Ruth Howard's List: Critical Literacy

• Peer review is an important lifeblood of any discipline. Unfortunately, peer review has become largely equated with closed journals. I’m stunned (really, I am) every time I reflect on the absurdity of closed journals: The public pays for research, pays for the write up of the articles, pays for peer review, and then, amazingly, turns access rights over to a for-profit entity and then pays again to gain access to what they already paid to produce. It’s like the government paying for the development of a large public park, then handing ownership over to a corporation who then charges the public to access the park. I cannot fathom how this system came into place. This model only barely works in a paper-based world when it could (weakly) be argued that costs with printing the journal justified access costs. It’s a system that places all financial burden on the academic system to produce the article and then an additional burden to access the article. All of the risk, none of the benefit.

• e of the readings before, and most of the topics and subjects are familiar. What’s new for me is the context – PLEs – and that highlights alternatives that I seem to have missed, or didn’t exist, when I first read them.
• Shor, Friere, Shaugnessy, Rose for theory – and attitude – to generate practice. Then (c. 1988), the classroom was the dominant workspace and it was hard to move mentally outside the room that housed those computers. Then, it was tough to place students in a position where they could use the technology to resist the dominant discourse and forge their own – although some did.
• Robert Brooke (1987) defined writing, per se, as an act of resistance:
• questioning them, searching for new connections, building ideas that may be in conflict with accepted ways of thinking and acting.
• challenge one’s assigned roles long enough that one can think originally;
• synonymous with divergent thinking.
• I question the direct link of composing with resisting. Some kinds of writing and pedagogy consciously disconfirm the status quo, but not composing and instruction in general.
• ly disconfirm the status quo, but not composing and instruction in general.” It’s still a task and a half to help students see that their resistance towards one discourse is done by uncritical engagement in another discourse,
• all language use is socially situated,

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• paulbhartzog

   

  21st June 2010
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  Michel Bauwens asked me to discuss bow-tie structures in relation to John Robb’s ongoing use of them on his “Global Guerillas” blog. T
• bow tie (so called for its shape) refers in science to a recent concept that tries to grasp the essence of some operational and functional structures observed in biological organisms and other kinds of complex and self-organizing systems. In general, bow tie architectures refer to ordered and recurrent structures that underlie complex technological or biological networks, and that are capable of conferring them a balance among efficiency, robustness and evolvability. Bow ties seem to be capable of managing a wide range of inputs through a core (or knot) constituted by a limited number of elements.

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• m others who have the credentials to “teach” in this new networked world, we learn with others whom we seek (and who seek us) on our own and with whom we often share nothing more than a passion for knowing. In this global community, we are at once all teachers and learners—changing roles as required, contributing, collaborating, and maybe even working together to re-create the world,

  • This in my mind means real life learning whereby teachers need to be able to assist learners to access sources (people and environments) directly.
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• These learning transactions require a shifted understanding of traditional literacies and the skills they employ, as well as new literacies and practices that learning in networks and online social communities demands. For educators, acquiring these network literacies is a crucial first step in developing new pedagogies and, in turn, new classrooms and curricula that prepare students for the future.
• • yes yes learners as co-creators of curriculum yes learning to be the 'teacher-learner' by what name could that self-directed creature be known as?
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• The line that strikes me is “most people have absolutely no idea how to help people learn.” I don’t disagree, but I wonder why that is. Is it because we have basically trained ourselves and our kids to be students and not teachers? If the world has changed and we do have more opportunities to help people learn, should we be helping our kids prepare for that role by giving them more opportunities to do that while in school?
• 2010-05-18 12:11:25  

   

   

  Reading Froebel’s (1782-1852) work on methods of instruction where play, sharing, creativity, and community are featured prominently.

