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J.Randolph Radney

Teaching in Social and Technological Networks « Connectivism - 0 views

www.connectivism.ca/?p=220

teaching connectivism networks social eLearning writing english

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 22 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Technological networks have transformed prominent businesses sectors: music, television, financial, manufacturing. Social networks, driven by technological networks, have similarly transformed communication, news, and personal interactions. Education sits at the social/technological nexus of change – primed for dramatic transformative change. In recent posts, I’ve argued for needed systemic innovation. I’d like focus more specifically on how teaching is impacted by social and technological networks.
  • social and technological networks subvert the classroom-based role of the teacher. Networks thin classroom walls. Experts are no longer “out there” or “over there”. Skype brings anyone, from anywhere, into a classroom. Students are not confined to interacting with only the ideas of a researcher or theorist. Instead, a student can interact directly with researchers through Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and listservs. The largely unitary voice of the traditional teacher is fragmented by the limitless conversation opportunities available in networks. When learners have control of the tools of conversation, they also control the conversations in which they choose to engage.
  • Course content is similarly fragmented. The textbook is now augmented with YouTube videos, online articles, simulations, Second Life builds, virtual museums, Diigo content trails, StumpleUpon reflections, and so on.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Thoughts, ideas, or messages that the teacher amplifies will generally have a greater probability of being seen by course participants.
  • The following are roles teacher play in networked learning environments: 1. Amplifying 2. Curating 3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking 4. Aggregating 5. Filtering 6. Modelling 7. Persistent presence
  • Views of teaching, of learner roles, of literacies, of expertise, of control, and of pedagogy are knotted together. Untying one requires untying the entire model.
  • The curator, in a learning context, arranges key elements of a subject in such a manner that learners will “bump into” them throughout the course. Instead of explicitly stating “you must know this”, the curator includes critical course concepts in her dialogue with learners, her comments on blog posts, her in-class discussions, and in her personal reflections.
  • I found my way through personal trial and error. Today’s social web is no different – we find our way through active exploration. Designers can aid the wayfinding process through consistency of design and functionality across various tools, but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individual to click/fail/recoup and continue.
  • Fortunately, the experience of wayfinding is now augmented by social systems.
  • Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • Perhaps we need to spend more time in information abundant environments before we turn to aggregation as a means of making sense of the landscape.
  • magine a course where the fragmented conversations and content are analyzed (monitored) through a similar service. Instead of creating a structure of the course in advance of the students starting (the current model), course structure emerges through numerous fragmented interactions. “Intelligence” is applied after the content and interactions start, not before.
  • Aggregation should do the same – reveal the content and conversation structure of the course as it unfolds, rather than defining it in advance.
  • Filtering resources is an important educator role, but as noted already, effective filtering can be done through a combination of wayfinding, social sensemaking, and aggregation. But expertise still matters. Educators often have years or decades of experience in a field. As such, they are familiar with many of the concepts, pitfalls, confusions, and distractions that learners are likely to encounter.
  • To teach is to model and to demonstrate. To learn is to practice and to reflect.”
  • Apprenticeship learning models are among the most effective in attending to the full breadth of learning.
  • Without an online identity, you can’t connect with others – to know and be known. I don’t think I’m overstating the importance of have a presence in order to participate in networks. To teach well in networks – to weave a narrative of coherence with learners – requires a point of presence. As a course progresses, the teacher provides summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learners to resources they may not have encountered before.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 22 Feb 10
     
    Here are some additional concepts that are a part of my approach to teaching.
J.Randolph Radney

"Look, Ma, No Boundaries!" Relationships in New Literacies Learning and Teaching | BCTELA - 1 views

www.bctela.ca/...ships-new-literacies-learning-

bctela standards English

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09 - Cached
  • As I think about the ways in which new literacies environments offer possibilities for young people to make relationships, some clear implications for teaching arise. Adults sometimes feel inadequate in newer literacy environments and uncertain about the value of such environments; some continue to deny that there is much new or much of value. But one undeniable value is that these are the environments in which our young people are learning about literacy, and, to some degree, learning about relationships. Our place in this environment is vital-as teachers, parents, researchers, and literate citizens-and our experience gives us a role in helping young people navigate this terrain. So the first point about relationships in new literacies teaching is that we must enter into relationships as participants.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09
     
    This article is a recent discussion of the need to use social media in teaching English language arts in BC.
J.Randolph Radney

