Metacognitive Reflection
When beginning this
course, I must admit that I felt like a fish out of water. New media and new
literacies were not something that I thought would be relevant to my position
nor interesting to me as a student. I was definitely wrong on both counts. The
information and skills that I learned during the last few weeks not only will
assist me with making connections and engaging more with my students but will
also help me to continue on my journey of becoming an informed and confident
participant. The Jenkins discussions
were particularly helpful to my learning.
I found the differing perspectives from classmates informative and inspiring
as an educator as well as a participant. Delving into the Networked Publics article also gave me a lot to think about as
well. Prior to this reading I had never
known about network neutrality and how important it is to our existing freedom
and abilities to use media as a means to create, collaborate and communicate
with one another. This freedom comes with responsibility which led me to my
research topic of digital citizenship. As a school counselor this research has
been invaluable to me. The advertisement deconstruction project was an eye opener
for me as well. I had not given much thought into the impact that advertisements
have on our society nor how they can target audiences. The messages sent during
these 30 second blips can have far reaching implications and can encourage
behavior that has consequences. The adolescent interview was another
interesting exercise. Getting a firsthand account of the influences and use new
media has on our students was very powerful. All of these experiences coupled
with the great discussions with classmates have provided me with great
resources, new skills and better understandings regarding the digital age. . I
know there is much more to learn in this area for me but the knowledge I have
gained will help to facilitate my future learning with regard to new media and
new literacies.
