My colleagues' research

 

My classmates are great resources.  One of the projects we had to work on was searching for and reporting on software, websites, and other digital media that handle digital citizenship and netiquette.  Two of the sites that I reviewed were offered by William Caruso and Steven Graves.

 

The first site,http://www.examguard.com/TestingEngine.asp is a site that allows users to set up online testing for students in an environment that will prevent them from accessing other sites while they are testing. There are additional services that are available with this site which provide feedback to students to help them improve in their knowledge of the content on which they had been tested.  This site is ideal for certification tests or testing centers and could easily be used in a situation in which students need to take proctored testing because they are making up an exam for a face-to-face class or online.

 

The next site, http://www.isafe.org is a haven of information to help any users, especially youth, expand their understanding of how to safely use the internet and all the different outlets that exist within it. Its primary focus is safety and responsibility relating to internet use. This site would help students who have little experience with the internet have a place to learn what is good and bad about the internet so they can feel more confident in their internet use.







There are so many different resources available. It is helpful to collaborate with others who have done some research to help have that many more credible sites refer to; thanks, fellas.

 

 

Digital Citizenship

What does it mean to be a digital citizen? It means the same thing as being a citizen of any other community.  There are certain standards of conduct, ethical behaviors and degrees of knowledge that are exhibited.  As a writer in a digital community, being able to use a computer and make expressions that have a positive, thought-provoking, or entertaining theme becomes a part of responsibility to the culture.  For those who may just be stepping into the electronic realm, it helps to have some guidance or a reference manual.  There are two such websites that would help anyone, writers included, to be better equipped for their place in the digital realm.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citizenship/giving/programs/up/digitalliteracy/default.mspx

Thinking of my students who may be coming to college for the first time after 20 years since they graduated from high school, or those who have not had access to technology other than possibly a cell phone, Microsoft’s website about digital literacy is a great place to start.  They have compiled three curricula ranging from basic to advance that will improve a user’s abilities with their office products, using the internet safely, and several other topics.  The modules are set up to be used online or downloaded for offline use.  This link could be given to students at the beginning of a course and specific subjects could be worked through during class time or assigned to be completed outside of class.  Either way, the learners have a guide to help them become more confident in their computer use.

 

http://digitalethics.org/

The Center for Digital Ethics website is another excellent source to educate learners with more in depth looks at anything digital and the ethical ramifications that surround it.  No part of the internet is left unnoticed.  The website shares essays on a multitude of topics, best practices for bloggers and social networking, and policy related ethical practices.  I could easily have students read and respond to any one of the essays that are available on the site to not only help them become more informed, but to also help them really think about the impact that rational and irrational internet behavior can have on a user.  Where Microsoft builds a basic digital literacy foundation, The Center for Digital Ethics adds more layers about ethical digital citizenship that may be complicated into more manageable pieces.

 

For both of these sites, information is definitely powerful.  A novice user can gain greater confidence in their computer use, or a seasoned veteran of technology can have another resource upon which they can rely.

Open education

http://www.oercommons.org/community/storytelling-cultures/view

Taking classes to learn or improve writing skills does not always have to be in the environment that people are traditionally accustomed to doing.  As much as I enjoy being in a classroom interacting with my students, not everyone is able to learn that way.  Open educational resources are available on virtually any subject that could be thought of and some that may not have even been considered.  www.oercommons.org is one such site that provides access to webinars and learning materials that have been archived for anyone to view at any time.  I took the time to view a class that was given regarding English language learning through the art of storytelling.  It was a great perspective for ESL students and native speakers alike.  The website was easy to navigate and comes with the option to search subjects based on educational level from k-12 to post-secondary.

 

http://oli.cmu.edu/learn-with-oli/see-our-free-open-courses/

The Open Learning Initiative is another site that has multiple courses available for free.  One in particular was a course centered on American English speech.  It focuses less on specifics in writing and grammar and more on the pronunciation of English language.  Anyone could enter the course directly from that point and begin working.   Again, the site was easy to navigate and there were several subjects from which to choose.  It is only a matter of what the interests are. 

 

Open courses are great for enhancing prior knowledge, or from an educator’s position, look at how learning material can be presented in a different, interactive way.  It is important to use some good internet savvy to determine if the sites are credible ultimately offering credible content.  Learning can occur anywhere and anytime and open education is simply another way to make that happen.

Learn to play and play to learn

There are so many games in both the real and virtual world it is hard at times to find those that really work for pleasure or educational purposes.  The internet is filled with games from the simple to the incredibly complex and finding those that would work for adults is a stressful task.  There are plenty of games available for children in k-12, but games that will help the adult developmental writer do not pop up right away.  I did find two that I think would be great to use.

 

http://www.icivics.org/games This site provides all types of information regarding the judicial process in the United States.  What I especially like about it are the games that help teach about those different processes.  As an educator, the more ways learners can experience the way the system of law works in this country, the better informed decisions they can make if the need arises.  As a writing instructor the game “Argument Wars” is a fun and educational way to have students experience the power of persuasion.  Real life scenarios are given and the player chooses a side to argue.  The computer is the counter argument and a judge determines if each side has successfully and completely supported their argument in an effort to win the case.  It was easy to use and great for adults.

 

http://www.thinkingworlds.com/ If it turns out that there is nothing online that can be used (which is highly unlikely), thinking worlds has created a site in which a teacher or anyone else for that matter can go on the site and create a simulation game in just a few simple steps.  It helps to have all of the objectives that students should learn ready so that construction of the simulation goes a little more easily.  In this case, I could take some particular section of the writing class, like subject-verb agreement and have the students go through a simulation in which they are preparing for an interview from the resume construction process through the interview.  The student would have to choose all of the correct language in order to land and start the job.  Learners need real life application, and creating a virtual example of how important it is to be able to speak and write well will help them to overcome such obstacles in the future.

