Ecoliteracy

Please read all the Ecoliteracy links and essays prior to responding this week and respond to BOTH questions:

1. In addition to environmental knowledge, education for sustainability includes the acquisition of particular skills, values, and vision needed to put that knowledge into practice.  Education for sustainable living cultivates competencies of head, heart, hands, and spirit to enable children to develop toward becoming citizens capable of designing and maintaining sustainable societies.  Which of the competencies listed at http://www.ecoliteracy.org/education/competencies.html would you list as a strength in your current or ideal pedagogy? Why?

2. After reading David W. Orr's essay please respond to ONE of the quotes listed below.  What resonates with you as an educator?

A. Genuine leaders, including those in the media, must summon the people with all of their flaws to a level of extraordinary achievement appropriate to an extraordinarily dangerous time. They must ask people, otherwise highly knowledgeable about the latest foibles of celebrities, to be active citizens again, to know more, think more deeply, take responsibility, participate publicly, and, from time to time sacrifice.

OR

B. Telling the truth requires leaders at all levels to speak clearly about the causes of our failures that have led us to the brink of disaster. If we fail to treat the underlying causes, no small remedies will save us for long. The problems can in one way or another be traced to the irresponsible exercise of power that has excluded the rights of the poor, the disenfranchised, and every generation after our own. 

OR

C. Transformational leadership in the largest crisis humankind has ever faced means summoning people to a higher vision than that of the affluent consumer society. Consider the well-studied but little-noted gap between the stagnant or falling trend line of American happiness in the last half century and that of rising GNP. That gap ought to have reinforced the ancient message that, beyond some point, more is not better.

Visual Literacy

According to Martin Scorcese, "we should make room for film in curriculum. What you are doing is training the eye and the heart of the student to look at film in a different way by asking questions and pointing to different ideas, different concepts. You're training them to think about a story that is told in visual terms in a different way, and to take it seriously.  It is so important, I think, because so much in today's society is communicated visually and even subliminally. Young people have to know that this way of communicating is a very, very powerful tool."

In an ideal educational setting where (a) there were no restrictions on what type of movie you could show students and (b) you are able to facilitate the discussions regarding the movie without constraints, which movie would you recommend that students must view BEFORE they graduate high school?  

Please consider any movie regardless of genre, violence or sexual content.  Why would you recommend that movie?

The Continuum of Self-Efficacy in Educational Technology

Today, the NCTE definition of 21st century literacies makes it clear that further evolution of curriculum, assessment, and teaching practice itself is necessary.

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. 

Twenty-first century readers and writers need to:

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology

• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally

• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes

• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information

• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

Question for Blog Response:

Self-efficacy is the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals.  It is a belief that one has the capabilities to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations in the future.  Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations.  One's sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges.  According to Bandura's theory (social cognitive), people with high self-efficacy- that is, those who believe they can perform well- are more likely to view difficult tasks as something to be mastered rather than something to be avoided.

Consider the list of skill sets generated above from NCTE that students will need to master before graduating to be considered productive and literate citizens in the 21st century.  In what way(s) is our course shaping your own self-efficacy regarding multiple literacies and your approach to teaching these skills to your own students (current or future)?

Exploring New Technology

1. Please list the strengths and drawbacks of the Google Application you explored this week. (I've emailed you 3 attachments that will support your exploration and use of these Google Applications.)

2. Please list the strengths and drawbacks of the Alternative to Youtube Application you explored this week. (I've sent you a separate email list of 47 Alternatives to using Youtube in a classroom).

Please remember to bring your laptop to class on Tuesday so we can continue our inquiry into educational technology support!

21st Century Educators

1) Any struggles/challenges in completing your Google Presentation powerpoint?

2) What resonated most with you regarding the article you were selected to read this week? The term resonated does not mean that you agree or disagree with the statement but it did have an impact upon you of some kind.

3) Pose one question that you have from your article. Please do not answer it. Just write one question or wondering that may have come up during your reading. Thanks!

Information Literacy

The American Library Association's (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, Final Report (1989) states, "To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information"

Please respond to both of the questions below:

1. As a graduate student what part(s) of the research process that includes obtaining information online are you successful or challenged by in conducting your own research for assignments: (a) recognizing when information is needed, (b) the ability to locate information, (c) evaluating information and/or (d) effectively using the information?

3. In your opinion (and previous experience) which one is most difficult for students (and WHY?): (a) recognizing when information is needed, (b) the ability to locate information, (c) evaluating information or (d) effectively using the information.

Introduction Post- Welcome to Our Community

In your introduction post please include your name, teaching experience and choose ONE of the three questions to respond to in your own blog response:

(1) What is the most interesting trip that you have taken thus far?  Why?

(2) We interviewed the person in your life who knows you the best. What do you believe they listed as your top three attributes as a human being?  What evidence did they provide?

(3) What is a tradition from your own childhood that you believe should be passed on to the next generation?