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• to an individual's personal needs and interests
• empower networked students to transcend the traditional concept of classroom
• Personal learning suggests learner autonomy and increased self regulation
• learner motivation
• must be more self-directed.
• making decisions
• active rol
• specific teacher directions with finite expectations.
• The role of a teacher
• supply of relevant material, coordinates the students' presentations of individual milestones of their projects, moderates discussions, consults in all kinds of problem-solving and seeking for solutions, lectures on topics that are selected in plenary discussions with the students and conforms to the curriculum"
• balances teacher control with increased student autonom
• networked learners in trainin
• Couros (2008) developed a model of the networked teacher that represents an educator's professional personal learning environment (PLE).
• The networked student follows a constructivist approach to learning. He or she constructs knowledge based on experiences and social interactions
• dge with the goal of completing a task or meeting a learning objective. Social media, or web-based applications designed for the purpose of interacting with others online, promote conversations. B
• logs are an example of a vehicle through which students can reflect on the learning process
• f connectivism
• diversity of opinions,
• students respond to and collect the opinions of others.
• discern between fact and opinion and appreciate the value of both.
• connect with subject matter experts in virtually any field.
• identify valid content and expertise, recognise questionable sources, and compare conflicting viable points of view
• students to become comfortable in this rapidly changing environmen
• , meaningful learning occurs with knowledge construction, not reproduction; conversation, not reception; articulation, not repetition; collaboration, not competition; and reflection, not prescription
• personal learning environment in this study adhered to constructivist principles with the goal of developing a networked student who took increased responsibility for his or her learning while navigating an increasingly complex content base
• environment does not necessarily facilitate comprehension or deep understanding.
• how it is synthesised
• exploring problems, asking questions, making discoveries, achieving new understanding
• fulfilling personal curiosity"
• t the teacher may not be the only expert in the learning process. The ability to locate expertise beyond the classroom walls is one powerful benefit of a well-structured personal learning environment.
• selected a contemporary issue or topic for which he or she had a strong interest.
• Passion for a topic was one means of motivation. A final project for which the student received a grade provided assessment of each student's ability to synthesise the research. It also served as an additional extrinsic motivator. The ultimate goal was for the student to learn the process of building a personal learning environment to be activated as needed for future learning in any subject area.
• a significant amount of time was allotted at the beginning of the project to address digital literacy as well as task and organisational skills that would be required in the online environment.
• Table 1: Patterns for networked learning (Goodyear, 2005, p. 1)
• overwhelming to students if presented all at once.
• a new tool was introduced each day over two week
• Identify ten reliable resources and post to social bookmarking account. At least three new resources should be added each week.
• • espond to at least 3 new blogs each week. Follow these blogs and news alerts using the reader. 
  • Subscribe to and listen to at least two podcasts (if available). 
  • Respectfully contact and request a video conference from a subject matter expert recognised in the field. 
  • Maintain daily notes and highlight resources as needed in digital notebook. 
  • Post at least a one-paragraph reflection in personal blog each day.
• reflective essay. Writing shapes thinking
• as learned about the selected topic and why others should care or be concerned.
• erve as a resource for others who wished to learn from the work.
• access the final projects of their classmates and reflect on what they learned from this exposure. The purpose of this activity was to give the students an additional opportunity to share and learn from each other.
• ive process. Students in this project used web tools to combine text, video, audio, and photographs to teach the research topics to others. The final multimedia project was posted or embedded on the student's personal wiki page.
• Creativity is
• case of the Networked Student Model: (1) Ongoing performance assessment in the form of weekly assignments to facilitate the construction and maintenance of the personal learning environme
• nologies in use by the students. In order to follow their progress, the teacher simply subscribed to student social bookmarking accounts, readers, and blogs. Clicking through daily contributions was relatively quick and efficient.
• synthesis of topic content
• Creation of the personal learning environment as a replacement for a traditional textbook was the primary objective of the project. Success was measured based on assessment rubrics constructed by the teacher.
• • Time management and workload were tangible measures of comparison from the student's perspective and indicated his or her ability to self regulate the learning process.
• was achieved. Evidence of success was determined through analysis of assessment rubrics, the personal learning environments as constructed by the students, personal blogs, a final essay, and the student reflective surveys.
• hedule. Two students fell behind and expressed frustration at the amount of work required to catch up. Teacher intervention was required to facilitate their successful completion of the course. They were given a daily list of tasks designed to
• more concerned with the blended format of the delivery.
• adjustment for students to manage work outsid
• primarily concerned about what is minimally required to earn a high grade
• orked Student Model affords the learner more control and responsibility, the teacher must continually balance this freedom with enough structure to keep students on task and engaged in the learning process. Longitudinal studies
• considerable technology trouble-shooting
• ability to gauge students' understanding and progress were key to achieving a balance between student autonomy and teacher intervention. Adopting a networked learning approach would require considerable teacher professional
• evelopment and a philosophy different from that of most current educators.
• Networked learning blends the concept of educator expertise with learner construction and views the role of teacher as curator, an expert learner who creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected
• • Safe fail rather than 'best practice' ? Experimental open ended not outcomes based seems to me the beauty of this learning design?
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• extensive research is needed to document best practices
• in an independent preparatory school. It does not inform the outcome of a networked learning approach in an inner city school with a widely diverse population or within alternative learning environments such as virtual schools. Student success and amount of teacher control and scaffolding may be quite different in these environments.

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• Short description: EduFeedr is an online feed reader that has special features to support massive open online courses where each participants has a personal blog. 

  Audience: The main target group are educators who organize open online courses.

