Kim NL5-Mindomo
This week I used another mind mapping technology, though I had a very different experience then when I used Coggle several weeks back. I liked that Mindomo allowed much more control over content. You can include images and videos within the map. For my notes this week I chose to use include images to emphasize the main points of the chapter, which was quite easy because Mindomo allows you to import media using the URL. Another feature that I really liked with Mindomo that reminded me of Popplet was that you could create links to various boxes of content, eliminating some of the forced hierarchical structure that Coggle imposed. Finally, probably the biggest difference between Mindomo and some of the other mind mapping technologies is the presentation feature. Once a mind map has been created, you can put the map in presentation mode, creating a Prezi-like presentation that zooms in on various points within the map. Based on some of these features, I can see it being a good technology for group projects. Students can work collaboratively within the map, and then can create a presentation of it to share to class.
Like the technology I used last week, this one doesn't appear to be able to be embedded into scalar. Click here to view my map. I have also included this screen shot to show how to view the map in presentation mode.
What I loved about Amy's use of Prezi was that she were actually able to take the reader/viewer on journey. I haven't used Prezi before, but I really like the way it actually incorporates movement into a presentation. Mindmodo allowed me to move around my mind map, but the fact that Prezi allows you to include specific backgrounds can contextualize the movement in a new way. For this journey specifically, I liked that we "literally" traveled through the brain. I also thought the use of the ODU map as a background for her points made a really interesting connection. Seeing Amy's notes makes me really excited to try Prezi out for myself.
I really liked Mike's idea about using this tool as a way to manage and organize research. I also liked that you are able to comment on articles that are scooped. With the comment function you could create a kind of annotated bibliography as well as house all web research in one place. In terms of the reading itself, I liked the way that the articles Mike included made me think about some of the concepts in the reading more specifically, for instance how these broad concepts might impact something specific like reading comprehension.
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Discussion of "Kim NL5-Mindomo"
comment on Kim NL5-Mindomo (Heather)
I love what you did with Mindomo! I have never used anything like that before and I love that you can take something like popplet and add graphics. It is a beautiful presentation of your notes and I, too, would be excited by the prezi-like presentation option. One of my other favorite parts, is that when I click on your link to your mindomo, it takes me to your mindomo (not to a screen that forces me to create an account to view your product).Posted on 30 September 2014, 10:01 am by Heather Laslie | Permalink
PRESENTATION MODE
That is a new functionality; LOVE IT!Posted on 1 October 2014, 1:03 pm by Shelley Rodrigo | Permalink
Questions: Did you use a template or start from scratch?
I really like the layout you used here. I discovered the presentation mode when I used Mindomo a week or so ago, but don't think I was as successful as you in embedding the presentation into Scalar. The linearity of the NL book really lends itself to mapping in programs like this one. I think Mindomo is one of my favorite mind map programs now just because of its versatility!Posted on 3 October 2014, 1:52 pm by Amy Locklear | Permalink
Shantal Week 6 Reading Notes/Note Taking Challenge
"Infrastructure and Composing: The When of New-Media Writing" by Danielle Nicole DeVoss, Ellen Cushman, and Jeffrey T. Grabill
An infrastructural framework is a tool that could help writing teachers analyze the instances in which they work and write. It can create reflection on institutions and standard practices (14). This article focuses on the when. The Selfe and Selfe Article “The Politics of Interface: Power and its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones” deals with the technological interface as a space that demonstrates power and cultural values.”Infrastructure and Composing: The When of New-Media Writing” mentions the article and how infrastructure similarly shows power structures in any given instance. Infrastructure extends beyond the technological interface to examine infrastructure, which can be the hardware, the policies, the way the writing in a class is graded, etc. It’s all the choices a rhetor may have to navigate in creating a new media text.
To my understanding, when the authors say the when of new media composing, they mean that in any certain instance that someone is composing in a new media space, they are being influenced by rules. From institutional policies, to the technological possibilities of the hardware they are working with, infrastructure affects their choices. For example, I am right now sitting in Perry Library at ODU composing my notes on a dual-monitor screen. Institutional policy is that students can use the computers in the library. The technology allows me to take notes in a quicker way since I can use two screens. Google Drive allows my work to be saved onto a network- if I need to switch computers suddenly, for whatever reason, I don’t have to worry about switching. In this case, infrastructure allows me to do my work in more timely and efficient manner. I probably wouldn’t have thought about it without reading this article. I definitely would notice the infrastructure if it had broken down, however.
