Media Lit Introduction

Hello everyone!

My name is Christian Collins. I am originally from San Diego, CA, but I have been living in Rhode Island since the summer of 2016. I moved here with my boyfriend Ammar, as we both were placed in Rhode Island as part of the Americorps programs City Year (for myself) and Teach for America (for him). Without knowing a soul in New England, we moved from one of the largest and most populous states, to little Rhode Island.

I have since fallen in love with Rhode Island and New England in general. We have decided to make Rhode Island our long term home and have since put down roots here, including; buying our first house (yay!), adopting our dog/son Winston (super cute!), recently sold our first home to buy our second (that was fast!) and have created long term commitments with our employers.

Currently, I am teaching as part of the Americorps program Teach for America. I teach 6th and 7th grade English Language Arts (with "English as a Second Language" certification) at Del Sesto Middle School. I have just completed my first year of teaching and I am so excited to have my first summer! So far, I have spent most of my time building IKEA furniture and sleeping. In July however, I will be going on a cruise to the Bahamas, visiting my brother in Seattle, and have tickets to go see Hamilton! I am taking CURR 550 as part of my IMED program, which I will be finishing this July!

In my spare time, I love to garden, hang out with my boyfriend and dog, bake, play video games or go hiking.

Comments

Digital Native or Not?

I was born prior to most of the modern day technology youth have access to today. Although I was not born into this technology, my early childhood years saw the transition into today's modern technologies. Due to this, I think of myself more as a digital native than a digital immigrant. Though I was born in a time when cellphones and laptops were not quite as ubiquitous as they are today, I spent most of my time with the forms of technology that were available to me. As a 6 or 7 year old, I would play Nintendo 64 or Playstation or Gameboy, which were new and advanced for the time. By the time I was in middle school, I was spending a lot of time on the desktop computer, on websites such as Myspace (shoutout to Tom !). I developed the 'native' skills of twitch speed or parallel processing while going down Wikipedia rabbit holes while playing flash games in another tab.

danah boyd vs Prensky - Digital Nativism

Are today's youth digital natives? In the debate of digital nativism between boyd and Prensky, I wholeheartedly agree with boyd's perspective. Digital nativism is the idea some generations are digital natives, meaning they naturally adept at navigating and understanding digital technologies and systems. On the other hand, the existence of a digital native implies the idea of digital immigrants, or those who are foreign to the digital familiarity experienced by natives. In chapter 7 of danah boyd's It's Complicated , she discusses the idea of digital nativism and how it is actually dangerous mindset to have. To start, boyd discusses that the idea of nativism vs immigrant truthfully stems from the fear created by generational gaps which are increasingly illustrated through technology use. She paraphrases Barlow when she discusses that, "the implicit fear that stems from the generational gap that has emerged around technology." The idea of generational tensi...

Quick Key Tutorial

One of the most important aspects of being a teacher is assessment. Assessments, whether formative or summative, are integral to effective teaching practices. As teachers, there are countless items on our To Do Lists, and often, the collection and analysis of classroom data is timely and easily neglected. Here to the rescue is Quick Key! Simply put, Quick Key is like the familiar Scantron test forms used throughout colleges. Unlike Scantron, Quick Key does not require any fancy forms (or even a number 2 pencil!), and as long as you have a smartphone, you are capable of quickly collecting and analyzing assessment data in your classroom. In order to get started, follow the short tutorial below! 1. Access the Quick Key website (or app on your phone). Click on "Teachers" on the homepage, and follow the "Sign up for Free" prompt. 2. Input the necessary personal information to create your account. The site offers 3 different account options, but you simply ne...

Collins Compositions

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