Self as Peer Responder

December 1, 2006 at 10:47 pm · Filed under Week 14

 

1.      Quote three specific pieces of feedback that you received on your work that were particularly helpful to you in revising.

 

One of my classmates’s provided feedback on my poem saying, “reword things like “fixate” and “isolate” because it doesn’t sound like something the author would say”. This piece of advice really helped me realize that she was probably right- a person with autism might not say “I fixate and isolate”. Another classmate gave also gave feedback on my poem saying, “Another section on routines would give better explanation”.  For my power point presentation, one classmate wrote “I thought it was hard to follow in some places”.

 

2.      Quote three specific pieces of feedback that you gave someone else that you believe were the most likely helpful to them in revising their own work.

 

 In an email exchange, I responded by saying “It would be a good idea to talk  more in depth about the strategies the husband can use at home with his wife”. In response to an interview transcript I said “Go in depth a little more about the questions you asked the client in the interview”. In response to a journal entry I wrote “The second line is confusing” and “Describe more about the techniques you mentioned that the client uses outside of therapy”.

 

3.      Examine your examples for the first two items above and write about what this information tells you about the kind of peer responses you give. A lot of the feedback I received was beneficial but some of it was vague. It seemed like the responders would often say the mention the same things (I am guilty of this, too). I feel for the most part I asked for more clarification and detail in most genres. If there is something that confuses me in a genre, I try to be specific.

         4.      Write a goal for yourself as a peer responder specifically for  the next time you participate in a peer response group, what do you intend to do differently?  For future peer response groups I intend to be more open about what I say, because my main objective is to help someone revise their own work. I think a lot of times I refrained from saying something because I didn’t want to offend my classmates, but next time I think it is important to provide as much helpful feedback as possible. I know that I want as much feedback as possible because I am relying on my peers to help me with my work. In the future I also think it is a good idea to not only tell peers to add more detail but maybe I could give them ideas on what kind of details to add about their topic.

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Self-Evaluation

December 1, 2006 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Week 14

Site name: “Communication…The Human Connection”

URL (web address):  http://eshort.wordpress.com/

Accuracy  

  1. Does the author cite sources used to develop the site? The author uses sources in each text of the genres. The author also has a reference page that includes sources used to develop the genres.
  2. Is it possible to verify the legitimacy of these sources? The sources are sited in APA format.
  3. Does the background of the author point to knowledge of the subject covered? In the acknowledgement page, the author states that she has a younger sister with autism and also works with at a preschool with several autistic children. The author also states in the preface that this is a research project, which means that information is being researched in order to answer the essential question.
  4. If the site is research-based, does the author clearly identify the method of research and the data gathered?  The author has a link, which you can visit to see all the sources that are used to gather data and research. There are text books, scholarly journals, and websites on the reference page that show where the author gathered information and sources.

Authority

  1. Do you recognize the author’s name? Yes.
  2. If you don’t recognize the name, what type of information is given about the author?  Position?  Organization affiliation?  E-mail address?   Biographical information?  In the author’s preface it says that she is student currently enrolled atMarshall
    University in the Communication Disorders program. Her e-mail address is not given anywhere on the site. In the about the author page it says the author lives in Proctorville, Ohio with her mom and dad, but attends college in Huntington, West Virginia.
  3. Was the site referenced in a document that you trust? Yes.

Objectivity  

  1. Determine what is the aim of the author or organization publishing the site? There are several pieces of writing involving autism. It looks like the pieces are made up because in the beginning of each piece it tells that it is fictitious. It looks like the writings are assignments from some sort of class. When I clicked on the preface it says the writings are for a Communications Disorder computer class.
  2. What is the purpose of the web site:  When I click on some of the links, such as the preface, it talks about the multigenre research paper. The project prospectus explained the project by listing the essential question, the tentative point of the project, pieces that are included and resources used to gather information.

Is it advertisement for a product or service?  No

Is it for political purposes? No

Is it trying to sway public opinion on a social issue? No

  1. Do you trust the author or organization providing the information? Yes, there are cites within the text or at the end of the writings. When I clicked on the posts, it looked like there are only citations in the writings where they were defining terms, such as digital literacy; however, it looked like many of the postings were creative thinking and not researchable writings. It may be unnecessary to cite such writings. The writings are very organized because they are divided into weekly categories, posts and pages. Recent comments and posts are also available to click on.

