7:15 AM
Today, I’ll be delivering my Redefining Literacy… spotlight session. I do want to make note that this presentation is largely the same one I did last year. There will be some additions, but basically, the message is the same — and absolutely to no degree less important. We must rethink what it means to be literate, and then integrate that into the curriculum.
All of that said, if you’ve seen the presentation before at NECC or some other conference, then use your time more productively and attend another presentation.
Also, in my efforts to make my online handouts more useful to audiences, I have added a feature that will link blog articles about the presentation to the handouts. Therefore, if you will be sharing your insights about these ideas with the world of blog readers, please place the abbreviation, “rdl” (for ReDefining Literacy) in the text or title. It is also a good idea to register you blog with Technorati (http://technorati.com), in order to expedite its inclusion in my handouts.
I hope to see you there!
Hi David,
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Since most school districts are under increasing budget restraints, I am curious about how many of them are looking at open source software as a viable platform to meet their social software needs. Specifically, I am wondering about what they are using to support hundreds or thousands of bloggers on one platform?
hey David…. What is the best way to get a class full of kids to blog?
Hey just finished and posted my first podcast…. check it out everyone http://blog.brettmoller.com
Jim & Brett,
First of all, there probably aren’t hundreds of thousands of bloggers in the K-12 community. But I suspect that there will be. Open source makes sense, and it is a big draw here at the conference. I haven’t attended the sessions, because my leanings are more toward the instructional application issues. As an attempt to indicate the potential, and hopefully strike some interest by people who may have something to gain from it, I have build a blogging tool called “Class Blogmeister“.
Teachers set up accounts, and then they add student accounts. What is important to teachers is that the be able to read students writings and then approve them before they go public. This tool does that. I am not prepared to scale this up. I just hope that someone else comes in, sees the potential, and fills in the niche. Interestingly, the tools has been most popular with classrooms outside the U.S. for the first few months, the number of countries using it exceeded the number of states.
Brett, send me an e-mail, and I will send you the URL to set up for a school pass code.
— dave —
I completely agree with your presentation material.
Literacy must deal with more than just the ability to read–it has to include reading between the lines too. Media Literacy should be the new foundation, not just print literacy (although the ability to speed read wouldn’t the future generations any).
Those growing up in a media saturated world must be able to discern not just what the content means, but the motivation behind the telling of every story. Kids need to be critical thinkers when it comes to both traditional news sources, as well as blogs. And lets hope they leran to keep reading novels and shortstories too.
The future needs a more sophisticated approach.