Mediated Culture, Memes, Portland and Open Education

"There is no opting out of new media…. it changes a society as a whole…. media mediates relationships…. the whole structure of society can change…. we are on a razor’s edge between hopeful possibilities and more ominous futures…."

 Dr. Michael Wesch (Cultural Anthropologist)

This weeks announcement by Portland Public School's that they are going to *try* to block social media sites on student laptop computers has caused an uproar and outpouring of rebuke from educators around the state of Maine.  Events in Portland had a strange co-incidence with an issue at WHS this week.  At WHS the Web 2.0 foundations course and Mrs. Bell's history course are working to contextualize an issue that caused blocking to occur in our one to one laptop program Tuesday.  Unlike the Portland situation, we do not have an endemic issue with inappropriate sites that has caused alarm, but we did fall prey to a viral social media site that posed a threat to some young people and the school by exhibiting racist, sexist, and threatening sentiments.  It is the goal of WHS to responsibly seek more freedoms for young people and the internet and not less.  How we as a learning community approach this topic will define much about learning at WHS in the future.  This is an issue for adults and young people to work on together.

Here are some recent articles forwarded to me that I think make good points about social media in schools and open educational policies toward the internet:

 The Case for Social Media in Schools: http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

What are the costs of blocking social media: http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/social-media-ban-backfire/


Right now Web 2.0 Foundations course members are deliberating appropriate use of technology for learning and living in the 21st century. Using Twitter, Canvas LMS discussion forums and the hour we meet at the school, the seminar was initiated to discuss the recent incidence of harassment that caused a site to be blocked on their machines.  Our first days seminar went well with a respectful exchange of ideas and cultural norms expressed.  According to one participant who wants to be a diesel mechanic, having machines at school at all makes no sense if he has to use them for traditional subject matter.  He wants to do the least amount of work that does not apply to his life aspirations as possible.  Conversely young people who love the arts, and engineering spoke forcefully for having there machines as they opened the world up to them and allowed them to research without boundaries what they found fascinating! I will post more on our deliberations in the future.

In the history department, Mrs. Bell offered a project on memes in history that built of the phenomenon and interests of young people and led to amazing discussions on what makes a meme:

A good or effective meme is
- historicallly accurate
- clear
- clever
- references 'then' and 'now'
- is grammatically correct

A weak or ineffective meme is
- offensive
- unclear
- T.M.I (too much information)
- uses an unrelated image
- inaccurate

Together our learning community is having  a discussion about society, media and the future of education.  Adults are listening to young people while providing a safe environment for deliberation and learning. Young people are speaking up about their futures, freedoms, and learning.  Not always an easy exchange....but an essential one.  Keep talking.

Join to conversation by leaving a comment to this post or having a conversation with someone.  Let us know your thoughts.

WHS May Professional Development Series

Learning in a Networked World  Add to Planner

Wednesday, 5/9/2011 2:30pm-3:30pm (CHANGED) Where:                    Mac Lab Prerequisites: Connection to the Internet/MLTI Laptop Theme: Digital-age Teaching & Learning online—Literacies for the Information/Creativity Age Audience: Admin, Teachers, iTeam and interested students Skill: Beginner to Advanced NETS•S: 3- 5 NETS•T: 2- 5 NETS•A: 1- 3, 5 Keywords: web20found, networkedlearning, lms, literacies E-mail: tsteelemaley@svrsu.org Primary URL/Discussion: online resource site coming online                Purpose & ObjectivesPurpose of this session is:  introduce faculty and admin to WHS Canvas LMS. to provide examples, techniques and online resources for teachers to use in the classroom and in online spaces through the creation of a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Introduce current research/resources on digital literacies and citizenship Supporting Research Introduction to Canvas: Canvas K-12 Site Introduction Video: Canvas PLN Personal Lerning Networks for Educators: Video via Dr. Skip Via Follow Richard Byrne http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  Join: Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/ Twitter in Plain English http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter  Brief and engaging video look at how Twitter works. Twittering not Frittering http://www.edutopia.org/twitter-professional-development-technology-microblogging  Explanation of how Twitter can be used as a professional development tool. TwittGroups ADE and Teachers http://twittgroups.com/groups/ade and http://twittgroups.com/groups/teachers  Listing of many Apple Distinguished Educators and Teachers who are using Twitter  Alan November, Web Literacy  Howard Rheingold, Crap Detection 101  Bud Hunt,  Lie of Community  Internet literacy is a hot media/govt topic... a sampling: Digital Literacy is important

What part of connected learning do we do well?