What could I do with that?

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ultrabook/shop-ultrabook.html

      As I sit here in an attempt to let the excessive amount of food I ate digest, I am thinking about the number of laptop convertible commercials that I saw.  I decided that it was something that I needed to look into a little more deeply.  I went to Intel’s site and began looking at the different varieties of laptop/tablets.  I have a pc and a laptop, and I am considering the possibilities of the tablet.  The Intel site is nice because it showcases the hybrid machine as designed by different companies.  The reviews for the brand I looked at were all positive.  The biggest issue was the weight as it compares to a stand-alone tablet.  This trip through the virtual store makes my mind wander into the possibilities that could come about with this piece of technology and education.  Learners could easily work from anywhere typing essays or doing research with the laptop.  Flip the screen and view e-book chapters more easily with the touch screen feature of the tablet.  Even if the weight is an issue, learners who are working on material are not necessarily walking and holding the tablet in front of them as they are reading, so I do not see that as a potential problem.   This type of equipment could be used across disciplines, but I think the cost may be a problem for institutions or programs that have very limited budgets (nothing a well written grant could not handle).

http://www.eschoolnews.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2011/09/mobile_star.pdf

  
   That leads me to something that is more readily available and could easily be added to a learning experience – the smartphone. With the number of smartphones surpassing the number of personal computers for adults 18 and older, there is access to technology that learners bring with them to the classroom every day (School Technology Action Report, 2011). It is an expense that does not have to be incurred by the institution. For the writing classroom, learners can take advantage of a dictionary or thesaurus when they are working on in-class writing projects. Facilitators could have students upload free applications that help them do quick checks on grammar, rhetorical modes, or, if it is available, an application that allows them to access an electronic version of their textbook. The students are checking their Facebook pages or sending Tweets under the desk anyway, so the instructor might as well take advantage of a mobile technology that is brought into their learning environment every day. Who knows? They might learn something.

What I like about...

www.linkedin.com  Linked in is a social networking site that focuses on connecting professionals.  There is no specific type of employment that is targeted; it is for anyone who wants to be connected with what is going on in the world of professionals.  Signing up requires a name and an email address.  Once registered, additional information can be entered regarding location of employment, position, and personal statistics the user may want to provide. Not only does it connect professionals, but job searches and postings can be created.  There is also a wide array of articles ranging from business to education that provides valuable information from a host of different areas.  What does this have to do with college writers?  From an educator’s perspective, it is a great way to show students how important written and oral communication skills are to their future professions.  Students need to have justification for why they are taking a particular course; if they view an article or a job posting that specifically exhibits the need for “excellent” written communication skills as a must to acquire a position, it may help them to be motivated to complete their writing assignments successfully (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009).

www.facebook.com.  I just cannot resist it. Facebook is a social networking site that connects people for any reason. There are a lot of different ways in which Facebook is used – daily updates by users on whatever may be happening in their lives, angry rants about religion, politics, jobs, or children, or whatever funny cartoon or video they may have happened to view. For a writing instructor, it is a buffet of both excellent and poor grammatical constructions.  Naturally concealing the identities of the individuals who posted, it provides the ability to help students learn the appropriate way to use there/their/they’re, your/you’re and a myriad of other sound a-like combinations.  It can also be used as a forum for students to create a “poll question of the day.”  In this way, I can have students ask a question on their personal Facebook pages and write an analysis of their audience based on the answers they received.  This helps students understand why it is so important to take their audience into consideration for anything they may write.

 

Both LinkedIn and Facebook are of extraordinary value depending on the needs and use of the individual.  What makes them so great comes from the connections that are created between human beings all across the globe.  Even if the connection may not necessarily be the most favorable because of the artificial environment, the benefits are potentially unlimited and quite real.

 

Reference

Ginsberg, M. B., & Wlodkowski, R. J. (2009). Diversity & motivation:  Culturally responsive teaching in college (2^nd ed.). San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

A simple search

Students today have a lot of different choices available to them through technology to help them with any subject.  Depending on what they need, it really is just a matter of typing in the right words in a search and thousands of interactive tools and applications come up.  I took that approach from the perspective of a person taking an introductory writing class. I have included two links; one is an interactive tool that aids in essay development, and the other is a free application that can be downloaded to a mobile phone or tablet.

 

http://write.ctdlc.org/pages/index.php Online writing tools for college students helps students through the process of writing an essay.  The site itself is very simple in appearance and has three areas that can be entered from the home page – thesis development, process personality, and audience for college papers.  The part of the website that I found most interesting and potentially helpful to learners is the process personality questionnaire that determines, based on a series of questions about their previous approaches to writing, the best methods for them to use as they begin and work through a writing project.  A series of helpful suggestions appear that individuals can click on that provide further explanation (Write, n.d.). 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.testsstore.app.peg0&hl=en Because many students in introductory or developmental writing need help with grammar concepts, they sometimes need additional practice. Google Play offers a free application called Practice English Grammar.  There is a second version, but I only discovered that after I had downloaded the first to my cell phone.  Version one is relatively easy to move through and it offers a basic overview of parts of speech and practice quizzes and flash cards ranging from nouns and adjectives to subject-verb agreement (Practice English Grammar, 2011).  This tool would come in handy for students to have a quick reference for grammar or practice.

These, of course, are only two of millions of interactive writing and grammar tools.  They are not necessarily the greatest of all time, but not too terrible of a result from a simple online search.

References

Practice English Grammar. (2011). Retrieved from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.testsstore.app.peg0&hl=en.

Write! Online Writing Tools for College Students. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://write.ctdlc.org/pages/index.php.