Google is my Friend version 2:Literacy in searching

Google is my Friend:  Literacy in Searching
by Pascal Routledge

·         Topic 1:  Becoming an Insider

The patterns in our research data indicates a repeated involvement with websites looking for information, typical behaviour for participatory culture.  The data does not indicate that we were becoming an insider.   An insider is someone who is involved in sharing a discussion online within a certain group or web community.  As the patterns indicated I did not act as an insider because I did not engage in online discussions with members of the Fan Fiction sites that I visited.  I found that in order to be an insider of this culture I needed to have more experience with stop animation and Star Wars before I would feel that I would be an insider.  I was more of a visitor outside the web space merely collecting the information that I needed.

An insider is someone who is an “expert” or acting “expertly” on the particular subject.  This expert will engage in online discussions offering their suggestions, criticisms, to others as well as receiving suggestions and criticisms to perhaps something that the expert has posted.  As the project developed it was evident that we had established a pattern to seek out information, which we needed to produce our stop animation movie.  We found that engaging in online Fan fiction websites, where there were people or members who could share their knowledge at that time, helpful.  In addition, we were able to go back and search through old posts or discussions through these websites.  We discovered relevant information to help us with our own stop animation project.  We decided that because these members had contributed to the online discussion that they had experiences in this area making them an “insider”.  This engagement of online discourse is “literacy” or acting in a kind of “new literacy” through participatory culture using digital media that today’s 21^st Century Learner is comfortable using.

·         Topic 2:  Accessing Expertise

Accessing “expert” opinions while searching online for solutions to problems, which arose during our project, was a pattern.  Each time we were able to access “experts” through Affinity or fan based web sites accessing their prior experiences which they have shared online. “Experts and novices share the same space.”  (Black: 14 Fan fiction and affinity spaces). This type of information gathering as the need arises is referred to as just-in-time-learning which is a pattern that became evident as we analyzed our data.  Analysing the data collected from our field notes clearly indicates this pattern of the use of online affinity spaces to gather information or learn each time that we came to a problem for our movie creation.  The repeated actions of this just-in-time-learning indicates the learning through digital literacy activities. 

·         Topic 3:  Who is involved in Affinity spaces?

These online areas where youth ‘hang out’ provide many opportunities for learning to occur as needed, commonly referred to as just-in-time-learning opportunities.  This type of online social behaviour assists youth in their learning of traditional literacy (Jenkins et al, 2006, p. 4).  This open online collaboration according to research from Black supports the fundamental equality, racial equity, social status equality that is found very often among these online affiliations or Affinity Spaces: It is important to keep in mind that space refers to “…the idea of a space in which people interact rather than on membership in a community.” (Situated Language and Learning: Gee page 77) These online spaces and shared affinities offer opportunity for the learning to be voluntary and quite sophisticated.  It is at this early stage that the literacy becomes apparent in this type of media rich project which is mostly self-generated by fans; however it is understood that our stop animation project was first and foremost a vehicle for the learning to occur.

·         Topic 4: The act of “being” involved in affinity spaces

This is where the literacyness of online fan communities, like affinity spaces, such as stop film animation web sites, or chat rooms provides the insider information needed to successfully produce a digital artefact on a particular style of animation, for support of creating these movies, which further develop the participant’s literacy skills.  According to Jenkins and Gee:        “Affinity spaces offer powerful opportunities for learning, Gee argues, because they are sustained by common endeavours that bridge differences in age, class, race, gender, and educational level, and because people can participate in various ways according to their skills and interests, because they depend on peer-to-peer teaching with each participant constantly motivated to acquire new knowledge or refine their existing skills, and because they allow each participant to feel like an expert while tapping the expertise of others.” (White Paper: Jenkins page 10). 

By being involved in this type of participatory culture activity, today’s youth are far more willing and able to develop their reading and writing skills, their social skills, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills which are mastered outside of the typical lecture style of teaching in the classroom. 

These are the literacy’s of the 21^st Century Learner that became evident through the act of creating a stop motion animation movie or other digital artefact. This less modern method of learning involvement or setting with the students being far less engaged in doing the work and more engaged in listening to the teacher lecturing to the students is deemed as far less effective learning; referred to as the “broadcast” approach by Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital.  The acts of involvement in this online space is the stuff that makes up the new literacy practices and the things that students need to learn to succeed in their future.

