Interactive Novels

While reading this week’s reading I was pretty excited to see how the using of hyperlinks in reports, or stories can allow students to be more engaged.  By allowing students to click on hyperlinks in a work, it enables them to better understand what they are reading.  I instantly thought of how much I loved finding Interactive Novels online.  These stories allow a student to find or even pick their own story line.  If a reader chooses a certain ending to the chapter it will jump them to a different story line than if they picked on the other option.  Authors of these works use hypertexts that the reader can click on to continue the story.  It allows the audience to continuously be engaged through/within the whole story.  This type of story can also be titled interactive fiction.  Not only are hyperlinks included but sometimes visuals as well.  Images, or small video clips will also aid in the understanding of the story line.  My little sister is always finding new stories online to look at and she loves it!  She likes to read plain books, but when she's clicking away she has more fun at being active in her reading than simply sitting down.  For a young energetic group, these forms of novels are perfect to get a child interested.  They allow for a "choose your own" style of reading.

Student's own voice

I feel that it is important to use some sort of online discussion, in any class, to ensure students are constantly engaged in the topic at hand.  By meeting only so many times a week, there is alot of down time where a student isn't even thinking about the content that is being addressed in a class.  By setting up a blog assignment, students will be critically thinking about specific readings throughout the year/semester.  Wilber writes in his chapter three, “Perhaps the most powerful use of a blog is in development of a student’s own voice as a writer and thinker” (49).  I found this to be extremely important especially at the high school level.  I remember being told throughout high school that this is how I should write in order to get an A.  I remember only elaborating on the theories that my teacher may have mentioned in a class discussion and that was all.  So when I arrived at SRU, I was mortified to have to come up with a solid paper that included my own ideas supported by scholarly writers.  I had only been doing, writing, and reading what I was told.  I was not given a chance to develop my own voice as a writer and thinker, and wished that some of my high school teachers forced us to join in on class discussions through technology, outside of the classroom, such as blogs.  I completely agree with what Wilder has to say, and believe that all teachers should embrace technology as a way to engage their students on the class curriculum outside of the limited class time.  Every person needs time to mull over a certain theory and idea to mold it into their own, so why not use technology to ensure that the student is constantly learning through regular critical thinking.

Poetry and Dance

So I just wanted to write a blog that does not focus on technology as much and focuses on the transmediation/multimodal use of text in relation to dance.  I am currently writing a paper for my class Teaching of Dance, and I found some great articles on how beneficial the utilization of dance and poetry is on anyone from students to audience members.  Many of the articles discussed that by having students create a dance to a poem or to an excerpt of a work, they found that students were more likely to comprehend, and critically thing about the meaning behind the words.  Not only did it engage the students more into the classroom but it allowed them to be creative and physically active (Anderson & McCormick). 

I even found an article that reported a scientific organization that wanted to promote their focus in electromagnetism.  The author writes that he wanted to "reach an arts-based audience to encourage them to engage with science and scientific issues" (Diprose).  He goes onto say how the audience members seemed to love the performance and how the effect of it seemed to make this complex form of science seem easier to understand for most viewers.  Although this performance of dance was not poetry it was based off of the written out/textual explanation of the electromagnetic process of the moon. 

I absolutely loved writing this paper and finding ways that poetry and text can be paired with any learning process to better engage the viewers or doers into better understanding topics that may be hard to relate to.  This is definitely a form of multimodal education that I will be on the verge of overusing in my classrooms....I apologize to my future students for making you dance too much :(

Sources:

Anderson,  Jack. “On the Move: Poetry and Dance.” Dance Chronicle 33.2 (2010): 251-67.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Sept. 2012.

Diprose, Mike, D. Snyder, and J. Morland. “’Moonlight and Magnetism’: A theoretical

performance of electromagnetism, poetry and dance as a stimulus for ideas to use in lecture theatre. ” Teaching in Higher Education. 5.4 (2000): 547-51. Sociological Collection. Web. 3 Sept. 2012.

McCormick, Jennifer. “Transmediation in the Language Arts Classroom: Creating Contexts for

Analysis and Ambiguity.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 54.8 (2011): 579-87. ERIC. Web. 2 Sept. 2012.

Reading in a "Nonlinear" way

I loved Kist's section on Nonlinear reading.  At one point he states, "it could be argues that we have always had the ability to read texts in a nonlinear fashion" (19).  I found this very interesting because while many readers around me can read in nonlinear fashions, when it comes to reading books, I can't.  However this statement made me think more into the younger generation and how the media provides constant forms of nonlinear literacy/reading for internet users.  As soon as this activity was mentioned in class I found myself thinking back to my Native American Lit. class and how frustrated I was that every single book we read was written in Nonlinear fashion.  I found it hard to follow and keep track of what was going on, yet I can go on facebook and read a post from my friend sent to me yesterday and snoop in on a newly broken relationship that was posted 2 seconds ago.  I even realized that I always study for exams in nonlinear fashion.  Focusing on whatever I want first and jumping around within my books and notes until I feel I am ready.  I found myself second guessing my first reaction to nonlinearity and agreeing with what Kist had to say.  But a big question that I had in the end was how much can nonlinear education be utilized in the classroom?  I felt that by allowing and encouraging students to always read the way that is natural to them (nonlinear), then will it become too much?  Will students be able to focus long enough on a work to be able to really critically think/analyze the text?  Or will they only retain the little portions or lines they think are important?  Nonlinear reading is a great tactic for students who want to be involved with social networks but they are not always efficient in certain classrooms.  Integrating technology within the classroom is great! But in certain classes will it be overused, only reinforcing the nonlinear multitasking brains of the new generation of technology users.

