GDocs, Blogs, Blog Roll ... Moving Forward!

:: Just created a new post on my school blog to unveil Google Docs for those who are still wondering what the GD hype is all about. Browsing the Moving Forward site I came across a video clip Christopher Atkinson created with his students. Check it out @ Teaching & Technology - the kids offer pretty convincing arguments for using Google Docs. Atkinson is a Google Certified teacher who teaches & uses Google apps with elementary level students - tons of projects and ideas for innovative teaching! Great blog roll - I'm subscribing! This blog has a spot on mine.
Another Moving Forward siting, Keystrokes, has landed on my blog roll. The creator of this blog, Nina Peery of White Oak, Texas, is an elementary school computer lab teacher. Her site is amazingly comprehensive - it contains tons of technology tips & wisdom for teachers, students AND parents. She uses Google Docs and cutting edge digital media tools. Love her Google lab schedule (on my to-do list). Her blog layout is simple and very easy to read. This is definitely a blog I'm following (I subscribed ....).
:: Last week I spent a good 3 days scrubbing, reimaging and prepping (40 and counting) G4 iBooks for our teaching staff. A pretty tedious task until I had to use a Google Docs database to enter MLTI & assignment information. Has this ever happened to you? I'm comfortable with dbases & entering data, I use Excel. But in this database I encountered a "concurrent" user, my hunch is the creator! At one point I tried to scroll down, copy & paste and someone took over the control of my cursor and started moving the data I & others had entered all over the place. What a mess. And then, I discovered my deus ex machina: UNDO (undo, undo, undo, undo ....). I managed to avert disaster and managed to redo/reinstate data order. Was this a fluke, was this my imagination, or is this a common side-effect of concurrent use?
:: This weekend I'm going to experiment with GDocs - my goal is to do a quick & paperless, hassle-free "how are you going to use your G4..." survey before handing them out. If I figure it out over the weekend I'll make learning transparent, right?
Moving forward ...

Taking the Digital Plunge

Bill Ferriter's article Taking the Digital Plunge appeared in the September issue of Educational Leardership: Teaching for the 21st Century. I have summarized the article in the Quicktime presentation below. Before activating the presentation please READ the information that follows. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and the need to multi-task.

Technical disclaimer and viewing tips:

• I used Pages (iWorks) to create the slide show. I've always used MS PowerPoint so this was a "first".
  
• It all looked fine in Keynote but in the process of formatting it into a Quicktime movie, my presentation shrunk! Use the "View" button on the menu bar and zoom to at least 150% for viewing without ruining your eyes.
  
• You will notice that timing is a bit off - slides and content are moving a faster than I had expected. Please use the slider tool or the "pause" button at the bottom of the video windown to stop and read because Bill Ferriter makes such sense!

Alice, thanks so much for making this article part of our class assignments. Bill Ferriter inspires me and his words encourage me to continue to inspire others!

"Orchestrating the Media Collage" by Jason Ohler

A summary of "Orchestrating the Media Collage" by Jason Ohler
speaker, digital humanist, author & President's Professor of Educational Technology - University of Alaska

you can read the entire article online @ "Educational Leadership - March 2009, Volume 66, Number 6

"Being able to read and write multiple forms of media and integrate them into a meaningful whole is the new hallmark of literacy."

THE SHORT OF IT
In "Orchestrating the Media Collage" Jason Ohler hones in on the historical and current definition of the word literacy and what lies at the core of the literacy evolution, the shift into what it is and how it is perceived today. Most importantly, Ohler's article talks about what this shift in literacy means for today's educators, their students in the context of differentiating narratives with digital media & publishing tools and Web 2.0 venues. For many it is a daunting task to create a digital teaching and learning environment and to bring it to the next level: collaborate, teach and learn with local and global communities. The shift to teach 21st Century (digital) literacy is huge and places new demands on teachers as they prepare their students for a digitally connected world.