·         Topic 5:  On the edge

The use of Affinity fan fiction websites, for problem solving, such as finding additional effects and sounds for a stop animation movie.  I felt that I was on the “edge” or “periphery” of participating in an Affinity or Fan Fiction Website.  The data indicated that I was engaged in accessing distributed expertise online.  In Gees idea of an affinity site whereby I searched out information as it was needed just-in-time to advance my learning of stop animation.  I did not become part of the actual online discourse because my need for information is of a temporary situation, in other words, because I do not plan to be an active participant and continue to make fan fiction movies I consider myself temporary because of the temporary nature of this just-in-time-learning information needed for the movie project.

I did not feel like I was an expert in the creation and sharing of the stop motion animation movie, as indicated in the data:   I did not contribute or add anything to the many different posts of people who were insiders or experts in stop motion movie making using 21^st Century digital skills, therefore I was unwilling to actively participate in a discussion on a Star Wars Fan Fiction chat board.  

However, there was no reason why I could not have created an account, and participated in the many chat rooms or boards where other insiders “hang out” because there are no boundaries therefore “everyone has a more active stake in the culture that is produced.” (White Paper: Jenkins page 10). Perhaps it is the reason that this was a project in learning and not entirely of my own personal interest that I did not act as an “insider”.

Additional ideas

( In our data, identifiable elements of this dimension of new literacies elements include accessing expertise from affinity websites, being an insider in these affinity websites, just-in-time-learning, and problem solving. In our data, X typically….  For example

·         Just-in-time-learning by accessing distributed expertise found in websites or affinity spaces

·         What is an affinity space according to __________

·         Was being involved in Affinity spaces a new literacy practice?

·         What do affinity spaces offer for learning? As indicated by data pattern

·         Namely:(
(a) Where is the ‘literacy’ in what you did? That is, what is it about the practice you engaged in that makes it a kind of (new) literacy practice? What are some of the main dimensions or aspects of its ‘literacyness’ and what examples from your data can be used to illustrate/argue for this view?
(b) How did you (start to) become ‘literate’ and ‘fluently literate’ in and through the ‘doing’ of (participation in) the practice you chose to engage in? Here again, you will use the data collected to identify significant aspects of learning how to engage in the practice and becoming more of an ‘insider’ to the practice.
(What is the pattern? What did you find? What is the conclusion?))

References

Google is my Friend:Literacy in searching

Love the title, came up with this title for tonights comments about our second face to face seminar at MSVU, both of our teachers were there, however Colin was under the weather, Michele made up for him as she was on fire.

Walked away tonight with a very productive night, got some serious feedback as to where we are going in our discussion paper as a group, we had great feedback regarding our field notes and the data analysis.

I think that the group is feeling energized to begin to work towards the next step.  We were able to divide the sections of our discussion for the writing of the discussion paper into parts as well as tighten up our sections, I am talking about Affinity and online googling for information, connecting to the just in time aspect of theory.

Suggestions were also made regarding how to write, factual style, not as an argument, as well as, must follow the APA standard for doing bibliography. 

How do the pattern categories link back to a concept of literacy?
Pattern of participation?
Pattern of contribution?
What is our pattern about?  Let the data speak to you!
Go back to literature and tell how does our experience relate to the literature?
Your report is not an essay, it has no argument! Has no topic!  Must be facts based.  Written in the past tense!

Literacy in Stop Animation

Literacy in Affinities by Pascal

Namely:

(a) Where is the ‘literacy’ in what you did? That is, what is it about the practice you engaged in that makes it a kind of (new) literacy practice? What are some of the main dimensions or aspects of its ‘literacyness’ and what examples from your data can be used to illustrate/argue for this view?

(b) How did you (start to) become ‘literate’ and ‘fluently literate’ in and through the ‘doing’ of (participation in) the practice you chose to engage in? Here again, you will use the data collected to identify significant aspects of learning how to engage in the practice and becoming more of an ‘insider’ to the practice.

Through the process of learning and the creation of a stop animation movie I was involved in a literacy rich learning practice that reflects the skills and interests that today’s learners are involved or participate in.  These 21^st Century Learners are part of a digital culture developing traditional literacy rich skills, social collaboration, critical thinking, analyzing, sharing, creating, recreating, customizing, and self identity through many online places and activities.  These online spaces or affinities offer opportunity for the learning to be voluntary and quite sophisticated.  It is at this early stage that the literacy becomes apparent in this type of media rich project which is mostly self generated by fans, however it is understood that our stop animation project was justly a vehicle for the learning to occur.

