Twitter and the Writing Process

It seems like this space is dedicated to reflection, so here go: I have never looked at writing via social media as writing per se. Is there a series of questions I pose to myself before posting? Yes. Do those questions heavily resemble the MAPS heuristic? Yes. Typically, I am considering the type of media, audience, purpose, and situation. However, this process of writing just happens so rapidly. There is not additional paper, pens, or partners involved. In fact, this process happens within a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds, and features me, my smartphone, a rapid fire of questions that require mental processing.

Troy Hick’s Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres (2013) describes the perspective perfectly in saying because social media communication typically happens in real time, it is difficult to send responses through the full writing process. Hicks (2013) also acknowledges the prewriting and drafting of social media writing look very different from traditional processed writing, but are still primarily based on the MAPS heuristic. Hicks (2013) recognizes most posts are first drafts in final draft form, but equally addresses our responsibility as educators to ensure that our students are able to develop the skill associated with the quick mental process of determining the value of what they are posting and why.

According to Smith and Mader (2015), social media allow users to accomplish most of the objectives we work toward in class from writing and creating to publishing and distributing. The largest benefit is there is a real audience of people who are actually listening. In my teaching experience, I have not been proactive about using social media to teach writing. I have been more reactive with social media breaches versus examining skill development through the lens of teaching how social media writing is interconnected with writing we actually learn daily in class. This week’s reading definitely gave me some things to consider as it relates to my writing instruction and how it has the potential to truly permeate my students livelihoods in more meaningful ways. Ideally, I would want my students to one day be able to participate in a Twitter conversation in a meaningful way where they exhibit both the engagement and writing skills we work to hone in our in-class experiences.

Today, millions of educators are turning away from traditional professional development spaces and opting to build their own professional learning communities via social network platforms. When considering our society’s communication shifts, this idea makes perfect sense. The modern day educator appreciates connecting on her or his own time and within her or his own limits. I am one of these modern day educators and my social network of choice is Twitter (@iteachilove), where the daunting task is effectively conveying messages in 140 characters. Below is an example of what could potentially be considered the floor goal, not the ceiling, for where I would like to see my students in terms of online engagement that aligns in a meaningful and intentional way to the student outcomes we work toward meeting daily. Take a few moments to read through the #engagechat from tonight. It is typically hosted by creator, Eric Davis (@DavisWelcome) on Friday nights at 8/7c. Tonight we celebrated one year of professional engagement.

When considering the MAPS heuristic, this particular Storify derives from a discussion (mode) in the form of a Twitter chat (media) designed to bring together educators from all over the nation (audience) to discuss seminal moments and other positive reflections from the previous school year (purpose). In the spirit of state testing and closing out the normal school year, I have been a little absent from this chat and my professional Twitter account altogether, but it does not appear the normal participants have forgotten about my previous participation (context). As far as methods to digitally enhance my own writing in this conversation, I could reach out and respond to other chat participants more often to help foster a more engaging space. There is also room to be a little more creative in my responses. Some people participating included links to articles to further explain information, videos to songs described, gifs to help display emotions because the nuances of each can be difficult to capture in 140 characters.

My hope is that each person in this course will join Twitter in an effort to continue to grow and develop as a teacher and to gain the perspectives of people all over the world doing the same work we do daily. If you currently have a professional Twitter account and would like to connect, please drop it in the comments section. For more information on how to get started and some benefits, check out the article below:

How Do Educators Use Twitter For Professional Development? --Heinemann

This photo identifies basic information to help new Twitter users get started.

Resources

Fitzgerald, Kelly. (2014). Twitter For Educators. Retrieved June 24, 2016 from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnwGnLWfegePjFxYi68FdTLZgyeZ1Rdb1kwacqqDOciAqUaOymQYmfBDB9uqL-jnYUWxa9kVKfaIFVywawhxOt8aYC0pfCwklmwt7TJq4vWSRGn5CfUqoL2noOuJ8jQfbe1rnPb4YizqN/s1600/Twitter+for+Educators.png


Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smith, B., & Mader, J. (2015). A Social Media Primer. The Science Teacher, 82(6), 8.