The guidelines Ohler offers in his article are meant to help teachers cope with the new demands a digital society places on literacy, In them he assures those educators who are worried about digital media and their potential negative impact on traditional literacy skills that these traditional skills are more important than ever before in order to turn students into critical readers, organized writers and effective participants in digital communications and collaborations on the Web.

MY 2 BITS WORTH & SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The technology-in-education train is out of the station because digital literacy has become and IS part of LIFE!

Digital literacy = literacy = no turning back! If you're not sure about this just check with your kids/students.

25 Years ago digital tools made their debut in the classroom ... before I landed in education, just around the time I worked for for multi-national companies in the network infrastructure field - global packet switching in the early days and submarine transmission systems in the early nineties, connecting continents, countries, cities, multinational businesses & people world-wide through trans-oceanic, fiber optics systems. Now I my work with technology "end users", educators and students, promoting the use opf digital tools and venues taking teaching and learning to a higher level and beyond classroom walls. The pace at which networks were built was super-sonic as competition was fierce - shouldn't the same apply to building digital literacy and US education in general?

Ohler's article confirms what I have sensed for years ... there is an urgent, accelerated need for educators to hop on the 21st Century literacy train. To make this happen, we need to quell the general perception (myth) that technology and in particular digital media replace traditional literacy.

More than ever before, teachers need to provide students with high-level skills such as critical thinking, comprehension, synthesizing, the ability to organize letters, words and sentences so that they can create effective digital media collages. Participating effectively in social networking hinges in large part on traditional literacy skills. Surprisingly Ohler did not elaborate more on the importance and key component of 21st Century literacy: CITIZENSHIP!

For those educators in denial, the shift to (digital) literacy represents a double whammy for some so overwhelming that they will miss that tech train altogether, and short-change their students. On the other hand, when educators are on board it is great to watch and experience hesitation transform into a commitment to making technology part of classroom thinking, lesson planning, teaching, collaborating, and learning. In both cases I think Ohler's advice “to focus on expression first and technology second - and everything will fall into place." and to strike a balance between teaching traditional and digital literacy especially holds value for the tech-wary.

Are teachers prepared? How? When? Are they ready?
Just wondering, did this article generate any opposing views to Ohler's perspective among the literacy experts?

Lastly, and I don't know if this is due to Ohler's writing style, I had a tough time summarizing this article and I did not really want to create this rambling, scrolling post. As you can see, I should summarize the summary. I would also have preferred to offer you [readers] a separate link my lengthy summary ... if they would be so inclined.
Does Blogger not have a "new page" feature?

Why didn't Ohler walk his talk and capture the essence of his message in a media collage? What digital venue would he have used to post it: a Blog, a Wiki?
In the meantime, I am working on KidPix slide shows and digital media with my ELL newcomers ... I don't speak Burmese or Arabic so thanks to digital media we can at least start somewhere to connect, build literacy and most of all communicate! Isn't that what it's all about?

BOTTOM LINE ...

FOR THE LONGER (OF THE SHORT) OF IT ... READ ON, AND ON, AND ON, AND ON .......

The Evolution of “Literacy”

Centuries ago, the words letter and literacy were closely linked and were used to describe a person who “knew the letters”, someone who was educated. This general definition of literacy still prevails, however, the meaning of literacy has evolved beyond its core association with reading, understanding, and being able to write “the letters”.

More and more is the word literacy is used to describe someone’s knowledge and skill in specialty areas, i.e. math literacy. In the area of technology the term digital literacy has become a commonly used term to describe someone who has knowledge and skill to function and perform in a digital society. For educators it is important to understand this shift to a new, 21st Century brand of literacy, digital literacy. Understanding digital literacy is the key to teaching, to preparing students for today’s job market but it is also a compass to understanding the newly emerging profile of “illiteracy”.

Today ...

Reading and writing with pen(cil) on paper is no longer enough to function in life. Nine years into the 21st Century society expects us to be creative and innovative writers and to use new, dynamic digital media and channels to publish smooth, seamless end products on the Web with Web 2.0 publishing tools and venues that are no longer cost-prohibitive and widely available.

