The first thing I wanted to point out that I enjoyed most about
this chapter was this quote, "To ignore the role of modes such as images, movement,
sound, and layout would be to ignore central systems of meaning for these
sites." I think this is an excellent support statement for using websites
inside the classroom. As a young educator, I am continuing to learn that no two
students learn the same way and it is important to provide a wide variety of
strategies for comprehension. All students do not learn best with a book and
reading all day. Providing these alternative websites provides a new mode of
communication and meets the modes such as movement, sounds, images and layout.
I like that the
research performed a very deep analysis of the websites instead of just looking
at colors and pictures. The research looked at moving pictures, sentence
length, vocabulary, hyperlinks, and many other things. I agree that
websites would keep more students engaged in learning instead of reading a
book. The strategic part for teachers is choosing websites that are informational
and entertaining. I think outside of the research, one of the best resources
for teachers to find these websites, are the students themselves. Students are
using these resources on a daily basis, yet do not understand the benefit of
the information they are receiving. Teachers can learn to take advantage of
these websites and find ways to weave them into the curriculum.
Overall it is a tough line to
draw when using websites and the current curriculum. Most classroom structures
are not set up to use websites. I would encourage all teachers to find some
time during the week to use websites. This chapter offers tons of advantages
and I know from experience that they correlate into the classroom.
You pointed out something that I had never even thought of while reading this chapter: diverse learners. I kept focusing on the benefits of students learning to navigate multimodalities, but I never considered the benefits to visual, aural, and kinesthetic learners. Thank you, sir, for pointing this out.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this is just one more benefit of using web sites in the classroom. Not only can we reach to student interests and affinity groups, but we can also enable all types of learners to work with the material that we give them.
I think that you have both struck on something: that students, even "struggling" readers take to online websites because there are multiple ways to glean information and read. The pictures, sounds, etc. are not just busyness, they are also scaffolds in how they help someone navigate through a page or space.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also think that the interactivity appeals to students in ways that textbooks don't because of the electronic format being someone more immediately relevant or attractive to them. You don't have to sell students to do work with a computer the same way you do to have them do pen and paper work.