Tools for Learning - Artifact Four Reflection:
If I venture to pinpoint when my graduate studies began to consolidate, Dr. Hughes’ EDUC 5304G Digital Literacies: Theory, Practice, and Research, the seventh course in my MEd journey, would be it. The connections between my courses were forming as my previously 'wishy-washy' understanding of digital literacies became clear(er).
Artifact Four, Digital Literacies Portfolio, is the ongoing cumulative task for EDUC 5304G. Assessed at 50% of our total grade and in retrospect, was my most arduous assignment within the whole MEd program. My portfolio, developed throughout the course, continually changed as new understandings of digital literacies blossomed. Requiring us to choose one element from Dr. Hughes' 9 Elements of Digital Literacies framework (I eventually landed on three elements), our portfolio research was to show how digital tools supporting 21st-century learning may be successfully implemented in our own classrooms or workplaces.
Artifact Four, Digital Literacies Portfolio, is the ongoing cumulative task for EDUC 5304G. Assessed at 50% of our total grade and in retrospect, was my most arduous assignment within the whole MEd program. My portfolio, developed throughout the course, continually changed as new understandings of digital literacies blossomed. Requiring us to choose one element from Dr. Hughes' 9 Elements of Digital Literacies framework (I eventually landed on three elements), our portfolio research was to show how digital tools supporting 21st-century learning may be successfully implemented in our own classrooms or workplaces.
Based on Doug Belshaw’s (2012) elements of digital literacies framework, Hughes' 9 Elements of Digital Literacies model shows that knowing how to use a technology tool is only one part of 21st-century digital literacy. Understanding how a digital tool leads to the construction of knowledge, the communication with one's peers (and the world), and to deeper levels of cognition, is vastly more critical to student achievement than, as Desjardins (2001) states, "technical competency".
These three elements of digital literacy (Construction, Communication, Cognition) would shape my EDUC 5304G portfolio. My next steps in this portfolio process were to reflect on the applications Popplet and Book Creator. Through the application of the elements of digital literacy, I delved deeper and to understand why these apps have been so well received by my students.
At the end of this portfolio, it became clear that knowing how to use a digital tool is not nearly as critical as knowing why the tool is being used and to what purpose.
These three elements of digital literacy (Construction, Communication, Cognition) would shape my EDUC 5304G portfolio. My next steps in this portfolio process were to reflect on the applications Popplet and Book Creator. Through the application of the elements of digital literacy, I delved deeper and to understand why these apps have been so well received by my students.
At the end of this portfolio, it became clear that knowing how to use a digital tool is not nearly as critical as knowing why the tool is being used and to what purpose.
Artifact Five: Digital Literacies Portfolio Presentation (part one)
Artifact Five: Digital Literacies Portfolio Presentation (part two)
Artifact Five: Digital Literacies Portfolio Presentation (part three)
Artifact Five: Digital Literacies Portfolio Presentation (part four)
EDUC 5304G Portfolio Map:
High resolution image of the portfolio map | |
File Size: | 1532 kb |
File Type: | png |