https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2010.511275 

Summary: 

Funds of knowledge: knowledge about household functioning, development, and well-being that gives access into children’s interests in a way that remains respectful of their families, communities and cultres. 

Analysis:
- As children engage with teachers, families, and other adult figures, knowledge of literacy, math and science begin to adapt without the need of formal teacher instruction

Throughout the study, teachers often chose whose and which interests would be addressed during spontaneous interactions. 
- An example of this was described when asking individual students what they did on the weekends. A boy, Tom, he spoke innately about fishing on the weekends with his Uncle, yet during playtime at school he often migrated towards the trucks and construction gear because he wants to be an engineer in the future like his Uncle (an engineer). It is important to communicate not only adopted practices (like enigneering), but also other interets the child has which can be adopted and noticed by peers. 

- This study had other categorizes such as family based, centre based, and community based funds which broke down different perspectives in which children should be interviewed and teachers should be knowledgeable about in order to create a more specificed, individual, and interesting learning environment for students. In reference to community based funds, "Outside the family and centre settings, children participated in a range of social and cultural events. Sometimes funds of knowledge were recognized and extended in the centres. However, other experiences and/or what children revealed in conversations that occurred during these events were not always appreciated and acted on by teachers" (4.1). In order to have a classroom that offers insight into children’s lives and relates to their own experiences, it creates not only a more interactive setting but also a more personable and relatable learning experience for students.

Citation:

Helen Hedges, Joy Cullen & Barbara Jordan (2011) Early years curriculum: funds of knowledge as a conceptual framework for children’s interests, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43:2, 185-205, DOI: 10.1080/00220272.2010.511275

Summary: This research aimed to analyze the effect of utilizing technology in the form of the FUSE Studio on allowing students to access their funds of knowledge in the school setting. Additionally, this research aimed to analyze how funds of knowledge benefit students regarding knowledge formation and content creation. Researchers from the University of Helsinki in Finland headed this research. At a city-run public school in Finland that houses 535 students and 28 primary school teachers, the FUSE Studio was offered as an elective course option. The FUSE Studio is a digital creative design environment full of many challenges for the students to choose from, where the teacher acts as a facilitator. The makings and creations of 94 9-12-year-old students were collected and analyzed after one semester. This research is about how the FUSE Studio allowed students to access their funds of knowledge in school through technology, as well as the type of knowledge creation that accessing their funds of knowledge allowed. 

Analysis:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2017.02.002 

Summary: This article explores the concept of funds of knowledge and compounds on it by introducing the concept of “funds of identity,” which are presented as an evolution of funds of knowledge. Poole uses the theoretical framework of funds of knowledge and the emerging theories of funds of identity to explore how educators can uplift these concepts within their classrooms through digital means. Poole argues that digitisation within the classroom in terms of students' social identities can help draw out, construct, and cultivate funds of identity.

Summary: Technology is extremely influential specifically in the enrollment of English Learners in the educational system in the US. The cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds of students reflect the need as well as challenges of entering the classroom digitally while being proficient in English. Technology (including computers, IPads, IPods, net textbooks, tablets, etc.) have proven effectiveness as a learning tool in order to support language and content learning outside of a formal classroom setting to enhance engagement in material, especially for English Learners. Due to different ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, coordination between the school/teacher and student/parent is imperitive when implimenting and providing technology in order to be used properlly and given the correct machinery in order to complete this remote mode of learning. Parental involvement in activities, monitoring children’s schoolwork/homework, and speaking about student’s progression in school is an important accomodations schools need to be aware of when it comes to English Learners as some may be unfamiliar with this mode of learning, and it is proven that it is a critical impact of parent’s backgrounds for teachers to adapt different modes of learning and understanding when it comes to different students (FOK). 

 Analysis:

Citation: Yan Chen, Hayley J. Mayall, Cindy S. York, Thomas J. Smith,

Parental perception and English Learners' mobile-assisted language learning: An ethnographic case study from a technology-based Funds of Knowledge approach, Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, Volume 22, 2019, 100325, ISSN 2210-6561, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.100325. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210656118302794)

Summary: This research aims to analyze how technological writing tools, such as the app Penultimate on the iPad, allow elementary English Language Learners (ELLs) to strengthen their narrative writing skills. Additionally, the research focuses on the goal of investigating how incorporating the ELLs funds of knowledge allows for this strengthening to happen. Researchers at Northern Illinois University conducted a case study in which 5 ELLs aged 9-13 participated in a 4-week long mobile-learning experience catered toward narrative writing. Two participants, a Chinese girl in the United States on an extended visit and a Mexican-American boy, were heavily analyzed, as they were both in 7th grade, so similarities and differences could easily be compared. The iPad and the writing app, Penultimate, are mobile-assisted language learning, which allows for more accessibility to technology than computer-assisted language learning. Researchers conducted at-home interviews with the families of the participants to assess their funds of knowledge. Then they assigned a writing task based on an exciting aspect drawn from this information. With the use of pre- and post-essays, the researchers were able to analyze both writing skill and enjoyment level development that occurred as a direct result of practicing narrative writing through technological tools. This research is about how young ELLs developed their narrative writing skills through technological tools by using a funds of knowledge framework to build the guidelines of the assignment. 

