scholarly journals Learner-Created Podcasts: Fostering Information Literacies in a Writing Course

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Stephanie Bell
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Constructive Developmental ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Professional Writers

This paper describes an experimental learner-created podcasting assignment in a first-year This paper describes an experimental learner-created podcasting assignment in a first-year undergraduate research skills course for professional writers. The podcasting assignment serves asa contextualized experiential writing project that invites students to refine their research skills by participating in the invention of an emerging genre of radio storytelling. The power of the podcast assignment lies in the liminal space it creates for learners. It moves students beyond familiar andregimented essay conventions to an unstable writing environment where digital tools for producing, publishing, and negotiating meaning offer a range of possible audiences, modalities, forms, and modes of meaning making. This space creates the pedagogical conditions for epistemic development, through which students adopt as their own the research practices of adept and experienced writers. The multiple demands of this course on writing, research, and digital environments generates the beginnings of interdisciplinary writing pedagogy involving Kent’s (1993, 1999) postprocess mindset, the ACRL’s (2015) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, Baxter Magolda’s (1999) constructive-developmental pedagogy, and Arroyo (2013)’s elaboration of participatory digital writing pedagogy.

scholarly journals Piloting an Oral History–Based CURE in a General Education Writing Course for First-Year Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Joshua R. McConnell Parsons ◽  
◽  
Jannell C. McConnell Parsons ◽  
Kathryn Kohls ◽  
Jim Ridolfo
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Generation Students ◽  
Underrepresented Minority ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Skills

The authors of this study evaluate findings from a pilot implementation of a course-based undergraduate research experience integrated into a first-year general education writing classroom. In this initial pilot phase, two sections of the course were offered in fall 2018. Course partici-pants completed retrospective precourse and postcourse measures designed to assess the course’s impact on their acquisition of research skills and their confidence related to inquiry and research. Demographic data also were collected to explore outcomes of underrepresented minority and first-generation students. Findings show a statistically significant increase in perceived research skills and in confidence related to abilities as a researcher. Moreover, although there was not a large enough sample for statistical significance, first-generation students showed large gains in confidence.

Decolonising a landscape architecture studio: Spatial modelling of student narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Christine Price
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Model ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Form ◽  
Public Park ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Global North

This paper problematises the dominance of global north perspectives in landscape architectural education, in South Africa where there are urgent calls to decolonise education and make visible indigenous and vernacular meaning-making practices. In grappling with these concerns, this research finds resonance with a multimodal social semiotic approach that acknowledges the interest, agency and resourcefulness of students as meaning-makers in both accessing and challenging dominant educational discourses. This research involves a case study of a design project in a first-year landscape architectural studio. The project requires students to choose a narrative and to represent it as a spatial model: a scaled, 3D maquette of a spatial experience that could be installed in a public park. This practitioner reflection closely analyses the spatial model of one student, Malibongwe, focusing on his interest in meaning-making; the innovative meaning-making practices and diverse resources he draws on; and his expression of spatial signifiers of the Black experiences portrayed in his narrative. This reflection shows how Malibongwe’s narrative is not only reproduced in the spatial model, it is remade: the transformation of resources into three-dimensional spatial form results in new understandings and the production of new meanings.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akiko Nagao
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
First Year ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Study Participants

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants’ genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre- and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre- and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants’ genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner’s genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.

scholarly journals College Student Meaning Making and Interest Maintenance During COVID-19: From Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) to Science Learning Being Off-Campus and Online

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong Wang ◽  
Melanie Bauer ◽  
Alita R. Burmeister ◽  
David I. Hanauer ◽  
Mark J. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Situational Interest ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Undergraduate Research Experiences ◽  
Student Meaning ◽  
Based Instruction

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19 the national landscape of higher education changed quickly and dramatically to move “online” in the Spring semester of 2020. While distressing to both faculty and students, it presents a unique opportunity to explore how students responded to this unexpected and challenging learning situation. In four undergraduate STEM courses that incorporated course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs)—which are often focused on discovery learning and laboratory research—we had an existing study in progress to track students' interest development at five time points over the Spring 2020 semester. Via this ongoing study we were able to investigate how students stay engaged in their college science courses when facing unexpected challenges and obstacles to their learning. Longitudinal survey data from 41 students in these CURE courses demonstrated that students' situational interest dropped significantly when their CURE courses unexpectedly shifted from hands-on, discovery-based, and laboratory-based instruction to online instruction. Although we observed a dramatic decline in student interest in general after the CURE courses moved fully online, the decline rates varied across students. Students who were able to make meaningful connections between the learning activities and their personal or career goals were more likely to maintain a higher level of interest in the course. Implications for practice are discussed.

