Week 7 assignment

Week 7 Assignment:

Assignment #1:

Article 1:  

"Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education: 

The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms"

     After reading this article i think that using Multimodal practices in the classroom is a great way to enhance reading and prepare students for a more dynamic age of reading and deciphering text.  In this modern world it is apparent that simply reading text out of a boring old textbook is not properly preparing our students for an increasingly digital and confusing world.  The purpose of multimodal learning in these primary classrooms is to collaborate with students to look at the different elements in picture books that help to convey the meaning of the author and illustrator.  The article gives us examples of how teacher implemented these designs into their classrooms through having students create their own book pages after reading a book about a doughnut.  The students showed good knowledge and understanding of how these different elements such as text size, color, orientation, and use help to convey certain ideas.  Personally i think that this multimodal education is just an extension of teaching literacy to students who learn in different ways.  It points out all of the different elements that come into play and how they all shape reading and writing.  I think elementary school teachers should continue to use this practice in order to help our young students prepare for a different world.

Article 2: 

"Using the ADDIE Model to Design Second Life Activities for Online Learners"

     Through reading this article I have learned that Second Life (SL) is an interesting game and definitely could be used to help facilitate education and learning.  This particular article discusses how a class of graduate students were tasked with learning and interacting on SL in order to complete certain assignments that helped the students learn more about the game.  The near face-to-face aspect of Second Life was utilized to set up class meetings and little "field trips," to places like museums, all of which took place in the game on the students home computer screen.  The article goes on to discuss the pros and cons associated with Second Life and how it can be used in education.  Some of it's good characteristics are the ability to chat both via text and by using a microphone and headset.  Teachers can also use Second Life to set up virtual field trips to cool places that will help students learn.  Some of the negatives associated with Second Life are that it is basically a free roaming world, so at any time a person could wander into your group and interrupt the lesson that is taking place.  Another con is that when multiple people are talking at once the ability to understand who is saying what can be difficult, which is why headsets and microphones are the best ways to communicate.  Furthermore i think that in our increasingly technological world, Second Life can indeed be a great way to facilitate education and collaboration.  I am interested into looking into its use in educational circles more closely because i do indeed think that this game has a lot of educational value.

Assignment #2:

Second Life

(drew886 (my character) screen shot)

      After creating an avatar and roaming through the Second Life world i have found many cool and interesting things about the game.  I have discussed the game along with multimodal learning with my ELA teacher Mrs. Kennedy and through our discussion we have come up with what we fell are some good ways to use the game for ELA learning.  Some of the ways Second Life can be incorporated into ELA instruction are:

-using the microphone chat feature to give oral presentations

-using the microphone chat feature to hold class discussions and interactions

-using the text chat feature to respond to questions posed from other students of the teacher

-going on educationally based field trips to relevant areas

-having students work together in class and outside of class via Second Life to improve their ELA and technology skills

-collaborating in groups to solve problems and work with one another.

-allowing students and parents to meet virtually with teachers for homework help or any other questions.

-having students listen to the teacher and interact by asking questions or gesturing in an online lecture style classroom.

-having student interview random SL users to work on journalism and writing skills.

-having students understand meaning and importance via voice recognition and text recognition when speaking with others on SL