Confessions of a Teacherholic

Upon starting the ED 529 course, we were charged with creating and posting an introduction video that detailed information about us. Simply put, my first video was a fail, to the tenth degree, which seems to be a common theme happening in my blog space with each new post. I did not follow many of the rules associated with composing audio and video texts. I was super excited for the duration of the two minute clip, but I did not include any engaging video design elements. Hicks (2013) argues that individuals should take into consideration the “MAPS heuristic” elements, which my initial video also failed to do. Here is how I crafted the first introduction video: I wrote down about seven bulleted ideas (which served as my talking points), attempted a rehearsal or two, shot about three takes of the video, and called it a finished product. This process went against everything I teach related to writing and creating. The biggest problem is I did not look at the assignment as a creation piece, but rather just an introduction video. Out of ignorance, I completely disregarding the work that goes into producing an appealing audiovisual work.

After reading chapters 5 and 6 from Troy Hicks’ Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres, I learned many lessons to take into my next attempt. With my second attempt at bat, I chose to take a more creative approach to the video remake. I knew I did not want to do the same video twice, so I started by finding inspiration online. Once I found my source of inspiration, I quickly recognized how much of a rigorous task it was going to be to take my once drab video and turn it into an engaging work of digital art (not to say I was successful in doing so). I was very cognizant of Hick's (2013) key considerations like narration, timing, music, and film effects.
Because I’m an English teacher, my natural inclination was to write a narrative story entitled, Confessions of a Teachaholic. I started with a blank sheet of paper, which later became a draft of the story. I worked really hard to keep content, technique, and process at the forefront of my brain while working. After getting my ideas down on paper, I revised and edited my story to ensure my ideas and creative decisions were succinct and intentional before moving to iMovie to revise and edit. I chose iMovie as the video editing program because of its user-friendly framework. It was easy to record the video on my iPhone, import it to iMovie, and adjust snippets of the video to insert transitions and remove bloopers. Trust me, there were many, many bloopers. During the revising and editing stage, I consistently considered Hicks’ (2013) idea that all of the elements of video matter equally including words, music, and transitions. I also attempted to vary my “voice pitch and volume” and ensure my music choice matched the words I spoke too (Hicks, 2013, 91). Overall, according to Hicks (2013), my new video required a lower degree of content creation due to the story being rehearsed and the music being found online. After learning about the video composing process for audio texts, this remake took five times as much time as my initial video. However, the export to Youtube was quick and painless, taking about 10 to 15 minutes total.

Now that you have the background, please enjoy my new (and hopefully improved) video, Confessions of a Teachaholic:

(Corne, 2011)

As I am reflecting about this entire process, it makes me wonder about the power of equipping our students with the skills to tell stories using video technologies. There is value in beginning to consider this dialogue extensively, but not without first confronting the need for developing proficiency in the most basic reading and writing skill areas. According to a study completed by Figg and McCartney (2010), students need to achieve basic reading and writing proficiency, and develop the ability to express themselves in their choice of digital literacy formats through effective collaboration. For those students who have surpassed proficiency, they should definitely move to the next step of applying what they know using digital technologies to get to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. For those who have not, we have to be very intentional about setting them up for success even when it comes to digital technology assignments.

If you are interested in learning more about iMovie to better your skill before providing the option to your students, check out the Youtube video below:

Overall, this class really has me reflecting on my work as a teacher and for that I am grateful.

Resources

Corne, James. (2011, January 9).Video Resume [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o98-qo6jAfA#t=35

Figg, C. & McCartney, R. (2010). Impacting academic achievement with student learners teaching digital storytelling to others: The ATTTCSE digital video project. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 10(1). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Timmer, Eric. (2014, November 17). iMovie for Beginners [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGG5kbMKmLo

Processed Digital What?

As a classroom teacher, I have assigned students many objective-driven tasks that required them to create presentations. Being reflective in this space, I cannot remember a time where I took them through a process exploring how to effectively craft a presentation outside of just showing models of the assignment. In many ways, my experience as a teacher emulates what I experienced as a student, which consisted of directions like “go make a poster and include these elements” versus “go make a poster, but before you do let’s discuss the how associated with making this poster come to life in an effective way.” After reading “Crafting Presentations,” Chapter 4 of the Hicks text, I recognize I have been assigning presentations awfully wrong. And to make matters even worse, in the age of Common Core and all the new digital teaching and learning platforms that exist, the directive language for me has just changed to “go make a Glogster or Prezi and include these elements.” In all actuality, I have never given thought to the process associated with crafting a presentation or the startling similarities that exist between process writing and process presentation design.

