do you make your learning visible?" And it came to me today that learning = change.  If I haven't changed the way I think, feel, understand, then I haven't learned anything.  Tony Stead says it all the time, "I used to think.... But now I think...."  If you can fill in this statement you have made your learning visible. I explained to my students how important mistakes are because they help us to make our learning visible - they help us to see how we have changed.

In the past week, every time someone in the etmooc community posted a reflection or a question about making learning visible it left me wondering "How DO I make my learning visible to OTHERS?"  But tonight I participated in Sue Waters' Blackboard Discussion on Blogging and we talked about why we blog.  Many of the participants said they blog to reflect.  One brilliant person (wish I could remember the name) said "I write to create myself" (sorry if I misquoted).  I reflected on that a long time.

Tonight I realize that I don't need to make my learning visible to anyone else other than myself.  I need to look at myself and think - How have I changed? And if I can answer that question I will have made my learning visible to ME.

One of the things that impacted me most deeply this week was a shared youtube video of David Wiley on Openness in Education.  He talks about how we can give away knowledge freely without losing it; in this information age, "Digital expressions of expertise is nonrivalrous".  I am so thankful that all of my fellow-etmoocers are so willing to share their knowledge and expertise with me without rivalry  because I have a "ravenous demand" to learn and change and grow.

#ETMOOC

I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone now.  I am going to join my first MOOC - Massive Open Online Course.  I'm hoping I can figure it all out, and that my fellow-bloggers will be patient with me.  I"m really excited, but kind of nervous too.  I think it is important to put myself in the role of "student"; it helps me appreciate what my own students are going through every time I ask them to take a risk and go out on a limb. 

As part of the MOOC, I will be posting/sharing all of the work for my course here under the label "ETMOOC".