Reflection of Articles

The article Using the ADDIE Model to Design Second Life Activities for Online Learners By Shiang-Kwei Wang and Hui-Yin Hsu helped me to see Second Life as an educational tool.  This helped me to recognize how Second Life would benefit online college courses, especially. There is a significant lack in social presence when taking an online course.   I feel it would be great to be able to address the face to face interaction situation with the use of Second Life.  I agree with the article in that this form of learning would be more engaging and motivating than traditional Blackboard learning.  This article addresses that there is a belief students learn better when they can “explore and construct their own meaning” in a learning environment.  I feel this is a very true aspect to learning.  If Second Life was used with online courses it would aide in establishing a social environment where students are interacting, collaborating, and actively discussing content through the use of their avatar.  The actual use of technology and navigating through the site is a wonderful learning process in itself.  Students like us who are learning so many new technological resources can benefit greatly through the use of Second Life.  I see many positive aspects to using Second Life with college courses, but I do feel it would be difficult to use with grade level students.  For example, it would present privacy issues with all learning levels.  Second Life is not a private environment so interaction with others outside of the class would present a problem.  Overall, this article was helpful in seeing the uses of Second Life as an educational tool.  I think with time the use of this sort of tool will be considerably more popular than it is presently. 

             I found the article Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education: The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms by Dawnene D. Hassett and Jen Scott Curwood to be very informative and somewhat of an eye opening experience.  The article spoke of how language arts instruction must be remodeled to fit today’s society.  Society has changed so much through the use of technology and this has created a young society who needs information to be delivered to them in the way they learn and interact with the world.  Traditional instruction just isn’t reaching our students the way technology integrated instruction does.  The article addresses how text is now delivered in so many different ways.  Colors, graphics, and a variety or other aspects have now been incorporated into technology based reading materials.  I have found that students respond to this greatly.  My special education students love the different aspects these sorts of reading sites and tools offer.  They are more engaged and motivated to read when I present them with this versus a traditional book. These resources and tools allow for a more multisensory approach.  Its helps differentiate instruction and reach many different learning styles all at once.   Overall, I feel that we need to continue to change instruction as society continues to change. Integrating technology in ELA instruction makes a large difference with my students. I feel it will help all students achieve success better.