Friday, February 22, 2013

Initial Questions Regarding Digital Learning and Fluency

Who is deciding what = fluency?
Whose values are reflected? 
Some things I've heard about fluency: Fluency equals transparency, productivity, creativity--not just what tools to use and how to use them, but when to use them and why, and this is ideally developed through a boundary-less, informal, self-directed, socially-connected, collaborative, rhizomatic, explorative, and measured way.

But...
 Sometimes...
 learning is a discipline and content-driven...something which, if persevered through,
 can produce depth in quality knowledge products
 the lecture theatre is a good way to learn...the notebook and pen are the best way of learning something...
Sometimes...
learners need to engage with the unengaging...
and sometimes a textbook can be a very helpful and quick way to overview a topic.
Critical thinking and effective use of language are part of the traditional education as well.
Why create false dichotomies, valuing one type of teaching and learning over another? Each has value in its proper context.
Pedagogical Fluency=knowing what type of method, when to use it, how to use it and why what we choose is the best practice in a given context...

 Digital Fluency -- whose language?
Who is determining the conventions, the grammar?
What is their SES?
What learning personalities and preferences are reflected?
Let's differentiate learners and learning types and appreciate differences of all kinds: SES, location, background, learning style, learning needs, gender, age, needs, etc.
 Human fluency = making room for differences.
Let's not throw out good practices with the bad.
Traditional schooling has had both positives and negatives, and educational technologies also have these.
 Context is everything when it comes to best practices.
Wordle: Digital Fluency

http://sniesse.edu.glogster.com/glog/

Friday, February 15, 2013

So much to learn, so little time...

Love Jim Groom's assignment bank. http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/sound-effects-story/

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Digital Storytelling--Attempt #2

I've transferred the story that I told through Storify into something closer to what I had imagined: animated wheels with googley eyes, lots of movement, play, and while the story is very basic, the action will hopefully engage the viewer. This format still isn't what I imagine, with the wheels actually animated. I will have to look for more information on that To make this video, I used the following steps: 1. Drew the story in InDesign 2. Saved the story as a .pdf 3. Extracted each page 4. Saved each page as .jpg 5. Cropped and added captions in Picaso 6. Transferred the jpgs to Microsoft Movie Maker and saved to computer 7. Uploaded to my own Youtube channel using Picaso Some thoughts about digital storytelling: I've been pondering the question of why digital storytelling was included in this course. I've, at the same time, been researching Digital Fluency for a paper I'm writing for my grad course on Education and Technology. I think the two are connected. To move from being consumers, digitally literate, we need to become producers, digitally fluent. This exercise helped me consider tools that I might use to become a producer.

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Digital Storytelling Using Storify

My first attempt at digital storytelling, using Storify. It isn't how I pictured this. I have in mind, black and white wheels, animated, moving, and each with a set of googley eyes. The back two tires are playing, and teasing each other, while the front tire solemnly pulls the load. Here is my storify version: