1. Quote three specific pieces of feedback that you received on your work that were particularly helpful to you in revising.  Include links to these comments.

•  Holly gave me advice about the draft of my interview transcript.  She said, “even though you put a lot of information into the child’s utterances, which is great, some of it sounds a little complex for her age or doesn’t sound like something a 13 year old would say.”

• Emma gave me advice on the rough draft of my poem.  She said, “maybe you could stress the end, where she talks about not knowing the cause, a little more…since your project involves her out in search of the cause.”
• Emma and Holly both gave me some feedback on the draft of my journal entries.  Emma said, “you could just give a few more examples of the characteristics of stuttering.”  Holly said, “there is not a lot of information about stuttering itself, just the feelings that come along with it.”

2. Quote three specific pieces of feedback that you gave to someone else that you believe were most likely helpful to them in revising their own work.  Include links to these comments.

•  I commented on Whitney H’s journal entries. I said, “I think this genre is very strong and will provide the audience with a lot of useful information.  I truly cannot find anything wrong with this genre because the content is appropriate and useful.”
• I commented on Whitney H’s poem.  I said, “you are writing from a “young” child’s perspective -how young is this child? I’m wondering because you used some difficult terms: disorder, diagnosis, physician, aspirating, & breakthrough.”
• I commented on Sara’s observation report.  I said, “You provided very detailed goals but you didn’t discuss many of her behaviors on this…I would maybe include a little more about the communication tasks in terms of your goals here.”

3. Examine your examples for the first two items above and write about what this information tells you about the kind of peer responses you give.

I realize that when I give feedback to my classmates, I usually talk more about the positive aspects of their work and barely focus on giving advice to help make their work stronger.  I always try to give some criticism that will help them in revising, but I found that I am usually trying to say something nice because they are people I like, and I admire their work.  In a lot of my comments, I had a hard time coming up with an area I felt the author should address.  I had an easier time “blessing” their work than addressing weaknesses of their genres.  I believe that the feedback I received from my classmates was useful in helping me revise my work.  I took all of the advice I received and used it in some way, and I appreciate the time they spent reviewing and critiquing my project.
4. Write a goal (behavioral objective) for yourself as a peer responder.  Specifically (this is an important word as I do not mean generally), the next time you participate in a peer response group, what do you intend to do differently?

The next time I participate in a peer response group, I intend to provide more critical, but useful feedback to others that will help them in revising and to help make their work stronger and clearer to the audience.  I will give specific advice that I feel will be useful in accomplishing this goal.

Accuracy:

1. Does the author cite sources used to develop the site? Yes, there is a resource page with proper citations, and the resources are also listed in the project prospectus.

2. Is it possible to verify the legitimacy of these sources? Yes, the citations are written in APA format, and they provide information needed in order to look up the sources used.

3. Does the background of the author point to knowledge of the subject covered? Yes, the table of contents includes a link to an “About the Author” page, which includes information about the author. She is a senior at Marshall University studying Communication Disorders.

4. If the site is research-based, does the author clearly identify the method of research and the data gathered? Yes, the main page includes reflections which the author has written describing her methods of research, and she includes references to her work.

Authority:

1. Do you recognize the author’s name? The author is not a well-known person, but she does provide information about herself on the page.

2. If you don’t recognize the author’s name, what type of information is given about the author? Position? Organizational affiliation? E-mail address? Biographical information? The author provides information about herself in an “About the Author” page and in a “Webliography” page. She tells about her family background and education. She is a student at Marshall University majoring in the Communication Disorders program. She tells of her personal interests in the Webliography. The author does not provide an e-mail address, but she does include the address of the University she attends, and readers can comment on her work via the comment feature on her weblog.

3. Was the site referenced in a document you trust? Yes, this website is referenced in my CD-315 class website.
Objectivity:

1. Determine what is the aim of the author or organization publishing the site. The aim of the author is to create a website based on a disorder, which includes many different pieces of work. She is to research the topic and create a website based on the information she has learned.

2. What is the purpose of the website? The purpose of this website is to answer an essential question developed by the author and to provide information about developmental stuttering and how brain functioning could be a possible cause of the disorder.

3. Do you trust the author or organization providing the information? Yes, this site is developed based on the author’s research. It provides information that the author has learned about while developing a story of a person with developmental stuttering.

Currency:

1. Is a date clearly displayed? On the main page dates are clearly displayed for each post. Also, there is a date at the bottom of each page.

2. Can you determine what the date refers to? The date beside the postings refer to the day that the author’s work was posted. The date at the bottom of each page is the date in which the author last revised that particular piece of work.

3. Are the resources used by the author current? All of the resources are current except one book which was published in 1987.

4. Does the page content demand routine or continual updating or revision? The page content demands routine revision if new information is found regarding the cause of developmental stuttering or new discoveries of how brain functioning may be related to dysfluency.

5. Do the links on the page point to the correct Internet site address? Yes, all of the links point to the correct site address.

Coverage:

1. Are the topics covered on the site explored in depth? Yes, the author covered a lot of different aspects of developmental stuttering and brain functioning.

2. Are the links on the site comprehensive or used as examples? The links are comprehensive.

3. On the site, are the links relevant and appropriate? Yes all of the links are relevant to the topic. They are relevant and appropriate.

4. How valuable is the information provided? The information provided in this site would be valuable to any person wanting to learn about stuttering and how the disorder affects the lives of individuals.

Aims & Objectives:

My main goal this week was to take the time to revise all of my genres for my final project. Because I had an extra week to complete all of this week’s assignments, I figured that I would have enough time to revise each individual genre -making it more clear and appropriate for my MRP. I also wanted to provide useful feedback to some of my group mates in order to help them revise their work as well.

Declarative Knowledge:

This week, I learned how to revise my work by using the SCAR method. It includes substituting, cutting, adding, and rearranging information to improve the clarity of ideas in each piece of work. I was also able to create a Table of Contents page and Reference page for my project. I rearranged the pieces of my MRP so that my audience can easily navigate their way through my project in a way that makes sense.  I also had the opportunity to revise most of my work and comment on others’ projects as well.

Procedural Knowledge:

To complete the first assignment, I logged on to my personal weblog and created a new page. I posted my Table of Contents page, which included my Preface, Acknowledgements, About the Author, Unifying Genre, References, Reflection, and all eight genres. I provided a listing of each piece and included links to all pieces of work. I listed the pieces in the order I feel my audience should navigate through my work and the order in which I feel my project flows the best. Then, I went to each piece of work and provided a link to my Unifying Genre and Table of Contents. In my unifying genre, I included a link to my Table of Contents and to my References. I think the links will help my audience navigate their way through my work. Once I had completed this assignment, I sent an email to the class list and included the link to my Table of Contents page so they could easily view my work. Next, I visited Sara’s and Whitney H’s weblogs and commented on their work. I looked at their seventh genres and responded to their work. I commented on the voice and audience of the genre and what the author is saying in the piece. I also pointed out the strengths of the genres by “blessing” their work and what I thought the author should address in order to make their work stronger. I responded via the comment feature on their weblogs. For the next assignment, I created a new Reference page on my weblog. I copied and pasted my references from my revised project prospectus to my Reference page. I added one source, which I found over break and used to revise some of my work. I also revised the references in my project prospectus. I posted the page tited “References”. I sent an email to the class list to confirm that this assignment was completed. Next, I used the SCAR method to revise my poem. I first added lines to my poem because I wanted to make sure to include all of the information necessary in order for my poem to end up how I wanted it to. Once I had added some ideas to the poem, I then cut some words and lines which I felt were not needed in the piece. Then, I substituted words in the poem to improve its clarity and ideas. I had originally included words in the poem that I feel a 13-year old girl would not say, so I substituted them for words more age-appropriate for the young girl. Finally, I rearranged lines in the poem to make it flow better. I posted the SCAR-revisioning blog on my weblog, explaining my revision strategies. I sent an email to the class list to confirm that the assignment was completed. After I had completed this week’s assignments, I began to revise each of my genres for my MRP. I looked at them individually and then looked at them as a whole to see what needs to be revised in order to make the entire project flow well and make sense. I somewhat used the SCAR method to revise each piece of work because I substituted, cut, added, and rearranged information to improve the clarity of ideas in my work. I added references to the first three genres because I did not include any citations in the drafts of each piece. In the original pieces of work, I wrote from my person knowledge about stuttering and included the emotional aspects of the disorder. Because I am required to provide citations for each piece of work, I reviewed the genres and did some extra research. I added citations for certain ideas within the poem, email exchange, and journal entries. I also added a citation to my powerpoint presentation after revising it. I found that my neurogenics textbook has quite a bit of information about brain structures and functioning, so I used it to add and change some of the information in my powerpoint. I also did some more research on how brain functioning may be related to stuttering, and I revised the shownotes for my podcast. I will re-record the podcast tomorrow, with the help of my buddy Will (Dr. Montabon). As I revised each genre, I also revised my project prospectus to explain my work. I wanted to make sure my project prospectus clearly and accurately explains what my project consists of. I revised my webliography by adding a few more links to include my personal interests.

