Post 4: Personal Digital Inquiries (Annotated Bib)

    Personal Inquiry has always been utilized in schools, whether it was by an adult or a curious student. However, in recent years, the word digital has been added as a new piece to the puzzle. As technology has become more readily available, the education system is requiring teachers to utilize it as much as they can within the classroom. Personally, I did not love the idea of my students working on a computer all day, but after gaining new knowledge of how it can be integrated without taking away from students' critical skill development, I now feel that we all need to know more about how digital media can increase student engagement and their thinking skills. 
    With the peer-reviewed articles below, I plan to enhance my knowledge on how students' personal inquiries can make a difference in their academics. I will also be looking at the options of digital ways a student can answer his/her question. It would be nice to see more teachers able to give their students a sense of autonomy by simply having them wonder and research about a topic that interests them. I know that when I am interested in the topic I'm learning about, I am much more engaged from the beginning to the end. 

Calder, N. (2015). Student wonderings: scaffolding student understanding within student-centred
         inquiry learning. ZDM, 47(7),1121–1131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-015-0734-z

        This peer-reviewed article provides a look at 14-15-year-old students as they learn to pose
        authentic questions that are based on their personal wonderings. This article is meant to be a guide
        for educators to embrace Student-Based Inquiry and learn how to utilize students' needs as a 
        jumping point for further education in specific areas. Students at any age can start taking more
        responsibility for their learning path, as long as they have a well-trained educator and
        willing to put in a bit of extra work. This work will lead readers to learn about how personal
        inquiry is needed to help both teachers and students learn and understand all topics better.

Coiro, J., Castek, J., & Quinn, D. J. (2016). Personal Inquiry and Online Research. Reading Teacher,
         69(5), 483–492. https://doi-org.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/trtr.1450
        

        This peer-reviewed article challenges the typical ideas of student engagement to close the
        achievement gap with the idea that learning should be more student-directed. Readers can learn the
        framework for Personal Digital Inquiry and later apply it in real-life settings similar to
        the examples provided. Students should be tasked with having to wonder and create questions
        about what they are learning, which will more than likely increase attention and understanding. 
        This work will lead readers to see how students' thoughts need to be heard and expressed in a

        creative way that makes sense to them.

Dahlström, H. (2022). Students as digital multimodal text designers: A study of resources, affordances,
         and experiences. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(2), 391–407.
         https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13171

        This peer-reviewed article provides us with information on the usage of digital stories within a

        school setting. We find that students need to have prior knowledge of film, image searching, and

        audio recordings are important to create a successful digital story. If schools want educators to

        include technology in their teaching, then schools need to provide courses that allow students to

        learn the necessary skills for making multimodal digital texts. This work makes the reader

        understand that digital text creations offer more opportunities for students to show their

        performance; however, this is not accessible to everyone. 

Lane Perry, Lee Stoner, Max Schleser, Krystina R. Stoner, Daniel Wadsworth, Rachel Page & Michael

        A. Tarrant (2015) Digital media as a reflective tool: creating appropriate spaces for students to

        become introspective, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45:2, 323-

        330, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2014.993237

        This peer-reviewed article encourages us to believe that anyone can be more reflective of

        experiences if they are given the ability to use the platforms or forums that they already utilize for

        communication. We are asked to focus on fostering global citizenship through learning outcomes,

        and the way to do this is with digital media. When digital storytelling is utilized, the listener can

        hear the author's voice, which hopefully has captured the creator's true perspective and feelings.

        This article makes it clear that if one uses media that includes one's voice, then there is a possibility

        of increased engagement and understanding. 

Sitter, K. C., Gamboa, J., & de Groot, J. M. (2025). Language of the Heart: Creating Digital Stories and

        Found Poetry to Understand Patients’ Experiences Living with Advanced Cancer. Current

        Oncology (Toronto), 32(2), 61-. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol32020061

        This peer-reviewed article takes an outside look at how and why people create digital stories. More

        often than not, creators have a story to tell, and utilizing something familiar can allow one to

        become a master at understanding and explaining.  We learn about a group of patients who are

        attempting to live meaningfully with Cancer. Short digital stories were created using personal

        photographs, music, or narration to communicate a personal inquiry, in this case, cancer. Through

        these poems and digital stories, families, caretakers, and readers of the article can learn about

        individual needs because of their personal inquiry creations. This is useful to know that digital

        literacies and digital inquiry projects should not be contained to schools but should expand to

        allow anyone the ability to communicate comfortably.