Connected Learning

The Essence of Connected Learning from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

We are living in a historical moment of transformation and realignment in the creation and sharing of knowledge, in social, political and economic life, and in global connectedness. There is wide agreement that we need new models of education suited to this historic moment, and not simply new models of schooling, but entirely new visions of learning better suited to the increasing complexity, connectivity, and velocity of our new knowledge society. Fortunately, we are also able to harness the same technologies and social processes that have powered these transformations in order to provide the next generation with learning experiences that open doors to academic achievement, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. Specifically, we now have the capability to reimagine where, when, and how learning takes place; to empower and motivate youth to pursue knowledge and develop expertise at a pace, to a degree, and on a path that takes advantage of their unique interests and potential; and to build on innovations across a growing spectrum of learning institutions able to support a range of learning experiences for youth that were unimaginable even 15 years ago. We propose a new approach to learning -- connected learning -- that is anchored in research, robust theories of learning, and the best of traditional standards, but also designed to mine the learning potential of the new social- and digital media domain. Connected learning is a model of learning that holds out the possibility of reimagining the experience of education in the information age. It draws on the power of today's technology to fuse young people's interests, friendships, and academic achievement through experiences laced with hands-on production, shared purpose, and open networks.

DML Central Connected Learning

Great Google Docs Tips for Students

Great Google Docs Tips for Students

1. Access your documents from anywhere: Whether you’re in your dorm room or the school library, you can access your Google Docs. Take advantage of this to make it easy to do your work on-the-go.
2. Use Docs reference tools: Take advantage of the Define option to use Docs’ built in dictionary, as well as a thesaurus and an encyclopedia available for use right in your document.
3. Go mobile: Google Docs is available on most smart phones, and has a number of capabilities available on the go.
4. Save to different file types: You can easily save your documents and spreadsheets to commonly used file types like DOC, XLS, CSV, and HTML.
5. Use keyboard shortcuts: With keyboard shortcuts, you can speed through all of your tasks in Google Docs.
6. Use templates: Google Docs has a template gallery for just about anything you can imagine, from an apartment bills organizer to a doc for organizing college visits.
7. Convert PDFs to images and text: Use Google Docs to make PDFs easily editable.
8. Create forms: Gather research information, ask for opinions, and more by creating Forms in Google Docs.
9. Search EVERYTHING: Search through pretty much everything you’ve got by searching Docs and Gmail together, thanks to Gmail Labs settings.
10. Autodetect links: Simply add links in Google Docs by having them automatically detected, instead of having to input full URLs.
11. Adding video: You can embed video in documents, slides, and more to dress up your presentation.
12. Insert photos with drag and drop: Instead of going through the process of attaching, you can just drag and drop files from your hard drive into the document, then wrap text around the photo.
13. Create graphs: Visuals are great tools for getting your point across. Using charts in Google Spreadsheets, you can create your very own information-sharing graphs.
14. Look up live finance data: In Google Spreadsheet, you can use special formulas to pull live information from Google’s finance service.
15. Self-update spreadsheets: In addition to inserting live finance data, you can create a live link to that data for a document that constantly updates itself as accurate.
16. Draw in Docs: Using Polyline, snap to guides, and other drawing features, you can easily create the images your documents need.
17. Insert facts: Using Google Spreadsheet, it’s easy to insert facts, like the population for a city, which is simply pulled through the Google search engine.
18. Simply add equations: Google Docs has found a way to make it easy for students to take notes in class, offering an Equations editor for adding equations onto your pages.
19. Embed Docs anywhere: Get a link to your document or spreadsheet, and you can embed or publish it anywhere, including Facebook or a class blog.
20. Just share: Get the ball rolling on collaboration through Google Docs by sharing your document through email links.
21. Turn it into a webpage: Download your document in HTML, and you can share it as a webpage with a minimal amount of hassle.
22. Chat away: In Google Docs, you can see anyone who is currently editing the document, and if needed, send a message to chat with them.
23. Team up with anyone: Using Google Docs, you can collaborate on a document with friends, classmates, and professors.
24. Share an entire folder: If you’ve got a collection of documents to work on together, just open up a shared folder that everyone can access.
25. Work on documents all at the same time: Google Docs allows users to simultaneously work on a single master document, so you can come together with other team members and professors to work on a document at the same time.
26. Allow editing without signing in: If you’re sharing a document with classmates who don’t have a Google login, just make it available to edit without signing in.

