Reflection on 506 Presentations

First, I would like to thank all of you who made comments and questions during my presentation. My presentation was lacking in organization. There was simply too much information to present to the class. Rather than lecture on some of the aspects of my website, it might have been more constructive to explain the purpose of my website in a few sentences, and then let the audience ask questions while they explore the pages for a few minutes. This strategy would have made my presentation more effective, efficient, and interactive.

• What did you learn in the doing?

Most of what I learned in creating my website dealt with technology, which I have mentioned on my website and my reflection paper. I feel technologically empowered. In terms of literacy and video games, the discourse is expanding, so more people are taking this topic seriously.

• What more would you like to learn?

I want to find out about more ELA teachers that are using video games in their classrooms, what types of games they are using (commercial or educational; genre specific), and what teaching strategies they are using.

Now that I will be student teaching, I will be talking to more students about video games, and, as professor Stearns suggested, I could create a video game club after school. What do people think about holding a video game club during student teaching? Should I wait until I am hired?

• What pedagogical applications to middle/high school ELA classrooms do you see?

I see the use of video games in ELA classrooms working very well, but the resistance from parents, administrators, and teachers will most likely prevent me from seriously studying video games in the classroom until I receive tenure.

• What might you add/delete/do differently if you were to continue to work on this project?

Future work on this project should probably be more formal, as Professor Stearns has suggested. Since parents, administrators, and teachers are already skeptical about the role of video games on adolescent literacy, it is in my website's best interest to have a more professional look. Since my ultimate goal is to convince the skeptical of the significance of video games to adolescent literacy, I should also organize my website according to the questions that critics have about video games, and why I focus on commercial video games over educational video games. I had already done that in my 663 research paper, so I did not want to repeat myself completely this semester, but now I will go back to that.

Here is my feedback on other presentations:

Dawn, the combination of Gregorian Chant(?) and images of nature, classical art, and wave-like text, created a unique and interesting interpretation of romantic poetry. Your presentation showed how powerful the fusion of these mediums can be on the senses. Thank you for sharing.

Tamara, it was interesting see the excerpts of your constructivist approach to film production with your students. It is too bad that we were not able to see the entire film.

Chrissy, you made a comprehensive PowerPoint of our NYSEC experience. I liked that it was interactive and well-organized. I have very little experience with PowerPoint, so maybe I'll come to you with questions if you don't mind.

Natalie, that was a great presentation on cyberpunk novels. You provided a digestible summary of the genre, and I like how you showed the genre's significance to contemporary society.

Dave, your website looks good so far, and I liked your efficient and effective presentation.

Tracie and Charm, it was too bad that your presentation was cut short because your website project looked very good. I especially liked your discussion of digital portfolios. Great job.

Danielle, thank you for providing me with useful tools for navigating the web on my own and in the classroom.

James, your attempt at creating an educational video game was admirable. As you said, only a team of James' working for seven months could have successfully tackled this task. But thank you for the insight you provided.

I'm glad I have had such a good group of people to work with throughout this program, and I wish everyone luck in your future endeavors.

By the way, my blog has at least one fan in Mexico!