1000 DML Cafe: Session I
DML Cafe Session #1: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
1. Re-shaping the Learning Environment to Support a Participatory Culture. Sandra Markus, Associate Professor Fashion Institute of Technology; Kurt Vega + Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY
As teachers, we all want to encourage our students to become life-long learners. But in practical terms, how do we do that? How do we transform our classrooms into participatory learning environments? How do we, as teachers model peer-to-peer learning? Are we committed to being lifelong learners? Lets get together and explore some of these issues and concerns and develop a roadmap to solve them!
We want to share our practices regarding transforming the classroom into a participatory learning environment. The learning space becomes an environment for both the teachers and the students to engage jointly in a collaborative process of learning and discovery. Students use new digital tools to support knowledge creation and to build their own learning networks to foster learner agency. Students work collaboratively to develop an ethical framework to understand what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. We would like to share how we explore information sources that are not part of the mainstream media to help students recognize and understand the value of alternative information sources. We explore issues of social inequality, and how to use digital tools to listen to the marginalized voices that are frequently ignored or misrepresented. We hope this discussion contributes to the conversation about educational technology’s potential to reshape our perspective and participation within the global environment.
This discussion is based on an interdisciplinary, experimental course that we launched at the State University where we both teach. We hope to spark an interesting discussion about what participatory learning looks like and how it can change learning and teaching.
2. ArtBots. Mya Stark, LA Makerspace; Tara Tiger Brown, LA Makerspace/KitHub/Connected Camps
Amazing Artbots: KitHub and LA Makerspace co-present a fun learning activity combining simple circuits and art supplies to build robots as creative as their makers. Ages 5 and up.
3. oneKey: Library-Embedded Open Hardware in Philadelphia. Brandon “bk” Klevence, The Maker Jawn Initiative at the Free Library of Philadelphia
The oneKey is a simplified version of the MaKey MaKey, an educational toy and invention kit that turns anything into a keyboard key. The aim with this low-cost single-input derivative of the MaKey MaKey is to sustainably introduce library patrons to learning about and constructing hardware they can tinker, play, make with, and take home, all in the context of a neighborhood library branch. Digital media tools such as the MaKey MaKey are becoming increasingly common in informal learning spaces, however at $50/device, the MaKey MaKey is relatively expensive to use across large populations. Furthermore, it did not satisfy our goals of introducing the making and hacking of hardware to youth, teens, and most recently adults. The oneKey is a direct response to these problems. The oneKey is cheap (<$2 a device), and in deploying the oneKey we’ve seen youth aged 7 and up hack and share it. This shows that informal education environments are capable of making their own educational hardware via desktop manufacturing and production methods. Youth in this program feel a sense of ownership over hardware because they not only use it, but modify, and repurpose it as well. In a city where fewer than 1% of African-American and Hispanic students — who comprise 56% of the District’s enrollment — ultimately earn bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields, the Free Library of Philadelphia is directly addressing the accessibility of technology, both through these daily workshops, but also through directly involving youth in the creation of open-source hardware. one-Key, and the Maker Jawn Initiative, are changing public libraries into spaces where non-traditional technology users gain free access to technology and learning resources. Come to our table to learn about, tinker with, reprogram, and play around with the oneKey.
4. Creating an Equitable Scientific Community with the Support of Blogging. Deb Morrison, Boulder Valley School District & University of Colorado at Boulder
As a teacher-researcher I have been examining the use of blogging as a tool in my science classroom communities as an example of digitally-mediated disciplinary learning with the goal of improving student participation in scientific literacy activities, specifically with English language learners. I will share how I constructed my classroom based blogging communities, how the virtual and physical classroom spaces interacted to improve science discourse practices, and what lessons I have learned in going forward with this tool in terms of educational equity. I argue that blogging can provide a reorganization of power in the classroom, making space for students to experience the multiple roles of science writers with their peers. In addition, blogging provides a bridging space between students’ everyday discourse and the discourse of science, regardless of whether students’ everyday discourse is in a completely different language or a dialect of English. The way in which blogger has been used in my classroom enables students to go back and forth between written and spoken discourse, in a safe and supportive learning environment, helping to improve students’ confidence with science writing and speaking thus supporting positive science identity development.
