A12.4: Week 12 Participation Memo

Aims and Objectives: My goal for this week was to complete all my work in a timely manner. I wanted to learn more about socio-emotional literacy by completing the assignment related to this topic. I wanted to complete this early in the week so that I could have the weekend to work on my I-search paper and provide feedback to fellow classmates on their papers. Overall, I feel I have achieved my goal for the week.

Declarative Knowledge:  This week I learned about the digital literacy skill of socio-emotional literacy. I found through my research this week that this literacy skill aids people in protecting themself and demonstrating appropriate manners on the internet. People who possess this skill are more likely to be able to differentiate information that is right, wrong, good, and bad. This is important because with all the internet scams that occuring on the web it is important for people to possess skills to protect themself. I also learned this week how benefitial peer feedback can be. I have done peer reviews before, but I never knew how helpful my comments were to another person’s work until I recieved feedback from my fellow classmates. The feedback I recieved was very beneficial. It made me aware of the strenths and weaknesses of my paper which helped me to revise it. I learned this week that peer review is a great way to have your work reviewed.

Procedural Knowledge: This week I learned how to complete a peer review. I learned how to do this by following an outline provided by my professor which helped me to focus on specific areas of the papers such as what person the paper was wrote in, blessings or good things about the paper, and areas of the paper the author could work on. By learning how to do this I was able to review two of my peers papers.

Conditional Knowledge: I will use the skills I learned this week to educate younger people about the dangers that lie on the web and the importance of being able to determine if something is true or a fallacy on the web. I think this will be beneficial in my future because children now-a-days are using the computer at a younger age which will me I will have to make sure I am educating my children on socio-emotional literacy skills. The knowledge of peer review will be beneficial in my career as a SLP in that I now know I good way to look at a person’s work to provide feedback on their papers. In my career I may have other SLP’s who want me to review their work, so now I know that I would be able to do this and provide beneficial information to make that person’s paper better.

A12.1: Socio-emotional literacy

Traci Girondo

November 8, 2007

What do you know/can you find out about socio-emotional literacy skills? 

Socio-emotional literacy skills refer to the sociological and emotional aspects of communication in a digital world (Alkali & Hamburger, 2004). Individuals who possess these skills have the ability to conduct themselves in a proper manner and are able to protect themselves from dangers on the internet. Alkali & Hamburger (2004) state that, “in order to aquire this skill, (socio-emotional literacy) users must be very critical, analytical and mature.” These skills are necessary because individuals working in a digital environment need to be able to discern between what is good and bad on the web (Aphek, 2007). The importance of these skills is that aid in the protection of individuals while communication in a digital environment. They teach individuals to use caution while using the web so that people do find themselves involved in an internet scam or in contact with an imposter.

What are your reactions to the idea that there are such skills?

In my opinion socio-emotional literacy skills are one of the most important digital literacy skills to possess. Since communication over the internet is not done face-to-face and is typically done through some sort of chat room or instant messanger it is easier for individuals to lie about their identity. Also, with the development of websites such as facebook and myspace anyone using these sites can be located by people they do not know. That is why I feel it is important that all indivduals possess digital literacy skills. Digital literacy skills equip people with skills to protect themselves  in these digital environments. It is important that people are educated on this topic. When I first began using the internet I remember my parents sitting me down and discussing with me that on the internet I’m going to find information that isn’t true and people are going to try to talk to me that I don’t know. They never told me I wasn’t able to use the internet, but they wanted me to be cautious. If my parents had not educated me on the topic I don’t know where I would have learned the socio-emotional literacy skills that I have. I feel that more education on these skills needs to be done.

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?

I feel that this “new” literacy has already changed education and schooling. It is very common to hear about teachers or counselors speaking in the school systems and educating students of the dangers that are present in a digital environment such as the web. With the increase of internet scams and pedophiles targeting children on the internet I feel that this new literacy skill is going to be taught at an earlier age. My nephew is only 7 and he constantly uses the internet to play games. I don’t know if anyone has had a talk with him about being cautious on the internet, but I sure hope someone has. There is a lot of good that can be accomplished through digital environments, but there is also a lot of danger. It is the role of educators and parents that they make sure they are equipping children with the skills to be cautious users of digital environments so that there may be a decrease in all these internet crimes.

Aphek, E. (2007). Digital, highly connected children: Implications for education. Retrieved November 8, 2007, from http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/aphek/digital-literacy.html

Eshet-Alkai, Y. (2004).  Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era.  Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106. 

Eshet-Alkali, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August).  Experiments in digital literacy.  Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429. 

Digital Story: Mean Girl Style

After watching this video I must say I am a little depressed. This video was very sad, but I feel it is something that a lot of people can relate to. What this video discussed, is what many people encounter in schools. Many people find themselves being ridiculed and made fun of constantly by people who feel that they are better than others. I feel that the message the video sent was an important one in that we all have hurt someone at one point and it is important that we ask for forgiveness from these people. Even though the message brought in this movie was expressed well I do not feel that many of the graphics in this movie pertained to what the speaker was saying. Many of the paintings were confusing to me. I was not able to make the connection between the images and what was being said by the speaker. The music that played in the background throughout the video was also depressing. I guess it was appropriate though since the topic discussed was not a pleasant topic. Overall, I feel that the video portrayed a good message, but the graphics and music did not help the speaker convey her message.