• What else could  have been said?” This paper was written in an  attempt to help you figure out the real meaning  behind the spoken and written word in hopes that  the insight gained can be used to bring about  more equity, justice, freedom, peace, and  hope—the betterment of the human family.
• anguage as abstrac
• Discourse  analysis
• words as  having meaning
• . Even more  significant, our words (written or oral
• convey w
• social, political, and  historical conditions.
• Our words are never  neutral (Fiske, 1994)!
• sight for home economists and family and  consumer scientists
• Our words are politicized
• The words of those in power are taken as "self-evident truths" and the words of those  not in power are dismissed as irrelevant,  inappropriate, or without substance (van Dijk,  2000).
• attributes of dominant  discourse is its power to interpret conditions,  issues, and events in favor of the elite.
• discourse of the marginalized
• take the voice of those in power  into question to reveal hidden agendas and  motives that serve self-interests, maintain  superiority, and ensure others’ subjugation  (Henry & Tator, 2002)
• Discourses are ubiquitous ways of knowing,
• resistance  and critique
• for  regulation and normalization
• hegemony
• transform their  lives (Foucault, 2000), the central tenet of  critical theory and the critical science  approach (McGregor, 2003)
• In  order to do this, we need some skills to conduct  a critical analysis of our own and other’s  discourse.
• ainder  of this primer will draw from these many  approaches as it focuses on setting out some  useful skills in critically analyzing written  text. One key principle of CDA is that the way  we write, and what we say, is not arbitrary—it  is purposeful whether or not the choices are  conscious or unconscious (Sheyholislami, 2001).
• also focus on body language,  utterances, symbols, visual images, and other  forms of semiosis (signs and symbols) as means  of discourse (Fairclough, 2002), this paper will  be limited to analyzing written language.  ²
• involves revisiting the  text at different levels, raising questions  about it, imagining how it could have been  constructed differently, mentally comparing it  to related texts.
• lso, it is important that one  does not start to decipher the text word by  word; rather, one should place the text in its  genre (type of text including a journal article,  media piece, government position paper, public  speech, manual, textbooks, conference paper).
• have  different building blocks that make them unique  from other types of documents. One simple  example is a scientific journal article that  typically includes a problem statement,  hypotheses, literature review, theoretical  underpinnings, sampling and method, results,  analysis and discussion, and conclusions plus  recommendations. Because these rules, for how to  structure the genre, belong to the institution  that owns the genre, the genre becomes a means  through which the institution extends power.
• what angle,  slant, or point of view. This is called framing  the details into a coherent whole
• embellishments to get the reader’s attention;
• using headings and keywords to emphasize  certain concepts by giving them textual  prominence
• 3)    leaving certain things out
• take certain  ideas for granted,
• selective voices
• 1)    Just as text can be framed, so can a  sentence, called topicalization.
•   Sentences can also convey information  about power relations!
• 3)    Again, as with the text in general,  omission of information about agents of power
• presupposition
•   Insinuations,
• double meanings
• connotations!
• The tone of the text
• single words can convey register
• regor, 2003).  This paper has illustrated that there is a  method that can be applied to debunk the hidden  ideological meanings behind the written and oral  word—it is critical discourse analysis.
• attention to the details of what social members  actually say and do (van Dijk, 1999). Starting  with the full text, working down to the  individual word level, one can peel back the  layers to reveal the “truth behind the  regime”—the profoundly insidious, invisible  power of the written and spoken word. 
• tutions. Most especially, we work with and  for the family as a social institution.
• All of  this discourse shapes us, and we shape it.
• It stands to reason, then, that  discourse within the field of family and  consumer sciences is indicative of prevailing  ideologies in the profession.
• what  our language reflects about our community’s  practice and beliefs, we inevitably discover how  and why these practices and beliefs are (re)produced,  resisted, changed, and transformed (Remlinger,  2002). Brown (1995, 1993) discussed the notion  of whether home economics is a community of  practice, raised some doubts about this, and  then challenged us to critically examine the  concepts, beliefs, and values that guide our  action (1993, p.193).

• We know ourselves  (and others know us) by the positions we  construe through our particular discourses and  the kinds of practices they support (Rupert,  1997).  

   
• Discourses include  representations of how things are and have been,  as well as imaginaries—representations of how  things might or should or could be.

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• Fred Steier of the Fielding Graduate Institute and editor of a series of books on reflexivity in research. Fred is a gentle man with deep caring to squeeze out every once of learning from a conversation, with the power of second order self-reflection. In my exchange with him and the others around the table, I discovered this:

    

  If people in conversation are observing and reflecting on both the source and the direction of their attention (the inner and the inter-subjective space), and sharing those reflections, a spontaneous combustion of consciousness can occur. If so, collective self-reflexivity can lead to deeper, more fine-tuned sensing of reality, thus to wiser action.

    

  How well can collective self-reflexivity scale? What does it depend on whether it will grow into a system of influence or wither away, unfulfilled its potential? I feel those questions deserve a focused and rigorous research. My first thought about it is this:

    

  For conversations that matter to grow into communities of practice and social systems at increasing scale, they have to be able to absorb the increased complexity involved with those systems. What does it depend on whether a community or a network of communities is capable to do that? One of the factors seems to be the trust and appreciation that flow among the participants in the conversation, besides their capacity for double loop learning in real-time, on the spot…