The insight I have about using, analyzing and creating in digital space is that we take it for granted, we don’t look at what we're doing anymore. I have had a Facebook for so many years now that I don’t stop to think that Using Facebook is a digital skill, I’m creating content. My content is personal views and stories, but its all mine, and I use the skills this class talk about every day. I never thought of these skills like digital literacy, and that is why I had so much trouble with developing my ideas for this class. I didn’t understand what counted as literacy; I forgot that it’s a personal opinion on my own skills. Digital literacy impacted my ability to work with the creative work Mindomo. These readings forced me to understand what I lacked in skill, what categories I needed to work on. Without learning on what a digital literacy learner needs to be successful, I wouldn’t be able to improve on my own skills. Without my skills, I would never be able to teach it to my students, who will need to understand how to decode (navigate, conventions, operations, stylistic, modalities) (Hinrichsen & Coombs, 2014). The last three weeks reinforced my lack of prior understanding on the subject, and I have had to work to keep learning so I could contribute to the weekly posts and not sound like I didn’t do the readings. I tried Mindomo because it reminded me of all the times I used the mind map in school on a piece of paper, I wanted to see if this work, as well as the paper version of it, did. (mindomo). I built my mind map around the idea of my resource page, which is English resources, with the focus on ESL. I chose this category because my sister who was a native English speaker needed help with her English because she was in French emersion for grade one and that put her a year behind her peers. She needed to take time with an ESL teacher, which removed her from some of her grade two classes; while it helped her, she also felt excluded from her peers. These resources would accomplish a similar goal while at home. They might have allowed her to remain with her peers, which working on fun sites at home. My awareness mainly impacted my ability to work with the digital tools, my lack of experience made it harder to not only push myself to try new things but to complete these new works successfully. The Padlet wall was strange to me, looking at others posts showed me that I could have embedded a link within my text, but I didn’t because I didn’t look for a digital tool I could use, but I also didn’t look up how to use Padlet wall. Since I chose to use Weebly as my blogging site I needed quite a bit of help to get it started, most of the resources I used were created by Weebly to help people like me get started. Bluehost made an excellent five-part YouTube series that I used to help me get started. Once I watched this series, I began to make my blog, and I was content. Until I was expected to respond to a comment on my site, which wasn’t at all straightforward. I tried to figure this out myself for around half an hour until I turned to the Weebly Help Center to see what they had to offer. After reading their comments and watching their video, I was able to find the response section of the site. These sources were incredibly helpful in my digital journey, and I recommend to look into the help center of whatever site is being used, the people who created the site want people like you to use their technology, so they will try to help you on this journey.
3 Comments
Helen DeWaard
11/10/2018 08:48:01 am
Allyson, you’ve shared the personal connection to why you’ve selected the digital tools and resources you’ve examined. It’s interesting to see how you’ve applied this to your work in Mindomo. As you tinkered and played with this digital tool, how did you analyze your experience? Is it an easy to used digital resource? Are there issues with access that would make it difficult for students to use and create a concept map? I know that Mindomo allows for a presentation format – so once your map is completed, you can select and sequence a presentation (similar to Prezi if you’ve ever used that app). Did you explore this part of Mindomo? Were there any issues with access since this tool relies on having internet access? I know there is a downloadable desktop application so work can be done off-line, but I’m not sure that would make it easier for students to use at home. Helen
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Madison
11/10/2018 12:33:37 pm
Allyson, I love using the tool mindomo, I actually just used it recently in my Master of Education program. We have been creating literature maps before we complete our research for end of term literature reviews. Through taking this course last year, I knew a strong, versatile program I could use would be mindomo. This is just another tool you are able to add to your "teacher toolbelt." Great post, thanks for sharing!
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K.Manson
11/13/2018 08:53:39 am
I too had a similar experience in participating in the Padlet activity. Learning by example is also a key way to further explore new digital spaces. Your post shared many experiences that I personally relate to, thanks for sharing!
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Allyson DuffThird year education student at Lakehead University. Specializing in Sociology and Media Studies Archives
November 2018
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