1. Track visits: Using Google Analytics, you can track how much traffic a published document is receiving.
2. Set notification rules: Find out about the changes made by your collaborators on any given document by setting up notification rules.
3. Use Docs instead of emailing attachments: Rather than emailing revised versions of documents over and over again, you can just use Google docs and see revision histories.
4. Kick slackers off of a project: Simply remove collaborators doing more harm than good by clicking None next to their name.
5. Freeze to stop editing: If you’ve perfected certain rows and columns in your spreadsheet, just freeze them so they’re not accidentally edited.
6. Revert back to old versions: If your group doesn’t like a certain set of changes made, it’s very simple just to revert back to automatically saved previous versions in the revision history.
7. Save brainstorm notes for group projects: Get everyone’s ideas all together in one place by using Google Docs for brainstorming.
8. Use data validation: Make sure that your collaborators aren’t adding a mess to your spreadsheet by using data validation on shared documents.
9. Use color coding: You can change text colors based on rules, like setting green for one classmate, blue for another, and red for yourself.
10. Clean up your main Google Docs page: Move items to individual folders, and you can make your landing page a lot cleaner and easy to navigate.
11. Insert a bookmark: Make it easy to access other parts of your document, like a table of contents, by inserting bookmarks throughout.
12. Create subfolders: For an extra step of organization, create folders within folders.
13. Get color coded: Color code the names of your folders for quick and easy identification.
14. Get synched: Using tools like Syncplicity, you can get all of your Google Docs synched up with documents from Microsoft Office.
15. Create your own shortcuts: Put together shortcuts to launch Google Docs, create a new document, and even access frequently used documents in a flash.
16. Print multiple Docs at once: If you need to speed through printing several documents at one time, just download and open them as a zip file.
17. Quick View PDFs: When you see PDF files in search results, you can just Quick View them to open them up in Google Docs.
18. Check your translation work: Google Docs has added a translation tool, which can easily be used to double check your work when writing a foreign language essay.
19. Get a grade before you turn assignments in: Using Flubaroo on Google Docs, you can get quick feedback on your assignment, giving you a chance for improvement before you need to turn it in.
20. Write in full screen mode: Make your toolbar, menus, and other tempting distractions disappear by displaying your Google Docs in full screen.
21. Automatically correct your common mistakes: If you have words that you just can’t spell to save your life, set up a preference to automatically find and replace your mistakes with correctly spelled words.
22. Customize your styles: If you like a consistent look for your documents, set up a customized style so you don’t have to go back and fix it with every new document.
23. Work offline: Use the offline feature of Google Docs to work on the bus, plane, or anywhere you plan to go without an internet connection.
24. Save web pages to your Google Docs account: Turn any web page into a PDF for viewing later by using the send to Google Docs extension for Chrome.
25. Back it all up: Google Docs itself offers a great way to back up your documents, but it never hurts to save elsewhere, right? Back up and download all of your Google Documents and save them to a hard drive for safekeeping.
26. Use Google Docs for everyday stuff, too: You can use Google Docs to track expenses, maintain your calendar, and more.

Via Open Colleges

Blog Post Inspiration: A Day in the life....

A Day in NuVu from NuVu Studio on Vimeo.

Blogging: What would your day look like?

The inaugural Web 2.0 Foundations blog posts are due this weekend.  After participants looked over detailed directions and had some face to face collaborative planning time about blog basics we have moved on to understand blogs in a more conceptual sense while using blogs in learning context.  We use a comprehensive Blogging design sheet for our weekly reflection blog assignment:


At first I will give participants prompts, but in weeks to come their self organized research topics will guide blog posts:

Prompt 1 was given at the beginning of Week 2:

After viewing and commenting on the post above (http://whsii.blogspot.com/2012/02/networked-student.html) answer the following question in a new post on your blog "If you could get credit for school learning anyway you wished what would your day look like"? Remember to follow the Web 2.0 Blogging Assignment carefully and add images and or video in your post.

