Linsey Cushing
November 11, 2007
Week 12 Reflection
Aims and Objectives:
This week, my initial goal was to get all of my assignments done before the weekend so that I could spend the weekend working on revising my paper and doing other homework. However, I did not have the Internet for almost four days, so I am now at home in Charleston working on a stable Internet and wondering if I can deal with Comcast for another semester without strangling them… =) As you can see, my goals shifted to simply getting my assignments done and somehow still fitting in time to revise my paper and do other homework and studying. Five more school days until Thanksgiving Break…
Declarative Knowledge:
This week, I learned about yet another literacy skill: socio-emotional literacy. Socio-emotional literacy skills involve the social skills you bring when searching the Internet and interacting with people worldwide who are also using the Web. I learned that socio-emotional literacy happens to be the most complex and highest level of literacy skills to obtain. Socio-emotional literacy skills require the user to be a good critical and analytical thinker while also understanding proper social skills on the Internet, appropriately termed “netiquette.” You must utilize socio-emotional literacy skills to analyze whether the people you are chatting with are truly valid people presenting true information about their identities. You must also be aware of false information posted on the Internet, such as hoaxes. Overall, I learned that socio-emotional literacy skills require you to be your own personal watchdog while also maintaining proper netiquette to respect those who are legitimate people.
Procedural Knowledge:
This week, I learned how to use the comment function on our blogs to do a peer review for two of my peers’ rough drafts. First, you need to access our class website at http://klmccomas.net/cd315. Then, you click on the link for the name of the person you are planning on peer reviewing. Next, you click on I-Search on that person’s personal blog page. After this, you click on the Comment link, where you put in your name and e-mail address. Finally, I began writing my comments in the space provided.
To do a proper peer review, first you must talk about the voice of the paper (first, second, or third person). Next, you must comment on the audience (who do you think this paper is written for). Third, you must “say back” to the author what you think he or she is saying with the paper. After this, you must “bless” a strength of the paper. Finally, you should address something that the author could do to improve the paper. When finished writing the peer review, you click “submit comment.”
Conditional Knowledge:
This week, I learned a lot about peer reviewing my classmates’ papers. This is a very challenging thing to do because it is hard to criticize your friends’ work. However, I hope that through this, I have helped my classmates to develop a better paper. I have completed peer reviews before, but never through a blog. I thought this was an interesting way to do it because your peer has to approve your response before it is posted and also, everyone can see what you’ve written instead of just that person.
When looking at socio-emotional literacy skills, I definitely think that these skills are necessary in today’s society. Without the social and emotional skills, you would never be able to judge people to see if they are actually legitimate, be on the lookout for hoaxes and viruses, or determine whether information is actually valid and reliable. I believe that socio-emotional literacy is something that you continue to work on your entire life; it is not a skill that is just “learned” and can be pushed aside. As the Internet becomes more and more complex, your awareness must be more acute and your “netiquette” more precise.
As a student, the information I’ve learned this week, both through peer reviewing and researching socio-emotional literacy, is very important. By having other people review my work, I will be able to improve my paper, which is due on Friday (yikes!). Hopefully by peer reviewing my classmates’ work, I have also helped them out. The socio-emotional literacy research made me aware that I need to work on these skills continuously in order to be successful on the Web. As a pre-professional, the information about socio-emotional literacy is important because I am sure that I will be in contact with other speech-language pathologists over the Web throughout my career. I need to have the proper “netiquette” and judgment skills to be considered a professional. Finally, as a citizen, I am helping out my classmates by peer reviewing their papers. Also, I could help improve others’ socio-emotional literacy skills by helping them learn the “netiquette” and Web searching skills to be successful in today’s society.
