New Literacies for New Times - Chapter 3

While reading this chapter I followed the link to "Internet Project: Preparing Students for New Literacies in a Global Village" from the Reading Journal. Here a question was posed, "How do we teach children to continuously become literate?" My thoughts exactly! We know that technology is always changing and we need to change and evolve with it. As adults this is hard enough. How do we stay ahead of it and in turn teach our student to evolve and keep up? The "Internet Project" is one suggested way. I searched through some of the web based projects involving webquests and websited to interact with Flat Stanley and Journey North. I think students would be excited to be part of each web based project.

You can find the article from Reading Online by clicking the link below.
http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=rt/3-01_column/index.html

The next heading introduced WebQuests. I am familiar with webquests as they were part of technology classes I took during my undergrad work. I particularly loved the link to the WebQuest page or WebQuest.org. Using the tab on the left side of the screen I clicked "Find WebQuests" and was able to search an online database for various WebQuests. I searched for Jan Brett WebQuests and was provided with numerous choices. I explored some that looked promising to use with my students. Many were still functional while others had many links that were no longer available. All in all I should be able to use at least a couple.

If you are in need of a WebQuest follow the link below to search for your topic!
http://questgarden.com/search/

New Literacies for New Times - Chapter 1 and Storybird.com

With new technologies introduced with the use of the Internet in the 21st century there has been the creation of "new literacies". According to Leu, Leu, and Jone (2009) new literacies allow students to identify important questions, navigate complex information networks to locate appropriate information, critically evaluate that information, synthesize it to address those questions, and then communicate the answers to others.  The Internet has become a place where millions of people from all over the world are able to communicate and interact with each other. As educators, we need to prepare our students for the "work" they to can be part of using the Internet. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) created The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). NETS are the standards for what students, as well as teachers, need to know (knowledge) and be able to do (skills) in the digital age. NETS for students include standards for collaboration and communication, creativity, critical thinking, and digital citizenship. Standards for teachers include profession growth, digital age learning, as well as digital citizenship.

While exploring, I feel in love with Storybirds! After taking a tour of Storybird.com I created my own account for myself and my students to use in the classroom. Storybird is an interactive website where adults and children can create their own digital books for others to share. When creating a book, you can choose your artwork provided by different artists and the theme for your book. Then you add the images and type your own text onto each page. Once a book is finished you can view it on your computer, email it to others, and order a published paper copy of your book.

Storybirds is an amazing tool I can use with my students in my class. They can choose the artwork and make their own books to share with friends and family as digital versions and/or purchase a published copy of their books. How could students not see themselves as authors with Storybird?!

Follow the link below to enjoy my very first Storybird book!

http://storybird.com/books/happy-heart/?token=37b4np