Technology: a medium, not a message

PowerPoint, MovieMaker, YouTube.

The programs and technologies that Shawn Denton and William Sewell reference in their article, "Multimodal Literacies in the Secondary English Classroom," may be new. But the spirit behind their lessons are as old as teaching itself. And that is the key to their success.

In the article, printed this month in English Journal, Denton and Sewell review a number of multimedia projects they led in their high school classes.

Denton, a high school English teacher in Kansas, and Sewell, a former high school teacher and current professor of education, write about a project in which their students created PowerPoint presentations introducing a new holiday they invented, and one in which they created a MovieMaker presentation campaigning for their favorite bands for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Sewell & Denton, 2011).

Both projects, among others the mentioned in the article, went far in engaging students. But, as much as the technology helps, it's the teachers' efforts to reach the students at their level that truly reaches them.

In facilitating the projects, the teachers creatively used popular culture to help draw the students in. For the holiday project, Denton showed clips of popular television shows Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld, both of which featured characters who have created their own celebrations. And in regard to the Rock and Roll project, Sewell encouraged his students to use video and audio clips of their favorite musical acts to highlight their presentations, which helped engage them fully.

"As music plays such an important role in students’ lives, students demonstrate a high degree of motivation with this project since they pick their own favorite music groups for their research projects," the authors write in the article. "Student who normally would not be engaged in traditional lessons put a great deal of energy and time into their presentations," (Sewell & Denton, 2011).

Certainly, the technologies available in Denton and Sewell's classrooms benefit the students in many ways. Learning to use the computer programs safely, responsibly and effectively will help them in both the academic and professional worlds, the authors note.

But without the teachers' innovative efforts to reach the students at common points of interest, like music and television, students may not engage as much, failing to put in the time or effort to learn from the assignments.

In other lessons, the teachers use clips from the movie Star Wars: A New Hope and from the television show Family Guy to teach lessons on story arch and internal and external conflict, among other literary themes.

"We found that these clips help build background and draw on previous knowledge to make connections with new learning," the authors write (Sewell & Denton, 2011).

"Implementation of technology in the classroom initially proved problematic as we had to learn the software, teach several different programs to our students, and adjust our teaching styles to be more multimodal in orientation," they concluded. "(But) in the end, we found assignments to be much more than work: presenting and receiving information in a multimodal format became fun for our students and us," (Sewell & Denton, 2011).

Sewell, W., & Denton, S. (May 2011). Multimodal Literacies in the Secondary English Classroom. English Journal, 100, 61-65. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2336164961&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=49311&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Over-parenting parents?

A few weeks ago in class, we were asking if parents can become too involved in their children's education.

Some of my classmates, who teach in classrooms of their own, spoke of their experience with online grade books, with overzealous parents demanding their children's grades.

I don't have much experience with parents myself, but I have to believe that, as annoying as they can be, involving parents in the education of their children only benefits everyone involved.

School administrators and education professionals seem to agree. Lorna Costantini, a co-host of the Parents As Partners webcast on EdTechTalk.com, addressed the matter in her presentation to the 2010 K12 Online Conference.

In her presentation, called "Digital Parent Engagement," Constantini reviewed the efforts of schools and districts across the globe that are using blogs, podcasts and social media not only to keep parents up to date on what's going on in their children's classes, but to welcome parents into the learning process.

In Toronto, district administrators are using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to communicate with parents. In Hamilton, Ontario, first grade teacher Aviva Dunsiger uses Voicethread to allow her parents to take part in the students' lessons, and at the Twynham School in England, teachers use an online portal called "Pathways" to allow parents to access their children's grades.

These programs allow parents to continue their children's classroom lessons at home, administrators said. And, in the words of one professor, they draw the line between parent involvement and engagement.

"When we involve parents in school ... we're rolling them into the agenda that's already set by the school," said Debbie Pushor, a professor in the University of Saskatchewan's School of Education. "The school sets the agenda. they decide how they want the parents to be involved.

"When we're engaging parents, we're making a pledge to one another," Pushor said. "We're in a relationship that matters about something really important, and that's the children in our lives."