Today’s (Web) authors are expected to know how to use, manipulate, and compile ever-changing digital components into a narrative media collage that is ready for instant viewing, sharing, and editing on the Social Web: blogs, MySpace, YouTube, Google Docs and other digital venues. This instant, public, and collaborative nature of media literacy requires high levels of literacy and places great pressure on students to learn and master new digital skills quicker than ever before in order to produce high-quality work. The dynamics and speed of adapting new digital literacy adds a new dimension to illiteracy.

According to Jason Ohler, today’s definition of literacy includes digital media. Whether we agree or not he suggests that “A strong case can be made that commanding new media constitutes the current form of general literacy and that adding the modifier digital is simply not necessary anymore.”

Ohler Tips for Digital Lit Success ...

Ohler's 8 guidelines that should help teachers in teaching students the skills they need to be digital literacy.

1. Shift from text centrism to media collage - Explore “fearlessly”, experiment, collaborate, and learn together. Digital media change so quickly that nobody can really claim to be an expert on the educational implications of media.

2 . Teach students the skills to be effective and active participants in collaborative projects on the Social Web: fluency in synthesizing, clarifying, editing, thinking, and communication. Highly developed skills in creative writing are the core of an effective blog: the ability to write concisely (using the 6 Bs and hyperlinks) and to create “visually differentiated text” (by including digital photography, movie and audio clips) will engage the intended audience.

3. Adopt Art as the next R - Art can no longer be treated as an “elective” in K-12 education. With the shift from text centrism to media collage, knowledge of art, design, including music, drama and other forms of artistic expression, is an essential component of media literacy. Art should be taught by art teachers, not computer teachers.

4. Blend traditional and emerging literacies - take the DAOW approach to media literacy: use a well balanced menu of new and traditional forms of literacy, digital, art, oral, and written expression to create new media collages and to achieve best student outcomes.

5. Harness report & story - students need to be able to understand and create research reports and stories as each requires a distinct writing style. With new media students can now create an interesting collage that captures both forms of writing in a report-story continuum.

6) Practice private and participatory social literacy - Contrary to conventional literacy (an ear for an eye) and the social experiences brought to us by TV in its infancy, Web 2.0 tools make it possible for everyone, regardless of social or economic status, to contribute and to participate in the new literacy phenomenon: social networking combining individual and collective thinking and creative expression all take place in a public and global forum - the Web.

7. Develop literacy with digital tools and about digital tools - “Students need to be media literate to understand how media technique influences perception and thinking.” Students need to understand the importance of digital citizenship, Web safety, security, and ethics rules to be a part of the new networked world. New media opens the door to larger, global social issues that will help students become informed and caring individuals.

8. Pursue fluency - A teacher who is digitally fluent has the know-how and creativity to use digital tools to build innovative lessons that take learning beyond the classroom and make meaningful connections to students’ lives.

Teachers as Guides ... ?/ !

Overall, teachers are excited about the new digital literacy but others are overwhelmed and do not understand that they do not have to be digital experts in order to guide and help their students to become media literate. Students are inherently fearless adopters of new technology - it is with their teachers’ clear guidance and feedback that they will be able to expand on their talents and develop quality and lasting technology skills.

Jason Ohler’s advice to teachers who are worried about digital literacy is “to focus on expression first and technology second - and everything will fall into place.”

Where in the world ...

We all have come from many different places,
we all speak different languages,
we like and eat different foods,
and
we all have different customs and traditions
making each and every one of us unique!

What we will discover is that we also have many things in common!
Let's find out what they are.

"Did You Know?"

Imagine having a great time with technology on a rainy Saturday. I'm part of small group of people that is doing exactly that! It was tough to get out of bed this morning but everyone in the group is alert :) especially after viewing the latest version of the "Did You Know" video that more or less explains our class mission: learn, master, teach & share new 21st Century technology tools for educators and students. Our class "home" base is USMEPC512.
"Come on, see what I'm [we're] doing." (Alice)