December 11, 2007

E-Portfolio Cover Letter

    Throughout this semester as I completed the weekly assignments for Computer Networking in CD (better known as CD 315), I created a portfolio of my work by posting the assignments on my personal blog.  At the beginning of the semester, I was close to illiterate when it came to computer technology and the digital areas that come with it.  However, I had high hopes for the class, stating, “As I strive to become more information-literate, I will positively impact my future career as a speech-language pathologist. The skills acquired by being information-literate will help me to problem-solve when I am unsure of a diagnosis, research many resources when I know little about a particular disorder, and develop creative treatment methods tailored to individual clients” (Week 1).  As the weeks wore on, I found myself being more comfortable with blogging, Google Docs, online classrooms, Flickr, Movie Maker, and wikis.  Although this language seemed foreign to me at first, through this class, I became literate in the world of technology.  I now feel confident that I am competent enough to navigate my way through these applications and communicate with other users in order to be an efficacious, yet still ever-learning, student.

    Without objectives, a course would have no structure or meaning.  This course had many objectives for me, as the learner, to achieve through my classwork.  Although these objectives looked quite daunting at first, looking back, I realize that I did, in fact, achieve them.  This gives me a great sense of accomplishment knowing that I actually achieved and learned so much through this course and it is all sitting right in front of me on my blog.  I think this is what makes portfolios such great examples of learning because it gives the learner a tangible object to look back and realize how much she has done.  In the following paragraphs, I will present the different objectives for the course and provide evidence from my portfolio to prove that I achieved each objective.  The objectives are divided into conceptual objectives and technical objectives, proving that this class involved both critical thinking and application.  

“The learner will acquire knowledge of the various conceptions of literacy in the 21st century.”

    As I reflect on the semester, this objective is particularly humorous.  I will never forget our first class meeting of the semester (a live meeting) in which Mrs. McComas told us to do a free write on what we thought literacy was for ten minutes or so.  We all just stared at each other, having no clue what literacy was.  After sharing our thoughts, we came up with the assumption that literacy included reading and writing, books and papers.  However, this class sure proved us wrong.  As stated in Week 1, “Our society, which is based on the assumption that education is synonymous with learning to read and write properly, needs to embrace the upcoming movement of the multimedia. This movement incorporates the language of the screen with modern technology, provides all the expression and intelligence that text does, and has even greater advantages. Many people associate being educated with being well-versed in knowledge obtained from texts. However, in order to be considered educated in the future, people will have to learn the multimedia language of the screen.”  Literacy is so much more than reading and writing.  Today, almost every area has its own type of literacy.  In one discussion, we talked about how people who are considered “illiterate” to society may be extremely literate in an area such as electric work.  The main focus for this class was, of course, digital literacy. 

“The learner will acquire knowledge of what constitutes acceptable sources and resources within a profession and in the 21st century.”

     This class really opened my eyes to what is considered to be a politically correct and acceptable source.  Before, I had no idea why Wikipedia was not considered to be a reliable source by many teachers.  However, as I discovered in Week 4, “Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is open for anyone to access and edit. It allows the users to control the topics and how much information is included about each topic. Wikipedia gives students the opportunity to take part in a collaborative learning environment that involves participants from around the world.”  I now understood that anything could appear on Wikipedia, and not all of it is reliable.  However, the idea of Wikipedia is amazing and has fostered a huge community of users who are passionate about maintaining the validity of the site.  This objective also touches on our focus on false web sites.  In Week 7, we conducted a web evaluation for a site called Better Dog Food.  The site turned out to be a very well-designed hoax, which I discovered quite quickly when I actually looked at the information.  As you can see from this link, I thought the web site was of no value to me as the reader ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/a71-web-evaluation-i/ ).  However, looking back, I realize it was quite important because it taught me to actually pay attention to all aspects of a web site before taking it as a reliable source when researching.  Finally, we discussed a lot of information regarding copyright and the importance of abiding to these rules.  This is particularly important when using other’s sources in research.   

The learner will acquire knowledge of the professional issues relating to literacy within the ASHA Scope of Practice. 