To scaffold this learning we devoted time to brainstorming dream designs and experiences for learning.... and had our first Mobile Learning experience with a short "walking" tour of the science wing to ideate on the potentials of WHS architecturally. More discussion in class.... I have students take group notes via Google Docs with one volunteer scribe to capture the big ideas.... Now its up to them. A few examples of divergent and very successful learning environments will follow in the next posts for participants all.

Targets Met (Week One and Two) *:

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S)

and Performance Indicators for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation  

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

a.apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.*

b.create original works as a means of personal or group expression.*

c.use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.*

d.identify trends and forecast possibilities.*

2. Communication and Collaboration  

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. (Partial)

b.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

c.develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

d.contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.*

3. Research and Information Fluency  

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a.plan strategies to guide inquiry.*

b.locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.*

c.evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.*

d.process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making  

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

a.identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. (Partial)

b.plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.*

c.collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.*

d.use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. (Partial)

5. Digital Citizenship   Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:  

a.advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.*

b.exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.*

c.demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. (Emerging)

d.exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. (Emerging)

6. Technology Operations and Concepts   Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:  

a.understand and use technology systems.*

b.select and use applications effectively and productively.*

c.troubleshoot systems and applications.*

d.transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.*

PD Series: Using Canvas to Create Community

[1]

Over years of teaching I have used many different tools for blended learning.  From Moodle and Mahara, to Wordpress, Blogger, Netvibes, and wholly distributed systems of personal learning networks based on Networked Learning, MOOC and Connectivist movements in education and more. The purpose of all of these tools (and mine as a social studies teacher, tech integrator, and teacher of information studies), for online learning was to build a learning community that extends, enhances and amplifies learning while also allowing learners to build on interests, dreams and aspirations for their future.  In transition to blended learning it is important that all involved, both teachers and students, are appropriately challenged. A good way to accomplish this in the early stages, is through the creation of a learning management system.

Canvas

Canvas offers a learning management system that is intuitive to students and teachers while also being connected directly with Google Apps.  The result is a dynamic environment for course design, management, and communication. As an opening vignette to the professional development series tied to Web 2.0 Foundations we will look at opening a course with Canvas.

* As a reminder: I will set up faculty sites this year for all core courses in Canvas upon request.

Setting up an LMS (Canvas)

This process takes setting the stage for learning in a blended course environment. 

The email:
Students woke up on Monday to an email from me with a small course welcome and the indication that they needed to check a link with a detailed explanation about getting course material: 

The explanation:
http://whsii.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome-web-20-foundation-participants.html

The outcome:
One hundred percent of the students in my course who where on my original course lists came ready to learn and understanding enough to ask good questions about how they could "catch up" with what I had set forth as expectations.  This is not in my teaching experience unusual.  I have spent up to 24/7 with high schoolers for five weeks as well as in classroom settings and one thing I have found is that they respond to appropriate expectations asking them to take charge of their learning.  Nothing special here. Hello, go to this link, this is what you should expect from me and this is what I expect from you.  Students who have come in later I have worked with to catch up.  Within 24 hours of the course start all students (across the spectrum) where in Canvas communicating with the Web 2.0 Foundations community.


What they found upon entry into OpenClass:
 Organization, simplicity in design, pathways of communication.

What they found in Week 1

 

This is What I found:

Almost 100 Percent participation in the online forums....At all hours

 

Within 48 hours the internal Twitter/Facebook "like" course wall becomes populated with community interaction and peer to peer learning.

 Setting up a blended learning environment takes work.  But more importantly it takes a realization that young people can, will and prefer to learn in part by the digital spaces that their lives revolve around.  In Web 2.0 Foundations first week students exhibited the core of 21st century learning.  They found, validated, leveraged, analyzed and synthesized information and problem solved and collaborated in dynamic spaces.  I hope you see how using an LMS might be a first step to blending your coursework and empowering your students to learn in new ways. For those of you using LMS now,  you already know the benefits and I hope you will find specifics that might help or inspire....(and yes, you can upload your Moodle courses directly into Canvas).
 

PD Series: Creating Blended Learning With Google Apps and Canvas

Web 2.0 Foundations is off to a healthy and inspiring start.

