Metacognitive Assessment

Introduction:

When I first dived into the content that was offered in this course, I was somewhat skeptical of new media in the sense that I felt my own bias that technology as a methodology for literacy would be the focus. I was so pleasantly surprised with the breadth and vastness that new literacies bring to the table in a decolonized way. For a person who comes from creative arts and social work, I have spent many decades wondering how we can view different literacies as knowledge and validate it's place in academia. The qualitative aspects of new literacies are learner centered and engaging. This is my first semester in the program, and in error have been in 3 courses. Of the 3 courses, I felt the most drawn to this course, it opened my eyes to many different ways in which we can engage in education, and it strengthened my confidence in knowing that new media and new literacies can and should be utilized in our learning spaces. 

Strengths:

My strengths in this course are my diverse background experiences that blended beautifully in the context of NWML; I already felt that I interact this way with learners and so I was much more open to engaging with the content. I felt that the structure of the course, the video lectures provided as well as the clear communication of expectations (syllabus/deadlines/assignment descriptions) allowed me to do well in the course in terms of accessing the learning. This became very clear to me in comparison to some of the other courses I have been enrolled in. I felt supported by the instructor and was made aware how available and engaging consistently throughout the semester. Finally, I enjoyed writing a proposal on land stewardship, and connecting this with other discussions in our course. I love the creativity of a blog and how much of my learning became rooted through the intentionality of the blog / journal posts as well as the discussions. I feel that this makes a difference in strengthening the connections in my learning experience. 

Improvements:

I noticed that there were many times at the beginning of the course in which I feared the use of technology in learning settings, and I noticed my bias towards the use of technology, especially in early childhood and elementary school. I felt that in our readings, especially Lankshear & Knobels' A New Literacies reader, there were many examples of how technology and new literacy connected learning and meaning to students in the same ways in which I viewed education to be best. I felt difficulty in navigating how to follow all student's blog posts and to comment on their posts via this way and it was really hard to track. I could not find a simple method to do this and found myself posting to a few folks' blogs. 

Insights:

I learned most in this course about myself and how I view learning and literacies. I explored creativity in ways that I had not before and I would hope this continues in my other courses throughout the program. I enjoy interactive posts such as blogging and videos and would like to do more so to demonstrate my learning. I appreciate the interactive aspects of the creative and intentional blog posts as well as creating the discussion post introducing other colleagues to inquire about topics new to them. It further enriched my studies by learning from my peers. I feel as though this course really helped me organize and affirm how I would engage students in the class spaces. I also would like to have more courses that provide this similar sense of practicality.