Currency 

  1. Is a date clearly displayed? There are dates at the top of the postings; however I do not see any dates on the pieces under the pages category.  
  2. Can you determine what the date refers to?  It looks like the date refers to when the writings were published.

When the page was first written? I do not see a date for this.

When the page was first posted on the Internet? It gives dates for when the writings are posted.

When the page was last revised or updated?  

The copyright date?  2006

  1. Are the resources used by the author current?  The resources are very current ranging from 2004 to 2006.
  2. Does the page content demand routine or continual updating or revision? The posts and pages are published weekly, which means there are updates to the site each week. The latest week is week 14.
  3. Do the links on the page point to the correct Internet site addresses?  Yes, the sites all worked correctly on the author’s webliography. The links also worked correctly for the power point and podcast. The resources links also sent me to the correct sites.

Coverage  

  1. Are the topics covered on the site explored in depth? Yes. The genres all cover the same topic and they convey the same information but in different ways.
  2. How valuable is the information provided? Individuals may not understand that the pieces are a part of my Multigenre Research Project (MRP), which is based on a research question and involves a fictitious family. It will be a good idea to provide page that explains what the MRP is.
  3. On the sites, are the links relevant and appropriate? Yes. The references all involve autism, which is the topic in each genre.
  4. How valuable is the information provided?  I think it is very valuable because it provides researched information in a variety of genres. This may help viewers learn the information since it is provided in various contexts.

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Week 13 Reflection

November 28, 2006 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Online Journal, Week 13

Aims and Objectives:

  • To make necessary revisions to the pieces in my research project
  • To make revisions on my references.
  • To make sure proper citations are in each piece throughout the research project.

Declarative Knowledge:

This week I learned to create a table of content that has links to all the pieces that make up my research project. I also included links to each genre within the text of my unifying genre. Next, I provided feedback for two of my classmates on their seventh genre. For the next assignment I created page that lists each referenced used in writing each piece to my research paper. The references are in written in alphabetical order and in APA format. I also learned to make revisions to my pieces by using the SCAR (Substitute, Cut, Add, Rearrange) method. For the last assignment I created my eighth and final genre, which is my unifying genre. This genre includes a journal entry in the mother’s voice that also includes links to all my other genres.

 

Procedural Knowledge:

I created my table of contents by using a specific order of the pieces. First, I grouped pieces together including the following: Preface, Acknowledgements, About the Author, Unifying Genre, References, and Reflection. In the second group I listed my seven genres including the following: Webliography, Poem, Journal Entries, Observation Report, Email Exchange, Podcast, and Power Point Presentation. I created links for each piece so that audiences can directly view the individual pieces. I had to complete several steps in order to create links to the pieces. First, I opened each piece in a new window. Next, I highlighted each genre and then clicked on the chain icon on the webpage. By clicking on this icon, I was able to copy and paste the URL of each genre into the space provided. For the last step, I clicked the insert button to create the link. I used to these procedures in order to create links to all my pieces. In the second assignment, I provided feedback to the seventh genre written by two of my classmates. In order to complete this assignment, I read the genres thoroughly and answered the following questions: Whose voice is the piece in? Who is this piece written for? What do you think the author is saying with this piece? What is original, interesting or something you like about this piece? What is something that the author might want to address about this piece that will improve the quality of the piece? I attempted to give helpful and useful feedback to help the pieces become stronger. I want to give good feedback because I know my classmates are counting on me to help them as I am counting on them to help me, too. For the next assignment I had to create a reference page for my research project. I included all references used to complete my genres. I referred back to my APA text book in order to figure out how to correctly cite my references (this is still a work in progress). I used text books, online scholarly journals and websites as references for my research project. These sources are all sited differently and to figure out how to write them in APA format is not an easy task. For the scholarly journals, I had to remember to put the date and place in which they were received from. The websites I think were the hardest to cite because I had to make sure the site had copyright dates, authors and so on. Some sites don’t give you all the information need for proper citation. I also made sure my references were written in alphabetical order, which is rule for citing the sources. This week I had to pick a genre to revise it. In order revise my genre I used the SCAR method. I chose to use the SCAR method to revise my journal entries. As I read through my genre I found several words to substitute with other words. By substituting other words I made my piece flow better and sound clearer. I cut out various words, phrases, and sentences usually because I had written things that were unnecessary to the genre. I also cut out parts because they didn’t fit or didn’t make since in the genre. I added a lot of information to this genre because I wanted to go into detail about the client being nonverbal. I added a lot of information because I felt it was necessary in order to complete the genre and to get my point across. I rearranged a few words and sentences in order to make the peace clear. I also rearranged sentences to make the piece more sequential with a better flow to it.