Native American History - 0 views

www.shmoop.com/native-american-history

native thinking english

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Native Americans suffered a collective tragedy over the course of the nineteenth century. But their stories cannot be simply condensed into one master narrative of defeat and decimation. To understand what happened to "The American Indian," we need to look at the lives of the many Indians––and whites––that contributed to this multi-faceted story.
    • J.Randolph Radney
      J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09
       
      A major question concerns who will be allowed voices to tell these stories.
  • In 1783, the United States was a new nation of about 3 million people living, for the most part, along the Atlantic seaboard. Native Americans, perhaps numbering around 600,000, controlled most lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. By 1890, a bit more than a century later, the United States stretched from coast to coast and was home to some 66 million people. Only 250,000 Indians remained, most of them living on reservations holding just a fraction of the land they once controlled.
    • J.Randolph Radney
      J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09
       
      Not only is this true, but the United States of 1783 needed the help of its indigenous people, whereas, by 1890 it tried to believe it did not.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09
     
    I would like to receive two kinds of commentary on this set of web sites. First of all, could those of you with connection to First Nations communities comment in regard to the value of these pages? Secondly, could any of you comment in regard to differences you believe could be documented regarding how indigenous peoples were treated in Canada compared to what is documented here concerning the United States?
  • J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09
     
    In part two of the English final examination, students will be required to outline, summarize, and/or evaluate an essay. The discussion on this linked web page is the sort of essay that will be provided on the day of the exam for students to respond to.
Emmy Sill

Parika Pages - 0 views

eminguyana.blogspot.com

mission trips helping others volenteer god religious

shared by Emmy Sill on 15 Oct 09 - Cached
  • We taught at Imbaimadai Primary School everyday. It's a one room school, divided into 4 sections by chalkboards, accommodating 70+ students from nursery to grade 8.
  • Emmy Sill on 15 Oct 09
     
    Emese's blog about parika and beyond, she is a friend i met down in mexico but her home is here in canada Vancouver! she is teaching a disipleship training program for the first time! me and her did a mission trip to the same place and we met! in mexico wen i was 15 years old. 
J.Randolph Radney

Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals - 1 views

www.idrc.ca/067-5

poverty

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 29 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Chapter 1 provides a brief history of the changing policy discourse and the processes that led to the greater visibility of both poverty reduction and gender equality
  • Chapter 2 charts the gradual evolution of macroeconomic analysis from its earlier gender-blindness to current attempts to make it more gender aware.
  • Chapter 3 sketches out an ‘institutional framework’ for the analysis of gender inequality within the economy and explores its variation across the world.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Chapter 4 turns to a more detailed examination of the relationship between gender inequality and poverty at regional and national levels, drawing on findings from three different approaches to poverty analysis: the poverty line approach; the capabilities approach (using human development indicators); and participatory poverty assessments.
  • Women’s role as economic actors – and its critical importance to the livelihoods of the poor across the world – is considered in Chapter 5.
  • Chapter 6 focuses on the human development concerns of the MDGs.
  • Chapter 7 reinforces the critical importance of certain resources to women’s capacity to exercise agency, but this time focuses on forms of agency that are in the interests of women themselves – in other words, those that serve the goals of women’s empowerment and gender justice.
  • The final chapter (Chapter 8) attempts to draw out the implications of the relationship between gender equality and pro-poor growth for policy efforts to achieve the MDGs.
  • Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on poverty eradication.
  • Emmy Sill on 29 Oct 09
     
    poverty is my main topics for my essays. so i think this is interesting to me
  • J.Randolph Radney on 30 Oct 09
     
    "In September 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 governments across the world made a commitment to take collective responsibility for halving world poverty by 2015."
  • J.Randolph Radney on 30 Oct 09
     
    So far, one of the few countries making progress on-track to achieve this goal is (surprisingly) Bangladesh (cited in Yunus, Mohammad. _Creating a World Without Poverty_)
J.Randolph Radney

Reviews - 2 views

www.ravenchronicles.org/...emergingalbertpage2.html

First Nations writers

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 07 Jan 10 - Cached
  • No matter how much money and sense of security we have banked, I think inside each of us there is, at some time, a barefoot and hungry vagabond, seeking shelter from the cold; someone who feels misplaced, worn to the bone, despondent. I have had many dreams about being homeless myself, forced to share a bed or sleep in a room with strangers. In one dream, I found shelter at a friend’s house. I was sitting on the couch until I realized it was her husband’s favored spot for watching T.V. and moved away. Her husband looked me in the eye and said, “It could happen to anyone.”
  • J.Randolph Radney on 07 Jan 10
     
