Blog post 6

 The educational game that I wanted to touch upon is known as "GeoGuessr". I chose this game because I have always been interested in Geography and learning about the different parts of the world and about their cultures. This game is designed in the way that you are placed in a random area of the world, you are given 2 minutes to explore the surrounding area, and with the use of context clues you then will take a guess as to where in the world you were placed. This game has great interactive elements that will help the students to remain engaged while also using their critical thinking skills.

 I would say that this game is geared more towards the middle school and high school level, and if I was to teach in this age level, I would integrate this into the classroom when learning about diversity. This game shows a variety of different languages, cultures, which can further the lesson into discussions about diversity and inclusion.

This game however can be challenging for students that need some extra time, because there is a two minute time limit before a guess needs to be made. For the students that need extra time the teacher can make a makeshift version of the game for those students by providing them with their own pictures of a certain part of the world and allow the students an ample amount of time to make their educated guess, these pictures can be uploaded onto the students google classroom for access. This will allow the students to remain included in the game and also not feel left out because they are still using the technology. 

GeoGuessr - Let's explore the world!

Blog Post 5

Case Study 1: Google Classroom

 Overview: Google Classroom is a beneficial technological tool to be used in a classroom environment.
It allows for access to different google based programs including google docs, google slides, google sheets, google drive and google meet. These different programs allow for communication between not only colleagues but also with parents, and also promotes collaboration amongst staff. 

User Engagement: Apps such as google docs and google slides can be used for different classroom assignments/projects, whereas google drive allows colleagues to share and save helpful teaching resources and google meet is beneficial for collaboration because colleagues can quickly hop on a meeting to discuss a topic at hand. 

Influence on Communication: Google Classroom allows teachers to have a one-way communication style with parents through email. The parents are kept up to date on the happenings in the school and their child's classroom. The teacher can also use google classroom to email the students as well. Another communication benefit of google classroom is that the classroom teacher has the ability to post announcements on the class page, everyone has the chance to view these announcements as well. (GCFGlobal)

Information Consumption: Students pretty much have free reign to access materials at any time that they want to, google classroom provides organization so it is easy to access different lessons. Students can access from their home computers, which makes for a smooth sailing learning tool. 

Impact on Learning: A cause for concern with google classroom is taking into consideration that not all students will have access to wifi outside of the classroom, if this is the case, google classroom can still be a beneficial tool inside the classroom to promote collaboration amongst students on assignments/projects.

Privacy and Safety: As for privacy and safety concerns in regards to google classroom, it is a very safe application, the best way to ensure privacy is by making a safe and protective password, that way all your information is not tampered with. 

Reference

GCFGlobal Learning. (n.d.). Google classroom: Communicating with students and parents.

 GCFGlobal.org. https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/google-classroom/communicating-with-students-and-parents/1/

Case Study 2: Class Dojo

Overview: Class Dojo is a communication tool that teachers utilize to have active communication with parents, students, and families. This application allows for photos and videos to be shared as well to present what learning activities the students are doing throughout the school day. It allows teachers to document the school day, but it is also used for academics by providing a space where lessons can be accessed, and assignments can be completed. This app can also be used as classroom management because there is a tool implemented to track student behavior and the students can earn points for positive behavior.

User Engagement: This is an easy tool used for communication purposes by giving parents daily updates on the happenings of the school, and parents are able to access different photographs of projects that the students are completing and working on together. The teacher can document all the different fun learning activities that happen in the classroom which is beneficial because it will promote a positive and engaging learning environment.

Influence on Communication: A huge benefit of this application is that it has access to 35 different languages, and a translator built into it. This makes it especially easier to communicate with families where their first language may differ from yours, therefore taking the language barrier out of the equation and creating that inclusive and positive classroom environment. 

Information Consumption: Class Dojo allows space for materials to be distributed and accessed by students at anytime. It is a great organizational site where the lessons can be labeled and easily found for review.

Impact on Learning: Similar to Google Classroom, it is important to take into consideration that not all students will have internet access at home, so these students may be unable to access lessons and assignments from home. The application however will still be beneficial for in classroom purposes.

Privacy and Safety: As for privacy and safety concerns in regards to google classroom, it is a very safe application, the best way to ensure privacy is by making a safe and protective password, that way all your information is not tampered with. 

Reference

Edwards, L. (2022, October 20). What is Classdojo? teaching tips. TechLearningMagazine. https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-classdojo

Blog post 4

 A topic that interests me revolving around education is the implementation of play in a learning environment. The school in which I teach at currently is a big advocate for allowing play to be part of the learning process, so I have seen firsthand the benefits of this. 

