The Road to Digital Literacy

If you have not yet subscribed to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, you really should. I would estimate that about half my posts are related to something I found that website.  The most current interesting thing I found is an "infographic" titled "The Road to Digital Literacy".  Infographic is a term I just learned that pretty much means picture that shows information, sometimes a lot of information, sometimes a little information, but all the time, the information is presented in a format that is way more interesting to look at than just reading a piece of text.

But anyway, here's the infographic that can be used with students to explain how to be a good digital citizen.    I think it's easy to understand and easy to follow, and it's especially important because of the amount of time students spend working with technology to meet the Common Core Standards and the NETS for students.

You Need It? They've Got It!

Ah...a webpage that has it all...especially The 22 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher MUST HAVE!  The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) 
require teachers to "update" their teaching.  If we don't, we won't be any help in getting our students to meet the Common Core State Standards.

So the webpage I found lists the 22 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher MUST HAVE! (click here if you somehow missed the first link...possibly you were worried about the mass amounts of snow on the way...)  And then it not only lists the skills we should have but also the tools we should use to practice those skills!  Possibly many of the tools are tools you might already be using!

Here are the skills in the nutshell (there's 22, so it's pretty big nutshell)...
Teachers should be able to:
1.  Create and edit audio
2.  Use social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners
3.  Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students
4.  Use digital images in the classroom
5.  Use video content to engage students
6.  Use infographics to visually stimulate students
7.  Use social networking sites to connect with colleagues and grow professionally
8.  Create and deliver asynchronous (what??) presentations and training sessions
9.  Compile a digital e-portfolio for their own development
10.  Be able to detect plagiarized works in students' assignments
11.  Create screen capture videos and tutorials
12.  Use and provide students with task management tools to organize their work and plan their learning
13.  Use polling software to create a real-time survey in class
14.  Understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials
15.  Use digital assessment tools to create quizzes
16.  Use digital tools for time management purposes
17.  Use note taking tools to share interesting content with your students
18.  Annotate web pages and highlight parts of text to share with your class
19.  Use online sticky notes to capture interesting ideas
20.  Use file sharing tools to share docs and files with students online
21.  Create engaging mind maps
22.  Leverage the power of digital storytelling in your classroom

The good news is that if you have no idea what one these really important skills that you MUST HAVE is, you can click on the link (here it is again!) and scroll to find a tool that will help you explore that particular skill.

Happy hunting!

Real Binders Drive Me CRAZY!

According to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Teachers, one of my goals as a teacher is to engage in professional growth and leadership.  As I follow all these RSS feeds about technology, I can't help but feel like I'm constantly engaging in professional growth.  When I see something that interests me, I click on it.  While at times this leads me to dead ends or useless information, I have been finding lots of great information and tools that I can use to help myself professionally.

My last post mentioned LiveBinders, a really useful tool for organizing information that teachers find for each area of their curriculum.  But another thing LiveBinders is great for is their public binders.  People have already created binders on a plethora of topics, and all I have to do is type in what I'm looking for and BAM!  Suddenly there's a binder (or several) waiting for me.  I typed in "Civil War" (which you might have noticed by now tends to be my topic of choice) and there were over 10 binders to look at, many of which had valuable and well-organized information that I could use when I teach that unit

Real binders drive me nuts.  I love technology.

Exciting Times in the Blogosphere!

Today I gave my kids a math test and a reading test.  They worked really hard during their reading tests, and I could tell they needed something to do that didn't require them to sit quietly.  I wanted to give them some literacy task that they could enjoy and that would allow them to talk and think creatively, so I decided to introduce their kidblogs to them.  They were beyond thrilled.  They had a million questions (one of which was, "Can we put in pictures?"  What is it with them and pictures??) but they were also asking questions about if they were allowed to blog at home.  I could tell they were excited, so I showed them how they were going to post and lay down some simple guidelines for their first time.  All they were going to do was post.  Their topic was "My Favorite Book".  

I thought that once I gave them an actual topic to write about, they would realize that I was actually asking them to work.  They didn't!  Even better, most of the responses they wrote (or are still drafting...they had to be perfect) are better than their in-class work.  And they ended up working collaboratively to improve each other's blogs, because they were so excited to read each other's work that they were giving constructive feedback.  They were editing and revising others' blogs (kindly).  According to the National Educational Technology Standards for students and the Common Core, working collaboratively using technology is very important, so today, while my kids were having fun, I was actually meeting several standards....just because I started using a blog in my classroom!

Technology Educational Standards

The International Society for Technology in Education has come up with a set of of National Educational Technology Standards for both students and teachers.  The technology standards for students (NETS•S) evaluate what students need to know to live and in a world that is becoming increasingly more global and digital.  These standards stress the importance of students communicating and collaborating by using technology.  The standards also mention that now more than ever students need to be able to think critically, research, analyze, and synthesize information, and use creativity to continue to get ahead in society.  

The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS•T) ask teachers to be among other leaders of the digital age to help students accomplish the aforementioned student standards. While many of our students may be more comfortable than us at experimenting with technology, as teachers, we are the ones who need to model how to effectively use technology in a global society.  To do this, we must utilize tools like blogs, classroom webpages, and other resources to engage students and facilitate collaboration not only between peers but also between our students and others  in the virtual world.  We should be using digital resources to not only inspire student learning but also to develop new learning experiences and assessments.  Based on what I now know about blogging, a classroom blog could accomplish many of our NETS goals.  A classroom blog could easily be used as a portal to communication with others outside of the classroom.  It could also be used as an assessment tool for reading, writing, or any other curriculum based topic.  I could also easily transform my classroom's current classroom newspaper into a digital newspaper using a blog.  The newspaper topics would require students to complete research, analyze, and synthesize information regarding current events outside of the classroom.  The newspaper would also require collaboration between peers as students planned which articles they would write.  Once the newspaper was written and published, students could invite other classrooms to view and comment on the paper to facilitate communication between those in the virtual world.  

There are many different ways that we as teachers can help our students become better digital learners.  We need to embrace technology and become digital learners ourselves to help inspire our students to do the same.