Conditional Knowledge:

I believe that I am at the point where I am able to wrap up my work for this project.  I still have some revising to do, of course, but I think that my project is almost where I want it to be…completed! In the following week, I  plan to read through each genre, word by word, and make final revisions to my work.  There is one genre that I believe still needs some work, which is my interview transcript.  I have included a lot of information into that genre, including characteristics of stuttering, emotional aspects of a person who stutters, and how stuttering can affect family members of a person who stutters.  I included a small amount of information about how the cause of stuttering is unknown, and I introduced the idea that abnormalities in brain functioning may be related to the cause of stuttering.  I know that I want to keep all of that information in the interview transcript, but I keep second guessing the amount of work I put into the genre.  I believe that there could be some parts that may not be necessary to get my point across in the genre, but I do feel that a lot of it is necessary to tell the story of young girl.  I will carefully read over the interview transcript and try to decide whether or not I want to delete some of the ideas I’ve included, or whether it is pertinent to the story of my client and her disorder.  I believe that I am almost ready to wrap up my revising and start editing my work.  As Mrs. McComas pointed out, revising is not the same as editing.  I will take some time to focus on the technical aspects of my project in editing.  Surprisingly, I am not yet stressing over this project because I feel that it is almost complete.  It feels pretty good!

So far, I have already revised several of my genres. I’ve revised them each week while I’ve completed new assignments and looked back at what I had already completed; therefore, this assignment was hard for me to take one piece of work and tell how I have revised it. I decided to re-revise my poem this week in order to complete this assignment. I made some extra changes to it, which I think have helped to make the poem a stronger piece of my project. I used the SCAR method to revise my poem.

In my unifying genre, Olivia (who is the narrator of the poem) tells her father that she wrote a poem and had to read it to all of her classmates after beginning speech therapy. When I first thought about revising the poem, I wanted to make the girl sound angrier than I originally did in the poem. I wanted the girl to be bitter toward her disorder and toward the world and everyone around her; however, I believe that I made her sound that way in the interview transcript. The interview was conducted prior to therapy, so the girl’s voice was very bitter and angry -basically like a 13-year old girl would be. After she had been in therapy, the girl began to open up and not be so angry, yet she is still emotional and embarrassed about her disorder and speaking situation. In my MRP, I am telling the story of this girl, and I want the world to understand the disorder from the view of a stutterer, so I wanted to make the poem sound like the girl is trying to tell her classmates how she truly feels because they don’t understand her. She gets teased at school, and she gets scared. I want my audience to hear her voice.

First, I used the substitution method and substituted the word “haunted” for the the word “highlighted” in the line “My speech is highlighted by an obvious stutter.” I wanted the girl to feel like stuttering is worse than it really is….so I thought “haunted” would be a more powerful word to use than “highlighted”. The line now reads: “My speech is haunted by an obvious stutter.” This makes it sound like the girl’s disorder is haunting to her and that she is scared. Besides, she mentions in the interview transcript (another genre) that she is “afraid”. I did not use the cut method to revise my poem because I felt that I do not need to cut anything from my work. I feel that everything I had originally written in this poem is important to clarify my point of the genre.

I did use the addition method to add to the poem. When I originally wrote the poem, I did not include any references because I used my general knowledge about stuttering to write it. I knew that stuttering is a disorder that affects people emotionally, and I knew what the disorder basically consisted of in terms of its characteristics. I realized, though, that my “general knowledge” had to come from somewhere, so I got out my old notes and searched through my references. I added sources to the information I included in the poem, such as where I found that stutterers use “silent blocks” and that “sounds reappear” as repetitions of sounds, syllables or words. In one line, I wrote that “some words get stretched out like an elastic rubberband” -which refers to prolongations of sounds. I added a source that provides information about how stutterers generally have prolongations. I also added several lines to the poem. I added the following lines:

I switch words I can say easily for ones I can’t say at all
In fear that if I try, I will stumble and fall
But I can’t always leave out words that I dread
Because certain words just have to be said

I can call my mother “Ann” or “Sue” because she would understand
But to call a boy by the wrong name -that wouldn’t go as planned
He would probably think that I forgot his name
Then he’d tell all of his friends that I’m stupid and lame