Analysis: 

Summary: This article explores the concept of virtual learning environments and, specifically, the use of avatar and virtual self representations within the classroom as a mode of transferring traditional learning to a virtual environment. The article focuses heavily on the use of avatar programs (namely, MARVIN) as a tool to assist in classroom communication and academic understanding, denoting its customizable nature through the necessity to draw on self-identifications.

Analysis: ClassTag is a powerful tool that allows for communication between parents and teachers that is not solely limited to conversations about academics and behavior. ClassTag allows teachers to welcome parents into the community of the classroom, both digitally and in real life. With the “Activity” feature that is highlighted in the video, teachers have the ability to invite parents to join the class. I find the example in the video of inviting the students’ parents to the classroom exciting because of what I imagine this gathering of the parents, students, and teacher allows for. If the teacher is able to meet with the parents of his or her students outside of the academic context, the teacher and the parent will be able to engage in natural conversation that allows for the teacher to gain access to the funds of knowledge of her students, as well as gain the trust and respect of the parents, which will allow for more open communication to continue. Another feature of the website that intrigued me was the volunteer sign up option, and for many reasons. Firstly, it allows for every parent to have the opportunity to sign up for a volunteer spot, so that the same volunteers are not always the one being asked. Also, I imagine this tool could be beneficial when attempting to plan activities such as culture-share or career presentation days, which are rich with the students’ funds of knowledge. For parents who do not have the time to attend the at-school activities, the virtual activity option is a fabulous way to host casual events online where these parents are able to attend and build relationships with their child’s teacher, so that funds of knowledge can be shared. There may also be parents struggle with communication due to language barriers. The 100+ language translations that ClassTag offers will allow these parents to feel involved and engage with the classroom community. Additionally, the language translation feature also give the teacher insight to the culture of the student. The largest challenge that ClassTag seems to pose is communication with families that are without technology at home. This definitely seems like quite a big challenge, as it would exclude the parents and the child from the classroom community. However, I do wonder how realistic a family without any form of technology would be in 2023, especially considering there are many public places in which technology can be accessed. Although this barrier exists, ClassTag offers many opportunities for parent-teacher communication in which funds of knowledge can be accessed and used for class instruction and involvement. 

Summary: The video is a brief, and informational video about the basic overview of Klassroom as a whole. It gives the idea of what Klassroom is used for, and how it is easily accessible to all parents and teachers especially in the manner of constant, flowing communication between the two. 

Analysis: Klassroom is an online tool created for teachers by teachers (specifically for younger grades). It is a free mobile app available for any Apple and Andriod product that includes in-app purchases to give different updates and subscriptions, however all of the core features are free. The app allows for teachers to upload updates, photos, events and documents about the children throughout class giving the parent constant feedback from their children and teacher; no matter the familial status (divorce, live in different locations, only one parent is the primary contact, etc.) parents are capable of accessing information about their child at any time. Parents can inform teachers of an absent or delay in arrival at any point from anywhere. Also, there is a private message feature that allows parents and teachers to contact one another directly, schedule appointments, ask questions, or simply ask for updates. The application keeps for the personal information of the teacher and parents to remain secure by not having to share personal phone numbers or emails. The app is described as being simple to use with basic instructions and commands in order to complete a task. The teacher is able to send a mass message to all of the parents while keeping responses in individual areas in order to keep with the idea of security of private information. By using this app, at the beginning of the schoolyear, the teacher can send out a mass message asking questions about the child’s home life, familial situations, the language used at home, the cultures and religions practiced, and so forth (FOK). Parents can then respond privately about their specific situations and give information that will be useful for the teacher to know as they create lesson plans and begin to build a relationship with their students while being sensitive to their lives outside of school.