According to Hicks (2013), a student should go through a composition process that includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Hicks (2013) contends that students should be free to pre-write using paper and pencil, giving themselves non-negotiables like ideas for slide content and animation to carry into their drafting stage. Reading this made me consider the time frame (about a week, sometimes longer) we spend on just the prewriting and drafting stages of process writing in my English Language Arts classroom. I allocate the majority of the process time to these two stages, because if the work does not demonstrate understanding here, more than likely the final product will not either. Hicks (2013) states, “It is our task as teachers to help our digital writers see why and how designing slides is, indeed, a task about crafting that concerns them.” After reading the chapter, it has pushed me to really consider the value of those stages and how they should be equally valued when it comes to crafting digital presentations too.

Next, Hicks (2013) tackles the concepts of revising and editing presentations where he reinforces this idea of “stickiness,” which is “the ability of your presentation’s message to make a lasting impression.” I imaging how different presentations of yesterday would have been had I taught and reinforced ideas like simplicity, credibility, emotionality, and unpredictability when revising or editing digital presentations (Hicks, 2013, p. 73). What skills would my 400+ students proficiently carry to high school? The final steps discussed are publishing for students and assessing for teachings. These two steps represent a huge shift in thought in that publishing is about more than simply standing and reading from a screen and assessing is about more than a quantitative checklist and more so about feedback, quality, and delivery. How much more prepared would I students be if we shifted as educators with these ideas?

The presentation above details key takeaways concerning process digital presentations.

There are, however, two gaps I can foresee in terms of the idea of process digital presentations becoming a reality in classrooms across America: the teachers’ skill sets associated with digital presentation tools and the newly found perspective of using technology to engage and facilitate student learning. Some teacher struggle with using the technologies themselves, so how can we champion students to want to do more than stand and read from a templated PowerPoint presentation where they have included eight bullet points on every slide? The conversation regarding technology is an emerging conversation, where some teachers are excited for change and others are okay with the status quo. Almost every CITE Journal article I have read on the topic of technology in education discusses the importance of preservice teachers and current teachers having experience with technology as facilitators who are charged with keeping the minds and hearts of children engaged during 45, 60, and 90 minute class periods. According to Young, Long, and Myers (2010), “Rapidly developing new technologies are changing the ways through which students read and write, as well as affecting the ways in which text is conceived, created, manipulated, and understood.” This shows there is firm grasp associated with the purpose of why these technologies exist.

However, the conversation is still anchored in how we can use these technologies to facilitate teacher-led learning experiences versus how we can instruct students to use these technologies to teach each other. Yancey (2009) states “meaning is created through the interaction between visual and verbal resources,” and “the role of audience and the social aspect of writing” have become key components of digital writing and crafting tools of today. There is real power in knowing this shift in thinking about literacy, but even more power in helping to make this shift more student-led by equipping students with the know-how to effectively use the tools.

This is an interesting video that can help preservice and veteran

teachers begin to develop a working knowledge of the

"what to dos/what not to dos" when it comes to digital presentations.

I am interested to know if you have every consider crafting presentations as being synonymous with crafting process writing. I am also curious about what you think it will take to get teacher who are uncomfortable with technology comfortable enough to help equip their students for effective usage. Lastly, I am sharing a few resources down below for people interested in starting this conversation with teachers and students in your respective schools. Please share your thoughts and takeaways below. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thinking Outside the Slide--Youtube

Making Better PowerPoint Presentations--Vanderbilt University

Resources

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

How to Avoid Death By PowerPoint [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo

Yancey, K. B. (2009). Writing in the 21st century: A report from the National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Young, C. A., Long, S., & Myers, J. (2010). Editorial: Enhancing english language arts education with digital video. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 10(1). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/

