Hoping for the final pieces soon!

I have emailed the students to get their final pieces added to Ning and Voicethread. I am still waiting to hear back from most of them. They have responded slowly but not completely. I liked their reflections that are posted on the Ning. I have made a voicethread and this is the link but it is still in the works!

http://voicethread.com/#u339426.b446476.i2399602

Copy and paste if the link doesn't work when you click on it.

This is a copy of the email that I sent the students:

Hey Ning folks!

MY PROJECT IS DUE FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

So I need your help! First go to Ning.com and sign into the Ning we have been working on. I actually had one person ask me what the Ning was. It is the social network or discussion forum we have been using to discuss the book Feathers!

Please follow the steps closely. I have to do a final presentation and I need "pieces" from you.

1. Complete the responses on Ning. There are three I REALLY NEED FEEDBACK ON! It is the "What if," "A Silent World," and "Reflections of your experience with the Ning." If you have completed it, thanks!

2. I need your picture of you reading Feathers or pretending to be working on the Ning on your computer. Make sure the Ning website is in the picture too! Then email it to me at clsteine@ncsu.edu!!!! Then these pictures will be put onto voicethread which is my slideshow. Thanks Christal, Nicole, and Sunny for getting the pictures to me. For those of you who haven't email them to me ASAP or I can take your picture, just email me with a time.

3. I am sending a link here: http://voicethread.com/#u339426.b446476.i2399602 click on it and make a free account with voice thread. It only takes less than five minutes to do. View the slide show. You will see at the bottom, it says comment. Click it! Then you will see the options of record or type. You can record by talking into your computer or type your comments. What are the comments of? Your answers to the reflections on the Ning. For instance, if Sunny doesn't mind me using her responses, this is what hers will look like in the comment box. Of course, I would prefer that you comment on your picture. If you don't plan to have your picture on there, you may comment on the page where is there a layout of the Ning.

From Sunny-
What did you like about the Ning? I liked how the information was organized- forums and messages in easy to find places.
What drawbacks did Ning have? Ning's main drawback was probably that you don't have face to face interaction with other students and the teacher/moderator. When you are in a real classroom setting, it is easier to express and clarify what you mean.
If you cuold manage this discussion forum, what would you do differently? I would set more deadlines for responses and chapters to be read.
Did you feel like you could express your thoughts better on a discussion forum or would you prefer a face to face discussion? I prefer face to face discussion because you get to know who you're talking to better, and you can observe a person's facial, body, and verbal expressions.
Did you learn more about the book Feathers than you would in a classroom setting? I don't think that I necessarily learned more than in a classroom setting. That would all depend on the teacher and format of the class, but I would say that a forum has an advantage in the way it presents information. A forum post can list additional information about the book and its time frame, instead of a teacher trying to hold everyone's attention and express the information verbally.
Do you think role-play (writing a script, filling someone else's shoes) is an effective teaching strategy on Ning? The script writing was a little uncomfortable for me, personally, but it did make me think about being in a deaf person's situation. Pretending to walk in a different person's shoes is very effective to teach, on Ning and in a traditional classroom. Overall, I would say that role-play was a good way to teach on Ning.

4. That should be it! PLEASE do this ASAP before Friday! I would REALLY APPRECIATE IT!:-)

It sure is hard to keep in contact with the students especially when they are not my own. I made a VoiceThread slideshow of the students participating in the Ning and also I had a PowerPoint of my question, design, implementation, and evaluation of the ALP. Check it out here: (if you have a voicethread account) http://voicethread.com/#u339426.b451069.i2400063 (revised 4/19). The Ning has had some good responses but I am sure I can get better responses if I had a classroom full of students. The voicethread is looking good and am hoping to get more pictures on it soon as well as the student's comments. I need two more students on there with their pictures. One is out of town so it's been hard to get a hold of him.

To check out the Ning go to www.youngadultsrule.ning.com.

Slowly Progressing

A few students have responded to Ning. Check out my Ning page at www.youngadultsrule.ning.com. You will need an invitation by me to join it. I had changed the requirements of my ALP. I am hoping to use some form of role play using a discussion forums. To use role play without the face to face format, expressions, and gestures, the participants in my Ning will use expressive writing skills to view other character perspectives. They will write from another perspective and write a script between characters and themselves in the book as if they were one of the characters. I chose a book called Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson which has perspectives on race (in the 70s era) and perspectives from a silent world of a deaf teenager. At this time, there are a few responses from some participants. I do have some that have seem to disappear off the face of earth. This Ning would be sucessful if they were my students so that way I can have some face to face contact with them. Most of these students, I never see at all. Therefore I have a difficult time motivating them in person to get pysched about this project. However there are some responses on there that I could use for the ALP project. I would like to thank my colleague Katie from ECI 521 for letting me borrow three of her students to participate in the Ning. She is giving them credit for doing this for me. Hopefully this will motivate them to respond to the discussion forum (Ning).

Stumped!