Chanel Kit Ho Fung & Doris Pui Wah Cheng (2012) Consensus or dissensus? Stakeholders’ views on the role of play in learning, Early Years, 32:1, 17-33, DOI: 10.1080/09575146.2011.599794

This article goes through some of the benefits of play based learning. Some of these benefits include, "effective strategy to promote ‘child-engagement, knowledge construction, [and] active exploration’ (teacher, School B). However, these perceptions mainly reflect the superficial phenomenological features of play in terms of the children’s physical activities and their positive psychological responses" (Fung & Cheng 2011), showing that play allows the students to be more engaged in the lessons, and have a say in the navigation of the learning process. This article goes through some of the teachers views not aligning with play based learning based upon their belief of the play causing an unstructured classroom environment.

Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson & Eva Johansson (2006) Play and learning— inseparable dimensions in preschool practice, Early Child Development and Care, 176:1, 47-65, DOI: 10.1080/0300443042000302654

This article goes through a study that was done in order to determine the different dimensions of play based learning. This study was conducted through the process of observations. The students participating in this study ranged from ages 15 months to 3 years old. It is noted that the teacher holds the responsibility of conducting positive and effective play in the learning process, by stating that, "What we have illustrated by these two observations is the importance of the teachers when it comes to the development of a situation of interplay, and how this situation will appear to the children. We claim that these teachers integrate play and learning, both in spontaneous situations and in situations in which the teacher has taken the initiative" (Samuelson & Johansson 2006). When play is incorporated into the learning process, it always the children to be creative and have fun while learning different social skills as well. 

Allee‑Herndon, K. A., Roberts, S. K., Hu, B., Clark, M. H., & Stewart, M. L. (2020, November 23). Let’s Talk Play! Exploring the Possible Benefts of Play-Based Pedagogy  on Language and Literacy Learning in Two Title I Kindergarten  Classrooms.

This article goes through the benefits in literacy that are cohesive with the implementation of play based learning in the classroom. It was found that "Children in the play-based classroom had greater literacy learning gains than children in the didactic classroom suggesting the play-based approach was at least partially responsible for the differences in student performance. With the significant impacts of purposeful play detected in the current study along with prior supporting research for purposeful play, kindergarten teachers should consider infusing play-based pedagogy into their daily routines, especially when serving students living in poverty" (Allee-Herndon et al 2020), showing that there is a difference between the students literacy skills based upon whether or not their classroom environment allows for play based learning.

Miller, N.C.; Kumar, S.; Pearce, K.L.; Baldock, K.L. Primary School Educators’ Perspectives and Experiences of Nature-Based Play and Learning and Its Benefits, Barriers, and Enablers: A Qualitative Descriptive Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 3179. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063179

This article goes through the play based learning experiences specifically in primary schools. This article highlights how play based learning is significantly increasing in the schools and the importance of the educators role in the implementation of play based learning. This article states that "Participants described how this learning environment can be less structured and put less pressure on students than a traditional classroom environment. Some participants described how this environment can help boost some children’s confidence in a group learning context" (Miller et al 2022), this shows some of the benefits that play based learning has and how it can be beneficial for collaboration between peers which is an important element of the learning process.

 Hongbiao Yin, Alan Chi Keung Cheung, Winnie Wing Yi Tam & Elaine Lau (2024) Facilitating Hong Kong Kindergarten Teachers’ Perceptions of Enactment of Play-Based Learning for Whole-Child Development: The Potential of Personal and Organizational Enablers, Early Education and Development, 35:8, 1773-1788, DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2023.2298643

This article goes through some ways to implement this type of learning and improving the way in which play based learning is instructed. The article seizes to persuade schools to implement play based curriculum because " As some researchers have suggested, for children, play and learning are inseparable from and often supplement each other" (Hongbiao et al 2024), showing that learning and play go hand in hand with one another.

Leveraging Tools, Texts, and Talk in My Teaching Context

 There are many different ways to engage students in a lesson, using technological resources is a great way to ensure that students are engaged and focused on the topic that they are learning. However, there are other ways to promote higher levels of student engagement. An important factor of this is by implementing play-based learning opportunities into the classroom. Children love to play, and it has been proven that dramatic play is important to the child's development, so why not incorporate it into an educational setting. The text " Expanding Early childhood literacy curriculum through play - based film - making and popular media" by Linda Coggin and others states that "Engagement in play allows children to work on a text as characters within an imaginary scenario and in the process, create co-authored meanings. The meanings that children create through play are built moment-to-moment, requiring each player to quickly interpret and respond to the directives and unfolding dialogue as well as to the embodied movements of other actors" (Coggin et al, 2014, p.3). I wanted to reflect upon this statement because at the school in which I currently work at, we encourage learning through play, all of the rooms have a play kitchen set, costumes to dress up in, which promotes that dramatic play aspect. This method can be incorporated into a ELA or literacy lesson, for example, for a reading comprehension lesson a book can be read to the students multiple times throughout the week and then towards the end of the week you can assign the students to represent different characters and have them act out the story for their class. This allows the students to have fun while learning, and can be used as a form of encouragement to be actively engaged in the lesson.