    This is a wonderful 2-page essay with a haunting conclusion that I have highlighted. Please read the essay and comment on the social topic the essay discusses. (You can comment on this link directly in Diigo.)
  • Diana Boffa on 13 Jan 10
     
    This essay is about the poverty in society, and the way people deal with it. I feel knowing how you can personally deal with this issue will help society.
J.Randolph Radney

Monitor: The net generation, unplugged | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

education writing web2.0 digitalnatives technology

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 08 Mar 10 - Cached
  • THEY are variously known as the Net Generation, Millennials, Generation Y or Digital Natives. But whatever you call this group of young people—roughly, those born between 1980 and 2000—there is a widespread consensus among educators, marketers and policymakers that digital technologies have given rise to a new generation of students, consumers, and citizens who see the world in a different way. Growing up with the internet, it is argued, has transformed their approach to education, work and politics.
  • But does it really make sense to generalise about a whole generation in this way? Not everyone thinks it does. “This is essentially a wrong-headed argument that assumes that our kids have some special path to the witchcraft of ‘digital awareness’ and that they understand something that we, teachers, don’t—and we have to catch up with them,” says Siva Vaidhyanathan, who teaches media studies at University of Virginia.
  • Any teenager can choose to join a Facebook group supporting the opposition in Iran or the liberation of Tibet, but such engagement is likely to be shallow. A recent study by the Pew Research Center, an American think-tank, found that internet users aged 18-24 were the least likely of all age groups to e-mail a public official or make an online political donation. But when it came to using the web to share political news or join political causes on social networks, they were far ahead of everyone else. Rather than genuinely being more politically engaged, they may simply wish to broadcast their activism to their peers. As with the idea that digital natives learn and work in new ways, there may be less going on here than meets the eye.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 08 Mar 10
     
    While it is impossible to classify an entire generation of people regarding characteristics and accurately apply features to an entire population, this article makes some interesting observations with regard to discrepancies between experience and expertise in using the Web. What could you write about such a topic? What does it mean to be a "digital native"?
J.Randolph Radney

Websites and IMs and Blogs, Oh My! : A Response to Dr. Jill McClay's BCTELA Presentatio... - 0 views

www.bctela.ca/...e-dr-jill-mcclay%E2%80%99s-bct

bctela standards English

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Jill began by talking about the "new literacies" of technology, including blogs, instant messaging, sharing videos online, and many other kinds of literacy that go well beyond "print on paper." One of the most interesting and potentially alarming things Jill told us was the fact that eight- to ten-year-olds are the fastest-growing group of users on the internet.
  • According to research done by media-awareness.ca, a non-profit organization that develops media literacy programs, kids can be exposed to inappropriate content and risky situations online, including bullying and sexual harassment. On the other hand, the same survey makes it clear that most young people have positive experiences online, and they use the Internet to foster existing social relationships and create new ones. How can we help keep kids' online literacy experiences positive?
  • Jill gave us some examples that made us realize that, regardless of the fears (and often, regardless of the rules) of parents and educators, kids are using the web and joining online communities; they are sharing their writing and secrets, reading those of others, and creating relationships. The Internet is not going away; in fact, access to the web is nearly universal in Canada, either at home, at school, or at public libraries and Internet cafes.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • we need to participate in web-based communities and literacy and respect, not dismiss, kids' online relationships. We need to learn the conventions of online literacy. Young people are not going to learn about online safety and security from us unless they see that we know what we're talking about, and that we are also part of that community.
  • Jill's presentation made me realize how much more was out there, and that a lot of it could be very useful in the English classroom and beyond.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09
     
    This is another recent article written on the use of social media in education, particularly by younger students.
J.Randolph Radney

2¢ Worth » Can Literacy be Taught? - 0 views

davidwarlick.com/2cents

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 07 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Students who become fluent in reading, do so because they read, not because they were taught the basic reading skills.  Of course, it wouldn’t have happened without having been taught the basic reading skills.  But they become fluent because they are required to read for the rest of their formal education and beyond.
  • If we expect students to become fluent in the broader and equally critical information and technology skills of being literate in a networked, digital, and abundant (contemporary) information environment, then they should be required to use those skills in all of their formal education, just like reading.  Reading, for education, is a learning literacy.  Reading, processing, and expressing knowledge in a networked, digital, and abundant information landscape are equally important learning skills — learning literacies.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 07 Nov 09
     
    Are you reading, or just able to read?
J.Randolph Radney

Singular 'They': a Footnote - Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...singular-they-a-footnote