 

Conditional Knowledge:

I feel that it is important to know how to complete both a table of contents and a reference page for future courses or other times I do research projects. I feel by adding these pieces it will make projects more professional and reliable. With the table of contents individuals can read a little about the project and the author. The reference page will show that I gave credit when using other’s ideas and work. They may also feel that my project is more reliable and credible. I think the SCAR method is great for making revisions. I can use this method not only for research projects but for any assignment or written document that I may create for school or my profession.  

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SCAR Revisioning

November 27, 2006 at 9:09 pm · Filed under Week 13

In order to revise the journal entries written by the older sister, I knew the main thing I wanted to do was talk about how Carly, the autistic younger sister is nonverbal. I really wanted to talk about this because it is one of my foundation questions. I had only mentioned the sister was nonverbal but I had yet to elaborate on this aspect of the essential question. I also wanted to express the older “normal” sister’s feelings and emotions about her younger sister with autism. I thought that writing journal entries would give me an appropriate place to focus on these aspects.

 

In the original draft of the first entry, the older sister writes about the day her sister, Carly, was diagnosed with autism. In the second draft entry, she writes about how the family is concerned that Carly is not improving in therapy and how they are afraid she will never be verbal. The rest of the entry discusses the older sister’s feelings of guilt and sadness regarding her sister.

 

I revised the first journal entry using the SCAR method which includes substituting, cutting, adding, and rearranging the text so that improvements can be made in the piece. First I changed the word herd to heard so that it would be the appropriate spelling for the sentence it occurs in. By changing the spelling, audiences will understand the sentence. I made several revisions in the sentence “I stood there frozen and with confused and rambling thoughts running through my head”. I changed this sentence to “I stood there frozen with confusing and rambling thoughts racing through my mind”. I thought the sentenced sounded clearer if I cut out the word and. I also changed confused to confusing in order to have the same ending as rambling.  I substituted mind for the word head because I thought mind was a more appropriate term to use in this case. I changed began sinking in to began to sink in because I thought this change sounded more grammatically correct and gave the sentence more clarity. I cut out the word kind in the last sentence this entry because I felt it didn’t fit in the sentence. I cut out the phrase came back to reality in the last sentence because I felt it was unnecessary information. I decided to add a few words to change the sentence to “After the unbearable news finally began to sink in, mom and dad realized they had to get special help and intense intervention for Carly.

In the second entry I continued making revisions using the SCAR method. First I added at the age of four to the second sentence so that the audience will know how old Carly is and that she is still not speaking. I rearranged the sentence, “Though she has made great progress in many areas, speech is the most important area that we want to see develop”. After the revision the sentence became “Though she has made great progress in many areas, we still hope speech will develop. I revised this sentence because all areas are important and I don’t really know if speech would be the most important. I added a section that really focuses on explaining the word nonverbal. I wanted to devote a lot of the entry to show how her sister is nonverbal because this is supposed to be the main emphasis of the journal entries. I cut out the sentences about mom and dad losing hope and trying to stay strong because I felt this information didn’t help the entry flow well, especially since I added a section talking about being nonverbal. I also took out the part that mentions there is no cure because it is unnecessary and pointless to have in the entry. I feel that it is a good idea to keep the conclusion of the entry, which talks about how the speaker feels guilty that she is “normal” and her sister is not. I like that the speaker is conveying her feelings about her sister. I did however, make a point to talk about how she feels guilty and don’t understand how she is verbal and her little sister is not. I substituted guilty for bad because I felt this term accurately explains how the speaker really feels. I cut out the last line, which says, “It is definitely not fair! Why her? Why anybody?” because I felt that I was saying too much and I thought it would be a good idea to just use the sentence before it which says, “For someone like Carly it is a struggle each day”. Although I wanted to use this sentence I decided to make some changes and additions to it. After revising, the sentence became “For someone like Carly being nonverbal cause struggles in life everyday. I wanted to include something about being nonverbal in the final sentence to bring the piece together.

