Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
As I thought about this week’s challenge, the word transformation kept popping into my head. I am constantly amazed at how transformative digital writing can be. Digital tools can make our ordinary words seem extraordinary.
When I was in high school many years ago, my parents bought me an SLR camera. I wanted to be a photographer for the yearbook. My high school had a dark room, and I learned how to develop film and create photographs. The process was long from taking the picture to rolling the film into the canister, to selecting the negative, then placing the paper in three different bins of chemicals and hanging it out to dry. I loved this process. I loved discovering what my hands had created. The art of photography has totally transformed. With our phones and a computer we can easily produce and share photographs.
Writing has transformed, too. Even the youngest students can produce and publish their writing. I use Kidblogs with my students. The format of typing onto a screen and watching your words become an image is exciting and motivating.
Our school year ended a few weeks ago. The mother of one of my students texted me that he had discovered graphic novels. He was so excited about the story of Percy Jackson that he asked if he could blog about the book. Jacob left me as a first grader writing 50-75 words at best in his blog posts. His post about Percy Jackson was 317 words! This is transformative!
One day my mom decided that we should go to a library so we did. Then we went to a new library. It had so many books and movies. And I got 7 books because I am 7 years old. I got 2 Percy Jackson books.They are graphic novels. That means they look like
comic books. Ok forget every thing I said. Let’s just focus on what the book is about. (Read the post here.)
I invite you to think about digital literacies and transformation. Tag me in your posts (@MargaretGibsonSimon on Facebook, @MargaretGSimon on Twitter). Use #digilitchallenge.
A site I enjoy playing with is Tagxedo. It creates word clouds in shapes. I used a poem I wrote about chickens in the yard. This process transforms the poem into an image. The words are read differently. The original poem is here.
Don’t forget to sign up for CLMOOC beginning June 18th. “CLMOOC is a collaborative, knowledge-building and sharing experience open to anyone interested in making, playing, and learning together about the educational framework known as Connected Learning.” Click on the image to sign up.
Sign up for CLMOOC running June 28- August 2, 2015.
Reflections on the Teche 