Summary: This is the twelfth episode of the series “App Spotlight” by Jeff Bradbury, who owns the podcast “The TeacherCast.” The goal of this podcast is to educate educators about educational technological resources. In this episode, Jeff discusses the educational tech tool ClassTag. Jeff, who formerly worked as a school teacher, interviews both Vlada Lotkina, founder of ClassTag, and Renee Angle, a 4th-grade teacher who uses ClassTag in order to discover the benefits of this technological tool for teachers. ClassTag is a virtual tool for teachers and parents to communicate with each other, allowing parents to be on board with their student’s schoolwork and behavior, as well as build a relationship with the teacher and get involved in the classroom.  While Vlada Lotkina dives into the purpose and goals of ClassTag, Renee Angle gives insight into the benefits of implementing ClassTag in the classroom. The primary points that Lotkina and Angle offer about ClassTag is that it allows teachers to spend less time tediously communicating, to communicate with parents about assignments and school/classroom events, to record which parents actually read the message, allows parents to conveniently set how many notifications they receive from the app (unless the teacher uses the “urgent” setting on a message, in which all parents will be notified regardless of settings), allows parents to easily and freely sign up, and that parents genuinely enjoy using ClassTag. The main message of both Vlada and Renee is that using ClassTag allows teachers to form a partnership with their students’ parents. 

Analysis: In this podcast episode, both the founder of ClassTag (Vlada Lotkina) and an avid user of ClassTag in her actual classroom (Renee Angle) offer nothing but wonderful things to say about how great ClassTag is as a means of communication between teachers and parents, as well as how beneficial it is that the tool allows for relationships to be built through this communication. Our driving question posits, How do teachers leverage tech to gain access to funds of knowledge? Funds of knowledge, which has to do with a students knowledge regarding their background (culture, lifestyle, home life, etc.) typically can be given insight to by the student’s parents. As ClassTag is a technological tool that allows teachers to directly communicate with parents about many different things (academics, behavior, classroom events, etc.), it seems that this could be a technological tool teachers could leverage to gain access to funds of knowledge. 

Many of the assertions about ClassTag that Lotkina and Angle made give insight into how ClassTag allows teachers to build relationships with parents, which allows teachers to use ClassTag as a means of bridging the gap between school and home by obtaining information about their students’ funds of knowledge. One of the features of ClassTag that the pair discuss is the ability for teachers to know which parents read the messages. This helps teachers gain access to the student’s funds of knowledge, as it provides insight into which families may have a busy home life, or perhaps limited access to technology at home. Additionally, the pair share that parents are able to adjust their settings to send them a summary of the posts from the week if they are very busy and/or just do not want to read all the messages at once. They add that if necessary, the teachers can override this setting, if something very important that all parents must be aware of pops up. As a result of this setting, parents are pleased because their space and time is respected, but if something is urgent, they will be notified by the teacher. This builds respect and trust between parents and teacher, allowing a relationship in which conversations giving insight to funds of knowledge can be more readily had, to grow. And of course, the ability to communicate with parents about anything on ClassTag allows for great access to funds of knowledge!

This information was collected from the founder of ClassTag and a teacher who uses and is a fan of ClassTag. This guarantees that the information about ClassTag is trustworthy and real. It also suggest that the implementation of ClassTag in a real classroom could be very successful. In regards to how this analysis will inform our research overall, I believe that it allows us to designate a specific form of technology (ClassTag) that will allow teachers to gain access to funds of knowledge about students through parents, which is something that our prior research has suggested. This analysis gives us an example of a tangible piece of technology that will gain access to funds of knowledge. 

Citation: Klassroom. (2018, October 4). Download Klassroom for free!. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlbFC8cGV80

Summary: The video gives a broad overview of all of the simple functions Klassroom is able to accomplish. It shows the app in the video prompting those watching it to see in real-life what the application will look like when 

Analysis: This informational video gives a very brief overview of the specific function Klassroom provides that are all free such as viewing the teachers latest post, receiving and answering private messages, receiving post notifications, being able to inform teachers of an absence or delay. Features also include consulting old posts from teacher, filtering posts by categories, and many more inapp included resources such as events, homework, latest comments, etc. All of these features encourage teachers and parents to be more interactive in communication between one another about their student/child’s school and home life. For instance, one of the categories available to message a teacher about is special care. This allows for the parent to message the teacher about any possible hometroubles, possible learning difficulties, a child not sleeping well the night before, or any other personal information about the child’s life that could possibly affect their academic integrity. This directly relates to Funds of Knowledge because it is giving the parents and teachers the intended resources to be more involved in the opposing life that they usually are not present in. The teacher is given information about the students personal life in order to implement it into the classroom and while the parent is consistently staying updated on in school life, and given resources to inform teachers.