     At the beginning of the semester, we reviewed the all-so-familiar ASHA Code of Ethics.  However, I now realize the importance of looking at the Code for this class because one of the major aspects of this document pertains to research.  We, as future speech-language pathologists, are required to utilize all resources available to provide the best service possible.  Without the knowledge I’ve obtained about searching for this information, I would not be able to provide the optimal services.  For example, I did not realize that Google does not give the searcher every web site that goes with that search.  Instead, each server has a pool of information to search from.  If I want to find the best information, I should search from several search tools.  I also need to ensure that these documents are reliable sources.

The learner will acquire knowledge of the forms of inquiry associated with evidence based practice.

    This objective coincides with the prior objective because it deals with the research aspect that is expected of us as professionals.  Evidence based practice is formulated by the clinician’s expertise, the client’s preferences, and the latest research.  The only way that we, as speech-language pathologists, can provide the best advice to the client is by keeping up on the current research for that particular part of the field.

The learner will prepare for and participate in class discussions and activities.

     Although this class was mainly based on individual work, several opportunities for class discussion arose throughout the semester.  We had several live meetings to introduce information or discuss what we discovered in the previous weeks.  I also had the opportunity to take part in an online classroom on TappedIn ( http://tappedin.org/tappedin/ ).  Our first online meeting was with the whole class.  This proved to be very entertaining and quite chaotic.  However, I thoroughly enjoyed this, as you can see from my response in Week 7: “I actually had a lot of fun ‘going’ to class this way because I learned a lot but also got to joke around with my classmates. Also, I like how it is not a typical lecture-style classroom. With this type of virtual classroom, the students are the speakers while the professor is more of a passive observer, providing advice or answers only when needed. Overall, I thought this was a great learning experience because I learned about information pertaining to speech-language pathology while also learning some technology tricks.”  The following week, I participated in a group meeting with three other classmates and discussed the importance of copyright and how it pertained to us, both as students and future speech-language pathologists.  In order to prepare for all of these discussions, I was required to read information and have questions ready to spark conversation with my peers.

The learner will develop strategies for effectively planning and completing independent work (meeting both the letter and spirit of the work, not just the letter of the work) in a timely manner.

     As I learned very quickly, this type of class requires you to participate fully and with all your ability.  I had to use my time management skills more than ever this semester as I juggled this class work with other homework and studying, going to class, teaching dance, and trying to still have some time for myself.  I learned that the best way to get everything done for this class (without doing it all in one day) was to space it out from the beginning of the week.  If I got an assignment or two done each day, I could have the weekend free!  Although this did not happen every week, I am pleased with myself as I look back because I see that almost every week, I reached this goal.  In fact, my Aims and Objectives for every single week included something along the lines of “My personal goal for this week’s assignments was to finish everything before Saturday…” (Week 3).  As far as meeting the spirit of the work, my reflections that conclude each week’s worth of assignments are proof that I dedicated myself to this class ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/memos/ ).  The Conditional Knowledge section, which reflected upon how I was affected as a student, future SLP, and a citizen by that week’s work, showed that I learned from each assignment and how much this class has impacted my life. 

The learner will use practical thinking (solve problems and make decisions), critical thinking (analysis and evaluation), and creative thinking (imagining and creating) to complete an inquiry project focused on a disciplinary issue relating to literacy.   

    This objective is, in my opinion, the main objective for the entire semester.  Our semester-long assignment, on top of weekly assignments, was to write an I-Search Paper concerning some aspect of speech-language pathology and literacy.  We started out by creating an essential question and foundation questions to base our research on, which we posted to a wiki that could be changed whenever we pleased ( http://cd315.pbwiki.com/Linsey+Cushing+ ).  I then gathered resources through two library searches on weeks 5 and 7 ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/resources/ ).  After selecting the resources that I found most relevant to my project, I wrote an I-Search Paper concerning “How does age of implantation have an effect on reading ability in cochlear implanted children?” ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/i-search-paper/ ) that connected my resources and portrayed my recently gained knowledge about the subject in a first-person paper.  The final step to the project was to create a movie on Movie Maker that published the results of our research ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/video/ ).  This step was by far my favorite part of the research process because I was very pleased with my end result.  Although it was very rewarding, each step of this process took a lot of hard work and time, making it that much more worth it in the end.   

