When I enrolled in the coding course, my goal was simply to understand coding as a language from the perspective of a literacy methods teacher.
More of us literacy ed instructors need to do this - it really broadens perspectives about language, communication, and design.
I use the connected learning framework (Ito et al., 2013) as a lens to consider how the insights I gained through my exploration could apply to literacy methods courses in teacher education.
Connected learning is sometimes used to describe contemporary learning (e.g., as a “model” or “framework”), and other times to describe a proactive educational reform and research agenda (e.g., as an “approach” to research and design). Here, I attempt to take it up as a theoretical framework (the former), for the purpose of analyzing a learning experience.
emerging
One of the most exciting and interesting things to me about CL is how it is a learning theory still in development and in a process of emergence. We are watching it evolve in real time, and we are contributors to this evolution - even through something like participating in this Marginal Syllabus!
two can foster new understandings of critical literacy and civic engagement
really hoping this can lead to more pedagogical conversations about critical coding literacy.
I seemed to be encountering magical teachers who had somehow internalized this orientation toward learning and knew exactly how to embody it.That is when I realized that we need a model of connected teaching
I think it is fascinating to study the context and history that undergirds the reasons that these "magical teachers" have come to internalize this orientation - a lot of which I tried to trace in Transformative Teachers
cology of learning
This is a phrase that resonates throughout CL literature.
promising strategie
You know - these look a lot like... Connected Learning!
tangible payoffs
Or maybe that serve to transform systematic inequalities?
These gaps represent barriers in the learning ecosystem, not deficits of the learners themselves.
I am grateful for this statement. I think its so important to move from the deficit orientations of youth and re-focus on the challenging structural and systematic inequities.
Enhanced by technology,
I'd really like to have a discussion at some point about the role and definition of "technology" in CL. First, in terms of definition, Merriam Webster gives two:
as a place towhichviolence has been systematically done—by denying access to basic necessities such as healthy food—not merely a place where violence occurs.
I find this statement and reframing particularly powerful.
teacher Kara’s food justice unit through the lens of a pedagogy of spatial justice. We
I am so curious about Kara's own background in Food Justice work, and her curation of the curriculum materials and resources. It reminds me so much of the work of the youth activists that worked with the Agaston Urban Nutrition Initiative in Philadelphia. I remember attending a workshop led by the youth, and seeing them make so many connections between politics, economy, history, society, biology - and they then translated these understandings into actions in their community. One difference was that they ran their own school garden, and sold the vegetables at a local farmers market in their neighborhood, as a means of disrupting the "food desert." I'm not sure if they are still doing the activist kind of work they did years before, but I know the program is still around - here is a link: http://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/what-we-do/programs/university-assisted-community-schools/agatston-urban-nutrition-initiative
ArcadiaUniversity School of Education
After May 1, this will be UIC
ers.
Maybe a third bullet point here is that you are positioning youth not as "learners of a subject," but as practitioners of that subject. E.g. Not "teaching coding" but "teaching/mentoring/working with coders" -Kira
R
Somewhere in this intro, it might be worthwhile to acknowledge the ways that digital and social media have shaped the ways we relate/connect to each other, and that the CL model recognizes and speaks to the new era of connectedness we are living in. -Kira
work.
Another good resource is the Social Media Wellness book by Ana Homayoun. She talks about co-designing "acceptable use agreements" with youth. -Kira
d failing means you're learning.
I wonder if would also make sense to add something here about self-care. I think a lot of the conflicts that youth and adults face can often be diffused when its framed from a place of love, and in the interest of teaching self-care. Since CL is such a relational model, it might make sense to incorporate here. -Kira
Provide
also the idea that you can enter at "any level" yet strive to "level-up" -Kira
User
Elsewhere I've seen "human-centered" design - I like that better than user. -Kira
Why?”