5. Teaching and Learning about STEM and Information Technologies: A Collaboration between a University and a Community-Based Organization. Stephen Adams, California State University, Long Beach
This presentation describes a collaborative project between a university and a community-based organization for teaching and learning about information technologies in science, engineering, and mathematics. The approach involves a university course that is offered to credentialed K-12 teachers concerning using educational technologies in science, engineering and mathematics. As part of a field experience activity for the course, the teachers work in teams to plan and conduct workshops in these subjects at a community-based organization (CBO). The workshops involve 4 sessions of about two hours each. The approach serves two complementary goals, related to the preparation of teachers and to providing educational experiences for under-served youth populations. One goal is to provide field experiences for teachers, together with support and reflection upon practice(Goldstein, Goldstein, & Lake, 2003), as this can aid in helping pre-service teachers move toward more reform-based practices (Roehrig & Luft, 2006). A second goal is to provide educational activities for youth at the community-based organization. A substantial part of the achievement gap can be attributed to a loss of learning during the summer months (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996, Heyns, 1987), and providing further educational experiences may help offset this gap. This approach was piloted in summer, 2014, with a group of 17 teachers, working in four teams of approximately four teachers each. Each team of teachers worked with one of four groups of 20 students at the CBO. Altogether, there were 80 participating students at the CBO, with half aged 8-10 and the other half aged 11-14. This presentation describes the overall model as well as findings from an evaluation regarding the participating students based on surveys and focus groups. The model and evaluation findings can inform efforts to develop similar collaborations.
6. Increase Student’s Media Literacy by Having Them Tell Stories with Social Media. David Magolis, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Enjoy creating stories with social media? Do your students enjoy using social media? Do your students like telling stories? Social media storytelling has moved from a pastime to a skilled endeavor. Come to this session to find out how college students are using Storify to increase their media literacy production and storytelling abilities by creating stories with previously produced social media and their own words. Storify is a drag-and-drop multi-media blogging platform that incorporates various social media technologies to help produce and tell stories through pictures, videos, tweets, and other media. Students utilized this drag-and-drop software in a college class as a means to integrate multimedia to produce a story, thus increasing their media production literacy. I will share their experiences of discovery, becoming civically engaged, and telling meaningful stories through text, images, videos and other social media. This conversation will briefly highlight the approaches used in the lessons and will guide attendees to what works and what does not work when using this technology, as well as a conversation about using multi-media platforms to enhance media literacy skills. This conversation will help current and future media users to successfully teach and utilize multi-media platforms for strategic communication endeavors.
7. Connecting Across Discourse Communities. Joanne Larson, University of Rochester; George Moses, Northeast Area Development
We will present interdependent model of developmental pathways and learning trajectories we put together as part of a long term ethnography at Freedom Market. Through participatory action research, university researchers and community members are collaborating to transform an ubiquitous urban corner store into the cornerstone of the neighborhood. We will show how the relationships built at the Market are woven throughout the community through multiple means, including social media.
8. Pre DML. Shimira Williams, TekStart
Does your two year old gravitate to your digital devices? Let us explore how to implement technology into early childcare facilities utilizing the joint position statement issued by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College as guidance. In addition, methods to inform, families about resources for how create a balance digital diet. More importantly, how do we advocate for equitable access to technology in our early childhood and out-of-school programs?
9. Connected Camps. Tara Brown, Mimi Ito, Timothy Young, Sima Patel, Victor Lazo, and Summer of Minecraft counselors
Embraced by kids, educators, and parents alike, Minecraft offers a unique opportunity to support and spread connected learning. The Summer of Minecraft team at Connected Camps and Institute of Play have been designing Minecraft challenges and in-game events based on the principles of connected learning. We invite educators, games researchers, designers, and Minecrafters to join our roundtable to share experiences in developing Minecraft programs. What kinds of learning environments are best suited to connected learning through Minecraft? What makes for engaging and productive challenges? What kinds of skills do counselors, facilitators need to mentor and moderate on Minecraft servers?