I really admire this article and what it does conceptually. If one of my instructor friends were to tell me about a class in which only one student completed the final assignment, I would probably think that it was a catastrophic failure. The authors of this article do not treat it that way. Instead, they treat it as a research opportunity.It’s an example of what to do when something doesn’t go as expected. I can only imagine the stress of being a student in this class or instructor in this course. I admire the instructor for her ability to advocate for the needs of her class and the fact that the provost and the system managers worked with the class in order to intervene and see what the problem was. I am sure Ellen also had to spend a lot of time managing student concerns. The fact that this article deals with technological and institutional breakdowns is really useful because other works on new media often don’t. Other works on new media often focus on the possibilities or what has already succeeded in new media spaces. They often don’t talk about the technology breaking down, and technology breaks down on a daily basis.
I got a taste of the technological breakdown in English 866: New Media Practice and Theory, another class I take with Dr. Rodrigo. As has been mentioned in class before, Scalar decided to stop letting anyone create new pages and we could not post the assignments we had. Luckily, there are other technologies that allow students to share their work. In this class, our class switched over to blogs. If we think about this moment infrastructurally, it was the technology that broke down. Institutional policy didn’t really hinder our class the same way institution did in the article. There are several free blogging services available on the internet that students were either familiar with already or were willing to learn in a short amount of time. If these technologies were available or if for some reason there were institutional policies against them, it wouldn’t be a problem.
"A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures" by the New London Group
This article is a text written in 1994 and is the result of a long conversation about changes in education. The authors include experts on education and different disciplines in English from several English-speaking countries. Their main concern was that education was not as pluralistic as the societies surrounding them and that educational gaps were present and growing. In order to address the changes in technology, culture, and the economy, the New London group came up with a framework for thinking about multiliteracy. They wanted students to be able to participate in society and to be able to advocate for themselves and others. In order to do that, students must learn to use technology, and they must be able to think critically about their practices and their culture. The article talks about design as the “what” of multimodal literacy pedagogy. The three dimension of design mentioned are available designs, designing, and the redesigned. Available designs consists of the ways of making-meaning in a given community, from the basic grammar rules of the language to the types of discourse. Designing is the process in which the resources from available designs are used and made new again, which then turn into the redesigned. There is also a need for terms to discuss multiliteracies critically. The how of multi literacy pedagogy involves situated practice, over instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice.
This article was written twenty years ago but still feels very relevant today. I can definitely appreciate the need for multi literacy pedagogy that is well thought out and well-taught. In connecting this article to my own experiences, I thought about a Spanish class I took in my undergraduate degree. It was an experimental course that was for native Spanish speakers. In a way, this course was about multiliteracy. It was designed for the unique problems that Native Spanish speakers face- creating a professional identity being able to speak a more formal discourse in Spanish. We did not just learn to some of the grammar rules that can trip Native Spanish speakers up (where the accents go, spelling rules, false cognates), we also learned how to do research and how to present it. It was multimodal in that we had to interview Spanish speakers in our community and present it in the form of a powerpoint and a poster. As far as technology goes, it was nothing too experimental, but looking back I am pretty impressed that we did all that as undergraduates.
One of the concerns in the article is the changing social and cultural forces that students face, including students who are taking classes in an non-native language. I can say that I have been on the other side, though in a milder form than most students must face. Although I speak Spanish at home, basic Spanish literacy is actually really hard for me at times. I took the class when I was a junior. By that time, I had spent three years at Texas A&M. For ten months out of the year, I rarely spoke any Spanish, much less wrote in Spanish. I knew I was taking a risk by taking this course as I was not as immersed in Spanish communities as the peers in my class were. Still, I ended up being a valuable experienced for me.
Posted on 5 October 2014, 7:34 pm by ShantalFigueroa | Permalink
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