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A12.7: Week 12 Reflection

November 12, 2006 at 11:04 pm · Filed under Online Journal, Week 12

Aims and Objectives:

  1. To complete my power point presentation and figure out what information I want to incorporate in it
  2. To read over the instructions for the MRP in order to complete my preface, acknowledgements, about the author, and to familiarize myself with the appropriate format
  3. To continue giving useful feedback to my classmates in order to help them improve their work
  4. Think about any finalizing that may need to be done for the MRP

Question:
I just recognized that when I post assignments it shows the wrong time that they were posted. When I post, it is showing an hour later than the actual time. I can not figure out how to change it. I went to options and tried to change it that way but no luck. Can you help me because I don’t want the time issue to affect the work that is submitted.?

Declarative Knowledge:

I began this week by recapping all that I know about digital literacy and also searching for additional information. I to complete an assignment explaining digital literacy, describing my experiences and how I think the specific literacy will affect children at the education levels. Next, I reviewed the instruction sheets for the MRP so that I could read the section on the preface, acknowledgments, and about the author. After familiarizing myself, I completed these three sections to my MRP. For the next assignment, I reviewed my classmates’ genre six in order to provide feedback to help them make revisions and improve their work. The last assignment included making my power point presentation, which is my last genre.

 

Procedural Knowledge:

For the past several weeks I have been researching digital literacy and all the specific skills involved with it. I used the knowledge that I have previous learned as well as additional sources in order to complete this assignment. I found a helpful website that told about digital literacy and each skill that is involved. I learned that digital literacy involves the ability to use digital technology in order to locate, create, evaluate, and use information effectively. I also learned that our society is putting high demands on people to become digitally literate. Digital literacy skills are also being emphasized with children in school due to the technological advances in our digital environment. In order to complete my preface, acknowledgements, and about the author I reviewed the information about these sections on the MRP instruction sheet. I learned to indicate in the preface how and why I chose my research topic and question. I knew that I was required to choose a research question but I chose autism because it’s something that interests me and affects my life. I learned to include in my acknowledgements those who may have helped or inspired me with my MRP. In my case I had helpful advice from my professor and peers as well as inspiration from my sister and my employment. I learned to include biographical information in the about the author section by providing some personal information about myself. It was important that I make it clear that I am a student in the CD program. I also made it clear that I had conducted extensive research that hopefully can be useful to others.  I created these sections as pages on my weblog. I also had to make sure that the format of these sections was in the correct order. For the next assignment I gave feedback to my classmates’ sixth genre. To do this I had to answer a series of questions which included: What voice was the piece written in? What audience is the piece written for? What is the author trying to say with this piece? What is something that I can “bless” about this piece? What might the author want to address with this piece? I read over my classmates’ work thoroughly so that I could ultimately answer the questions and hopefully give them helpful feedback, which is my intention. After several weeks of providing feedback I feel like it is getting easier because at first I felt sort of uncomfortable doing it. In order to complete my power point I first had to figure out exactly what information I wanted incorporate and how I wanted to organize it. I made an outline on paper first that included important areas of autism. I decided that my main goal in my power point was to talk about the major aspects of autism which is essentially answering my foundation question, “what is autism?’. I knew that I had already completed several genres that focused on pragmatic language but I had yet to make a genre that focuses on defining autism and other aspects. After completing my power point I had to upload it to my weblog.

 

Conditional Knowledge:

Overall, I think it has been very helpful learning about all the aspects of digital literacy so that I aware of these skills and can use them appropriately. I can also help others with learning and using these skills as well. Providing feedback to my peers has also been beneficial because I get advice and input from other perspectives. I think I would like to keep doing peer reviews in future classes. It has also become easier to do peer reviews than it was in the beginning. Now I feel more confident about giving opinions and advice to my peers. I am glad that I got the opportunity to complete a power point presentation because I’m sure it will come in handy in future classes or as a professional. I didn’t have much experience with them before but now I feel more confident and able to complete one with less difficulty.