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 14 May 13 - No Cached
  • As English teachers, one of our responsibilities is to ensure that students master the conventions of standard edited English, so that they will not be judged in negative ways based on their formal writing. Whether it is fair or not, others (including other teachers and future employers) may judge a construction like singular they as “wrong”—as evidence that a writer is not well trained and “does not know better.”
  • I tell students that they are welcome to use singular they  in writing for my class, but they should footnote it the first time they use it and in the footnote explain their rationale for using singular they.
  • A fundamental goal of writing instruction, including instruction in grammar and style, is to encourage students to be highly aware of the decisions they are making as writers, from the level of the word, phrase, and sentence to the terrain of the paragraph and essay as a whole.
J.Randolph Radney

eLearn: Case Studies - Threading, Tagging, and Higher-Order Thinking - 0 views

elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm

web2.0 higher-order thinking thinking

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 28 Sep 09 - Cached
  • J.Randolph Radney on 28 Sep 09
     
    Where does English fit in as a course in terms of lower-order and higher-order thinking?
  • J.Randolph Radney on 04 Dec 09
     
    In part two of the English final examination, students will be required to outline, summarize, and/or evaluate an essay. The discussion on this linked web page is the sort of essay that will be provided on the day of the exam for students to respond to. While this particular item is much longer than the essays that will be provided, students can still attempt to outline and summarize portions as practice for the final exam.
J.Randolph Radney

Weblogg-ed » No Choice - 0 views

weblogg-ed.com/no-choice

education writing Technology web2.0 weblogg willrichardson

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 02 Feb 10 - Cached
  • One of my favorite things that Sheryl says when she talks about the challenges that schools face right now is that this generation of kids in our schools is the first not to have a choice about technology. Most of us grew up in a time when technology was an add on, and for many of us, we still see it as a choice, especially in education. (Just the other day I was at a meeting of about 25 school leaders and teachers to discuss how social learning tools can be infused into an inquiry based curriculum and only one person was using technology to take notes…me.) I look at my own kids and I know that technology will be a huge part of their learning lives because a) they want it to be and b) they’ll be expected to be savvy users of the devices of their day to communicate, create and collaborate (among other things.) They’re not going to be able to “opt out.”
  • J.Randolph Radney on 02 Feb 10
     
    What do you think? Will you be able to make a living at a regular job during your career without the technological skills involved in computer and mobile media operation?
Jak McKinnon

The IT Student Blog » Blog Archive » Work in trance - 1 views

blog.ituniv.org/...work-in-trance

A comparison of IT Pros and Music Styles

shared by Jak McKinnon on 06 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Jak McKinnon on 06 Oct 09
     
    This is blog about how IT students and professionals tend to like the same genre of music in large numbers
J.Randolph Radney

Zotero | Home - 0 views

www.zotero.org

research tools reference citation bibliography

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 09 Oct 09 - Cached
  • J.Randolph Radney on 09 Oct 09
     
    A friend has recommended the use of this add-on in Firefox in order to document URLs and other online research. I will install it on my systems, use it for a bit, and get back to the rest of you according to how successful I think it is. BTW, this is a tool that would only be needed for those doing research that needs to be documented in this (and other/later) courses (so probably only relevant to students in the 060 course, for now).
J.Randolph Radney

"This topic is impossible!": Social Media as Research Panacea? (Part II) « Th... - 1 views

nkogan.wordpress.com/...ia-as-research-panacea-part-ii

diigo

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Rather than having vague status-update conversations with students, where I’m typically assured that everything is “going well” (a response which, in its vagueness, I can neither confirm nor deny), I, by virtue of being connected to my students’ Diigo networks, would be able to look at their sources, and more importantly, their annotations for those sources, and give them specific feedback about their level of engagement and depth of research. Not only would this ability allow me to see what progress they’ve made on their research, but it will also help students develop a clearer sense of what constitutes valuable active reading and how one distinguishes salient, useful information from that which is less valuable.
    • J.Randolph Radney
      J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09
       
      This feature would allow me to better coach students in the research process.
  • as I imagine that all students will be connected to one another’s Diigo networks, those working on related topics would be able to share ideas, sources, and insights about their progress. At present, I sense that each student perceives his or her research process to be a very isolated one that is disconnected from his or her peers. By employing a network where students could see the notes their peers have made about the sources they’re reading (though Diigo does offer a “private note” feature, which keeps one’s comments hidden from view by others) as well as those that might be potentially useful, the students will hopefully feel less disconnected and despondent about their progress when they hit a speed bump, and instead will look to their peers for guidance and insight.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09
     
