Fryer’s Chapter Two Reflection

In the second chapter of Fryer’s book called “Digital Text” he discusses the importance of integration of digital platforms into the curriculum while using them “safely and effectively (Fryer, 2011).”  These digital platforms allow students and teachers so share documents and collaborate with each other.  Personally, I think that this is great.  In fact, turning in this reflection paper is going to be much easier because we get to post it on our class blogs rather than print it off and risk not having ink or forgetting the paper at home.  Fryer also describes digital text as blogs or wikis.  “Think of a blog like a digital newspaper (Fryer, 2001).”  Blogs are dated and time stamped with the most recent posts typically at the top.  All posts usually accessible and one can view it immediately.  “Think of a wiki like an encyclopedia (Fryer, 2011).”  Wikis can be edited sometimes by anyone or sometimes they are private.  Wikis also save an archived pages so that people can see the changes that have been made.  I think that blogs and wikis are very useful.  They may not be the best place to find cited, factual information, but they are a good place to start and can lead to some very reliable sources.  I personally use wikis for both personal knowledge gain and for researching educational topics.

                Fryer believes that integration of technology should be done by all teachers because it would most effectively support learning.  “Collaboration and creativity hinge on the ability to build on the ideas of others (Fryer, 2011).”  As a future teacher I really like how he says this because I believe that we can build upon or adjust information accordingly to make it right for our classroom.  For example, if a teacher posts all their lessons online they are accessible to many other teachers who might find them different, interesting and be able to incorporate the lesson into their own classroom.  These are most effective when they are done using “open web publishing” because they are accessible to more people.

                Another good point that Fry makes about using a blog for a classroom is that sometimes there is not enough time for each student to express themselves vocally.  So, by having the students post their thoughts onto a blog everyone is able to give their opinion as well as see what other people have to say.

                I believe digital text especially when media rich is a great way to get students involved with class participation as well as a way that students can learn about topics they might not in a traditional education style without technology.

Works Cited

Fryer, Wesley A. (2011). Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing. Creativity Learning, LLC publication.