Reference

Coggin, L. S., Wohlwend, K. E., Buchholz, B. A., & Wessel Powell, C. L. (2014a).         Expanding Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum through Play-Based Film-Making and Popular Media.

Blog Post 2 - How New Literacies are Relevant to Us

 

    The first reading that I decided to reflect upon was “Digital Literacy” by Jenifer Vanek. I found the section about the tips for teaching digital literacy in your classroom to be the most interesting and informative for me. For instance, prior to implementing technology into your classroom, the students need to have a foundation built of their knowledge on how to properly use the technology, the different components of the technology, as well as the vocabulary present when using technology such as words like ‘backspace, shift’ or other keyboard keys that the students are going to have to learn in order to use the technology to enhance their learning. As someone that is in the field of early childhood education, we see the use of computers in the classroom drastically increasing, so teaching the students in grades K-5^th how to properly use the computers will only help them later in life when they enter high school and college, the article states that “Teachers should use these technologies in their instructional programming so that learners can become comfortable with them and to support learners’ transition to college and careers” (Vanek, 2010), this statement implies that technology is just going to continue to become more and more relevant in the students'  lives as they grow up so they might as well learn these skills early on to benefit them academically in the present time but also set them up for success later in the future.

              The second reading that I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on was “Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice” made available by the International Literacy Association in 2018. The portion named ‘recognizing limitations and improving classroom practices’  goes through some of the aspects of learning that digital resources cannot achieve and one of those points was “Make school more interesting, engaging, or exciting for students simply by having wireless access or digital screens delivering curriculum”, although I do agree that technology should not be the only way that curriculum is presented to students, as I believe that hands on learning is very effective, but by adding technology into the classroom I have seen firsthand how excited the students get when they have the opportunity to use the computers. For example, when I was student teaching in a 3^rd grade classroom, the incorporation of the computers made the students excited to learn and expand their reading and math skills using programs such as i-ready. To make my statement clear, I think that the technology should be used in addition to hands on learning practices, the technology is there to help enhance the students' skills after they have learned the topic but can also help to make learning fun at the same time.

Improving digital practices for literacy, learning, and Justice. (n.d.). https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-improving-digital-practices-literacy-learning-justice.pdf

Vanek, J. (n.d.). Digital Literacy. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/TSTMDigitalLiteracyBrief-508.pdf

Blog 1

 

New Media and new literacy practices being implemented into the classroom is something that is becoming more and more common. As an educator, the advancement of technology can be very beneficial for instances of creating engaging lessons that will grasp the attention of the students. In the field of education, a majority of our day is spent doing literacy in one form or another, because literacy is tied into all other subjects, so it is an important concept to practice. Also, as an educator we are in constant communication with parents, this is a somewhat newer ordeal because I remember when I was in elementary school there was not a constant report being sent home but nowadays teachers are required to give an update on practically every detail, which can become an overwhelming task for a teacher to do especially when they have so many other things on their plates. Aside from how new media is relevant in my professional life, it is also part of my personal life as well. Something that stands out to me is the increase in popularity of social media, many people my age and I spend a lot of time using different social media platforms, at times probably too much time, but nonetheless it is a recurring representation of new media and new literacy implementations within my personal life. A statement that stood out to me is that “Facing the dramatic change in economy, educators argue that the conventional literacy education may not be able to fully prepare students for the challenges in the modern working and social life” (Sang, 2017)

              Literacy however is narrowly defined as the ability to read or write in English, so this poses a question in my mind, what about the students whose first language is not English? During my student teaching placements, I have been in a classroom where students' first language is Spanish, so my mentor teacher would be sure to have materials in her classroom available for the students to feel included. She made sure to have books in both Spanish and English available so that the students had the opportunity to expand their reading skills such as comprehension because as the educator it is your job to cater to the students’ needs for academic success. I have a firm belief that there should be diverse literature in the classroom so that all students feel accepted and included in the curriculum because I have witnessed firsthand the frustration that students feel when they are unable to read and understand the material, so by having reading material readily available in their language would benefit the student not only academically but also emotionally because they will feel seen.

 

Sang, Y. (2017). New literacies and multiliteracies. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1139059.pdf