    "However, perhaps the most exciting element of Diigo from my perspective, is the insight it will give me as a teacher into the students' research process. Rather than having vague status-update conversations with students, where I'm typically assured that everything is "going well" (a response which, in its vagueness, I can neither confirm nor deny), I, by virtue of being connected to my students' Diigo networks, would be able to look at their sources, and more importantly, their annotations for those sources, and give them specific feedback about their level of engagement and depth of research. Not only would this ability allow me to see what progress they've made on their research, but it will also help students develop a clearer sense of what constitutes valuable active reading and how one distinguishes salient, useful information from that which is less valuable."
  • J.Randolph Radney on 19 Oct 09
     
    This is an evaluation of social media tools for classroom use.
J.Randolph Radney

Using Wordle in the classroom (1 of 2) - ProfHacker.com - 0 views

www.profhacker.com/...wordle-in-the-classroom-1-of-2

wordle classroom technology

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 14 Nov 09 - Cached
  • it’s now standard practice, for example, to require students in a first-year-composition class to know how to use a word processor and to learn how to make good use of a database: those are not considered “computing skills” anymore. They’re just skills.
  • we’ve long assumed that students become better writers by reading a great deal; and we assume that experience at writing makes them better readers. For many generations, these 2 sides of the textual coin have been taught hand-in-hand: we don’t teach students to be consumers of words and then maybe later teach them (or teach only some of them, depending on their major or their future career) how to create words. Instead, they learn those skills simultaneously.
  • J.Randolph Radney on 14 Nov 09
     
    The site as a whole is devoted to discussing Wordle (the program that produced the word-posters displayed on the MOODLE course websites for both 050 and 060), but notice what is quoted about computer skills (the first quote) and the connection between reading ability and writing ability (the second).
J.Randolph Radney

ProfHacker 101: Getting started with Zotero - ProfHacker.com - 0 views

www.profhacker.com/...01-getting-started-with-zotero

profhacker zotero

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 14 Nov 09 - Cached
  • J.Randolph Radney on 14 Nov 09
     
    In research work, it is important to carefully keep track of the sources consulted. I was told about Zotero early on in the semester, but not in time to bring it into the curriculum this time. In future, I plan to have students use Zotero more, so students might want to take a look at what it offers, if they plan on taking more academic classes at TRU or another university.
J.Randolph Radney

Blogger in Middle-earth: The Ubiquitous Question - a reflection on learning - 1 views

newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com/...us-question-reflection-on.html

questions learning

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 31 Oct 09 - Cached
  • I gained the respect of my teachers, probably because of this attribute of asking questions, for I certainly wasn’t a model student.
  • Good teachers admire learners who ask pertinent questions.
  • Asking a question offers a teacher the opportunity to fulfil that so-often-difficult-to-attain goal of the pedagogue. The goal is to teach relevantly. While it’s true that learners tend to engage more in learning when they interact during a ‘lesson’, I’m not so sure that speaking up or even asking a question is necessarily exclusive for learning to occur.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • I’m not entirely opposed to the suggestion that questioning is a way to learn. Nor am I questioning the idea that learners will learn nothing if they don’t ask questions. My hunch is that questions are asked in the mind all the time. The trick of learning relevantly lies in asking the right questions.
J.Randolph Radney

TeachPaperless: Fountain of Youth: Reflections on Teaching Uses of Social Tech to Young... - 1 views

teachpaperless.blogspot.com/...n-of-youth-reflections-on.html

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 02 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Because we need our teachers to understand that it's not about 'using tech', but rather is about fully engaging in the reality of the 21st century. And we need them to understand that -- if anything -- social tech is a fountain of youth when it comes to learning and ideas.
    • J.Randolph Radney
      J.Randolph Radney on 02 Oct 09
       
      The claim implied here is that the new Web 2.0 technology like social media, social bookmarking, blogs, and the like are not going to go away. Rather, they are going to become the paradigm for social interaction at a distance. How may the development of such technology and its use in classes encourage greater interest among students in what is taught? How can such technology make it easier for students to complete coursework?
J.Randolph Radney

Adventures in Pencil Integration - 0 views

pencilintegration.blogspot.com

web2.0 standards technology critical thinking

shared by J.Randolph Radney on 06 Jan 10 - Cached
  • J.Randolph Radney on 06 Jan 10
     
    How do you think the changes in technology are affecting learning in schools?
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