To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard. – Allen Ginsberg In many of my blog posts, I’m taking time and space to give my brain an opportunity to think through things. In the process of writing, in the process of getting ideas and putting them down on paper, I…
In starting up, or building your digital identity from basic scraps, or nothingness, the first step is to begin thinking about the role or representation you’d like to have online. Write out six words to represent you…and the identity that you’d like to have online. These six words could be individual sentences, a phrase, etc.…
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say when one ends, and where the other begins? Edgar Allan Poe As our world become increasingly digitized, and social networks link friends across the spaces and lines of our lives, an interesting phenomenon occurs as people die. My Mother…
Music is an integral part of our human existence. It motivates us, calms us, inspires us, and at times irritates us. It serves as the backdrop against which we live our lives. Songs can bring vivid memories of persons, places, and events from our own past and serve to document our thoughts, feelings, and emotions…
I recently wrote a meditation for The Ethics of Digital Literacy, edited by my good friend Kristen Turner. My meditation for the text was focused on the challenges and opportunities in building ethical communities. You can review the submitted version here. In this post, I am sharing materials for a virtual series on the Ethics…
Part of the learning process involves a certain amount of failure. Individuals have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and use them as a source for understanding. Learning from, and overcoming mistakes also provides opportunities to improve motivation and self-esteem of the learner. The possibility of suffering defeat or failure in making a mistake…
Educators must prepare students to be the multiliterate individuals that they will need to be successful in their futures. Schools are ultimately responsible for preparing students to be critical users of available technologies (Damarin, 2000; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004), problem solvers, and good communicators in networked civic spaces (Mishra & Kereluik, 2011; Binkley…
If you’re a regular reader of this blog and my social feeds, you’ve noticed the topic of the “IndieWeb” showing up quite a bit. Chris Aldrich has an excellent post defining the IndieWeb that I recommend you checking out if you really want to understand what this all means. Aldrich indicates: In broadest terms I…
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” – Lewis Carroll Note: This post documents my thinking as I am choosing to redefine my relationships with social networks and other digital spaces/places. I dig in a bit to explain what I mean…
An ethnography is an examination of a group or a culture, specifically about things we call “folkways” — customs and beliefs practiced by a particular group. In my language and literacy courses, I have students critically reflect on their identity, and the pathways that brought them to this point in their lives. They research and write…