The learner will demonstrate enhanced communication skills and strategies, using the discourse of the discipline, in both oral and written formats.  

    This class made me realize that there is not just one way to communicate, but rather, many.  Because the Internet is now considered essential in today’s society, the means of communicating through the Internet are expanding rapidly.  One major method of communication for this class was via the class e-mail list ( http://listserv.wvnet.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=MU-CD315-L ).  Any time I had a question, I could e-mail this list and it would send the question to the entire class, including the teacher.  This way, I could receive insight from both my classmates and my instructor.  Another method of communication was by commenting on my classmates’ blogs.  Each time you post on a blog, you have an option at the bottom for people to respond to the blog.  Throughout the semester, I received posts from my instructor, a newly graduated speech-language pathologist, and classmates to provide encouragement or advice.  I learned a lot about netiquette, or Web etiquette, on Week 2:  “I need to be more aware of the technical aspects, such as adding a signature to my emails. I also need to remember that my emails are not as private as I think so I shouldn’t send something ‘I wouldn’t mind seeing on the evening news.’ I plan to use some of the grammatical suggestions in future emails to make myself more clear to the recipient.”  Orally, I had to work on my communication skills when working on narrating my Movie Maker project to ensure that I spoke clearly and also portrayed the information in a manner that was easily understood. 

The learner will participate and collaborate, synchronously and asynchronously, in online professional communities.

    As you can see from the previous objectives, I participated in many types of online professional communities this semester: blogs, online classrooms, wikis, and e-mail lists, to name a few.  In order to take part in communities such as these, I had to constantly remind myself that I was writing something that could be seen not only by my classmates, but by the public.  I enjoyed taking part in each of these communities because they each provided me with different aspects and procedures that I learned not only to appreciate, but understand.  It was great to be able to discuss and post information with my classmates without ever stepping foot in a classroom. 

The learner will demonstrate self-confident interdependence in multiple digital spaces and with multiple forms of media.  

    Wow.  This objective pretty much sums up my experiences with this class.  What started out as an unsure, not-so-computer-savvy student evolved into a student who is confident about using multiple digital spaces and using these effortlessly.  Although I still have questions, which I always will as things change and I take on new projects, I feel that I know so much more about the Internet and its applications.  I now have my own blog, and it represents a complete class portfolio ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/ ).  As provided above, I also have my own space on a class wiki.  I created a movie on Movie Maker that represents a semester’s worth of effort and research that I am very proud of.  As you can see, I have definitely learned from this class.  However, I have not just learned about digital literacy, but also about communicating and the field of speech-pathology.  The skills I obtained this semester will follow me throughout my life, aiding me wherever I go.  As I stated early in this semester, “There is a lot more to digital literacy than simply being able to work a computer. I can personally testify that even when I’ve figured out how to work something like a blog, wiki, RSS, or social bookmarking, that does not mean that I can successfully produce information on it. You have to have both the procedural knowledge and the cognitive ability to possess digital literacy.”  As I write the final words for this class, I now believe that I have the skills and the knowledge to call myself computer literate. 

Video Link

November 18, 2007

Week 13 Reflection

Aims and Objectives:

     This week, my goal was to turn in my final draft by Friday.  After this, I planned on finishing up the rest of the week’s assignments before Monday the 19th because that is my birthday! I wanted to be able to spend the rest of the week enjoying myself and spending time with my family for Thanksgiving.  Of course I will have to spend time on other classes’ homework and begin my Movie Maker for this class, but as of right now, I am giving myself a much needed break!

