Incorporating New Literacies into the Curriculum

The addition of digital literacies to our culture and the instructional process is causing a shift in what are and will be deemed best instructional practices in our schools. Many educators participated in a school system based on the printed text and have had to adjust their own learning as well as teaching practices to incorporate the “new literacies” that are a part of the learning, employment and social realms of the students in our classrooms. Add to this that new forms communication continue to develop and enter mainstream society and we see a real need to prepare our students to be literate in a wide array of forums from the traditional textbook to accessing and analyzing online content to participating in Twitter chats, Snap Chats, Instagram and discussion boards as well as wikis and blogs.. It is therefore necessary to instill traditional literacy skills in our students as well as newer digital information and communication literacy and the ability to adapt to and use yet to be developed literacies.

The question arises, “How do we provide on-going systemic professional development that allows teachers and school administrators to stay current with continually developing literacies and incorporate these into the content of the curriculum?” The need for an open mind set ,as characterized by Carol Dweck in her book Mind Set, and job embedded professional development have taken on a new level of importance. Consider that students entering preschool this year will be retiring around 2080. The skills these students will need to navigate jobs that may not even exist yet are challenging to imagine. We can however work with the business industry to stay knowledgeable about the types of literacies skills they are looking for in their employees. It is also important that as we teach our students to be good digital citizens, we teach them how to use social digital literacies in a way that reflect the individual as being of a sound quality character.

Exploring Web 2.0 Tools

As I explored the module on More Cool Web 2.0 Tools as part of the elective portion of the IEASC certification, I found myself having fun going through different tools that I’ve played with at one point or another and appreciating how much I’ve learned about incorporating 21st Century Tools into classroom instruction.

There were two items that stood out to be in my exploration. The first one was the wiki of the many social networking sites that are available. Wow - I didn’t know. I focus primarily on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Diigo for my personal use. However, this wikipedia site Social Networking Sites introduced me to a variety of sites I was not familiar with.

The second item that stood out was the treasure trove of videos on how to use Web 2.0 tools to support instruction that can be on found on Edutopia. Video modeling is an evidence based practice that I’ve used frequently in classroom instruction, to guide professional development and for my personal learning. This resource was loaded with great material.

I continue to social media to connect with other professionals and keep a record of my favorite educational sites and resources. I appreciate the use Twitter and Today’s Meet offer as backchanneling options to support instruction. I’ll be sharing the Edutopia resource with my staff. It’s a wonderful option for exploring Web 2.0 tools and how to incorporate them into lesson planning and learning.

Pod Casts, Baseball and Physical Education

I’ve been under the weather. No, I’ve been sick - really sick. I haven’t had a voice in several days and it’s put quite a few things on hold. One of those things has been the work I’ve been doing to wrap up the requirements for my IEASC coursework. I’ve been waiting, what I thought, has been patiently to have a voice to record a podcast with, but alas, it’s taking too long to be able to talk again. Therefore, I’ve decided to go with an old podcast for this assignment and take a little bit of a different perspective from the usual language arts, math or social studies or science perspective I usually take.

The incorporation of technology into the various classroom pedagogies also lends itself to the study of physical education and it’s related fields. The California Physical Education Standards call for students to be able to “demonstrate the motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities” (Standard One) as well as to be able to “demonstrate and utilize knowledge of psychological and sociological concepts, principles, and demonstate stratetegies that apply to the learning and performance of physical activity” (Standard 5). Thus, providing the opportunity for students to explore the rules of various and the corresponding careers.

This podcast demonstrates an opportunity for PE teachers and students to incorporate Common Core Listening and Speaking Standards into the physical education curriculum. A couple of years ago, I began to explore podcasting. The first podcast I created was in Garage Band and focused on highlighting an accomplishment of my son’s Little League team. The Yankees won their game. A similar student project would allow students to incorporate PE, Common Core and NETS standards.

Administrative support for these types of projects would meet the NETS Standard for Administrators Number 2 Digital Age Learning Culture - Educational Administrators create, promote, and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for all students, most specifically focusing on item D of the standard Ensure effective practice in the study of technology and its infusion across the curriculum.

*Audio file in Garage Band - this blogger was unable to upload the MP3 audio file.

Incorporating Visual Literacy into Instruction

I always enjoy the study of visual literacy and feel that this is a discipline that doesn’t get enough focus in the classroom. As educators, we place a strong emphasis, as we should, on expressing ourselves through the written and spoken word and increasing comprehension skills of the written and spoken word. Visuals are a powerful medium used in society that are filled with meaning and symbolism, yet, a these skills do not receive the same emphasis of focused, explicit instruction.

Studying the photo sharing module provided some good resources including the Edutopia post Using Social Media to Teach Visual Literacy in the 21st Century Classroom. as well as this guide Visual Literacy Guide by ISTE. The images are powerful and the lessons and learning that can be created around these tie nicely to the Common Core focus on Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking.

