Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Question #1: Hicks/Zeimeke Webinar
Hicks talks about MAPS as a rhetorical structure/framework that helps teachers be more intentional with the digital writing assignments that use in our classrooms. How does MAPS fold into or help with the work you did in your BINGO activity last week? How might you want to use it in your teaching?
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MAPS is directly correlated with the BINGO activity and also with the standards in the classroom. This MAPS concept gives students reason and a guideline to follow when approaching new literacy forms. The words are also TIER 2 vocabulary terms and can be applied in more than one classroom. I think this is one of those "posters" that teachers should make for their writing environment. It can help with reading and writing.
ReplyDeleteLadonna Perkins
I agree that MAPS directly relates with our BINGO activity. I also think included in my post that I think that by keeping MAPS in mind, students will be able to stay on task and know what to do by using the mnemonic device associated with it, and I think that it would also be a great reflective tool for students to look back at their learning process. It provides a great guideline to new literacy forms (as you said).
DeleteI like your idea of making this visual for students to refer to so that every time they are asked to use technology, they can remember what they are looking for in websites.
DeleteWhen looking at 20+ different websites that all have multiple uses in a classroom, I think MAPS provides a helpful framework for how to integrate each of the websites. I didn't read Hicks until after I had finished the BINGO activity, but in a way I was still using some of his ideas as I was formulating lessons. For example, I'd go to a website and I'd think, "What type of lesson or writing would this website complement?" In that instance I was considering mode. More importantly, I was also thinking about purpose. You have to ask what purpose a website serves, and then how that can contribute to your classroom. In the future I can see asking my students to use MAPS in their writing, and especially in their digital writing. In my response to Question #4 I said that it's important for students to be intentional in their work, and Hicks provides MAPS specifically for that reason.
ReplyDeleteThe Tech Bingo activity basically asked us to go through the MAPS process without naming it. MAPS should be used when attempting to integrate any technology into the classroom. Zeimke also touches on deciding whether technology is useful. Z says the goal is to find technology that not only replaces, but modifies and improves the writing process. MAPS is a good tool when deciding student project mediums and topics. I think allowing the students to have a say on what mediums are appropriate is important in their understanding of each tool.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else when they say that the BINGO activity and MAPS go hand in hand. It helps guide us when using digital media in our lesson plans. When Troy Hicks quotes Sir Ken Robinson, he says that we can't be creative by doing nothing. When we use digital platforms and technology tools in our plans, we can't simply use those sites and tools without knowing exactly how we are going to implement them. MAPS is a good tool for us to use in order for the students to have a clear understand of why we are using those platforms. It helps us finish the statement "We are doing this in order to..."
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Lisa and I had the exact same sentiment. The (M)MAPS as the invisible hand guiding structure in tech based facets. I do believe that it would be beneficial to add a silent R to the structure though as well in the form of reflection. This could be comprised in the exact form as what we are doing right here. Prepared questioning based on what the assignments will bring through its performance.
ReplyDeleteLet's just change it to Mrs. Pam: Mode, Reflection, Situation, Purpose, Audience, and Media. Of course, it's in a less chronological order now, but I like acronyms.
DeleteThe acronym that Hicks uses frames how we should approach technology as a teacher. Instead of turning a project into a huge task, we can break it down and find things to help us with what we are doing right then. MAPS and BINGO go together in that way because we were able to play with smaller forms of technology that could be used and built on as class progressed. I like William's idea of adding reflection to the acronym because students need that time to look back and answer their own question of why are we doing this.
ReplyDeleteWhen Hicks brought up the MAPS heuristic, I thought about a quote that I highlighted in one of the chapters that we read from Crafting Digital Writing: “teach the writer, then the writing, then the technology.” MAPS helps writers to see the big picture (i.e. the craft of writing and the purpose of using digital tools to supplement or enhance that craft) without getting caught up in the flashiness or confusion of technology. I think MAPS is a good framework to outline for students so that they can keep mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation in mind before they start on a project that involves digital tools; it can also act as a guide if they start to lose focus at any time during the writing process and as a reference they can use for reflection purposes when they finish their project.
ReplyDeleteHicks’ MAPS (mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation) is a critical framework to help both teachers and students analyze technological applications and critique which product best serves their purpose. By engaging with the MAPS framework in mind, I was able to select BINGO card activities that I knew correlated with my available technology, my purpose/ philosophy as an educator, and areas/ situations in technology education where I needed growth. I will provide my future students with an introduction that includes the MAPS framework for any technology that we use as a class or that I want them to engage with individually. Students that know the purpose of their technological device or application will have a better understanding of the expectations of their final products.
ReplyDeleteI like how you say that "students that know the purpose of their technological device or application will have a better understanding of the expectations of their final products." I think that's so true, especially when we do a project using a specific technology for a specific reason! At first (and still sometimes), I wanted my lessons/units to have this magical effect where the ideas, activities, and projects came together seamlessly. I'd get so caught up in creating this 'moment' that I'd forget to explain why I chose a certain medium and why it served the project best. Or, I'd think it was so self-explanatory, that I didn't need to tell the students why. Maybe if we explain our reasoning and gave them time to decipher the MAPS model, they will make those connections more easily and have a better understanding of our overall goal?
DeleteWhen Hicks discusses MAPS (mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation), I think it directly related to our BINGO activity. It helps students analyze technology and how exactly it can be applied. This is very similar to our BINGO activity because we were going through specific technology applications and finding ways to apply it in our classrooms. I think that by keeping MAPS in mind, students will be able to stay on task and know what to do by using the mnemonic device associated with it, and I think that it would also be a great reflective tool for students to look back at their learning process.