Declarative Knowledge:

     This week, I learned a lot about age of cochlear implantation and reading ability in children.  In my conclusion for my research paper, I decided that age of implantation does have an effect on reading ability.  I learned that the earlier a child is implanted, the better that child’s reading abilities, including reading comprehension, vocabulary, and word reading, will be.  I also learned that everyone, both hearing and hearing impaired, learn to read utilizing the same skills.  These skills include phonemic awareness, phonics, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency.  Everyone also develops reading in the same stages.  However, deaf people usually plateau at Stage 3 out of 5, where hearing people and children who are implanted early in life have the potential to reach Stage 5.  Overall, I learned the importance of early intervention in children with severe to profound hearing losses so that they have the chance to be implanted early enough to reach normal or close to normal reading and academic achievements. 

    I also realized something very important this week: No matter how many times I revise a paper, it still can be improved.  I finally reached a point where I stopped and made myself turn my paper in.  However, I am sure that there are areas in the paper that could still be improved.  In the end, though, I revised and edited to the best of my abilities.   

Procedural Knowledge:

     This week, I did not necessarily learn how to do anything new.  However, the processes that I did use this week were crucial for the success of my paper.  I critiqued and edited my paper numerous times in order to make it ready for turning in.  However, as mentioned above, I could have done this many more times.  In addition to the process of finalizing my paper, I also wrote drafts for my Preface, Acknowledgements, and About the Author sections. 

Conditional Knowledge:

    This week, I learned a lot about the process of editing and revising a paper.  I realized that you come to a point of revision where you have to stop and turn in the paper.  I have learned so much about my actual topic and the process of writing papers during this research project.  As a student, the information I learned this week will greatly benefit me in the future because I have become a better writer and editor by writing this research paper.  This can only help my research and writing skills in the future.  I also have learned a lot more about cochlear implants, which can benefit me as a student because one of my current classes is Aural Rehabilitation.  As a pre-professional, the skills I have learned this week are very important.  I am sure that my researching will not end here; rather, I will continue to research cochlear implants and the benefits of early implantation, both in reading ability and other aspects.  I also have become better at writing, critiquing, and editing by doing this research paper, which will benefit me when doing future projects.  As a citizen, the information I’ve learned through this research has made me much more knowledgeable about the benefits of early intervention and early implantation, which I can advocate.  Also, I have learned a lot more about the importance of literacy itself, which can be relayed to my community.   

I would also like to thank Ms. Amy Knell and Mrs. Jenni Butler for letting me observe the Luke Lee Listening, Language, and Learning Lab, better known as “The L,” throughout the semester. By watching these instructors work with three amazing cochlear implanted children, I have discovered my love for cochlear implants. Luke, Tayden, and Ean, you three are such an inspiration to all of us.

Finally, I would like to thank Joy Pyles and Caroline Banks for peer reviewing my paper. Without your help, my paper wouldn’t have turned out the way it has! Thanks so much!

However, the thought process did not end here. At first, my essential question was, “How do cochlear implants affect a child’s literacy?” After meeting with my professor, I realized that this question was way too broad and I needed to create a more specific question. My professor and I developed a question that asked, “In what ways do cochlear implants facilitate the development of literacy skills through the auditory channel?” As I attempted to do research with this as my essential question, though, I was still having difficulties. After much deliberation, I finally decided to focus on reading development in children with cochlear implants because of the importance of language, and therefore hearing, in reading. My final question, which did not come about until I had completed much of my research and therefore was a work in progress, is, “How does age of implantation have an effect on reading ability in cochlear implanted children?”

November 16, 2007

Introduction/Questioning

Literacy is an umbrella term that includes the essential areas of reading, writing, and digital skills. Before beginning my research, I recently discovered the vast amount of skills required to be considered literate in today’s society. You should be able to read, write, navigate the World Wide Web, differentiate meaningful versus false information, and utilize computer programs in order to make multimedia productions, among others. As I have learned from this class, literacy is no longer something you learn in elementary school. Rather, it is a never-ending process. Literacy is a gift that is often taken for granted by those who effortlessly read, write, and work on a computer on a daily basis. However, when this gift is taken away, or, in the case of hearing impaired people, never received in the first place, literacy is a looming challenge. Cochlear implants are currently aiding those who are deaf or who have a severe to profound hearing loss in hopes that one day, these people will become literate.