Social media such as Flickr and Instagram add a digital literacy component that can be incorporated into teaching that focuses on the development of visual literacy skills. Photo galleries such DropEvent are great supporting resources that allow students to store and display work. A smaller gallery option which is becoming popular with teachers is Padlet. Padlet also allows for text boxes to be added. 

The work I’m doing this year continues to revolve around NETS Standard 3 - Model Digital Age Work and Learning and Standard 5 - Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. It is my hope that as I demonstrate knowledge and fluency in technology systems and digital literacy, sharing resources from my professional learning with staff, I will be able to inspire other educators to engage with these literacies.  It is my hope that by doing this, I’ll see more teachers taking an interest  in NETS Standards and incorporating these into their own practices.

An Exploration of Social Book Marking

I found it interesting to spend time looking through some of the different social bookmarking options. I had already established Delicious and Diigo accounts which I came to learn have been populating various blog twitter posts for quite some time. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this was happening and there are no folders or tags in either forum to organize the thousands, yes thousands, of articles, blog posts and resources that are in each account. I started to become a little overwhelmed as I looked at the many posts and was happy to move on to Educlipper.

I appreciated the knowledge I gained about how to use these tools both to collect and organize my personal resources as well as the ideas that were given to support students using these tools for research and the sharing of resources.

Given my current role as a site administrator, I’m finding that that NETS standard that applies to most of knowledge and it’s incorporation into my professional life is Standard 3 - Model Digital Age Work and Learning. The use of social bookmarking forms allows me to “exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society” in addition to demonstrating “fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.”

Discovering the Power of the RSS Feed

The IEASC (Innovative Educator Advanced Studies Studies Certificate) has been a worthwhile program introducing me to many valuable ed. tech tools, solidifying my knowledge in how to incorporate these tools into instruction with a focus on the pedagogy rather than the tool and emphasizing the important role we have as educators to prepare our students to be literate in 21st Century skills. I recently completed a unit that focused on RSS feeds - Real Simple Syndication.

I was familiar with the term and recognized the RSS symbol on websites, but hadn’t previously spent much time with this tool. I was pleasantly surprised by all that I learned and how impactful RSS feeds can be in following student work and customizing resources that I use for professional development and networking. An RSS feed brings together several web feed formats aggregating updated blog entries, news headlines and topics of interest such as the weather, video or a Twitter feed onto one page or site.

I chose to begin my personal exploration with Bloglines.

I created several pages based on my interests and the websites I visit most often. Wow! I am loving this tool. Yet, now that I’ve figured this out for my personal use, my thoughts go to how to I pass this tool on to my teachers in a way that the tool can be incorporated into their instructional practices and be worthwhile. My first thoughts went to a productivity tool in terms of following student blogs. but didn’t feel confident in how I could present this idea to staff. As I dove into some of the resources provided in the module provided through the IEASC program, I discovered a treasure trove of knowledge.

Will Richardson’s “A Quick Start Guide for Educators” offers many ideas and suggestions.

Richardson’s guide provided good instructions on how to set up a Bloglines RSS feed and how to use this tool and how to use it to follow student blogs while also reducing the teacher workload. Richardson goes on to describe how to use the feed to do web searches, follow the news and bookmark pages of interest.

The incorporation of an RSS feed into instructional practice also supports evidence of the National Education Technology Standards. While a case could be made for how the RSS feed could support each of the standards. I think it falls most strongly under NETS Standard  3 - Model Digital Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative

professional in a global and digital society.

a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new

technologies and situations

b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools

and resources to support student success and innovation

*cross posted at pgilders.com

A Wiki Exploration

I must confess, I just can’t get into the whole wiki thing. I’ve tried over the years. I’ve created wikis. I’ve joined wikis. Yet my experience remains the same. The wiki seems like a great idea in concept, but the ones I’ve engaged with don’t seem to gain traction, are useful as a one time resource  or my interest just seems to fizzle.

As a result of the Web 2.0 course I’m taking through the IEASC program, I have come across one wiki, I’m finding to be a gold mine. Check out Web Tools for the Classroom. While most wikis, admittedly, have lost my interest fairly quickly, I’ve bookmarked this one and shared it with several colleagues.

CoolCat Teacher, Vicki Davis, offers a great set of guidelines to follow when using wikis in the classroom. Her blog post on the topic is very informative. I’ve added this to my tool box of resources to share with other educators who are interested in increasing their knowledge about and use of Web 2.0 tools.

As part of the course, I did start a wiki - http://web20tools2share.wikispaces.com/. There isn’t much there yet, but I’m hoping the site will see visitors who contribute their tools and ideas for incorporating Web 2.0 tools into instruction and professional development.

*cross posted at pgilders.com