Today we celebrate Digital Learning Day in a number of celebrations online and offline. The focus is on the authentic and effective use of technology in our classrooms. As always, the focus should be on using digital texts and tools to positively affect student learning objectives in our classrooms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as…
Over the past couple of years I’ve worked with colleagues to help extend research in online reading comprehension to include other elements of literacy that I think are missing from the model. Through various initiatives we’ve developed elements of online collaborative inquiry, and online content construction to help expand the work students are involved in as they use online information sources…
An announcement went out about the same time I was starting up the semester looking for chapter proposals for a new book on writing and technology coming out soon. I’ve never written a chapter by myself, but was very much intrigued as it would provide me with an opportunity to further expand my thinking on…
After the completion of the MA New Literacies Institute, I spent a good amount of time reflecting of the week of work. I considered the implications of the work we’ve conducted so far in trumpeting the need for authentic and effective use of technology in the classroom. I considered my own responsibilities and the responsibilities of teachers as these technologies are (could be)…
As the week of festivities at the MA New Literacies Institute (NLI) 2012 wraps up I’ve taken some time to reflect on the events of the week. One common thread that has me thinking as I’ve made my way back from Cambridge is the role of responsibility of teachers as they make room for technology…
We are quickly approaching the week of festivities for the Massachusetts New Literacies Institute 2012. For those of you that are unaware, we bring in 100 teachers from all over the State, and 10 teacher leaders. The week is a gigantic workshop/conference/professional development extravaganza. We have a great schedule of keynotes, digging deeper sessions, and focused…
Just finished a tutorial for a session on audio podcasts and Soundcloud in the classroom. The session will happen next week as one of the Digital Texts and Tools sessions at our MA New Literacies Institute. The idea behind the session, and the use of the tool came from discussions Greg McVerry, Sue Ringler-Pet and…
As we creep closer to the start of the Instructional Technology & Digital Media Literacy (IT&DML) program, I wanted to share more details from the planning and scaling up of the program. The purpose of the program is to provide hybrid professional development and a graduate educational experience for educators that culminate in digital portfolios…
Last week I had the privilege of presenting to some of our students on possible uses of new and digital literacies in an Elementary school. I presented an initial PPT describing the changing nature of literacy, which ultimately led into an instructional model I have been developing along with my colleague Greg McVerry. The gist of the talk focuses on…
Recently I had the privilege of receiving a message on Facebook from a friend that I taught with for a couple years. He is making the move into administration and asked me how he potentially could respond to the following question that a school district was planning on asking him during their interview process. “From your point of view, how important is technology…