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A12.3: Digital Literacy

November 11, 2006 at 2:57 pm · Filed under Week 12

Digital literacy is relies on a person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment in combination with evaluation and application of new knowledge from digital technology. This “new” literacy requires many specific skills in order to become a digital literate person. These skills include: photo-visual literacy, branching literacy, information literacy, reproduction literacy and socio-emotional literacy. Photo-visual literacy involves reading and understanding messages, such as icons and symbols that are displayed visual-graphically. Branching literacy requires the ability to avoid getting lost in hyperspace while navigating through various complex domains. Information literacy enables individuals to search, find, and effectively use quality information. Reproduction literacy includes editing and creating new meaning to already existing information. The last skill, socio-emotional literacy refers to the ability to use sociological and emotional skills in order to understand unwritten rules in mass communication of cyberspace (http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Aharon_Aviram.htm).  

All of these skills mentioned may seem complex and make it difficult to use digital literacy effectively. However, I use these skills to some degree without even thinking about it. I feel that I have learned these skills and use them without even realizing that I do so. I haven’t always felt this way because there was a point in my childhood when digital technology such as computers seemed very foreign to me. All through elementary school I barely got any exposure or experience with computers. I remember when we finally received a computer lab in probably fourth grade, I learned how to operate basic computer functions such as locating the switch and turning the computer on and off. As I grew older and entered junior high this is when I received exposure to computers in school and at home. By the end of junior high and upon entering high school I felt fairly computer literate but mainly used them to socialize with friends outside of school. It wasn’t until high school and especially college did I feel that I truly become digitally literate because this is when I really started to research assignments and projects that required searching for outside sources. When I was younger, the library was the number one place to locate information and sources. However, as time passed the internet became the number one place to search for outside sources and I definitely use the internet now for most of my searching needs. I like the fact that technology is at my fingertips and I can search virtually any topic that I want. It is very convenient and useful is you use the right skills.

I think that most children today are fairly digitally literate because they have grown up in an era for computers and other technological advances. They probably possess these specific skills needed for digital literacy and probably don’t even realize it. I think that digital literacy is changing the way children learn in school. Children are more active participants in the learning process. With digital literacy they can independently and creatively search, find, and use information effectively. I think the digital world that we live in puts high demands on people to become digitally literate due to the amount of information needs of our society

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A11.4: Week 11 Reflection

November 7, 2006 at 7:41 pm · Filed under Online Journal, Week 11

Aims and Objectives:

  1. To figure out how to do a podcast for my sixth genre
  2. To finalize my searching for information related to my MRP (any important information that I haven’t included yet)
  3. To continue to give feedback that is helpful to my classmates
  4. To continue putting together a power point presentation for my seventh genre

Declarative Knowledge:

 

To begin the week I gave feedback on the genres of two of my classmates. I read each genre and also answered questions that related to each piece. For the next assignment I conducted a search to find out information about socio-emotional literacy.  Prior to my searching I knew only that many believe this is one of the specific skills required in order to be a digitally literate person in today’s technologically advanced society. I was very curious to find out what this term means because I wanted to learn how social and emotional skills are used for digital literacy. I tried to find abundant and useful information so that I could write the meaning of the term as well as how I thought socio-emotional literacy will affect children and education. Completion of my sixth genre was required for the last assignment. I knew that I still had to at least complete a power point and a podcast. I had to decide which genre I wanted to do this week and what information did I want to integrate from my research I have done on answering my essential question. I finally decided to do a podcast, because I wanted to complete this genre while I still partially remembered how to do one. I decided to create a fictitious conversation between a clinician (SLP) and the mother of an autistic daughter.

 

Procedural Knowledge:

 

In order to provide feedback to my classmates I wanted to make sure that I included suggestions and comments that I thought would best help them revise and essentially improve their work. I thoroughly read over each genre in order to answer question relating to each piece. As I read the genres I asked myself several questions such as: What voice is the piece written in? What kind of audience(s) is this piece written for? What is the author really trying to convey in this piece?  What things can I find about the piece that I like such as something that stands out to me, interests me, and shows creativity or originality? What things may the author want to address about their piece? I really like answering these questions because I use them to guide me in order to give useful feedback and to understand what each piece is about. After I reviewed each piece I submit it to the comment feature on their weblogs. For the next assignment I searched on many different sites in order to find useful information regarding socio-emotional literacy. In the assignment I wrote what the term means and cited where I found my information. Next, I wrote about my experiences with socio-emotional literacy and how I think this literacy will affect children and education in today’s society. I learned that these skills are necessary in order decide between good and bad information and people on the internet. One must be cautious while surfing the net and avoid scams, hoaxes and fake people. I had to complete many steps in order to create my podcast. First I decided what I information to use for the text and what information to use in my podcast recording. Next, I added audio to my podcast by calling the number provided, on my cell phone. I recorded my message probably 20 times because I didn’t like the way my voice sounded. I had plenty of moments when I was dysfluent, which also kept me deleting and recording it again. Finally, when I was satisfied with my recording (probably as satisfied as I was going to get anyway) I published it to my podcast. It doesn’t automatically show up on the site so I had to wait patiently for my lovely recording to be sent to my podcast. I created my podcast as a page on my weblog. I gave a preview of the conversation between the clinician before providing a link to click on and listen to a recording of the mother of an autistic daughter.