The course introduces students to Web 2.0 Foundations (learning and technological environments) through the experiential based pedagogy of networked and mobile learning. Web 2.0 Foundations utilizes a blended learning design to create a virtual and face to face community that promotes ubiquitous learning for WHS students.

According to Colis and Moonen (2001), "blended learning is a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning so that instruction occurs both in the classroom and online, and where the online component becomes a natural extension of traditional classroom learning." [1]  Blended Learning is an essential step toward readying young people for 21st century living.  As a learner, seeing the school classroom as a part or the learning process and not the whole is vital for success today. Likewise, Young people have the world at there fingertips and are using it:

The worlds reality illuminates the fact that old models are not working or preparing students.  What conversations should K-12 Educators have with Universities....




How educators facilitate and find confluence with the world and adapt or bypass current educational systems will determine in many ways the relevance of the teaching profession and schools.  Colis and Moonen, Bonk and Graham (2006) [2] , Jacobs (2010) [3] agree that embracing blended learning is essential for 21 century learners and is a solid step forward for educators.  According to the 2010 Horizon Report [4] (one of the most respected K-12 indices of research back learning trends):

Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Technology is impacting all of our lives, and especially the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognized as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of one’s own learning. Multisensory, ubiquitous, and interdisciplinary, technology is integrated into nearly everything we do. It gives students a public voice and a means to reach beyond the classroom for interaction and exploration.

We have the tools at WHS to move in the direction of prescient change without that change feeling radical.  Blended learning starts with empowerment. Learners take control of their learning through participation in scaffolded online and classroom communities. The first step toward learner self determination comes through expectation and assistance in weaving a world of learning with your students by creating a community both public and semi-public that is with learners twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.  Using a learning management systems (LMS) creates a link between face to face and virtual learning worlds without exposing the teacher or learners to the wilds of the public for core learning community interface.

Web 2.0 Foundations is using Canvas as an LMS platform.  Canvas weaves with Google Apps and provides a "cloud based" solution for moving your class into the 21st century.  Your content becomes fluid, your teaching opened to the wealth of resources on the internet and your communication/pedegogy amplified in a space that an overwhelming majority of students find comfort in navigating.

Posts dealing with Blended Learning will be "labeled" with blended learning canvas, lms and pd at the end of the post so you can easily find the series as more posts come in on other topics.

Thank you for your vision.  Please comment and start a conversation below!

"I like solving problems, and helping out" Web2.0found

Another excellent introductory post related that the individual likes to solve problems and help out.  I responded that these are essential 21st skills for employment and citizenship.  But don't just take my word....

 Rsa animate - changing education paradigms [Web]. (2010). Retrieved from http://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

To be a programmer.... Web2.0found

So glad to see the introductory forum posts in OpenClass.  I will respond to a few in the next couple of posts by feeding forward information.   It's amazing to know that one of your classmates aspires to become a computer programmer!  There is so much out there and I have worked with some amazing professionals in the field of programming.  They all say, if you want to program you better know how the internet works.

(n.d.). Internet map. [Web Map]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg

 
A good place to start might be Wikipedia's entry on the Internet (It is really quite amazing)....

You may want to jump right in. Besides HTML (which you will need to learn at some point), you might enjoy hacking on the programming language Ruby on Rails right now. You can Access Rails for Zombies here http://railsforzombies.org/  Rails for Zombies is an excellent and eccentric tutorial from Code School....a place you might want to join later. User beware there are zombies, buring things and a smidgen of poor language in the video.

ROR. (creation). (NA). Retrieved from http://railsforzombies.org/

And....If you do not know Scratch and you like gaming check it out!

(n.d.). Scratch icon. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://scratch.mit.edu/

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

"So the coin of the realm is not memorizing the facts and figures their going to need for the rest of their lives; the coin of the realm will be, do you know how to find, validate and leverage information; do you know how to analyze and synthesize that information; and can you problem solve, collaborate and communicate with it...." - Ken Kay [1]

Hello all,

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

An Opening Vignette:

Technology is a word we often confuse with computers, programs, and myriad gadgets only.  If you dig deeper I think you would agree that humans have utilized technology in very innovative ways since the Middle Paleolithic (or for those numbers folks out there c. 200,000 years ago+-).  Be it friction fire, basketmaking, agriculture, irrigation, warfare, in-door plumbing, radio's or iPads there has always been a human driving the social use of these tools.  Elders, leaders, wise people....yes teachers have always enabled and proliferated technology at the core of cultures.  We need to never loose site that the young people before us are entering a radically different world than the one we came from.  Though pockets of traditional life ways exist (and may proliferate in terms of localization of food and economies), the connections young people have to the world and what the world needs are fundamentally shifting the narrative of their futures. We need a learning design that helps young people prepare for a world without borders.   So how are we responding? In 2008, Pearson put together this short video to make a few suggestions:



"We have to develop a narrative that sustains 21st century learning."

