STIJan14

Welcome to the 3rd Session of your STI course about new literacies!
January 28, 2008

Starting where we left off -
It's been almost three months since we last met, but we'll be meeting once a month now, so things should seem a little more "connected". Here's what we've got planned.

Today's Agenda:
1. Hearing from groups who have begun to pose questions about applying new literacies in their classrooms
 * What connections do you see between Capstone Projects and new literacies?
 * What interesting questions have been identified?
 * What have you observed/learned so far?
 * What challenges have you faced?

2. **Collecting Data** - It really depends on your focus - abilities, difficulties, interactions, processes, products? Data can be useful for generating questions, gathering baseline information, comparing/contrasting responses to different interventions, or charting progress/change over time.
 * WATCH & REFLECT: Watch with a focus, think, and journal - capture the moment in non-judgmental field notes and then later...
 * What worked and why? What didn't seem to work and why?
 * Were students engaged with the task? with each other? How? Why?
 * What had you never noticed before?
 * What questions do you have now?
 * KEEP & NOTE: Save student work (or scan it/photograph it) and label with sticky comments... How long? How skilled? Mark changes in progress over time
 * PHOTOGRAPH & NOTE: Take photos of students working together - compile and use to reflect
 * RECORD & REFLECT: Use [|Camtasia] for PC or [|IShowU] or [|SnapZ ProX] on a Mac or...[|Mimeo] Whiteboards with recording bar
 * Encourage students to think-aloud while they are working (or reflect after) so you can hear their version/interpretation of what they are doing
 * These can be transcribed and analyzed
 * INTERVIEWS: Mini-conferences with students to hear their opinion, feedback, strategy use, etc. - Take notes from a guided question sheet or use a digital tape recorder. Listen but be flexible in your questioning (What do you do when...? What do you think about when you are\...? What was easy or hard? What did you like or not like?
 * SURVEYS: Amount or strength of a quality you are looking for
 * Tips:
 * Choose only a sampling of students - could be random or purposeful, depending on your needs and interests
 * In the beginning, it's more about capturing the moment(s); then later, you can note certain patterns, burning questions, and return to collect more focused data

3. **Hands-on activity and reflection**: Introducing online reading comprehension strategies using search engine results
 * Often, typing in the keyword is the easy part! Reading search engine results requires LOTS of inferential thinking and evaluation

3. **Discussing/connecting.**..
 * Authentic online reading tasks...How do YOU use the Internet for personal information needs?
 * TICA Taxonomy of Online Reading Comprehension Skills

Other thoughts/ideas from the day...