The lines before them said that the girl avoids saying what she really wants to say and how it is a continuous struggle each day. I wanted to include how the girl not only avoids saying what she wants, but also how she avoids. She avoids particular words by switching them with ones she can say easily. However, it’s not always that easy because she can’t always avoid speaking. She is faced with her fear of speaking. Her mother would understand if she called her by the wrong name because she understands her daughter’s disorder to an extent, but a stranger or someone at school might not be so understanding in that situation. I also added lines to the poem where the girl expresses that stuttering “is a disorder, not a disease and I’m not contageous when I cough or sneeze”. I read in an article that stuttering is thought of as a symptom, not a disease. I felt that those were strong words, so I added them to my poem (and cited them, of course). However, I used the word “disorder” instead of “symptom” because I want my audience to see that it is a type of communication disorder. Olivia wants her classmates and everyone around her to understand that they can talk to her and that she is not contageous. One other thing I added to the poem is that the girl thinks she may have something wrong with her brain, and it causes her emotional pain. When the girl talks about how her disorder is a mystery, I wanted to throw in that brain functioning is a possiblity to the cause of stuttering because that is the main focus of my project. I put it near the end of the poem instead of the beginning because I want to use the poem to concentrate on the emotional factors of stuttering instead of the cause or characteristics of the disorder. I am using other genres for those purposes; however, I used the poem to introduce both ideas (cause and characteristics). I used the rearrange method to rearrange some of the lines in my poem. I rearranged the last two stanzas in the poem after I had added some new lines. The last stanza used to say:
I say that I’m an object of humilation
But my mom reminds me that I’m God’s creation
Once people start to notice, it’s just Me in this skin
I ruin it by stuttering all over again.
But I thought it would make the poem clearer to switch the lines around and add more information about how stuttering is a mystery. I added the lines where Olivia talks about how something may be wrong with her brain because she has recently discovered information about how abnormal brain functioning and stuttering may be related, so she wants to express that to her classmates. I then rearranged the other lines around that part to make it flow better when I read it. The final two stanzas of the poem now read:

There is mystery behind stuttering, and I don’t know the cause
Why is my speech characterized by so many flaws?
I think I may have something wrong with my brain
Whatever it is causes me emotional pain

I say that I’m an object of humiliation
But my mom reminds me that I’m God’s creation
Once people start to notice, it’s just Me in this skin
I ruin it by stuttering all over again.

I believe that the poem now flows well. I wanted to leave the last line of the poem the same because it makes a strong point about how Olivia feels about her stuttering: when people do start to look past her stuttering, she can smile about it; however, she continues to stutter, so she continues to feel self-consious about herself and about her disorder. She feels that nobody will ever truly see her for who she is….they will always view her as a stutterer. I like the ending to my poem.

Aims & Objectives:

This week my goal was to create a unifying genre that would integrate all of my genres into a cohesive whole.  Another goal was to provide more feedback to my group mates and help them with their projects because they are so willing to help me.  I also set a goal to finish all of my work on time this week because I had planned to take the GRE over the weekend, which needed time for preparation as well.

Declarative Knowledge:

This week, I learned how to write a “Preface,” which provides information about how or why I chose my research project.  It can also include insight into how a particular genre was chosen.  The “Acknowledgement” section of the project is where the author thanks and acknowledges the people who have made an impact or influenced her during the process of completing the MRP.  The “About the Author” section includes biographical information about the author.  I also researched digital literacy and was able to link the different “new” types of digital literacy together and looked at it as a whole.  In the past several weeks, I have spent time researching and learning about five different types of digital literacy.  This week, I looked at all of them and considered how all of these literacy skills are changing education and how they are considered to be necessary to survive in a digital world.