The 21st century imperatives for learning deal with information.  Do we enable our students to find, validate, leverage, analyze, synthesize , problem solve and collaborate with information on a regular basis?  What does this look like? 

Web 2.0 Foundations is designed to be a participatory venture between our school, teachers, learners and the community that moves students into spaces of dynamic individualized learning with new technologies while also helping the whole faculty move toward creating spaces (mental, physical and online) that enable these 21st century learners.

Over the semester I will post my designs for Web 2.0 Foundations: setting up an Learning Management System and expectations for networked learning, designs for extensive networked research, mLearning (Mobile Learning), project based learning, 360 degree assessment and more.  You will also see and be asked to view and give feedback on  student research and online creation.  In the end, via a capstone project I will ask students to take an assignment (two....) from a teachers class and transform it using Web 2.0 Foundations.  This experience is meant to make learning at WHS ubiquitous for the participants of the course and our school community. I look forward to working with you all and look forward to your comments and support!  Before the course "officially" starts here are a few important organizational tips for following this process.

We will tag everything we create with the following:

web2.0found (Social Bookmarking, this blog (Called Labels), student blogs (Called Lables))
#web2.0found (Twitter Hashtag)
web2.0foundtools (for specific tech tools used in the experience)
web2.0foundreading (for specific readings and research findings we like)

More on how to follow this tag stream soon!

I look forward to participating with you all in network!

Coming soon:

Step one: can our students find a syllabus, schedule, updates, discussions and expectations in asynchronous spaces online?.....

Google In Education: A New and Open World for Learning

Please  view and download this document.  It is worth your time.

Apple iBooks Author and Textbooks

Transition Education: 

See More here: 

 
http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

Digital Literacy: A Curation

This Post is "Re-Blogged" here with permission from a post by Mary Ann Reilly (a friend, colleague and prescient change agent from New Jersey)

Curriculum & Frameworks
Digital Literacy and Citizenship Classroom Curriculum.  (Common Sense Media). (K-5, 6-8, 9-12)
NCTE  Position Statement: 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment Framework
NCTE Position Statement: Multimodal Literacies
NCTE Position Statement: Definition of 21st Century Literacies


Influential Reports
Biancarosa, Gina and Catherine E. Snow. (2006). Reading Next: A Vision For Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy. 2nd Edition. A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Flanagin, Andrew F. and  Miriam J. Metzger. (2011). Kids and Credibility. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gee, James Paul. 2010. New Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Area and "Worked Examples" as One Way. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Graham, Steve; Harris, Karen & Michael Herbert. (2011). Informing Writing: The Benefits of Formative Assessment.  A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Graham, Steve & Dolores Perin. (2006).  Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Graham, Steve & Michael Herbert. (2010). Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading.  A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Heller, Rafael and Cynthia L. Greenleaf. (2007). Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement.  A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Ito, Mizuko, Heather A. Horst, Matteo Bittanti, Danah Boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C.J. Pascoe, & Laura Robinson. (2009). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jenkins, Henry with Kathie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robinson, Margaret Weigel. (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kahne, Joseph, Ellen Middaugh and Chris Evans. (2009). The Civic Potential of Video Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Moje, E. B., & Tysvaer, N. (2010). Adolescent literacy development in out-of-school time: A practitioner’s guide. New York, NY: Carnegie Corporation of New York
The National Council of Teachers of English. (2008). Write Now: A Policy Research Brief. 
The National Council of Teachers of English. (2007). NCTE 21st Century Literacies: A Policy Research Brief. 
The National Council of Teachers of English. (2006). NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform: A Policy Research Brief. 
Schwartzbeck, Terri. (2011). The Digital Learning Imperative: How Technology and Teaching Meet Today's Education Challenges.  A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Deborah J. Short,  and Shannon Fitzsimmons. (2007).  Double the Work: Challenges and solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners. A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Organizations
Alliance for Excellent Education
Arts Education Partnership
ArtsLiteracy Project (Brown University) The Handbook is wonderful.
Center for Adolescent Literacies at UNC Charlotte
Center for Digital Literacy (Syracuse University)
Center of Excellence for the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades
Center for Media Literacy 
Center for the Study of New Literacies: Thinking about Literacy, Learning and New Technologies (University of Sheffield)

