Connected Learning Theories

For the past few weeks, I've been reading articles about motivation, connected learning, and app integration. I've used the website Popplet to condense my thinking and examples for the articles. I don't have much for the Digital Literacies section; however, I think DLs are incorporated into the other three sections.

In terms of Digital Literacies, though, I'd like to relate a personal story. Last week, before leaving for spring break, one of my online mythology course students sent me an email that she didn't know how to catch up with her work. She said that she had just been thrown into the course with no instruction on how to access the work or what to do. When she came to talk with me one-on-one, I realized just how much I assumed she knew how to do -- from logging on, to finding the weekly assignments, to being able to turn them in. She kept asking me, "How do you know how to do that?" every time I uploaded a document or fixed a link for her.

I've found that many of my students are not digitally savvy-- they want the easy way out (as most of us do with certain things); however, in this Knowledge Age, you wouldn't really think that kids don't automatically know how to access digital spaces. The disconnect between personal digital use (i.e. Instagram or SnapChat) with what looks like school digital use (i.e. Canvas; Google Docs; ATTACHING A FILE TO EMAIL! haha) seems so vast in my part of the world.

I want to explore this area more with a literature review, or in concert with my book project.



Link to Popplet: http://popplet.com/app/#/4637923