 

Conditional Knowledge

It is very helpful to do peer reviews so that we will learn how to give useful feedback in the future to other peers. This is something that is not easy to do because it is important to give good and beneficial feedback that will help improve their work and not say anything negative or offensive. It is also important to learn what socio-emotional literacy is so that I can teach younger individuals how to be aware of the internet and how to use digital communication effectively by using socio-emotional skills. I am glad that I learned how to podcast because it makes me feel technologically advanced. It is a good idea to know how to create a podcast so that maybe I can use it for assignments in the future. it is a neat unique way to convey information and people will probably appreciate it because they are used to your typical research papers and presentations.

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A11.3: Socio-Emotional Literacy

November 5, 2006 at 9:42 pm · Filed under Week 11

Socio-emotional literacy is the ability to use both sociological and emotional skills to understand communication and unwritten rules of cyberspace. These important skills include sharing knowledge and conveying emotions through digital communication, being cautious in chat rooms in order to recognize “fake” people, avoiding schemes and viruses. This high level and complex literacy requires individuals to use critical and analytical thinking skills in order to use cyberspace effectively (http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Aharon_Aviram.htm ). Information sharing takes place in chat rooms, online communities, groups, forums and so on. One must be careful when giving, receiving, and sharing information in order to distinguish between right and wrong and good and bad information. it is important to use discretion and caution on the web to decide those who are honest and dishonest. Those who possess good socio-emotional skills will be more aware of the dangers of the internet (http://www.creativework.com/articlesContent/aphek/digital-literacy.html ).

 

I feel that I use socio-emotional skills to be very alert when I am online. Just as I never talk to strangers in person, I never talk to strangers online. When I was in junior high and high school, I used instant messenger to talk to my friends; however, if someone would IM me from and unfamiliar screen name I would not reply. I also never talked in chat rooms unless it was with people I knew. Now in my life I feel that I mostly use these specific skills to avoid scams and viruses from infecting my computer. Before I was aware of viruses and hoaxes, I would fall for anything such as pop-ups that say, “answer this question and you will win a million dollars. I will admit, the first time something like that came across my screen, I thought I was a winner.  I do not have to worry as much about an encounter with unknown people on the net because I do not visit chat rooms (unless it is for this class) and I do not have instant messenger anymore.  You never know who you could be talking to. Someone may say they are a 15 year-old boy when really they are old enough to be your dad or even your grandfather. In recent years kids are talking to people they don’t know from different areas. I think this is very unsafe and makes it easier for pedophiling to occur. Kids need to be taught to use good socio-emotional skills to detect these things to prevent sexual crimes from occurring.

 

Since other digital skills are being taught at a younger age, socio-emotional literacy skills are probably being emphasized as well. This is a very important skill for children to have because they are being targeted by pedophilers. I think it is important that educators and caregivers should allow children to use digital literacy skills to find and use information independently; but at the same time they should monitor children because they have access to online communities and chat rooms on the internet. Socio-emotional will change education for children today because they are required to use these skills to decide when information is good and reliable. Children must also use good judgement and caution when interacting with indiviuals on the internet. 