I decided to research a topic concerning cochlear implants and reading because I am very fascinated by cochlear implants and the reading aspect is something I am unfamiliar with. I’ve discovered that I am very drawn to therapy involving cochlear implants and find it very interesting and exciting. The fact that we, as speech-language pathologists, can help a deaf child hear and learn to read for the first time truly astounds me. I’ve realized that the impact cochlear implants have on the ability to communicate and understand language is profound. I chose this topic in hopes that I will possibly discover my “niche.” I figure that there’s no better way to discover what type of clients I want to work with in the future than through observation and research.

Lately, I have been hearing a lot about early intervention with cochlear implants. In other words, the earlier a child is identified with a hearing loss and considered to be a candidate for an implant, the sooner the child can be implanted. In turn, this earlier implantation leads to more exposure to auditory signals and better predictions for the child to be verbal someday. I applied this thought process to reading ability and came up with my essential question: “How does age of implantation have an effect on reading ability in cochlear implanted children?” After coming up with this main question, I thought of several supporting, or foundation, questions to help guide my research. First, I wanted to know, “What skills are required to learn how to read and which of these utilize the auditory channel?” Next, I needed information concerning, “What are cochlear implants?” Finally, I wondered, “What is the relationship between age of implantation and reading ability?” It is my hope that by researching these questions, I will come to a conclusion that will help to improve knowledge about the reading abilities of children with cochlear implants.

Searching

Although children with cochlear implants have additional handicaps when compared to hearing children, they all learn how to read the same way. Reading is not something that we are born with; rather, we have to learn how to read. There are five skills in particular that are essential to develop when learning how to read: phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Phonemic awareness involves the ability to comprehend that words are made up of sounds. Basically, sounds are like blocks that can be stacked together in order to form different words. Children must be able to hear and identify these sounds in order to recognize them in words. Phonics is a lot like phonemic awareness but it deals with letters and sounds instead of sounds and words. Phonics involves the child learning that each letter produces a certain sound and being able to combine the written aspect of letters and spoken aspect of sounds into reading. Reading comprehension is a complex skill that can only be achieved once the reader begins reading to learn. In other words, the reader must take in what he or she is reading and gain an understanding about the information. Vocabulary involves words within the reading that must be understood before the reader is able to gain meaning from the information. Finally, fluency involves the ability of the reader to read information accurately and at a steady pace (The reading skills pyramid: The key reading skills and the steps in acquiring them, 2004).

When looking at the five essential skills required when learning to read, I realized that two of these are learned primarily through the auditory channel and the other three are dependent on these in order to develop. Phonemic awareness and phonics both are highly involved with sounds and how they make up words or relate to letters. When a child is severely to profoundly deaf, as are children who receive cochlear implants, he or she receives little to no information through the auditory channel. Therefore, the child does not even have a basis to begin developing phonemic awareness or phonics. For this child, words are made up of letters rather than sounds and letters are simply letters and do not have sound associations. However, once a child receives a cochlear implant, the auditory channel can be utilized and these skills begin to develop. As I looked at the other three skills, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency, I realized that they are dependent on the development of phonemic awareness and phonics. Until the child is able to utilize phonemic awareness and phonics to learn how to read, these three skills are unable to develop.