Digital Literacy in the Age of Common Core

Wilhelm, Friedermann, and Erickson assert, “We believe that in order to be literate in the twenty-first century, students must become composers and readers of hypermedia. They must understand its possibilities, uses, and design. Since our future texts, even more so than our current ones, will be hypertextual, students will need to understand the conventions and construction of such texts." (as cited in Hicks, 2013, 28) This quote exemplifies the work we do in modern and emerging digital literate classrooms and the why associated with that work very well. Although this quote is very true in nature, it is often overlooked that as literacy becomes more interactive and engaging, we too must be diligent in ensuring students are being equally critical of the information they take in on a daily basis. In the modern age of Common Core, students are pushed to think critically about everything they read and write. What sometimes gets swept under the rug in many classrooms is the need to be critical of information received digitally too.

With the many digital avenues available to receive information, students are living in a world where everything they could every want to know or learn is at their fingertips. One of the biggest challenges associated with marrying the accessibility of the knowledge and the amount of knowledge is the inability of some students to think analytically to determine the credibility of the knowledge at their fingertips. Hicks argues that the constant struggle is getting student to consider, “Who published this and for what purpose? Is the information accurate and reliable? Even if it looks good, can I trust this website?” (Hicks, 2013, 33) This is also true of contents outside of English Language Arts as well. Maloy (2016) discusses the need for us to rethink our exemplar uses of technology, especially when it comes to research in social studies classrooms (para. 2). Maloy (2016) continues by urging the reader to confront the reality that "students must learn the skills to search the Internet effectively, evaluate online materials, and accurately synthesize and report the facts, ideas, and theories they have learned" (para. 2).

I have come to the realization that the only way to genuinely build the skill is to have students practice the skill and engage in real dialogue around the issue. In my own classroom, this hurdle is something we cross frequently. Because the source perhaps looks credible or uses language in a convincing way, it is automatically deemed credible in the eyes of some of my students. The reality is that it is scary to consider the cultural impact of students believing everything they hear and see on the internet, on social media platforms, and even in newspapers without first considering the level of bias and accuracy that may or may not exist in the context of the writing. My go-to checklist in my classroom sounds very similar to the questions originally posed by Hicks in the text. I like to ask questions like: Who is the author? Why was this work crafted? What makes this work believable? Are there other texts that perhaps present a varying or more critical viewpoint on the topic? Asking these questions is one way I have started to get students thinking about the information they take in and learn from as it relates to the various digital literacy platforms.

The second challenge identified is the biased information users receive upon searching for new information. Eli Pariser argues that “filter bubbles” create a negative discourse in terms of “influencing our understanding of politics, religion, science, the arts, our communities, and ourselves.” (as cited in Hicks, 2013, 33) Knowing the internet is equally as smart as human beings, if not smarter, we as teachers have to be very aware and conscious of this pitfall of researching and receiving information and facts based on our own interests and previous search records. Now that I know the term associated with searches tailored to an individual's internet history, it becomes a little easier to have a dialogue with students about the potential pros and cons of this functionality. By discussing it, they will be more inclined to think twice or try to find other sources to support or even refute some of the facts the internet might present them with. More importantly, if we want students to be true critical thinks, that skill has to be built digitally as well. After all, most students are digital natives who are still learning the tools and possibilities.

This video is a great teaching tool that helps kids

internalize what it means to identify bias in

informational text.

I am interested to know how you navigate the conversation with students around how Common Core requires students to think critically about what they read and the importance associated with approaching current digital literacies that exist within our society critically as well. I am also sharing a few resources down below for people interested in starting this conversation with teachers and students in your respective schools. Please share your thoughts and takeaways below. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Bias Lesson--Media Smarts

Identify Bias--State Library of Victoria

Resources

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Maloy, R. (2016). Commentary: Building web research strategies for teachers and students. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 16(2). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/

Recognizing Bias [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbP8OD_RWvA

[Untitled illustration of Abraham Lincoln]. Retrieved June 9, 2016 from http://www.relatably.com/q/img/abraham-lincoln-believe-internet-quote/abraham-lincoln-quote-internet-hoax-fake-450x293.jpg

[Untitled illustration of Albert Einstein]. Retrieved June 9, 2016 from http://www.relatably.com/q/img/abraham-lincoln-believe-internet-quote/vHWV5CD.png