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A10.5: Week 10 Reflection

October 31, 2006 at 7:58 pm · Filed under Online Journal, Week 10

Aims and Objectives:

  1. To complete my fifth genre. I had to decide which genre I would like to incorporate next, as a piece to my multi genre research project. I need to figure out how I want to convey information related to my essential question and which genres I believe will be appropriate for conveying the information.
  2. To think about upcoming genres such as podcasting and power point presentations and learn how to complete these genres. I also need to decide how to integrate information related to my research project into the upcoming genres so that each genre includes pieces of information that connect with one another.
  3. To continue researching my essential question (especially after the changes I have made to my question). It is important that continue to find useful information so that I can incorporate citations into the text of my genres.
  4. To provide useful feedback to my classmates. This is important for each week that we do peer reviews because I know my classmates are depending on me to give feedback to help them with their genres. In return, I also rely on them for beneficial feedback to help me with my genres.

Declarative Knowledge:

To start off the week I completed peer reviews on the fifth genre for two of my classmates. Questions were provided to help us review each piece. I read the genres carefully prior to answer each question. I tried to offer helpful feedback that my classmates can use in order to improve their projects. For the next assignment, I searched for a term called reproduction literacy. Before searching, I only knew that many say these skills are necessary in order to be literate in out digital world. It was important to find useful information on this concept so I could learn its meaning in order to write my thoughts and opinions on certain aspects of reproduction literacy. For the next assignment, I had to use information from the autism professional mailing list joined toward the beginning of the semester. I was instructed to think of my mailing list as it were an online community. Several questions were provided to help me get into the mode of thinking like it were a community. In addition to questions about our lists, I incorporated other information I thought it was important to know about my mailing list. The last assignment I completed was my fifth genre for the research project. This assignment definitely took the longest to complete because I had make a genre selection and decide what information I wanted to put in the genre that ultimately relates back to my essential question. I finally decided to create three email exchanges between the clinician (Julie Tweel) and a mother of an autistic child (Evelyn Smith). The purpose of the fictitious email was for the mother to gain understanding and clarification of pragmatic language and what behaviors are typical of her autistic daughter.

 

Procedural:

In order to do the first assignment I thoroughly read each piece in order to answer specific questions such as “What voice is the piece written in?” “What is the author trying to say in the piece”? “What is something that stands out to me in the piece”? “Is there something I find interesting? Creative? Original”? “What is something that the author may want to address about the piece”? Answering these questions really helped me observe and analyze each piece so that I could provide helpful and useful feedback to me classmates. I submitted each peer review by using the comment feature on the weblogs. For the second assignment, I searched for reproduction literacy on the google search engine. I did not have to type in key terms for this search because useful sites were returned right away. I found helpful information that gave me gain understand of the concept so that I could write about my personal experiences with these literacy skills and also write my thoughts on how reproduction literacy effects children and education. For the next assignment I learned to think of my professional mailing list as though it were a community. I analyzed and evaluated a few emails I saved from the mailing list. I answered specific questions to help get me started in thinking of this list like a community. Such questions include: What do you know about the community? What do you know about the people in the community? What is the purpose of the community? How do you know that? Does the community fulfill its purpose? Why or why not? I also included things that may be to note about my mailing list such as the amount of mail I receive from them, the content of the emails I have received, important names, locations, organizations, and do on. My goal was to write any important and interesting observations I saw with the mailing list (community). The last assignment I completed was my fifth genre-an email exchange. In order to complete this assignment I thought about the voices I wanted the piece to be written in. I also had to decide what I wanted to say in this piece. I tried to make this genre look exactly like a real email exchange. In order to do so, I observed emails I had saved in my inbox to get an idea of how the dates, greetings, the body of the email looked like, and so on should look like for my fictitious email exchange. I also made sure to add some in text citations for the sources I used to complete this assignment.

 

Conditional Knowledge:

It is important to know what electronic professional mailing lists are and how to join them. I think this will be beneficial in my profession in order to join mailing lists related to disorders and topics that I will have the opportunity to work with as a clinician.  I can receive helpful and interesting information from professional mailing lists that may give me ideas and knowledge for my career. I can also join mailing lists that interest me. It is interesting to search for mailing lists in order to the many options you have to join them. It is also important to learn about reproduction literacy so that I will know my boundaries between using my own original work and ideas or if I am using knowledge and work that is not my own. In order to prevent plagiarism I must cite sources appropriately so that I can give credit when it is due. I really like using the copy and paste feature on my computer; however, I don’t want to always rely on these features. They do help cut down time when doing work but at the same time it is important to generate my own ideas and knowledge for my work