Along with the essential skills discussed above, research shows that readers develop in stages. Jeanne Chall developed five stages describing reading development. In the first stage, which spans from birth until six or seven years old, children begin to understand the syntax and semantics of language (Spencer, Barker, & Tomblin, 2003). Phonemic awareness and phonics are also developed during this stage (Scholastic Red, 2002). Stage 2, which occurs at seven or eight years old, involves moving from decoding words while reading to becoming a fluent reader. The most crucial stage, Stage 3, involves children using reading to learn. Words are no longer simply sound-letter associations that come with meaning. Instead, the child is able to read fluently, making connections with what he or she is reading and learning new information. Due to the complexity of the following stages, Stage 3 is often the stage at which deaf children plateau. Stage 3 develops from ages eight to fourteen (Spencer et al., 2003). Stage 4, which develops from ages fourteen to eighteen, involves the individual beginning to take different perspectives into consideration while reading (Spencer et al., 2003). Critical, analytical thinking is applied to information that is read (Scholastic Red, 2002). Finally, Stage 5, which occurs around eighteen years old and continues throughout college, involves the individual analyzing and synthesizing information that he or she reads. Readers must take the information and develop individual viewpoints based on the available information in conjunction with the reader’s previous knowledge (Spencer et al., 2003). This paper is a prime example of utilizing Stage 5 because in this section, I am presenting what I’ve discovered through my research. In the Conclusion/Answering section, I will develop my own conclusions based on the information I’ve found.

According to Dalquist, approximately 75% of the school day involves listening activities that utilize the auditory channel for children in kindergarten through third grade. When hearing impaired or deaf children are taken into consideration, they are dropped off the map. After all, as Dr. Mark Ross said, “Hearing is the primary channel for learning. The more children hear, the better they learn,” (Lagotic, Hofstetter, James, & Rosenberg, 2007). When hearing impaired or deaf children do not receive any benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants provide a hearing source (Connor & Zwolan, 2004). Cochlear implants are devices that are surgically implanted into the cochlea of people with severe to profound hearing losses. Cochlear implants bypass hair cells within the cochlea and send messages through nerve fibers to the brain so that the person is able to hear (Cole & Flexer, 2007). However, the auditory information that a child with a cochlear implant hears is much different than what a hearing person would hear. In fact, the hearing of a child with a cochlear implant is somewhat like that of a severely deaf child who uses hearing aids (Boothroyd & Boothroyd, 2002). Therefore, the challenges that a cochlear implanted child faces when he or she begins reading are tremendous.

Although the road to reading success is a difficult one for cochlear implanted children, it is possible. As stated in numerous studies, children with cochlear implants show improvements in speech perception, speech production, vocabulary, and reading comprehension after using the cochlear implant for a period of time (Connor & Zwolan, 2004). In addition, the earlier the child is implanted, the more plastic the brain will be for receiving new types of auditory input. Any language delay would also be fairly small at a younger age. This would amount in a somewhat normal development of language and literacy (Boothroyd & Boothroyd, 2002).

When implanted early in life, children can possibly have normal literacy development. Children who receive their implants before three years old have shown better vocabulary and word reading ability than children fitted after three years old (Sherman & Cruse, 2004). The younger the child is when implanted, the higher that child’s reading comprehension scores will be. Because early implantation allows the child to access speech during a critical time period for language development, the child’s language skills are stronger which in turn would create stronger reading skills (Connor & Zwolan, 2004).

In a study done by Archbold, Nikolopoulos, & O’Donoghue, age of implantation had an effect on reading ability. The children tested were implanted between 1.3 and 6.9 years old and the study was done seven years post-implantation. Of the children who were implanted between six and seven years old, 100% were reading at more than one year below the grade level. Those implanted between four and five years old had 81% reading at more than one year below the grade level. However, the children implanted between one and three years old had only 44% reading at more than one year below the grade level. The other 46% were reading within one year of their grade levels, with 10% reading more than one year ahead (Marschark, Rhoten, & Fabich, 2007).

Although the previous study showed potential for those implanted early in life, in a study performed by Geers, the results showed that implanted children are often not catching up with their hearing classmates when reading (2003). Boothroyd and Boothroyd discovered that children with implants did not have age-appropriate literacy or language skills (2002). Progress with reading is fairly slow for children with cochlear implants. The average yearly improvement for these children is one to six months for every year of education (Spencer et al., 2003). The research is somewhat variable concerning age of implantation and reading ability (Marschark et al., 2007). In fact, some studies have even proven that age of implantation has no impact on reading ability (Geers, 2003). However, as stated by Geers when concluding a study, “As implant technology continues to undergo improvement in its capacity to deliver speech and as children are being implanted at younger ages, before language delays are established, the progress for more normal acquisition of literacy may improve even more,” (2003).