Our data points to what/how?

“Yet, the new participatory culture offers many opportunities for youth to engage in civic debates, to participate in community life, to become political leaders, even if sometimes only through the “second lives” offered by massively multiplayer games or online fan communities.”
(White Paper: Jenkins page 11)

This is where the literacyness of online fan communities, like affinity spaces, such as stop film animation web sites, or chat rooms provides the insider information needed to successfully produce a digital artefact on a particular style of animation, for support of creating these movies, and mash ups, which further develop the participant’s literacy skills.  By being a participant in this type of  participatory culture activity, today’s youth are far more willing and able to develop their reading and writing skills, their social skills, research skills, technical skills, critical analysis skills which are all learned outside of the typical lecture style of teaching in the classroom.  This less modern method of learning involvement or setting with the students being far less engaged in doing the work and more engaged in listening to  the teacher lecturing to the students; referred to as the broadcast approach by Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital.

As the students are more involved in participatory learning because of them being engaged in participatory activities, due to their enrolment in their affinities of their own interests.  Today’s youth, with the 21^st Century skills, enjoy and actively participate in online collaboration, through many digital means, such as, fan fiction web sites.  Their collaborative literacyness and other literacy skills develop in a less formal, more open, environment or platform than in school-in the traditional sense.  These online web sites offer opportunity to create, share and develop literacy skills with a global audience on a more personal, individual, diverse, custom level that these learners are familiar with due to the very fact that they participate in these out of school online activities.  These online areas where youth ‘hang out’ provide many opportunities for learning to occur as needed, commonly referred to as just-in-time learning opportunities.  This type of online social behaviour assists youth in their learning of traditional literacy (Jenkins White Paper, page 4).  This open online collaboration according to research from Black supports the fundamental equality, racial equity, social status equality that is found very often among these online affiliations or Affinity Spaces: “Experts and novices share the same activities and participate in the same space.” (Fan Fiction & Affinity Spaces: Black page 14) It is important to keep in mind that space refers to “…the idea of a space in which people interact rather than on membership in a community.” (Situated Language and Learning: Gee page 77)

Affinity Spaces – Do they represent ideal learning environments?

(While thinking about what ideal learning means and using this as a beginning point to this argument) that yes,

Affinity spaces do represent an ideal learning environment as these spaces offer a digital space for participants to be a “part of” their own learning.  I draw many connections to my own personal learning through the use of such tools as a computer to access the internet and search for pieces of published articles and how to manuals for many aspects of my ongoing learning.  For example the use of the internet in such as ways as conducting information gathering searches on Google to search out how-to instructions for creating our stop film movie as an artefact from our learning.  As well as participating in online fan fiction sites collecting information for the enhancement of the movie.  According to Jenkins and Gee:  “Affinity spaces offer powerful opportunities for learning, Gee argues, because they are sustained by common endeavors that bridge differences in age, class, race, gender, and educational level, and because people can participate in various ways according to their skills and interests, because they depend on peer-to-peer teaching with each participant constantly motivated to acquire new knowledge or refine their existing skills, and because they allow each participant to feel like an expert while tapping the expertise of others.” (White Paper: Jenkins page 10)  Due to these environments of online collaboration there are no boundaries therefore “everyone has a more active stake in the culture that is produced.” (White Paper: Jenkins page 10)

While participating in these affinities the literacy becomes the vehicle for the learning of the content.  Technology offers many more opportunities to expand learning beyond the classroom, through the use of this participatory culture learning can be enhanced connecting learning to what students are doing outside of school  or ‘after school’.  This is “where youth voluntarily engage in sophisticated learning and literacy practices.” (Fan Fiction & Affinity Spaces:  Black page 27)

(introduce prior knowledge?)

Students involved in online ‘literacyness’ after school hours facilitates their learning and the mastery of the ‘procedural knowledge’ and ‘digital literacy skills’ that will propel these students in their future employment opportunities, as well as their continual growth in education-being lifelong learners.