Procedural Knowledge:

I chose to do a “Letter to a parent” as my unifying genre.  I have completed drafts of all of my single genres, so this week I wanted to somehow integrate them into a cohesive whole to create my final project.  I thought that a letter to a parent would be an appropriate genre to achieve this goal.  The letter is from the 13-year old girl who stutters to her father whom she has not seen in ten years.  The girl is telling her father about the entire process of the initial interview with the speech-language pathologist, the powerpoint presentation and podcast that provided her with information on her disorder, the email exchange between an adult who also stutters, the poem she had written in school and had to read in front of her classmates, the journal entry her mother wrote to express her feelings about her daughter’s disorder, and the webliography which provides information about her speech-language pathologist.  I wrote the genre in Writely and copied and pasted it to my weblog.  I saved it as a page with an appropriate title.  In the text of of the letter, I provided links to each of the other genres of my MRP to help my audience navigate their way around my webpage when reading the unifying genre.  This week, I also recorded the podcast to go with the shownotes I completed last week for my seventh genre.  My buddy and classmate Will helped me record the podcast over the phone.  I called the number from Gcast that I saved to my phone and saved it.  I went to Gcast.com and copied the site to the podcast and then saved it as a link on my shownotes, which I saved as a page on my weblog.  For the next assignment, I visited Sara’s & Whitney H’s weblogs and commented on their genres from last week.  I provided feedback that included the voice & audience of the genre & what the author was saying.  I also “blessed” their genres by pointing out strenths & talked about what could still be addressed.  Then, I searched the Internet and learned about digital literacy.  I reflected on my learning and posted it to my personal weblog including what I had learned about digital literacy, how I feel about it, and how I think it has changed education.  I also referred to the instructions for my MRP to see what is included in the preface, acknowledgement, and about the author sections of my project.  I posted a “Preface” page to my weblog, which consisted of how I chose the topic for my MRP.  I posted an “Acknowledgement” page to my weblog, in which I thanked all of the people who have encouraged me and helped me through the process of completing this project.  I posted an “About the Author” page to my weblog, in which I included information that the audience can read about myself.  I sent an email to the class list for each piece of my project completed this week, which included links to help my classmates locate my work in order to read it.

Conditional Knowledge:  

While completing other genres for this project, I wrote that the girl’’s parents divorced when she was three years old, and the father lives in a different state.  I also included that the child began stuttering at age three -right about the time when her brother was born and her parents were going through a divorce.  I wanted to include this information in my project because I read that “The nature and quality of the marital relationship are prime determinants of behavior of the children” and that “stutterinng in a child may be a behavioral manifestation produced by family tensions, particularly between parents, that have not been resolved through other means” (Rollin, 1987).  Although these types of factors are not related to the “possible cause of stuttering” I have been focusing on in my project, I wanted to give my audience something to think about.  I want them to be able to look at the disorder and have a better understanding of why the actual cause is unknown -because there are different theories and factors related to developmental stuttering.  I felt that this information will help my audience to realize the effect of the unifying genre, in which the girl writes a letter to her father.  I wrote the letter as if the child was writing it after beginning therapy.  Also in previous genres, I portrayed that the young girl was angry and bitter about her stuttering.  In the final, unifying genre I portrayed that the young girl had gained confidence about her disorder and that she had made improvement with the help of speech therapy.

What do you know about digital literacy?

According to Wikipedia, ditital literacy is a person’s ability to understand, evaluate, and create information in multiple formats via the computer and the Internet. Digital literacy relies on various skills and capacities related to the use of computer technologies and communication tools. The term digital literacy is being increasingly used by educational institutions and other organizations who require that their students or employees possess a basic level of computer technology skills.Digital literacy  includes the ability to read instructions from graphic interfaces (photo-visual literacy), to use the computer’s digital reproduction capability to copy and paste in order to form creative products (reproduction literacy), the flexibility of thinking that enables learners to construct knowledge from hypertextual, non-linear navigation through knowledge domains (branching literacy), and the ability to critically evaluate and assess the quality of digital information (information literacy).

What are your reactions to the idea that there are certain digital literacy skills?

I never realized that these type of skills existed until this semester when my teacher brought them to my attention. I completely understand what digital literacy skills consist of because I am able to relate each skill to personal work experiences in my digital world. I actually never thought of working in a “digital environment” until now either. I just thought that using a computer or any other form of technology was just a task, although not always an easy task in my case. Now I realize that working in a digital world is more than just the physical use of software. It requires knowledge that you wouldn’t necessarily need for linear types of learning such as reading books or writing. The use of a computer program, one must know how to read embedded messages and retrieve data from the web, which requires knowledge, no only of how to use search engines, but also of how to evaluate the retrieved data and distinguish between its relevance and non-relevance. I learned some of these digital literacy skills throughout my education; however, I did not realize that I was learning them because I didn’t even know they existed. It’s cool to think about the different types of literacy and relate to how I’ve used these skills in my educational experience.

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?