ReplyDeleteWhen Hicks discusses MAPS (mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation), I think it directly related to our BINGO activity. It helps students analyze technology and how exactly it can be applied. This is very similar to our BINGO activity because we were going through specific technology applications and finding ways to apply it in our classrooms. I think that by keeping MAPS in mind, students will be able to stay on task and know what to do by using the mnemonic device associated with it, and I think that it would also be a great reflective tool for students to look back at their learning process.
ReplyDeleteI certainly can see how MAPS is useful, if not necessary, when navigating through the various internet sites. When I was wending my way through the Bingo exercise, I had to keep in mind the genre and form of the text, the aim of my action, the context in which I found myself, and the audience of my readers. That's a lot to consider, and I was not fully conscious of going through this process. I find Hick's approach to contain real possibilities in the 'traditional' avenue of writing.
ReplyDeleteIt's always so surprising to me how we do this type of thinking automatically, and then even more surprising when some students do not. I agree with you saying that MAPS is almost necessary to these types of process. We forget, sometimes, because it does come naturally to us but I think that using this model may help our students understand the process as well. Or, help them consider their own possibilities and limitations within the project at hand.
DeleteHicks's discussion of MAPS as a strategy is directly relevant to our technology bingo. If anything, I think that MAPS could have been included as an addendum to our activity at a later stage. In the experimenting of apps and technological resources, MAPS should be a secondary concern. Once students become more accustomed to using such tools, then they should begin using them more effectively and with intention. To play around is one of the great ways to learn and become comfortable with the technology. However, to avoid irrelevant or unnecessary technological usage, we must follow MAPS as a set of guidelines, keeping our genre clear, using appropriate modes, constantly considering our audience while writing, being purposeful in creating, and understanding the context and demands of the task at hand. In other words, we have to be comfortable enough with the technology to apply the standards to create a product on par with the writing we are more comfortable with: the five paragraph essay, etc.
ReplyDeleteEmma LeCroy
In the MAPS acronym, the element of craft which helped me the most in my BINGO assignment is media and audience. Obviously the media element of MAPS is crucial because understanding the form of a particular technology helps me know how to implement the technology in the classroom. Also, the audience helped me know how to craft my writing within, or about, technology. For instance, how i write within a google document which is viewed by colleagues is much different from how i write within a student's writer's notebook.
ReplyDeleteAs far as incorporating MAPS into my teaching, I don't think I will place considerable emphasis on it. While I will bring it up in class as a useful memory device which can help focus when writing, I will not make students memorize it. I will still remind students of the different ideas they must consider when crafting writing, but I will use other ways to teach these elements than the MAPS acronym.
I think the framework outlined by MMAPS provides a great way for teachers and students alike to consider the ways in which a piece of writing could be composed. The teacher can help narrow down an assignment to a relatively small number of modes or media by considering the particular strengths and weaknesses of them in relation to the assignments overarching goal, but ultimately I like the idea of having students choose the media of production for some (not all) of their creations. It introduces an aspect of teaching that I have thought about only tangentially prior to the Bingo activity: teaching students how to assess the value of different media depending on one's goal. That aspect allows for the creativity of students to shine through as well as providing an extra avenue for critical thought within any given assignment. I would require students to explain why they chose a particular format and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the format as they composed the work, which would necessitate mention of the possible audience and the purpose. This requires teaching students to assess both the sources and media, which goes above and beyond the Common Core Standard as I interpret it, and prepares them more fully for the technological world outside of school. Not to mention, the acronym MMAPS is a great mnemonic to help make the bare bones of craft really sticky in students' minds.
ReplyDeleteI, usually, don't give these types of lists a second glance because they seem so superficial to me. After reading a few of the above comments though, I found myself understanding why this acronym may be helpful. During the Bingo Activity, moved through the MAPS model (mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation) naturally, without consciously doing so. In most of the situations, we were creating activities for our students. We played around with the website to see what it could do and how it could serve our purpose. Then, we created a situation to use this device/site in. We moved through each step without necessarily addressing it. That's exactly what we want our students to achieve but they may first need us to explain this model to give them a guideline for their thinking. Eventually, they will not need to rely on this model and they will explore devices/sites/tools while addressing each component and hopefully more.
ReplyDeleteI definitely thought through the BINGO activity using MAPS, but not knowing I was doing so. This is a great way to scaffold and introduce this way of thinking to students.
DeleteI think MMAPS sets a clear guideline for students to follow. You may have several options in each section, but it keeps a student from feeling overwhelmed and, to a good degree, from going off task. It also helps make the student very aware of the aspects of their writing they should be considering when writing, and why they are doing so. In relation to our BINGO project, it gives us some ideas how we can create new (and hopefully interesting) projects for students of reading and writing to use to further their understanding of language arts.
ReplyDeleteThe MAPS structure provides a roadmap, or checklist, for digital story creators. It is important that one considers what genre would best suit the information he or she is trying to communicate, as well as what form would lend itself to the message. The audience and purpose parts of this acronym I think are especially important because they might often be lacking in student work.. I know that in my own writing I often forget to tailor what I'm writing to a specific audience, so I anticipate that this might be a difficulty for my students, as well. In terms of the last section, the situation, I am a little confused. I understand that this has to do with what the writer has access to and how he or she engages with the material, but I fail to see how this would influence the way you worked, consciously. Like Megan, in the Bingo assignment, I found myself moving through most of these steps without even being aware that I was doing it, but I think that such a framework would be an ideal point of reference for young writers, as well as a helpful reminder for more seasoned veterans.
ReplyDelete