Explain Everything
Spark Page
Over these first few weeks of the semester in my Literacy and
Curriculum courses, I completed two separate projects with the iPad Apps Explain
Everything and Adobe Spark Page. Using the Explain
Everything App, I created a presentation based around the curriculum
orientation philosophy that I most align myself with, which happens to be
humanism. The audio features combined with the interactive slides allowed me to
discuss the founders of humanism in education, and how it will influence my
future curriculum as an educator. Using the Adobe Spark Page App,
I also created a presentation on the meaning of literacy in a digital age, and
what the implications of technology has on students as citizens of the world.
This App allowed me to use visuals and text to convey my message about the way
social media is can create literacy disconnect in the technological age, and
the impact that has on the way we study current events and history.
Throughout my time working on these two projects and
participating in class discussions and readings, I have developed a few
connections between the two ideas. The first connection I made while reflecting
on the presentations was that teaching digital literacy, especially as a
humanistic educator, it is imperative for all educators moving forward in the
twenty-first century. Humanist educators value student independence, voice and
choice, and the belief that nothing should hold the student back from reaching
their full potential. Those values cannot be carried out to students in their
fullest potential if one is not digitally literate, due to the ability the technological
age has of stripping us of our independence and freedom of thought. Whether it
is political, economic, or social, the implications can be too large if one
does not know how to think for themselves while viewing all different forms of
texts on the web and social media. Another connection I made while reflecting
on the project is that teaching digital and information literacy can be done in
engaging ways when the instructor allows students to personalize their learning
in order to build critical analysis skills. This can be done by students
picking a topic of their own and choosing various sources that range in
validity. Personalization brings it to life for the student and this is taps
into the values of humanist philosophy in education. This will allow students
to assess and evaluate which sources are credible and which ones are not. In
the content area of social studies, information literacy is extremely important
when evaluating sources to use for research because technology has given humans
the ability to basically put whatever they want out on the internet and it is
up to us, as digital citizens, to filter out persuasions and get down to the
facts.
I believe through these two projects I address Performance
Criteria 4.1 and 4.2 in the sense that in both projects, I communicated the
central idea of humanism philosophy and how it impacts social studies
education. In the literacy project, I feel as if I addressed the importance of
digital and information literacy in the technological age, as well as pointing
out that this literacy class has changed the way I view the term literacy and
its meaning. Before this class, my ideas of literacy was more focused around
reading and writing out of a book, but this quickly changed, as literacy
carries many different meanings depending on the context, and this can be seen
in the Spark Page. For Performance Criteria 5.1, this was connected through
both projects by discussing the need for personalized learning in the Explain Everything presentation, as well
as discussing the need for independent digital citizens that can view various
texts, which can be seen in the glideshow of the Spark Page. Performance Criteria 5.2 was addressed again in both
projects by discussing personalized learning, which inevitably bring up
cross-disciplinary skills through student choice on different subjects. This
also allows for creativity, which is a key component in the humanist
philosophy. In my Spark Page presentation, I also touch upon the need to
evaluate texts in a variety of different meanings and lenses in order to
evaluate for the underlying meaning the author is attempting to send. To link to
the SMC Mission Statement Pillar (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QCkkwaJQohb3T4KYMRUp42gf5BbY3exx_EubgiRRfS8/edit#
) these two projects combined emphasized the core values of creativity,
curiosity, collaboration, reflection, and social justice. Both in the content
of the project and the design of the presentations, I was able to advocate for
creativity and curiosity in education by discussing humanist values and the implications
that has on one being digitally literate. I was also able to expand upon my own
creativity as a teacher by working with and using Apps that I have never been introduced
to before. Moving forward, becoming more familiar with the technology that is
at my disposal will only be more beneficial for my students and will be more
likely to apply the core values shown above in their own lives.
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