These “new” digital litaracy skills have definitely changed education since I started school. I grew up learning in more linear ways and was introduced to the computer in the fourth grade. We only used the computer for simple classroom assignments at that point, but now my education somewhat revolves around the digital world. Technology is continuing to change, and education will continue to change as well due to the growing technology. Students are being taught these new literacy skills at an early age because teachers are becoming more reliant on technology and digital teaching techniques.

Aims & Objectives:

This week, my goal was to create drafts of two new genres for my multi-genre research project. I wanted to at least get my powerpoint completed, and most of my podcast -if not all of it. I aimed to do this because I figured that it would save me from having to cram in too much work at the end of my project, when it is time to revise and finalize my research project.

Declarative Knowledge:

This week, I learned about socio-emotional literacy and how it is a skill needed to survive in a digital literacy. It involves the ability to avoid traps and hoaxes in cyberspace, and to tell what information on the Internet is true and what is false. Also this week, I started to see a broader idea of what I want my final project to look like. Up until this point, I have been creating individual genres that somehow relate to developmental stuttering. All of the previous genres somehow related to the emotional aspects and characteristics of stuttering and how the disorder can affect an individual and her family. I tried to include a general idea of my essential research question -which relates to the cause of stuttering; however, I only touched on these points in the previous genres. This week, I completed a powerpoint in which I included information about developmental stuttering, basic brain structures & functioning, and a brief overview of the idea that brain functioning is related to stuttering. Next, I did a podcast which included more detailed information of how brain functioning is related to developmental stuttering based on a ficticious scientist’s research & discoveries. Now that I’ve gotten to this point in my research, I can see a bigger picture of how I want to integrate my genres into a complete project.

Procedural Knowledge:

I started this week’s assignments by responding to WhitneyH and Sara’s sixth’s genres from last week via the comment feature in their weblogs. In my comments, I included the voice & audience for which the genres were written, a “sayback” of what the authors were saying in the genres, a blessing of what I liked about the genres, and what I thought needed to be addressed. I tried to provide specific and useful information in my comments to help provide my group mates with direction for their projects. By the way, I really liked the genres that I have read thus far. For the next assignment, I searched the Internet to find information about socio-emotional literacy. I posted a reflection about this “new” type of literacy on my personal weblog which included the information I learned about socio-emotional literacy, my reactions to the idea that this type of literacy skill exists, and how I think this “new” literacy skill has changed education/schooling. I referenced appropriately by providing a link to website I located on the topic in my reflection. For this week’s genre, I chose to do a powerpoint presentation. I used Microsoft powerpoint, and my personal knowledge and skills of the program, to create a presentation that will be viewed as one genre for my project. The draft of my presentation consists of twenty-four slides. I started by including information I obtained through research and basic knowledge of brain structures and functioning. I copied and pasted images from the internet, such as different pictures of the brain. I recall learning in class that images do not have to be referenced as long as they are being used for educational purposes, so I did not include any links or references to the websites in which I found these images. Then, I included basic information of developmental stuttering. I didn’t go into too much detail about the characteristics of stuttering because I already included that information in other genres throughout my project, I didn’t want to become repetetive. Next, I included the idea of how brain functioning may be related to developmental stuttering -again without going into detail because I wanted to include this information in another genre. I also included information about different neuroimaging techniques which are used to study the brain, because I planned to mention these techniques in my podcast without explaining what they are. I want to give my readers an idea of what each technique is used for. I created a page on my weblog which included the link to my powerpoint presentation and a brief explanation of what the genre consists of. Then, I sent a note to the class list which included the link to my powerpoint. I also decided to do my podcast this week. I posted my shownotes as a page on my personal weblog. The shownotes include the text of the podcast and text about the podcast. The podcast consists of an interview with a newscaster and a scientist about scientific discoveries of the brain in relation to developmental stuttering. I have not yet got to record the podcast because I want to use a male’s voice as the scientist, so I have only posted the shownotes so far. I included a line at the bottom of the interview that says, “To hear the podcast click here: Brian functioning & developmental stuttering.” This is the line where I will provide a link to my podcast so my classmates & everyone else can hear it. I also provided the resources at the bottom of the page. I plan to record the podcast this week, so I will send an email to the class list which includes the link to my podcast.