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A10.4: Online Communities

October 29, 2006 at 11:41 pm · Filed under Week 10

From the beginning I have not had much luck with finding a professional mailing list associated with autism. I thought this task was going to be an easy one because autism is an immense topic that is everywhere in the media. I was completely mistaken however, because my attempts to join mailing lists were quite unsuccessful. I went to several sites looking for autism lists to join. I even “googled” it and still I had not luck! The lists I tried to join simply would not let me do so as if they did not exist.  Finally I thought I found several useful mailing lists when only to find they were newsletters and discussion forums-not professional lists. By this point I was becoming desperate, I would be willing to join any mailing list. Luckily, a friend was already subscribed to an autism mailing list and she gave me the address to try to join myself. I emailed the head of the mailing list telling them my story and requesting to join the list. Soon I received an email stating that I had been added to the list. Finally my frustrations were over…I thought. The address of the mailing list I subscribed to is AUTINET-FORUM@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE. The list owner’s name is Peter Wise. This electronic mailing list is covers Autism Spectrum disorders (especially Asperger’s Syndrome) and the discussion of autism related topics. Since I joined this list at the beginning of the month, I have only received three or four emails. This means that I am sent an average of one post a week. Honestly, I was very disappointed because I hope I would receive at least double that. I know that many people were annoyed about receiving too many emails, and I feel annoyed that I did not receive enough emails that were useful for the multi genre research project (MRP). Two of the emails I received discussed my addition to the list and guidelines that are involved. The other two emails I received actually discussed issues about autism.

Think about the mailing list as a community. Describe the community. I would say that the people in the “community” are not very close or helpful to each other due to lack of communication and interaction with each other. I was very surprised of the lack of emails I received from the community. Autism is such an epidemic that I anticipated I would be getting emails on a daily basis.  What do you know about the community? I believe there is some interaction taking place the March of Dimes and other autism walks and related events. I also think that some of the people gather at conferences and other events related to research on autism, such as meetings on the discussion of possible causes for the disorder since this is such a major piece of this puzzling disorder. I did not read many questions on the list, mostly members presented with comments on autism and interesting topics that are in the media. A posting that comes to mind is one that talks about studies on childhood developmental disorders and how they might be related to autism. Another post I recall involved jobs available for people with autism. This email was very helpful for viewers who have autism and family or friends trying to help their loved one with autism, get a job.  

What do you know about the people in the community?From the emails I have received, I know that many members of the list are parents who have children on the autism spectrum. Some of the parents even talked about their children having a duel diagnosis which means that other conditions co-occur with the autism. I also know that the list owner, Peter, sends numerous emails out to all the members. I am unsure if he has family or friends with autism. He may also just be interested in the disorder or a professional expert on the disorder.  What is the purpose of the community? I think the purpose of this mailing list seems to involve conveying facts and being informative. One way to be informative is to provide helpful and useful links that give information on various aspects of autism. Another purpose is also to provide ways for people to get in contact with someone in order to answer questions or give help and support. When I joined this list, I was informed that it involved aspects of Asperger’s and other forms of autism.  

How do you know that?It seems like questions are never asked and members often do not provide comments and opinions to each other. For the most part members are given suggested links to helpful sites for further information. Also, members are given specific telephone numbers or email addresses in order to get in touch with certain people. For example, when the owner sent the message about jobs for autism he sent information about specific companies, as well as numbers and email addresses in order to contact them. I know that this list involves various aspects of autism because it says so when you join and each email I have received has involved the disorder in some way.  Does the community fulfill its purpose? I think the list fulfills the purpose of discussing various aspects on autism; however, I was informed that there would be an emphasis on Asperger’s syndrome and I do not see this occurring.

Why or why not?

I have yet to receive an email or information on that specific disorder.  I also feel that this particular list is nothing like a support group, which is what I anticipated upon joining. I feel that it only gives brief information that has not been very helpful to me thus far.

I hope either I will begin receiving more emails from this professional mailing list or I hope to find a list that will be to me and the MRP. So far, I am not satisfied with the number of emails I that have been sent to me. I also think the emails that I have received are brief, vague, and sometimes confusing. There were a few instances, however, that posts were useful for my MRP. I did like the fact that links were provided in posts so that I could read additional information about specific issues. I wanted to become an active participant with the mailing list, but I remained a lurker because I did not feel confident and comfortable enough to post an email to the list. Hopefully in the near future I can fulfill a more active role in my membership.

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