Christopher+J.

My name is Chris and this is my second semester at Fordham. I grew up in Virginia but recently moved to New York for graduate school. I graduated from Manhattanville College last May where I was a British Literature major and a Film Studies minor. I had originally planned on majoring in education as an undergrad, but ultimately was too enamored with English. Now that I’m studying to get my in M.S.T. in English, I get to combine both which is exciting. I’m still new to the education side of things so I still have much to learn but I have enjoyed my classes so far and look forward to gaining knowledge about media literacy.

 When not in school, I enjoy all forms of comedy, writing short stories, reading (author biographies are always fun), and bowling.

 I chose the picture below because I love Sherlock Holmes stories and I find Arthur Conan Doyle to be a fascinating author. Also, I chose it because I wasn't prepared for the picture to be taken so it's goofy and makes me laugh.




 * My Life as a Technology User**

When it comes to technology, I’m a bit of a dinosaur. I don’t use the internet for much more than checking e-mail, doing class assignments, and watching netflix. I’ve never used Twitter. I like reading books that I can hold in my hands rather than reading on a Kindle or I-Pad. I don’t have a smartphone. I only have a Facebook page because my friends set one up for me. There’s so much I don’t know about technology. When I first began writing stories, I would use a typewriter instead of a computer so I guess you could say I started my life as a technology user in the past and it stayed that way. But I figure now is the time to learn how to use all that technology has to offer, not only for the sake of this class but also because I know that learning how to use all this technology will be beneficial to me in the future. I intend to use everything I learn in this class to become more aware of how technology can help me in professional settings and how to use technology as a tool that can enhance students’ ability to learn.

My fondest memories of technology revolve around the video camera. My family didn’t use video cameras all the time, but we always had one sitting on a shelf in the house. When I was around 10-years-old, I became interested in movies so I started using the video camera to make my own. Since I was a little kid who loved stop motion cartoons, I would use my action figures and try to imitate the style. Although it seems super dorky now, I would take my action figures, get a one second shot of them, move them an inch, and get another shot. It was my attempt at stop motion before I really knew how stop motion worked. Even though I would be embarrassed if I watched these videos now, I thought they looked awesome back then. It wasn’t long until I was using the video camera almost every day after school, shooting whatever ideas came to mind. The best thing that came out of this was that it was a great activity to do with friends. To this day, some of my best friends are guys that I started hanging out with because we’d shoot little movies around the neighborhood together. There was rarely any script or plot outline. It was just my friends and I shooting anything that made us laugh or amused us. In later years, we would edit some of the footage using software we installed on the computer (to not very satisfying results). Truthfully, the editing was never that fun for me. The real fun for me was just shooting the footage and hanging out with friends. It was a social activity more than anything else. The videos were always for fun, but sometimes I thought they would have been so much better if there was a story to go along with the goofiness so I spent most of college trying to become a better writer. As a result, I became more interested in English/literature than Film. Maybe one day I’ll shoot a little movie again, but for right now, I’m happy concentrating on English. I know if I ever did decide to go back to shooting little movies, I would basically have to learn everything from scratch. Digital cameras are used now. Editing software has advanced. It would be an entirely different experience. Whether I ever pick up a camera again or not, I’ll always look back fondly on memories I have of shooting those videos with my friends.

My personal use project is learning how to use RSS Feeds and how they can provide me with knowledge that can help me as an educator. []
 * Personal Use Project**

NETS Goals

My current knowledge of all the categories in NETS goals is truthfully pretty vague as I am not yet student teaching and I’ve never been a huge technology user, but out of the five NETS categories, this is the category I would most like to focus on. I think it’s fair to say that the majority of high school students know far more about computer and internet technology than me so my first goal is going to be //that I will learn how to use technology (mainly the internet) in ways that will enhance both students learning and my own. As part of this goal, I will learn to use the site Evernote as part of the Idea Share project so that I can teach students to use the site as a tool to both coincide with and boost their learning capabilities. I will use Evernote in order to develop lesson plans, ideas, and expectations for the classroom for when I do start teaching. This will enable me to be better prepared in my role as an educator/teacher.//
 * 1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity **

As far as designing assessment that incorporates digital tools goes, I designed a wikispace for a class last semester and I can set up a basic, simple webpage. As my area of focus is English, I would like one of my goals to be for me //to learn how to use certain websites and digital tools in ways that would complement the teaching of literary materials, writing, and grammar.//
 * 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments **

In terms of digital-age technology, there are many areas in which I could improve. These days, there is lots of information out there and it’s easy to spend hours and hours looking at information that is either wrong or not useful. Therefore, one of my goals will be //to learn how to use an RSS feed for websites that will help me develop lesson plans, share ideas, and share a variety of resources with students.//
 * 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning **

With regards to digital citizenship and interaction, I have a facebook page and use it a few times a week but other than that, I don’t participate in any other form of social interaction online. Since I know it is common for most schools, companies, and businesses to use Twitter as both a form of communication and promotion, one of my goals will be //to learn how Twitter works and be able to explain how it can be beneficial for students’ communication and media literacy skills//. //I will develop a lesson on responsible uses and irresponsible uses of Twitter for educational purposes. As part of this, I will research how teachers have used Twitter in the classroom in both effective and ineffective ways.//
 * 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility **

Obviously in order to be an active part of a professional, educational environment there is much I need to learn about digital media and technology in the modern age. Therefore, as part of my personal use //project I intend to write about what I’ve learned about technology during my graduate school experience (focusing mainly on this semester) as part of a blog.// This will help not only keep track of my learning but force me to relate it to my growth as a student and educator.
 * 5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership **

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 * Copyright Clarity Link:**

__**Final Portfolio**__

Portfolio Reflection Response:

__**Digital Literacy Statement**__

With digital media being as evolving and fast-paced as it is, there is no possible way to keep up with every single piece of technology and every tool available. To do so would be an overwhelming task. However, in order to be considered literate in digital media, there are a few skills that I believe should be mandatory for students to know how to use to enhance their learning. Although many students already take place in what Jenkins describes as the “participatory culture” (pg. 7), in many cases this is being used more for enjoyment purposes than educational ones. Therefore it is necessary for students (for the sake of my main focus, I’m going to say students from grades 7-12) to know how to use certain skills that can be associated with web-based and digital tools that can facilitate their learning. For the most part, these skills are ones that will aid students in being able to make the best use of technology when completing class assignments. In teaching these skills, it will be emphasized to the students that the technology and the tools associated with the technology will not do the work for them. The thought behind the assignments will always come before the technology used in the assignment. Here is a brief breakdown of some of the skills that can come in handy when using some of the tools that students should be aware of: The teacher’s role in this should be to act as a guide. Some students will already know how to use certain (if not all) skills. Others may not be as quick to learn. Just as with teaching any other subject, teaching digital literacy requires patience. It is possible that students will know more about the technology than the teacher and that’s to be expected in some cases, but the main point behind teaching the technology should focus on the //why// just as much as the //how.// When a child learns to read, the reason behind learning the skill is given equal importance to the skill itself. This is how it should be with digital literacy. There should be emphasis placed on not only how digital literacy can help the students as individuals, but also how it can have a higher societal function. For example, teaching what the internet has to offer in ways of global communication is one societal implication that can be stressed.  In terms of parental involvement, sending home an instructional booklet or information manual explaining the digital technology being taught to their children may be a good idea as parents should be aware of the material that their children are learning with. There may also be a section on the class syllabus about technology in the classroom. Additionally, there can be demonstrations of the technology that will be used in the classroom at back-to-school nights and other meeting times such as parent-teacher conferences. The degree to which a given teacher chooses to embrace digital technology is entirely up to them. However, it is in the best interests of teachers, students, and parents to be knowledgeable about the technology that is changing life in the 21st century.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Powerpoint and/or Prezi: For class presentations, I believe these two tools are the best and the most useful for students to learn how to operate. These can be used for presentations in any subject area and will probably also be effective for students when they enter the business world as well. Although I have mentioned that the thought behind the assignment is way more important than the technology or visuals presented in the assignment, part of developing a presentation is thinking of ways to keep a potential audience interested. While pretty or interesting visuals can be one way of maintaining audience members’ attention spans, the skill students really need to learn is to be able to use technological applications such as Powerpoint or Prezi in ways that enhance the presentations of what they already know. Students need to be able to use the technology to articulate their knowledge in compelling ways.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Google/Online Encyclopedias: Although I am still very much a firm believer in traditional library research and used physical copies of books for almost all my research papers in college, I do think it is necessary for students to be aware of how to properly search Google and all of its related properties (Google Books, Google Docs, etc) when writing a research paper or simply wanting to explore more information on a topic. In addition to Google, students should know how to access __reliable__ online encyclopedias that aid them in their work. While RSS Feeds will also be helpful in this area, I think that Google and similar search tools should be checked out first. Being taught how to use online encyclopedias should also include a lesson on how to accurately cite online sources in order to avoid academic penalty**.** One of the components of learning I want to emphasize in teaching this aspect of the lesson is that students have a choice in the way they want to do research. As long as the research is done honestly and responsibly, it can be done either the traditional way or by using the digital technology available to them.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Social Responsibility of Digital Media- Although this is not a digital tool per se, one of the most important aspects to digital literacy is learning how to use the internet and other digital technology responsibly. This means teaching students both the benefits and the risk of placing information online, knowing how to apply privacy settings, and being aware of how to protect one’s computer from potential online scams/viruses. Ideally, this would be taught as a mini-lesson (1-2 days in the classroom). If digital technology is going to be considered the future of education then this is should be an essential component to digital instruction**.** Part of this instruction may include going over the concept of copyright confusion and what counts as fair use when using copyright materials.

References Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K., & Robison, A. J. (2009). //Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century//. London, England: MIT Press.