 “The teacher is essentially a broadcaster: the transmitter of information to an inert audience in a one way linear fashion.  In today’s world and for today’s students this model of “broadcast learning” is anachronistic if not obsolete.” (Macrowikinomics by Don Tapscott: page 160)

Perhaps, it is because students and youth are naturally very adaptive that they have just realized the lack of ‘in touch’ education they are receiving from their teachers and school.  Because of this they seek out the information and experiences needed to complete their personal expressions, like a fan fiction poem or alternate ending to a novel or movie. The digital skills, creativity and adaptive skills needed for building these samples of digital media artefacts shared online directly relate to the skills needed to succeed in their future life.  Due to the lack of connectedness provided by education, students may detach themselves even more from school, more than what they may already be thinking, such as, school has little relevance to the Skills (digital 21^st Century skills) that they ‘know’ they really need to succeed.

“With today’s technology, it is now possible to embrace new collaborative and social models of learning that change the actual pedagogy in more fundamental ways.” (Macrowikinomics by Don Tapscott: page 160) These new digital skills that today’s students must have to succeed in the work force are developing outside the traditional classroom paradigm.  In fact they are reinforcing the student’s learning globally in a space where they are willing to learn without pressure, and be involved and make choices which influence their discovery of learning.  “What counts more is your capacity to learn lifelong, to think, research, find information, analyze, synthesize, contextualize, and critically evaluate; to apply research to solving problems; to collaborate and communicate. This is particularly important for students and employers who compete in a global economy.” (Macrowikinomics by Don Tapscott: page 160)

Discussion points to follow:

1.  Designed by completing this task to a level of understanding-...

2.  How was data collected?-online collaboration, face to face discussion, mucking about, affinity spaces

3.  What makes the data pertinent to the question?-new Literacy  is  laced all through the activity with many different dimensions

4.  How and why the data were analysed (they way we did it)?

 

Stop Animation follow up

Well I have been experimeting with stop animaton in the classroom.
Have researched the many aspects of teh doing of the stop animation, even made my own movie for my research class I am attending.  Let us just say that there is a lot to consider about having a group of 24 students with varying degrees of need creating a stop aninmation film on a science theme regarding Animal Growth and Change...lol

I had provided 4 classes of instruction regarding what stop animation is, how it looks, its flip book beginnings, discussed and shared many online examples as well as shared a sample stop animation that a student had competed in GRade 4 several years ago that is stored in our school's drive.

Considering it was there first attempt at this things went okay, I was somewhat disappointed with the poor quality work that was done, ie it became a project in building with clay rather than telling a story. 

First, frustration after the discussion and presentation had to do with the batteries, many of the batteries did not have enough charge to work.
Second issue was that a camera I borrowed from Board did not work for me, the images were fuzzy and stretched no matter what I did to fix it.
Third, Windows Movie Maker is not the same as the 2011 WMM Live having a few issues finding where things are between different versions
I have learned that it is best to use your own stuff, yet again, I used my own digital camera and it worked flawlessly, easy to take pictures and good quality as well as easy to retrieve the files.  I say this because I wound up borrowing the 2 school digital cameras, retrieving the pictures became tricky with one as the folders were not organized by date, so I wonder if I was able to capture all of the photos.

non Research research

May 15, 2011

Stop film animation project literacy research

Had a meeting with a fellow Educator, named john Q, cohort of many years.  Reason was to have a informal conversation about research and how it applies to my current course.  His conversation facilitated the many aspects of research that I am not understanding from the course materials or teachers.  Follwing the ideological beliefs of the program I am expected to learn successfully through online collaboration that our course format follows, and expects however, that does not assist me in growing or understanding in any way what I am supposed to be doing.

I have found great difficulty engaging the other members of my group into deep discussion based on the literature that I have read up to this point.  I am struggling with the participatory nature of the course, on numerous occasions I have attempted to begin a discussion about the deeper aspects of this research course to go past the creation of our stop animation artifact with little success, the comments are usually, discouraging and indicates to me an unwillingness to even discuss aspects of Literacies and social learning beliefs that I/we have (I am assuming)read.

Furthermore I feel that I was ill prepared for this course right from the beginning as there was no communication to any of the students in my cohort until the Friday before Tuesday that our class started, this gave us only 3 days to read the assigned readings for our first FTF meeting.