scholarly journals Faculty Perspectives on Undergraduate Research Skills: Nine Core Skills for Research Success

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Boglarka Huddleston ◽  
Jeffrey D. Bond ◽  
Linda L. Chenoweth ◽  
Tracy L. Hull
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Christian University ◽  
Reference Services ◽  
Core Skills ◽  
Literacy Initiatives ◽  
Student Capability

In an effort to improve information literacy initiatives at Texas Christian University, we sought to understand faculty members’ expectations and perceptions of undergraduate student research skills. We conducted three faculty focus groups (n=21) and an online survey (n=100) of faculty members. This study reveals a set of nine core research skills that faculty members expect students to possess. The study compares faculty members’ expectations against their perceptions of student capability for each of these nine core skills. Furthermore, this study examines who (librarians, faculty, or both) should have responsibility for teaching which research skills. These findings will inform the library’s information literacy initiatives, as well as have a strong influence on the library’s marketing and reference services.

What Now? Shifting Our Colleagues' Perceptions of Digital Writing

2014 ◽  
pp. 629-642
Author(s):  
Troy Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Network Modeling ◽  
Fair Use ◽  
National Writing Project ◽  
Writing Teachers ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Personal Learning Network ◽  
Writing Tools

Though many teachers, including the authors in this collection, are incorporating digital writing tools and making significant changes in their instruction, too many other teachers are not. Based on the results of a Pew Internet and National Writing Project survey, this chapter explores six skills that a majority of writing teachers describe as “essential” or “important.” Building on the premise that all teachers want their students to learn these skills, this chapter describes strategies for how digital writing tools could be used in that capacity. With examples such as alternative search engines, creating a personal learning network, modeling the digital writing process, and understanding the dimensions of fair use, copyright, and citation, the chapter provides entry points for all teachers - even those unsure about why or how to use particular technologies - to begin teaching digital writing.

Learning to LOLIPOP

2010 ◽  
pp. 176-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bruen ◽  
Juliette Péchenart ◽  
Veronica Crosbie
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Electronic Version ◽  
First Year ◽  
European Language ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Intercultural Studies

The focus of this chapter is twofold: firstly, on the development of an electronic version of a European Language Portfolio, known as the LOLIPOP ELP,1 and, secondly, on its integration into a study and research skills module for first-year students on the BA in Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. The chapter begins with an introduction to the concept of a European Language Portfolio (ELP) in the context of current trends in foreign language learning and teaching. It then describes the development and key features of the LOLIPOP ELP. It explains how it was integrated into a first-year, undergraduate research and study skills module focusing on elements of course design and assessment. Finally, the chapter concludes by analysing the output from the participants in this study which indicates that they appreciated the opportunity to engage with the LOLIPOP ELP and found it beneficial to their language learning although issues remain around its design and integration into an academic programme.

The Mutual Presence of RP-7 and the Future of Virtual Collaborative Writing

2010 ◽  
pp. 374-399
Author(s):  
David W. Overbey
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Vital Signs ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Virtual Collaboration ◽  
Writing Technologies ◽  
Digital Texts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Professional Contexts

This chapter examines virtual collaboration, including the production and use of writing, between doctors at different hospitals mediated by RP-7, a robot that enables a specialist at one hospital to evaluate the vital signs of and provide diagnosis for a patient at another hospital. Analysis of RP-7 is situated in a theoretical deliberation about the shift from print to digital texts and technologies. I argue that a consequence of this shift is the loss of mutual presence—the alignment of materiality, practice, and expertise—in the production and use of texts. This alignment is transparent and intrinsic to print texts but is lost in digital environments precisely because they afford access to texts irrespective of a user’s background, location, or access to and familiarity with other tools, technologies, or workplaces. Study of the writing used and generated during the collaboration between doctors mediated by RP-7 is grounds for the claim that the future of virtual collaborative writing in professional contexts will involve the re-alignment of mutual presence. In other words, the success of digital writing technologies in social practice will depend on the extent to which they bare similarity to, rather than differ from, print texts and technologies. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the value of this research to both academia and industry.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document