I agree with "Start with Why?" but I think that is actually in part the responsibility of the educator to inquire about, not explain to students. Like - the educator should be trying to figure out (in conversation with youth), what about this topic/activity is important to you in your lives? And design from there, instead of: "this is important because xyz, and you should think so too." -Kira
I
visually this section looks very crunched on the page. Hard to read through. Line breaks possible here? -Kira
mplementation
are you committed to this term? I'm partial to "action" or "taking action" -Kira
o create those connected learning experiences themselves
perhaps, instead of the negative here, you could flip to say, it encourages educators to be creative curriculum designers themselves, harnessing the principles of CL in their praxis (reflection + action). -Kira
lves.
Something also unique to CL is that it changes not only the youth/learners, but also the teachers/adults - helps them develop professionally, develop learning relationships, etc. -Kira
f their social or economic background
I think this speaks to the SJ/equity orientation of CL. I wonder if there is a way to make this more explicit? Like, in the previous sentence, changing to "CL stresses the important of meeting youth of all social and economic backgrounds where they they are" or something like that. Don't take my exact wording for it, but I think this could be better integrated as part of the core aspect of CL. -Kira
providing
maybe "cultivating" here - instead of the teacher/adult "providing" - "cultivating" is more co-generated. -Kira
Engagement matters because it is the key sign of a person’sown motivation to learn.
Hmm. There may be some who disagree with this? -Kira
is a model for youth engagemen
My guess is that you've played around with this opening line quite a bunch. It is the first thing people read, and has an impact. I guess I would like to know more about some of the intentions behind the word choices here. For example, there is no signifier or distinguishing characteristic behind the word "model" (e.g. "new," "comprehensive," etc.). What are the thoughts behind this choice? Is there a signifier that might be good to put there? Also "youth engagement" carries certain meaning. Is the intention here to broaden beyond or change ideas about "learning" (which is the first word I would think of to put there)? I also asked myself: Engagement in what? For what? -Kira
it is the oppressive and symbolically violent use of the essentials of our discipline—words, rhetoric, and modes of communica-tion—that sticks to us most in the ongoing aftermath of the election (
On the topic of 'rhetoric,' I think, especially in thinking about Pedagogies of English/Language, one of the most threatening aspects of this time is the ways in which rhetoric is used to twist people's perceptions and make people question their most inner truths about goodness, humanity, and ethics. This, too, is trauma. I suppose it does go back to Freire. When the leaders try to say that dehumanizing others is normal, acceptable, something deep in the guts of us - many who work for social justice, and those who are oppressed in some form, can feel a sense of disbelief in the now, and, at times, in ourselves. This is trauma on top of the obvious trauma. And much of it is to do with rhetoric.
It combines the reading and writing of poetry, fiction, essay, historical documents and statistics, lots of discussions, read-arounds, days of writing, responding, and revising of student work.
When Christiansen structures her teaching around a big issue that is important to students lives it allows for a deep interdisciplinarity that I think a lot of teachers strive for in designing units, but don't know how to start. Start at the heart of things, not just focused on the individual skills/outcomes.
while much of the language around digital civic engagement focuses on increasing youth participation in public life, we argue that students’ use of social media tools can start to change the conversation from one about merely participating toward one about interrogating normative civic practices and structures and innovat-ing new forms of civic action
This also makes me think about what Tufekci write about in her book, Twitter and Teargas - tracing how the digital has impacted/reshaped activism in several social movements around the globe - https://www.twitterandteargas.org/
We aim to recast civic learning by examining a range of community-based civic education initiatives in both formal and informal learning spaces to dem-onstrate how they amplify youth voice from a redefined vision of civic participation focused on creation and criticality.
This is a big contrast to the traditional notion of civic education/learning as that of learning about governmental institutions. It gives youth much more agency in being civic participants from early on.
“zooming in” and “connecting”
would love to know more of where this "cognitive practice" concept comes from.
Layered Learning: Web Annotation in Collaborative and Connecte
Great session!