Concluding/Answering

As I researched this topic, I discovered that the information varied greatly concerning age of implantation and reading ability. From the research I’ve presented, I realize that the results seem to vary depending on the experiment. However, I found more information supporting early implantation producing an improvement in reading skills. In my opinion, I think that early implantation is critical for success with cochlear implants. As I demonstrated in my research, there are five skills that are essential to develop when learning how to read: phonemic awareness, phonics, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. All of these are either directly or indirectly dependent on information received through the auditory channel. The five stages of reading development presented similar information; hearing is needed to develop reading skills that progress past Stage 3 where most deaf people plateau. The role of the cochlear implant in improving children’s hearing goes hand-in-hand with the information I have learned about beginning reading skills and stages.

I believe that age of implantation has a positive effect on reading ability in cochlear implanted children. Children who are implanted early in life produce better reading comprehension scores, vocabulary scores, and word reading scores. Earlier implanted children also have better language skills, which in turn facilitates reading development. As seen in the Archbold et al. study, the earlier a child is implanted, the closer that child gets to a normal child’s reading ability. Because the brain is still somewhat plastic when children are younger, early implantation allows the brain to reroute its pathways to fit the cochlear implant’s signals. Therefore, early intervention is absolutely necessary with cochlear implants. The earlier a child is implanted, the better that child’s future will be because he or she will be able to read and achieve just like his or her classmates.

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.

November 6, 2007

Socio-emotional Literacy

    Socio-emotional literacy skills describe the social and emotional aspects that Internet users must apply every time they go online and interact with other users.  Socio-emotional literacy, which is the most complex and highest level of digital literacy skills, requires the user to be a good critical and analytical thinker while also understanding proper social skills on the Internet, appropriately termed “netiquette.”  Socio-emotional literacy skills must be utilized any time you, as a user, go into a chat room, comment on a blog, talk to someone on Instant Messenger, become someone’s friend on Facebook or MySpace, or look at information that has been posted by others on the Internet.  You must utilize socio-emotional literacy skills to analyze whether the people you are chatting with are valid people presenting true information about their identities.  You must also be aware of false information posted on the Internet, such as hoaxes.  Socio-emotional skills also are used to keep the user aware of any viruses that may be spread to innocent e-mail readers.  Basically, socio-emotional literacy skills require you to be your own personal watchdog while also maintaining proper netiquette to respect those who are legitimate people.

    I definitely believe that socio-emotional skills exist and that they are the most complex of the digital literacy skills.  Socio-emotional literacy skills require you to take your knowledge of the other digital literacy skills and apply the social and emotional judgments to these areas.  Socio-emotional literacy takes time and experience to develop; it is not something you are just ”born” with.  In fact, I considered myself somewhat good at socio-emotional literacy skills (before I even knew thet term) until I read the information about hoaxes earlier this semester and realized how many I had fallen for.  I also tend to be too trusting of people on the Internet and am shocked at how people make up false identities to harm others.  As the Internet continues to develop and new opportunities for interaction arise on a daily basis, we must constantly monitor and improve our socio-emotional literacy skills for our own health and safety.  I think that socio-emotional literacy skills should definitely be taught within the schools at a very young age.  In fact, I think this is already the case because even when I was in school, we learned about the dangers of the Internet and the people we talk to.  In fact, today, parents no longer tell their children, “Don’t talk to strangers.”  Instead, they say, “Don’t put your full name, address, or picture on the Internet.”  In my opinion, socio-emotional literacy skills are probably the easiest to understand, yet the hardest to implement.  However, socio-emotional literacy skills are extremely important and will continue to be utilized as we become more and more global. 

                                        References

Aphek, E. (2007). Digital, highly connected children: Implications for education. Retrieved November 6, 2007, from http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/aphek/digital-literacy.html 

Aviram, A. & Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2006). Towards a theory of digital literacy: Three scenarios for the next step. European Journal of Open Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved November 6, 2007, from http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Aharon_Aviram.htm

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