Promethean Planet is a must-have bookmark for educators who have a Promethean Board in their classroom. The Web site helps teachers share creative ideas and lesson plans in a variety of subject matter. As a language arts teacher, I use this Web site primarily for grammar lessons. I like to search for pre-made flipcharts (which are very similar to Power Points), and modify them for my students’ needs.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has a very useful Web site. I visit it often to search for ideas and communicate with other educators in my field. Whether I’m searching for articles, videos, blog posts or looking to join a discussion, this Web site has it all for English teachers. It’s a great way to keep up on the latest trends in language arts.
Class Zone is a great source for language arts teachers in the Anchorage School District, which subscribes to the Web site through its partnership with Holt McDougal – formerly known as McDougal Littell. The book company created Class Zone to coincide with its textbooks and offer a digital approach to motivate students and support a diverse classroom. I like using Class Zone because it allows students to read our thick textbook online, instead of lugging it to and from school every day.
“Teens and Technology – a good match?”
by John Matuszak
Overview
This article introduces studies that show the amounts of electronic media kids are exposed to and explains how more hours spent on technology doesn’t equal a positive effect on teens. The study proves entertainment technology, such as television, MP3 players, Internet, video games, cell phones, can become addictive and negatively effect a teen’s social and emotional environment.
Youth experts in the article call for more parental interaction to help calm the media blitz teens are experiencing nationwide. One report reveals about three in 10 teens have rules regarding their TV, video game and computer usage at home. As for what they can do on the computer, only half said they have specific rules. The most interesting note was 70 percent reporting a video game console or TV in their room, all of which are hidden from parental supervision. “The only freedom the kids have is on the computer,” said Janene Donarski, a counselor with Family Therapy & Development Centers in St. Joseph, Mich. “They have an escape in the Internet.”
Exposure to entertainment technology has become such an issue, psychologists are urging to add addiction to Internet and texting to the diagnostic manual for mental illness. For instance, according to a Nielsen Company study, teens with cell phones averaged 2,272 text messages a month. In the article, a high school junior admitted to sending 500 text messages a day – that’s nearly three text messages a minute. Another report found that 8- to 18-year-olds average close to 53 hours a week on entertaining technology – or an eye-popping seven hours a day.
“Thinking About Story and Applying Story Maps”
by Jason Ohler
Overview
These chapters introduce “Thinking About Story” and “Applying Story Maps,” and explains how a digital story should consist of three parts – story core, story mapping and story types – in order to effectively engage the storyteller’s audience. Storytelling has such a rich history that it still thrives in today’s digital world. Whether the story is told in books, movies, jokes, digital stories, or orally, the human desire for a good story should never go extinct. In these chapters, the key for telling a successful digital story depends on specific guidelines set within the development of a story core and story map that the storyteller has followed.
In Chapter 5, “Thinking About Story,” introducing the story core helps students concentrate on the value of their experiences by constructing effective ways to materialize those events into a potentially powerful story. The basic idea of a story core involves a main character, which goes through a transformation. Whether the character resists change, is challenged by circumstances to keep from changing, there must be a tipping point – or “tension-resolution dynamic” – in order to have forward motion or internal rhythm so the audience can make connections.
Tension-resolution dynamics usually works well in sports stories: i.e., a talented football player in the 1960s is kept on the sidelines because of his race, but he keeps his wits, trying his hardest despite the circumstances; he reaches a tipping point, realizing he must voice his concerns on the inequality in order to succeed, and eventually he surpasses even his own expectations.
"Orchestrating the Media Collage"
by Jason Ohler
Overview
This article introduces reading and writing multiple forms of media and how integrating the two creates an entirely new meaning of the word “literacy.” By definition, literacy is a noun, meaning the ability to read and write. However, “Orchestrating the Media Collage” by Jason Ohler points out that the deeper meaning of literacy goes far beyond the walls of English classrooms. Ohler said that literacy can include reading and writing competencies in math, research and even citizenship. But the most important form of literacy, he said, is digital literacy. It’s no secret we live in a technologically driven world and those who fail to keep up with its ever-evolving jargon will be left in the dust of discarded textbooks.
In the “Writing What You Read” section, Ohler explains that having an ability to read and write today isn’t good enough. Digital expression can be narrowed into three categories: 1. New media demand new literacies, such as sound, graphics and images; 2. New media coalesce into a collage with Web pages, blogs and digital stories; 3. New media are largely participatory, social media by using collaborative publications such as Facebook, GoogleDocs and YouTube. These categories have changed the Internet from a read-only resource to a worldly community where the exchange of information is nearly limitless and forces the public to be more hands on and creative with their work.
Ohler lines out eight guidelines for teachers who want students to hone their digital literacy skills: 1. Shift from text centrism to media collage; 2. Value writing and reading now more than ever; 3. Adopt art as the next R; 4. Blend traditional and emerging literacies; 5. Harness report and story; 6. Practice private and participatory social literacy; 7. Develop literacy with digital tools and about digital tools; 8. Pursue fluency. Ohler ends the article urging teachers who feel overwhelmed with technology to step back and chill out – teachers don’t need to know everything; let the students discover technology for themselves because it’s more than likely they know more than you do.
"The Read/Write Web"
by Bill Richardson
Overview
This article introduces a concise timeline of the World Wide Web and how it has evolved from a "read only" resource to a read/write tool, where anyone can publish their ideas and products from anyplace in the world with an Internet connection. Early days of the Web only gave people the ability to consume information - a one-way street for users. But now, with the introduction of blogs, forums and file-sharing programs, the Web is a new way to create online communities - two-way streets with plenty of detours.
The new read/write Web has changed the way people do business, run political campaigns, educate children, receive/report news and spend leisurely time. Tim Berners-Lee, who helped develop the World Wide Web in 1989, had a vision to make it, “A place where we (could) all meet and read and write.” His vision has evolved into a tool in which our world’s economy could no longer function without.
According to Will Richardson’s article, a 2003 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, more than 53 million American adults (or 44 percent) contributed to content that is found online. In 2006, Technorati.com, a blog tracking service, found more than 25 million blogs. The word blog is short for Weblog, a resource people use for creating personal journals, building sites for colleagues, or filtering news for large or small audiences. Today hundreds of thousands of blogs are created daily and even more blog postings are being added to the unlimited amount of space on the World Wide Web.
“Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"
by Marc Prensky
Overview
This article introduces Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants and explains how the discontinuity between these types of people has become a major issue in our educational system. Digital Natives are those who grew up with technology – video games, computers, Internet – and can fluently speak techie lingo.
Digital Immigrants, on the other hand, are those who struggle to keep up with technology. They do things the old-fashioned way and take the scenic routes when traveling Information Super Highways. The author describes discontinuities in generations as a singularity, “an event which changes things so fundamentally there is absolutely no going back.”
Schools with Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants not only have generation clashes, but also students who are not engaged. Most students would fit into the Digital Native category, while many old-school teachers fall into Digital Immigrant status. How does this affect the inside of a classroom? Here’s a striking detail the author points out: On average, college graduates spend less than 5,000 hours reading, more than 10,000 hours playing video games and 20,000 watching television. To Digital Natives, school feels like they stepped into a foreign country.
