Guy has posted an interesting blog entry about technology and music. I agree with his point that technology has ‘transformed the role that music plays in our lives’. For example, I was fortunate enough to see Leonard Cohen live on Friday, having been a lifelong admirer of his songs. Thanks to YouTube, I can now re-live the highlights as often as I like. For those of you who also like Leonard, here is a snippet of his fabulous concert!
I know that I have mentioned the fabulous course designed by Julia Davies before, our MA in New Literacies. It is such a treat for me to be able to teach on this course, I am learning such a lot. For example, I now realise what a useful space YouTube is for students on the course to share their reflections on their ongoing work. Misti conducted research on young children's multiliteracy practices in the home and in the YouTube video below she reflects on how this small-scale study went.
So interesting! And so useful for all the course participants to be able to access Misti's reflections in this way. I am encouraging Misti to think about where she can disseminate her fascinating work in print, so watch this space and I will keep you updated.
I have not had chance to blog recently as I was at the UKLA conference, where I talked about the work of Peter Winter, a brilliant teacher who has been working on blogs with primary children for a few years now. Here is the first blog the children developed, related to a project on dinosaurs. The blog uses the tools offered by a number of sites such as Evoca (for podcasting) and Bubbleshare (for constructing slideshows with caption bubbles). Luckily, these sites have not been blocked by the local education authority's firewall, which is the case with YouTube. Rather ironic, then, that YouTube posts videos giving advice about getting past school blocks of YouTube.
Pictured here, 5-year-old Lucy loves watching her favourite Avril Lavigne videos on YouTube and uses the search engine effectively to do this - perfect spelling not needed, as YouTube conveniently asks her, 'Did you mean 'Avril Lavigne'?'! I am interested in the strategies young children use to find information on the web or locate their favourite sites when they are not yet fluent readers and writers. For example, in one study I did, a parent told me that her child was able to use the computer independently because the child had memorised the icon for Internet Explorer and then, once online, went to the 'Favourites' menu to find the 'CBeebies' site, having memorised that word without being able to decode it phoneme-by-phoneme. If only the Rose Review had recognised the varied reading strategies that many young children use!
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