Ofcourse many did not read any of the assigned reading for many different reasons.  I admit that I was unable to fully read all of the necessary chapters in the 2 books.  In my opinion, I would have been better prepared for this firts night had I been able to read the required materials in advance-providing me with the then needed background knowledge.-this would have been the just in time learning that is strongly encouraged in the avant garde approaches to 21st Century learning.  As a matter of fact, I am jsut now finishing up the assigned reading for the first class.-Not good!

Published in my instructors book (New Literacies 2011) it clearly states that they expect the reading to be done before the first night of our class:  

Preliminary information and resources are provided to give a broad sense of the media and research tasks. Participants receive in advance texts on media options—including ‘how to’ tutorials, on data collection and analysis, and on sociocultural approaches to understanding and researching language and literacy. The syllabus is provided a month or more ahead of time, and includes suggestions about what to bring to help with data collection(Lankshear and Knobel New Lits3 Text 2011 page 156)

The syllabus was not provided in enough time to provide the kind of reading and reserching needed to be ready for our first face to face meeting.

Moving on I continue to struggle with the relevancy of the project as far as providing any efffective research, I find the act of doing and searching out information to do a silly stop animation absolutely disconnected with the course objectives.  Data?, the data has not spoken to me yet.

Perhaps after I have a chance to do further research and create a position argument of agreement as far as if I have found any literacy in what I did?  At what point did the literacyness of the act of the learning? How to does learning and collection data on making a stop motion movie make me more litterate or  fluently literate in the doing of my project?-at what point did this happen?  am I and insider of this practice? not by any means!  Can I share and talk about tips for stop film animation? yes.  Have I had to read and reread and watch and collaborate and create yes, experiment test, and improve? yes so it is an act of literacy in the sense of learning how to by going out and finding online books, articles, youtube movies, fanfiction websites and chat rooms to find and share information about my movie artifact.

Where do I go from here, well I feel that I must now go back into research by the means of finding our sources of information on participatory culture and begin collecting my thoughts to put down on paper and 'paper' inorder to begin to create a report.

Questions that we are basing our non-research research paper on!

Research on making stop animation

Our movie is a how to video using Star Wars figures to demonstrate the proper use of a combination lock for beginning Grade 7 students.


Well trying to get my head around this whole teacher research course I am currently taking.  The professors are  very knowledgable and fully accessible from Mexico through the internet.  -Awesome!


I have read the assigned chapters from the first book, if I had more background experience in research I feel that this book would be more enlightening for me.


As I understand the design of the course we are to be actively engaged in a New Literacy Project of our choice.  My group and I are working on a stop animation movie.  I searched information regarding stop animation and also partook in a very elementary Professional Development session in the fall of 2010.  There was opportunity to use a camera that was plugged in to a computer and we took pictures.


Having begun research on this stop animation project I discovered the importance of certain issues such as lighting, camera angle, background, posing the figures, slide speed and the use of batteries and having access to back up power etc.  The funny thing was we actually ran out of battery power and had to recharge battery before we could finish the shoot. 


The shoot consisted of my partners and I engaged in various aspects of the initial shoot of the raw footage.  Mark was involved with posing the Star Wars figures, Ryan was the push the button to snap the photo, Jacques provided the space and tried to load the software from his camera onto his computer.  I was involved in the field notes, as well as, the lighting positioning and imprting of the images into a computer.


We shot a scene which consisted of 2 storm troopers turning the dial on a combination lock.

Research research...the how to do...to do the research...

GCRD 6353 (80/81) 
Research Seminar in Curriculum Studies:  Literacy and New Technologies
Summer 2011

Course #2 of the cohort has started and I find myself in an area that I have little prior knowledge.
Teacher Research from design to implementation is my textbook.  Just read the introduction and the first of several assigned chapters, Chapter 2:  An Introduction to Teacher Research.

After having read the first chapter which is the introduction to what research is and how it effects teachers, I feel that I have a very beginning point of understanding why we need to follow this course inorder to get a Masters Degree.  The message from the beginning of this connected learning is in fact a very basic and time old true message that of becoming a more effective teacher in the classroom.

Reasons for teacher based research as I see it at this time is that of developing techniques to get to know my students better, thereby becoming a more effective teacher in all aspects of being an educator, theory and practice.  Strategies in developing research

Chapter 2 mainly discussed the need for organized and systematic research inorder to draw consistent conclusions that can be used as data for research.