Blog #2

 Describe what communities you will join, your rationale for your selections, and how
 you think your involvement in these communities will support the design of your project.

I have decided to get involved in the communities provided on the Classroom 2.0 group. I am currently pending approval for my application to join Classroom 2.0. I am very excited to potentially join the groups that are present on there. I think in terms of my project, I am going to join groups that will help me with instruction for K-5 because that will be my focus for the project. I hope to teach elementary school and if I can create a component to a lesson that is heavily dependent on technology, it can help me as a elementary educator. Younger learners depend more heavily on the visual, especially students in the age of K-2 who are still learning the dynamics of written as well as spoken language. I hope to have my project focus on science so that my students can benefit from the addition of multimedia to a usually complicated topic. I hope to join the two groups on classroom 2.0 that include ESL and technology as well as Interdisciplinary technology. 

ESL and Technology: www.classroom20.com/group/eslandtechnology 

Interdisciplinary Technology: www.classroom20.com/group/interdisciplinaryteaching

I think my rationale for joining the first group is that it is important for me as an educator to look for opportunities to help students that are learning English using the technology at my disposal. I know from my student teaching, a lot of my students were ELL and struggled in some cases due to the heavy dependence on English. "Visual images convey a large amount of meaning throughout society" and can be used in a similar fashion in the classroom (Toon). Also, I want to look for opportunities to develop my students capability to become a "produser" as well regardless of the language because "produsers" are "active and productive users of content created, developed, modified, and shared by a community" (Knobel & Lanshear, 2010). I think by learning how to create a digital community for ELL students, I can better bridge the language gap that might potentially create a learning struggles in a standard classroom. Literacy is no longer restricted to written text but "the multimedia language has become the current vernacular" (Daley, 2003). I hope that the community can help me look at how to incorporate technology in order to better help students in subjects that might not be restricted by language because the use of technology is a literacy in its own right that can cross the language barriers created by written language because it doesn't rely so heavily on the written language. In the same way that text can potentially create an emotional connection, dramatic films  "can create a emotional impact that is thought to exceed written text" (Daley, 2003). I hope by participating in this community group, I can learn how to create that same "emotional impact" with technology and multimedia in my students so that experiences are no longer missed due to the learning curve associated with dependence on English.

The second group is really cool because it creates an opportunity for us to discuss how to use technology in a interdisciplinary format. This is especially important for my topic because I want to incorporate multimedia into a lesson/unit for science. I want to "empower students to use the best language for the task at hand" when incorporating technology into the lesson (Daley, 2003). I would love to learn how to incorporate technology into the multiple disciplines especially since I will potentially be teaching students across a wide spectrum of subjects such as math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. I think it will also benefit me to participate in such a community will allow me to "create a polished product without necessarily being artistic" for my students to use in the classroom  (Knobel & Lanshear, 2010).  It will also help me teach aspects of technology while using the capability of the technology to teach the other subject as well. I recall in my student teaching that one of my own lessons taught students about resource integrity during writing. Students had to understand how to use technology to complete their research on an explorer as well as how to incorporate the information they find in an appropriate manner into their paper to strengthen their  argument. I was able to create a semi-interdisciplinary lesson that focused on using technology as well as writing. I think the most powerful thing that I learned was digital storytelling in one of my previous courses. It is great because it teaches students story elements but also how to use technology to create those story elements. I hope to see more resources like that on this particular community discussion.

I think that is why  is important that:

"Multimedia also requires that attention be paid to design navigation and interface construction. The mouse, the click, the link and the database have already taken their place alongside more traditional screen descriptors. (Daley, 2003)"

So I hope that this interdisciplinary community group can help me learn how to teach students in the K-5 age group on how to use multimedia effectively to portray the knowledge gained in the subjects that they learn. 

References:

Daley, E. (2003). Expanding the Concept of Literacy . Educause, 33-40.

Knobel, M., & Lanshear, C. (2010). DIY Media . New York: Peter Lang.

Toon, P. (Director). (n.d.). Visual Literacy [Motion Picture].