Conditional Knowledge:

I believe that I am ready to start revising and pulling all of the information I’ve gathered together for my project.  I plan to create one more integrating genre which will be a letter from my client who stutters to her father.  I want to try to take my time throughout the next couple of weeks and pay close attention to what needs revising within my genres.  I hope that it all comes together and makes sense in the end.  I actually think that this project has been exciting for me so far, although it’s been extremely time-consuming.  I thought that I picked a difficult topic to research because I didn’t know much about the topic, and because there is not a known cause for stuttering.  I actually doubted my essential question many times and thought about changing it again last week, but I stuck with what I already had written and just made decisions to work through it.  I really hope that my final project turns out well and that my readers will enjoy it.

What do you know about socio-emotional literacy?

Socio-emotional literacy is a type of digital literacy that involves sociological and emotional aspects of work in cyberspace. This type of skill is used to avoid “traps” and derive benefits from the advantages of digital communication. Socio-emotional literacy skills require the individual to be critical, analytical, and mature. The person must also have a high degree of branching literacy and information literacy. In order to have socio-emotional literacy skills, the person must also be willing to share data and knowledge with others, evaluate information, have abstract thinking, and be able to collaboratively construct knowledge.

What are your reactions to the idea that there are certain socio-emotional skills?

I think that this type of literacy is more complex than any of the other forms of digital literacy I have learned about. I believe that I have not mastered this type of literacy because I sometimes fail to avoid traps in cyberspace. I always thought that I was just naive. I never thought of it as being a literacy skill. Two years ago, I had a message from a “buddy” on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) that said, “check this out.” Because I knew the person, and because it looked like a normal message, I clicked on the link to check it out. All of a sudden, the message automatically forwarded to everyone on my buddy list and there were popups all over my computer screen. Of course, I had contracted a virus on my desktop computer by clicking on the link. I usually keep virus software on my computer, but I hadn’t realized that it needed to be updated.  I have also fallen for many hoaxes in the past.  I once ordered an item online in order to get a “free” item, but I ended up having to pay for a whole lot more than what I thought I was ordering.  Since then, I have been very careful when opening files that I do not know exactly what they are.  I have also improved my ability to tell the difference between a hoax and a real offer, yet I still do not do a lot of shopping online.

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?

I think that this new type of literacy has already changed education and schooling because most of students today use the internet for different purposes.  There are a lot of hoaxes and traps across the internet that can harm one’s computer, but children have to learn how to avoid them.  Students also need this type of skill to distinguish between true or false information, wich goes along with the ability to evaluate information to check for validity and credibility.   Children need socio-emotional skills to communicate in chatrooms in order to tell if others are really who they say they are.

Aims & Objectives:

• To choose and create a fifth genre for my final research project
• To research further into my topic of dysfluency
• To provide useful feedback to my classmates about their projects
• To pull together all of the information from the mailing list I have been observing and reflect on my observations

Declarative Knowledge:

This week, I learned how to make a podcast by using my own telephone at home. I also learned that I can subscribe to a podcast and post it to almost any website for others to listen to. I also learned that an interview transcript can be completed by simply tape recording an interview session and then transcribing it into writing. I did some more research throughout the library this week, and I found quite a few books that provide a lot of useful information pertaining to my research topic. I realize, though, that not all books are credible sources, and a lot of them are not primary sources. I did some research on the authors of some of the books I found, and I found that these authors have other publications about stuttering. I decided to add these to some of my tentative resources for my project; however, I only used them for general information about stuttering and did not quote them directly. Most of these books included the same information, which also leads me to believe that the authors are credible. I compared the information in the books to the information I have gathered from scholarly journal articles, which also provide most of the same information. I researched another type of digital literacy this week, which was reproduction literacy. I learned that reproduction litaracy is basically to create new information out of existing information, which is what I am doing now for my project.

Procedural Knowledge:

This week, my classmates and I met with the teacher in a computer lab and discussed effective ways of creating a powerpoint presentation. Ms. McComas also taught us how to create a podcast, and we each created one in class. This was just for practice so that we would have an easier time creating a podcast for one of our genres later on. I registered at www.gcast.com, called the number provided by using my cellphone, and I recorded a podcast. It took me a few tries to get it to save correctly. The third podcast I tried to record saved directly to my site, so I copied the link and sent it to my teacher. I chose to save this genre for a later time so I can play with it a bit more and become more familiar on how to post it to my weblog. I decided to do an interview transcript as my genre for the week. I gathered my thoughts as to what I wanted to include in the interview and did some extra research to provide accurate information about the child’s stuttering disorder. I included references, using APA format, in the interview transcript. Once I finished writing the genre, I posted it as a page to my weblog and sent an email to the class list which included the link to my genre. For the next assignment, I responded to two of my group mates’ fourth genres via the comment feature in their weblogs. In the response, I included the voice and audience of the genre, as well as what the author is saying in the genre. I also pointed out the strengths of their genres and gave my opinion on what needs to be addressed. For the next assigment, I used my researching skills to find information about reproduction literacy and the skills needed to survive in a digital society. I reflected on what I learned from the research assignment, providing appropriate links to the sources I used, and posted it to my weblog. I logged on to my email account and skimmed through some of the previous emails I have received from the mailing list I subsribed to about stuttering. I thought about the mailing list as a community and wrote about it in my personal weblog using some of the probe questions my teacher provided to guide my thinking. Finally, I visited my group mates’ weblogs and responded to their work via the comment feature on their weblogs.

