Becca's Media Lit Blog

How does this Ted Talk make you think about your role with young people in an online environment? This was a really interesting Ted Talk .  I have some mixed emotions and reactions to Mitra’s work and his findings.  It certainly is a timely Ted Talk to listen to given our last several months at home.  I keep going back to the idea that young children shouldn’t be sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time.  So much of their learning comes from their peers during play.   I think one of my biggest challenges was trying to figure out how I was going to get my 5 and 6 year old students to learn this list of skills that I needed them to learn. I remember saying to the children and their parents that I wanted them to work on reading,writing and math every day.  I wanted them to worry less about completing each activity I set up for them but rather working on making progress in these 3 areas.  Some families felt better completing the work I pushed out online while others felt more suc

What is the relationship between Turkle and Wesch? Do you see them as allies or opponents in this discussion of new media and technology? Sherry Turkle Professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, believes that we are alone together is this new digital world. Devices have become so psychologically powerful that they change what we do and who we are.   We now see people using phones during meetings, classes, and even in the same room as the people we have chosen to spend time with.  This has somehow become accepted practice.  She argues that technology is actually keeping us from making the connections that we say we deeply crave.  It is keeping us in a state of isolation limbo.  She explains the Goldilocks Effect.  We don’t want to be too close to others, too far apart, but just right.  Technology, according to Turkle, gives us the control of how we want to interact and how much we want to interact. It allows us to edit our interactions.  Real life doesn’t allow this. 

                               I had seen most of Moana before.  I can’t  say that I had properly paid attention to the whole thing each time I had seen it though.  As my children have gotten a little older, and my daughter not being a stereotypical little girl who is into princesses, we haven’t been watching as many animated movies lately.  That being said, Moana had been one that both my daughter and I had enjoyed because the main character wasn’t the typical princess. Moana didn’t wear frilly dresses.  Quinn never wears dresses.  Moana wants to do what the boys in her tribe do.  Quinn wants to play football and kickball with the boys.  I thought it was a good movie for us to watch and have her see a Disney movie with a lead more like herself.   When it first came out, my son refused to see it (he was too cool to watch an animated Disney movie), but now that we have been able to see it at home, he’s okay with it.  So we hunkered down to rewatch it. Both kids (Chase, age 12, and Quinn

The digital tool that chose to share is Padlet .  Padlets are an online bulletin board that allows for collaboration of ideas.  It is a place to hold information that you can constantly refer back to, add to, and link from. I have used padlets in the past, though I don’t think I’ve used them to the potential they have.  Colleagues have shared their padlets with me and I have been impressed.   My principal created a padlet that had ALL of our staff resources for the year- schedules, calendars, agendas, policies, etc.  Think of it as one stop shopping!  I have a shared google folder of parent resources (directories, reading logs, login information, health info) for my class, but I think that I may try using a padlet.  It’s visually more appealing (in my opinion) and I can provide information on the document as well as the link.  In the past I have started padlets with a simple question related to a subject we were learning about.  Honestly, I don’t think I followed through with them enou

As I looked through the chapters of Rethinking Popular Culture and Media I was drawn to the chapter Why We Banned Legos by Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin.  I am an early childhood educator and Legos are a staple in my classroom (and in my home).  Legos provide opportunities for creativity, engineering design process, collaboration, and perseverance.  I had some hunches about what this chapter would be about, but I had no idea how deep it would go.  Kendra is the lead teacher in an after school childcare program in an affluent Seattle neighborhood.  Children ages 5-9 come mainly from white, upper middle class and socially liberal families (p.82).  Ann is the mentor to the teachers who helps plan curriculum based on the children’s play and interactions.  It is based on the Emilia Reggio approach to learning.  Like in many classrooms, Legos were popular.  Kids had created a Legotown by building houses, shops, fire stations, and even an airport.  Lots of discussion and negotiating came

Simon Sinek believes that there are leaders and those that lead.  He believes the difference between these two is that those that lead, do so because they have a strong belief or purpose.  He created a graphic, called The Golden Circle, to illustrate his theory of what makes a person or company successful in leading.   He gives examples of Apple and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Both were successful because they believed in what they were doing.  They both started with their "Why".  People want to buy Apple products because Apple has a vision for what people wanted.  MLK, Jr. filled the Washington Mall with thousands of people because he so strongly believed in his dream that others began to share his dream and they followed him. So how does this apply to me and to teaching?  Well, I guess I now understand why Dr. Bogads began Day 1 with her Why.  Honestly, I didn't think much of it.  And I certainly didn't think about what it had to do with a Digital Media Literacy class.