Literature Reviews

Wang, S and Hsua, H.(2008) Reflections on Using Blogs to Expand In-Class Discussion. TechTrends, Volume 52, Number 3., p. 81-85

In this article the authors bring to light using blogs as a collaboration tool in educational contexts by looking at the advantages and limitations of using blogs to communicate and share ideas in the class, as well as how to use blogs to expand in-class discussions. Another element of this article worth highlighting is the author’s observations and student perceptions of blog use for this purpose. Blogs are relatively new, especially their use inside the classroom. Not much research has been done specifically on how they can be used to enhance what educators are already doing, but even less research has been pulled together on how to assess what is done with blog work. There are many suggestions on how blogs can be used, but one idea that particularly caught my attention was for students to “design a classroom newsletter collaboratively.” (p. 82) This could be an incredible opportunity for students that are involved in service learning. Students could create a weblog about what they are doing specifically for their projects so that not only are their classmates informed, but the general public will also have access to this information which in the long run could provide even greater opportunity for these projects to have a greater community impact. Blogs also help more introverted students who may not be as comfortable speaking inside a group to still share their ideas after they have had time to get their words just right. They provide a chance for all voices to be heard and for the group to comment collectively. Content is also able to be archived for future classes and can be closed to the public if that is the desire of the educator and/or the participants. This article gave me even more insight on what an accessible, free tool we have for our students to publish their ideas and thoughts onto. It is one more forum for them to develop their voice and discover what ground they want to stand on.

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

What a great find. What I enjoy about this wiki site is the vast amount of information that can be reviewed. What I found especially appropriate for the research that I am conducting are the rubrics that are available to tie into technology being integrated inside the classroom. These rubrics have been designed according to Bloom’s taxonomy and allow for the educator to link their expectations for learning right into the appropriate level of Bloom. Another element that may benefit my research is the information found at:

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+century+Assessment

Service learning constitutes as a real world task that definitely requires higher order thinking skills and collaboration with community partners, peers, and other educators. Using blogs and wikis as collaboration tools is where we are heading in the 21st century. We as educators need to be equipped to utilize these tools alongside our students and be able to assess specific properties of these tools. So many assessments only look at lower order thinking skills, but our students need to apply higher order skills to their work and blogs and wikis can be used to process this purpose.

Horizon Project Advisory Board. (2008) The Horizon Report: 2008 edition. A collaboration between the New Media Consortium and Educause Learning Initiative. Stanford, CA.

Collaboration webs, data mashups, collective intelligence, social operating systems, and mobile broadband were the hot topics up for research and discussion between the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. This report shares ideas backed by the ever changing tide of technology integration into our schools and the Web 2.0 generation that it cultivates as it’s participants. Each of the key emerging technologies listed above is summarized stating critical challenges and significant trends. The report continues by breaking down each technology by sharing an overview, defining the relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression, followed with specific examples and options for further reading. What is interesting about this report is that it is the fifth in a series of five and the previous horizon technologies are very much alive in classrooms and the workforce today. How is this relevant to what I am researching? It provides background of where technology has been and foreshadows what is heading down the pipeline for our classrooms. “Collaborative webs allow students to edit group documents, hold online meetings, swap information and data, and collaborate in any other number of ways without ever leaving their desks.” Google docs, blogs, and wikis are all web based tools that can be used to accomplish this. When I was student the writing process looked a lot different. I would write something, revise, rewrite, revise, and eventually publish. With these web tools, students are in a constant state of revision and can become published with a click of a button. Think about this, if a you know that other people are going to read what you produce or publish, would you be more likely to create a better product, put your best work forward? Blogs create a workspace for a student to write, edit, publish, add links, pictures, video, etc to make their writing even more powerful as well as provide an area for their peers to leave feedback. Writing for an audience pushes the student to excel. What does this mean for service learning? It means that students can tap into other blogs and become part of a large community of people that they may or may not meet, but that they can create and share ideas on how to make their corner of the world better uses ideas from another corner of the world. I really believe that blogs, if shared, can push our students to create in ways that they may not have realized hold relevance in our classrooms. The Horizon Report frames these ideas and introduces us to what is just up the road. Technology, essentially, is not standing still, waiting for us to board, but rather it is on the move, prodded with the question, “What next?”

Gelmon, B., Holland, B., Driscoll, A., Spring, A., Kerrigan, S. Campus Compact. (2001). Assessing Service Learning and Civic Engagement: Principles and Techniques. Brown University. Providence, RI.

Though this book offers a broad overview of issues related to assessment in higher education, it is bound with practical information that can easily be consumed by a secondary educator. It doesn’t dig specifically into how to assess service learning with technology but rather provides the researcher with a comprehensive resource on specific assessment instruments and their use for analysis, synthesis, and reporting. This resource will be referenced as I put together the action part of my research. The way this book reads is thoroughly quantitative. It provides the educator with tools to create assessments that will aid in measuring the students experience in completing service learning through checklists. The only experience that I have had with checklists so far, is in completing daily shore lists. This guide gives us a more practical look at the types of questions that can be formed to provide the educator with reliable information that will improve the overall classroom experience (teaching and learning) As I poured through the pages, I found myself wondering how I would create a checklist that would provide valid and reliable data that would show Dan where his students were before they entered his classroom with wither wikis or blogs and where they are now because of the implementation of this type of technology. I began to craft questions that would provide insight into where they students see themselves not only in the classroom, but inside their community and in the world overall. There are several different tools set up and steps on how to make these tools into ones that could be used in our own classrooms. I believe this book will open up discussion on how we are going to see if what we are doing in the classroom is effective, according to the student’s experience. “The primary reason for assessments is to improve student learning.” (p. VI)

Warlick, D. (2004) Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century. Worthington, Ohio. Linworth Publishing Inc.

In “Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century”, we discover that literacy is in the midst of being redefined in order to accommodate technology, and is no longer only embarking on only reading, writing, and mathematics. The three E’s are shared, “expose the information, employ the information, and express ideas compellingly.” (p. 17) In twentieth century literacy, this was more simply put as reading (expose), mathematics (employ), and writing (express). But twentieth century literacy adds something more to each of these subjects as technology comes alongside each subject and creates a digital environment for the learner. Now instead of the students simply reading what someone has handed them, they have the ability to “expose meaning from a global, interactive and multimedia electronic cybrary.” Instead of grappling with mathematics, “the learner uses mathematics combined with computer skills to solve information challenges and construct information products.” Writing is no longer a circular process, but rather our avid pupil is “digitally expressing ideas fluently and compellingly through text, image, imagination, sound, and video to a broad and geographically diverse audience.” What does this mean for this action research project? I question, what can we do differently than before that will improve student learning through service learning and produce pupils who are more prepared upon graduation for the changing technological landscape? What tools can we use inside our classrooms that are easily accessible, cost effective, and user friendly? How can we engage all learning styles on higher order levels of Blooms taxonomy and then assess the products that our students have produced? Learning is no longer flat and done one dimensionally on paper. Rather, students are able to create and produce products that will not only engage the student’s audience with digital text aiding in one click links, but also the student as they pull together ideas from resources not available before. Magazine cutouts are replaced by flash video, references are replaced by links to the actual sources, and resources are engage the audience in an experience, rather than a reading.