Conditional Knowledge:

I chose to do my interview transcript differently than I had originally intended. I originally wanted to have the clinician interviewing the parent of a girl who stutters, but I thought that it would be important to interview the girl herself. Considering that the young girl is 13-years old, she is old enough to speak for herself. Of course, she would have trouble speaking because of her dysfluency, but she needs the opportunity to be heard -especially by the clinician. I didn’t want to exclude the original idea of interviewing the girl’s mother, so I decided to interview them both. I felt that this could provide a lot information about how they both feel and about the actual characteristics of stuttering in the child’s eyes as well as in a family member’s eyes. From what I know about 13-year old girls, they generally have an “attitude” and are “feisty,” especially when speaking to adults. I wanted the girl to sound a little frustrated, but curious, in her interview because these are generally characteristics of a teenage girl’s personality. I didn’t want to include a lot of information about brain functioning in this genre because I plan to include that information in the next two genres -a powerpoint presentation and a podcast. I am trying to spread the information out among my genres in order to create a whole piece of work. In the interview transcript, I included many of the characteristics of stuttering such as the emotional aspects, speech characteristics, and secondary characteristics (like blinking of the eyes or hand movements). I also included information about the child’s family life and communication in social situations. I also added another genre to my project prospectus this week, which is a letter to a parent. I have been thinking of how I will integrate my genres into a cohesive whole, and I thought that just telling a story of one client will not be enough; therefore, I thought of a genre in which I could somehow put all of the important aspects of my project together. I think this one will work for me!

Describe the community. What do you know about it? What do you know about the people in the community? What is the purpose of the community? How do you know that? Does the community fulfill its purpose? Why or why not?

I had originally subscribed to a mailing list that was related to dysphasia because that was an area of interest before I chose my research topic. Once I chose to do my project on stuttering, I subscribed to a mailing list that’s set up through Temple University. I have enjoyed reading the posts that are sent to my email, but I have not posted to this list myself. From what I have read, I can say that the community is made up of people who stutter, speech-language pathologists, and students interested in learning about stuttering. A lot of posts are irrelevant to the topic of stuttering, but others in the community are still willing to answer unrelated questions and provide support for other concerns. For instance, one college student conducted a survey on people who stutter and also had childhood illnesses. Another girl responded to her survey saying, “I checked out your survey, and I didn’t have any of the illnesses it asked for. I did, however, have the measles at the age of two and later went on to have episodes of epilepsy.” There were several people in the community that were supportive to this girl’s post, yet there were some who pointed out to her that this is irrelevant in a stuttering community.

The purpose of the community is to allow people who stutter, as well as others interested in people to stutter, to provide a release and support. It also gives them the opportunity to exchange information based on research or experience. I feel that it fulfill’s its purpose because people the people involved all work together by posting their feelings and providing feedback to each other. It allows the subscribers to communicate with others with the same interest and, in some cases, the same problems. The people in this community seem to have a close bond. One lady even posted that she was looking for someone to room with her at an ASHA conference.

Another post was to ask others to organize activities and to participate in International Stuttering Awareness Day. One post I thought was interesting was about how one person developed particular strategies to protect herself from the embarrassment of stuttering, such as reducing the volume of her voice so that others could not hear if she had an occasion to stutter when speaking. Another person responded to this post by saying that she doesn’t stutter when her voice is being projected such as in a loud room without a microphone. She said, “it’s not that I’m speaking slower, it’s that all the inhibitions suddenly seem to go and I could speak for hours.” I think it’s very interesting to hear how people who stutter compensate for their weaknesses in different ways. A lot of posts were to provide links to useful websites about stuttering or articles that were interesting to an individual. There were also links to documentaries about different therapy techniques to stuttering.