Commisison on Arts and Literacies International Reading Association
National Association for Media Literacy Education
National Council of Teachers of English
National Writing Project
New Literacies Research Lab at UCONN

Websites/On-Line Resources

Collaborative Center for Literacy Development. 2007. Adolescent Literacy Toolkit. Lexington, KY.Digital Media & Learning.  The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Digital Youth Network: is a hybrid digital literacy program that creates opportunities for youth to engage in learning environments that span both in-school and out-of-school contexts.
Digital Writing, Digital Teaching: Integrating New Literacies into the Teaching of Writing: Blog by Troy Hicks
FanFiction 
Interactive Writing Tools
Project New Media Literacies: Video collection
Re-Imagining Learning in the 21st Century. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.Remix Learning. Private company that provides an online platform for schools, cultural institutions, libraries, museums, and after-school programs to create their own customized social learning network
Teen Ink Literary magazine & website for teen writers
Youth Media in Seattle

Articles/Chapters

Leander, K. & Vasudevan, L. (2009). Multimodality and mobile culture. In C. Jewitt (Ed.) Handbook of multimodal analysis. (pp. 127-139). London: Routledge.
Morrell, E., and Duncan-Andrade, J. (2006). Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy in Secondary Literacy Classrooms. International Journal of Learning.
New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1).
Reilly, M.A. (2009). Opening spaces of possibility: Teacher as bricoleur. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 52(5). 376-384.
Vasudevan, L. (2011). Re-imagining pedagogies for multimodal selves. National Society for the Study of Education, Yearbook. 110(1), 88-108.
Vasudevan, L., Schultz, K., & Bateman, J. (2010). Beyond the printed page: Multimodal storytelling with urban adolescents. Written Communication, 27(4), 442-468.
Vasudevan, L. & Campano, G. (2009). The social production of adolescent risk and the promise of adolescent literacies. Review of Research in Education. 33(1), 310-353.
Vasudevan, L. (2006). Looking for Angels: Knowing adolescents by engaging with their multimodal literacy practices. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 50(4), 252-256.

Books (You can preview sections of these books)
Appleman, Deborah. (2011). Adolescent literacy and the teaching of reading. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Baker, Elizabeth A. and Donald J. Leu. (2010).  The new literacies: Multiple perspectives on research and practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Christenbury, Lelia, Randy Bomer & Peter Smagorinsky. (2009). Handbook of adolescent literacy research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Gainer, Jesse and Diane Lapp. (2010). Literacy Remix: Bridging adolescents in and out of school literacies. Newark, DE: IRA.
Gee, James Paul and Elizabeth Hayes. (2011). Language and learning in the digital age. New York, NY: Routledge.
Kajder, Sarah. (2010). Adolescent and digital literacies: Learning alongside of students. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Mahiri, J. (Ed.) (2004). What they don’t learn in school: Literacy in the lives of urban youth. New York: Peter Lang.
New Literacies and Digital Epsitemolgies: Series published by Peter Lang
Reilly, Mary Ann, Jane M. Gangi and Rob Cohen. (2010).  Deepening literacy learning: Art and literature engagements in the K-8 classroom. Charlotte, NC: IAP. (especially chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10).

Curated Sites (Scoop it)
Hall, Matthew. Design, Literacy and Multimodality.
Reilly, Mary Ann.  Transmediation.
Steffenson, Karen. Spaces for Innovation.

Slideshares
Couros, Alec. (2011). Exploring digital citizenship, digital identity & connected learning.
Hamilton, Buffy. (2011). Framing transliterate learning through inquiry and participatory culture.
Hicks, Troy. (2011). Teaching the iGeneration: Because digital writing matters.

Keegan, Helen. (2011). Guerilla productions for very small screens: Transformations through mobile creativity.
Wheeler, Steve. (2011). New technologies and the future of learning.