Final Project: Media literacy, Popular Culture & Education

Final Project:
National Junior Honor Society  (prezi)
NGMS SIT (google site from template)
NJHS (weebly for honor society)

Last slide of class:
by Bill Ferriter

    My expectations before taking this class were to learn some “new” technology applications to bring back to my school to train teachers and improve student learning. My idea of Media Literacy was to do a google search for an educational video to engage students in the current curriculum topic we were studying. Throughout the course Dr. Bogad was probing my educational beliefs while engaging my technological quest.  I do not think I really understood the marriage between the two until the last slideof the class, which I think I can sum up by stating the difference between using technology vs technology integration. The former being my mindset before Dr. Bogad’s Curr 501 class and the later being my mindset after the class. This transformation will not only benefit my teaching practices, but my students' learning, and my professional development for NGMS staff. 

               The transformation will take time and energy, which I will relate to a gymnastics competition each element in the transformation as important as the next (i.e. strength, flexibility, power, agility, coordination, and balance), when integrated together is an artistically creative production. This is what I envision for my students as producers rather than consumers as well as myself. My initial pedagogy can be related to "Julie" the cruise director on the Love Boat . In other words, how can we have fun with math and still be learning, nothing too deep or controversial. As I always say, "personal propaganda in the hallway", which allows more time on math, but limits the social impact of their math work. It limits the importance of math in their lives and in our society. The Common Core State Standards not only calls for such connections in the Mathematical Practices Standards, but also in the Grades 6-12 Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. Math is a Technical subject that can be used to bring cultural awareness and social justice . Infusing the technical subjects (i.e. math) with cultural and social issues will help students develop much needed critical thinking skills such as problem solving, simulation, application, synthesis, performance etc.Integration of technology can be an important aspect of reaching these higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomies. There is actually a great visual that supports the integration of technology with Bloom's Taxonomies. Developing a critical pedagogy will take strength, flexibility, power, agility, coordination and balance as well as time and energy, but these skills are much needed to reach the vision of our school "to prepare every child for the college/technical school or career of choice". This type of pedagogy is also supported by the 21st Century Learning .

         Do we need technology to get to the critical pedagogy we need in today's learning? As my mom always told me there is a difference between needs and wants. But if we have the technology we need or want, then integrate it rather than just use it. There is actually a great checklist for helping us integrate technology rather than just use it. Beth Holland, Communications and Instruction at the EDTechTeacher, relates using technology as a crutch rather than innovation and recommends getting rid of the crutches  in her blog. Bill Ferriter in a blog on Center for Teaching Quality, stated that students do not need technology to be motivated. They need opportunities to make a difference. In Dr. Bowser's blog, she claims "In order for our students to compete in the 21st century, they must be provided with an education that will arm them with the skills necessary for success in this new global world." She also, outlines the benefits of integrating Smart Boards into the classroom. Since there is no turning back from the technology takeover, we as teachers need to invest in becoming proficient as digital immigrants in order to effectively integrate technology rather than just using technology as another tool to deliver information for students to consume. As the technology support person for our school, my goal is to help teachers use their Smart Boards and technology more interactively for students to produce rather than just consume. 
       In my project for this class, I created a Weebly website for the National Junior Honor Society as well as a Prezi presentation for the induction ceremony. I am always scrambling at the end of the year with the SIP, SLOs, grades, graduation, etc. I really needed time to explore the Prezi and the format.I was not sure how I wanted the Prezi to look, so I searched for NJHS Prezis already made and got some ideas. There were over a 1000 Prezis made about this topic. Some Chapters make a Prezi for each meeting. I started creating my own and chose different designs, then I decided to edit the slides to incorporate my three favorite styles. I referenced the originals on the first slide instead of the last. I also fixed the title by hovering over the title before going into edit. Finally, I embedded the video to play as the presentation clicks to the slide. Over all I think it was a success. I will be sending it to my principal for approval.
         When we first were learning about Prezi presentations, I thought I was a more linear thinker and this was not going to work for me. After exploring and creating several different Prezi presentations, I am not sure why some one would ever use Powerpoint again. I know how difficult it was to create Jeopardy games using Powerpoint because of their linear nature. What is great about the Prezi, the path can be altered very easily without deleting any slides. You can just take them out of the path, but leave the slides changing the paths depending on the audience. Again, I need to rethink how students can be producers and demonstrate their knowledge using Prezi. 
      I am tutoring this summer, so I decided to have the student participate in a Webquest on Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Theorem and create a Glogster Poster to summarize his learning. He was actively engaged for 3 hours. While creating the Glogster, I noticed he put a picture of Pascal's Triangle, and we had a great conversation of why that triangle did not represent the theorem we were studying. He was a consumer in a nontraditional method as well as producer.
      I was also inspired by the Google Calendar to explore the Google Sites. I used one of the templates and 3 hours later I have a great site for the School Improvement site with the same calendar as the NJHS. They are the same link, so less to update.
       In conclusion, I have learned to rethink my goals when integrating technology and my goal to create more opportunities for students as producer. I am working on creating a school website to organize all the teacher sites and resources for our school. As the technology support person, I will emphasize integrating technology to "raise awareness, start conversations, answer student's questions, join partners, change minds, make a difference, take action, and make a difference" (Ferriter, 2013) The transformation will not happen overnight, but by exploring, applying, synthesizing, and producing digital literacy in my classroom and others' classrooms, we will closer to being proficient digital immigrants supporting our digital natives.