Comic strip insanity!

I came upon this website when I decided to be creative one day.  I love comic books and graphic novels and remember a project in my high school English class where we had to create one abouts any scene of our choice from the book The Great Gatsby.  I found this website, but the user would have to create an account.  A million ways on how to utilise this tool in a classroom popped into my head.  I felt that a younger generation would love to have a creative project like this that could be used in any class assignment from a book report, to a funny comic strip on their dog for show and tell.  By using this tool in a classroom, it allows the students to be able to use programs to create a story that could challenge their creative side as well.

It allows you to create a simple three-pan comic strip, or a story that could take up a whole page.  Even if a student doesn't want to use the characters they are provided with through the program they can print the blank frames out and draw a comic themselves.  Although I'm no child...I am guilty of doing this myself.  So I feel that this could be a good non-print tool that all age groups can easily understand and use.

Below is the URL for this specific program. 

http://stripgenerator.com/strip/create/

Kist's Ch. 1.

I loved the introduction to Kist's first chapter!  I found it interesting how he explained the Internet as "interactive in nature," and that most students will use it as a way of "getting back in touch with the world after hours of forced disconnect" (1).  This only made me wonder how utilising more technology into class curriculum could not only make students feel a little more connected with the outside world but could also allow the relationships between teachers and students improve as well.  I'm not saying that I think it's a good idea for students to start texting in the middle of class or checking their facebook, but by maybe using these sources as a way to get students to present an interesting topic they found through one of these social networking cites and to look into it a little more and maybe to even present it to the class.  Before technology existed, and before the Internet, teachers would have to go out and learn how to use certain anthologies, or how to utilise their local library's system in order to efficiently teach their students in a classroom.  When the television was invented, teachers learned how to use this new technology to show students educational videos that allowed them to learn in a more efficient way.  Now that we have all these new non-print tools, why shouldn't teachers learn how to integrate them in the classroom, just as teachers have before them? By allowing students to use technology they are familiar with or introduce them to technology such as blogs, podcasts, etc. can better prepare them for the real world.  Many careers and jobs in the world outside of school require workers to know certain technological tools.  So why not push students to keep an open mind and expand their knowledge on the tools they can use to make their lives more efficient whether in school, or later in a career.  I know for one I see my dad using anything from online discussion boards to skype in order to keep in touch with fellow offices that belong to his company.  Without these tools work projects, and communication would not go as smoothly, making the final execution of the project not as successful/efficient as it should/could be.  If students love these networking websites, and are comfortable with technology....why not utilise these tools in the classroom to strengthen their skills as well as prepare them for a world full of technology. 

About Me!

Hi!  My name is Kellie McKinney and I am an English literature major and dance minor.  I plan on graduating this fall and continuing onto graduate school for English Lit.  I am from Bethlehem Township, New Jersey which is about 6 hours from here.  My family is a big part of my life so I usually travel there on breaks and holidays.  I am the oldest of five and have three younger sisters, Shannon, Mariya, and Rylee, and a brother Brandon. If you can't tell by all our names...we're very Irish.  We play alot of soccer during picnics and gatherings so my soccer skills are a little above normal.  My family also takes in foster children so I do have a couple of brothers that still come around every once in a while to visit. My house is basically chaos 24/7 so if I start talking really loud in class take no offence, I'm used shouting over loud noises.  I do work alot but love the fact that I can support myself and continue to learn as much as I can here at Slippery Rock. 

As stated before I'm a dancer and my favorite form would have to be ballet.  I've been dancing since I was about 6 or 7 and cannot get enough of it!  I am a die-heart Kevin Smith fan and have been to the Secret Stash many times.  I love comic books and graphic novels.  I also live about 20 minutes from the Quick Stop where the films Clerks, and Jay and Silent Bob were films so naturally I'm a huge fan! I plan on travelling alot in my future, specifically to Ireland (of course) and Italy.  I spent about three weeks this summer trekking through Italy and it was amazing!  I'm pretty pumped about this class since I'm not very good with technology...I'm hoping it can help me utilize different ways to get my future students interested in literature the way I am.  Or maybe to just blog about my future experiences abroad!  Hope you guys all enjoy my posts about the readings and what non-print media interests me. :)