Digital Information Diet: Detox in the Works

This week, I took a long, hard look at another aspect of my health: my informational diet.  It wasn't very intellectual from a professional stand point.  Yikes.  Facebook, Pinterest, and a RSS feed populated with cooking and 'foodie' blogs were my main source of information.  I use my Twitter account for professional purposes, but most of my informational diet consisted of digital 'junk food.'  It was time to consider a digital detox.

Photo by Graham Steel Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Why wasn't I as cautious about my informational diet?  That's not to say that what I was reading and filtering through was worthless.  Quite the contrary!  I have found and created many useful things and skills from these.  But in intellectual/informational diet consisting of fairly shallow topics and insights is not healthy.  From a professional growth stand point, I wasn't taking in much information that I could use to grow to become a better educator.  And I have changed that with the addition of a three new blogs to my RSS feed. 

All of these new blogs tie in with education; specifically the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the varying and often controversial views surrounding them.  The CCSS alignment has been a fact of my career since I began four years ago.  I was aware of very little outside of my own school district and I am seeking to change that now.

The first addition to my RSS feed was Homeroom, the official blog of the US Department of Education, @usedgov.  I chose this resource because while most of the impact in education that I feel directly comes from the State of Michigan, the US Department of Education and the actions of the federal government do effect my job as a teacher.  The ties between The Race for the Top and the CCSS have caused quite a controversy between educators, parents, and politicians.  I feel is is only wise as a teacher and a citizen to keep my finger on the pulse of what my government's current educational views are. 

Another new addition to my feed is Teaching the Core: A Non-Freaked Out Approach to Teaching the Common Core by Dave Stuart, Jr., @davestuartjrhttps://twitter.com/davestuartjr First off, the title of his blog not only made me laugh, but it also caught my attention.  Until recently, I didn't realize that there were so many educators who did not support the adoption of the CCSS.  Either I live in a cave (my classroom) or I have my eye so focused on learning and aligning my own curriculum to the CCSS, I wasn't paying attention.  Stuart's blog is a resource for teachers who have questions about the CCSS and its implementation.  His tips, tricks, and tidbits are authentic and engaging.

The last addition completely opposes my view of the CCSS: Us Against Common Core. This blog for parents and educators against the CCSS is a platform for their voices.   I feel it is important to consider the opinion and value the insight afforded by looking at the opposition and this is no exception.  I have some parents asking me questions about the CCSS and my thoughts on teaching them.  Having the knowledge of the opposing view helps me to understand these concerns in a more well-rounded fashion.

I am confident these new additions to my informational diet will expand my view points on the CCSS as well as becoming a more knowledgeable educator with a more worldly view of this controversial topic and others to come. 

Texting for Social Engagement with Autism Spectrum Disorder

My graduate assignment this week had me 'choosing my own adventure' while I explored and researched a special need, disability, or learning challenge I was interested in learning more about.  I fumbled a bit at the beginning as I tried to make this assignment meaningful to myself as a educator.  I have several students with various 'undiagnosed' learning disabilities and needs, but nothing specific enough for my assignment.  Then I thought about some of the children I have encountered in my elementary over the past few years.  Even though they were not students of 'mine,' I still had daily interactions with these individuals and I wanted to understand them better and how I can communicate more effectively with them as a member of their learning community.  Both of these students have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Autism is a group of developmental brain disorders, collectively referred to as autism spectrum disorder.  Due to the widely ranging symptoms, skills, and degrees of impairment, ASD is considered to be spectral:  some individuals with ASD are only mildly impaired by their symptoms, while others are severely disabled. With special education now being integrated into general education classrooms, it is becoming more important to teach social and communicative skills to ASD students to help support them with peer interactions.

Read more in-depth about Texting for Social Engagement with Autism Spectrum Disorder here.

I believe text messaging would be a wonderful way to teach high-functioning ASD children how to have an authentic conversation with a peer in a meaningful way.  Texting is already an integrated part of our lives today.  It makes some other social impairment symptoms (lacking eye contact, facial expressions, etc) non-issues for the ASD child, scaffolding his or her communications as they learn conversational practices.  Text messaging also allows for picture communication on most phones through emoji or photographs, which supports the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) method that is currently very successful with ASD students.

Here is an example of a mother communicating with her autistic teenage son through text messaging. 

Ann Work/Times Record News

Vera Word reads a text message typed by her son Jonathon on his cell phone screen. The cell phone is a new tool for the two that has enabled Jonathon, who has autism, to communicate with his mother and his teachers through text messaging.

Ann Work/Times Record News

Jonathon Word’s fingers fly over his phone’s keyboard as he communicates via text-message. Because he can’t talk, this has proved to be the best, most portable way for his mother and teachers to penetrate his autistic world. The 15-year-old student is in the autism program at Harrell Accelerated Learning Center,

Work, A. (2009) Teen With Autism, Mom Communicate Via Texting. Times Record News.  Retrieved from http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2009/dec/11/modern-miracle-n-teen-with-autism-mom-via-ann/

Breaking Free of Formal Education as We Know It

For my CEP 812 graduate class, we took at look at James Paul Gee's recently published book The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning.  As a digital literacy educator, Gee takes a look deeper look at the effects of current mindsets involving digital and social media as well as how we are failing to use these technology tools to make us smarter problem solvers.  

A student engaged in an authentic writing assignment.

This assignment required the close and reflective reading of Part I: How to Be Stupid.  With a title like that, who wouldn't want to know how to break that bad habit?  Throughout the following chapters, Gee laid the ground work for the limitations humans are allowing themselves to become trapped by as well as offering thoughts of what can be done to break free of these limits.  

Here is a pick into my reflection on Gee's book thus far.  This Google Doc is a summary of Gee's theories as well as my ponderings on "What limitations prevent us from solving big, complex problems smartly?"