So far, I have established Ning, five members have joined, it includes me, my professor, and three high school students. I posted a few discussions and I have not heard any responses from the high school students. I am starting to feel that this may not be successful. My first option was to go to my church and find some students there there is a high school ministry, and then my second option was to contact a high school teacher I knew to find at least 2 to 3 dedicated students. She ended up giving me two students and told me that they were very responsible, smart, and get things done by the deadline. It could be possible that they got busy with projects at school. If I was teaching a high school class, I would have more success. I can try to go to my church on Sunday night and approach some of the high school students about my project. I do know a few and I think they may be willing to help. I even know one from my friends list on Facebook so I think I might contact him in a few minutes and he has another brother in high school as well. Let's see how that goes!

As for my Lit Review, the areas of portrayal of deaf characters is very limited in the research area. Since deafness is becoming a rare disability due to cochlear implants, finding articles on deaf culture is difficult. Unless I can add in other disabilities to see how people feel them.

We will see! Let's hope things go well!

Deaf Child Crossing for a Book Perhaps?

Note from Cris the Professor:

I think that working with 2 to 3 teens to read a book and discuss it in your Ning would be a great project. If you could get some teens from your church to participate then I think that would be ideal. Please don’t consider this “research” – it really isn’t research at all. You’re teaching reflectively, that’s all. You’re researching the literature to learn all you can, planning an Action Learning Project, and then reflecting on what you learned. You’re also checking with the teens to see what they thought of the project.

As for a permission form, if you work with a few teens from your church then I’d suggest that you simply write a brief letter that explains what you’re doing , that you’re doing this for a class, and that parents are welcome to join the Ning if they’d like. Be sure to explain that you have total control and that it is private, safe, and secure. Remember that your goal is not to discuss controversial issues about deafness and HI (that would turn some parents off) rather you are simply interested in using a new text-based tool to help student read and discuss a novel for young people their age that represents deaf and/or HI people in a non-stereotypical way. No need to have them sign – I just think they’d appreciate knowing what you’re doing.
Hope that helps.



Email from me to the teens participating:

I have considered a book. If you can I would love to get a third person especially someone you know. I have to write a letter to your parents so that they feel comfortable with it. We will be communicating via a blog called Ning and it's only for us four to see it. All you will be doing is reading a book called Deaf Child Crossing written by a deaf actress Marlee Matlin who was also on Dancing with the Stars. This is a possible book I have considered. What you will do is read it and post your responses to the book. I will have questions on Ning for you to answer and I am hoping to get to meet you all in a group. You attend East Wake right? I was a student there in the 90s. I have not gotten Ning set up yet but if you can, try to get that book from the library. If you are unable to get it, I might buy it from Barnes and Noble for you three. I could just use you two but we will get much more feedback with a third person.

I work at Combs Elementary in Raleigh in a special education program for children who have hearing loss. My students use sign language to communicate. Deaf Education is my career and am always wanted to expand my knowledge of it. The purpose of this book is to see your perspectives of the characters in the book as they are related to most of the students I work with. It's always good to know how people feel about specific disabilities.

Getting Help!

Hi Scott,

This is Crystal. I am a member at C3 and you probably remember me doing
observation for my leadership class for NCSU one Sunday night. I need your
help again if possible. I have to do a research project using four high
school students. It's mainly getting them to read a book and provide their
feedback on it. I work with elementary school kids so I don't have easy
access to high school kids and I thought of the C3 group. Would it be ok
if I came out on Sunday night and talk to a couple of kids to see if they
are interested? Also I would need their parent's permission because the
students will be posting feedback on a website I have created. Do their
parents come out there? If so, it would give me a chance to talk to them.
This project deal with their perspective on people with disabilities. The
books they will read have disabled characters and I wanted to see the
outcome of whether or not this book has changed their perspective on how
they view these people.

Would you be ok with this? It's pretty much my only option. Thanks!


Crystal Steiner

Getting It Started!

I am a little nervous about this project because I am not able to have access to high school kids as easy as most people in class. I thought about using the high school ministry at my church. Would I need parental permission if the students are to be engaged in this? Also I wanted to use a girl who has a cochlear implant but today I found out that even though she has a lot of hearing and functions as a hearing child, she considers herself "deaf" (because she is deaf without it) so I don't think it would be valid to have kids with hearing loss unless they consider themselves hearing because I am trying to change their perspective of deaf and hard of hearing people by reading these books that have a deaf character.

I thought about having them pick one of the five books I have to read. Then give them a pre and post reading questionnaire on their thoughts on people with deafness or any disability regarding socializing, their opinions on what they think of them, helping them (making them too dependent or giving them independence), and putting them in a perspective where they might have a deaf child and what accommodations would they use to help him or her. All this information can be done on Ning. I have created a Ning site called youngadultsrule.ning.com. I have also created a blog on blogspot for personal reflection" http://crystalsteiner.blogspot.com.

I thought it might be a good idea after they have read it to visit my classroom where I work with 1st and 3rd graders at Combs Elementary. They can see how different the world is for them regarding their education and socialization.

I have not researched many journals yet. I found two and this topic is very rare to find so I am hoping to have luck. I will contact a professor at Galluadet University, the only university for deaf and hard of hearing people in America to see if I can access their journals online.