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When I first began reading the articles and exploring websites, my immediate thought was that teaching online was definitely not for me.  I imagined sitting alone at a computer and constantly grading and assessing.  Through my research, I now have a more open-minded view.

When reading about the Ohio online schools, I was very surprised with the extent of what is available.  I had no idea that there were tuition-free K-12 schools.  The Virtual Community School of Ohio seemed to stress that students with academic needs, students who are parents, or students with physical or health issues would benefit from an online setting.  The OHDELA mentioned those reasons as well, but seemed to stress that gifted students would benefit from working at an accelerated pace.  Regardless of the reason for pursuing an online education, motivation is key to success.  For primary students, it would be imperative that parents stay very involved and have an effective avenue of communication with the teacher.  I was incredibly impressed with the Online Teacher of the Year who said that she spent time on the phone with her students every day.  That kind of commitment from a teacher would make a big difference for the students.

Although I can admit to being skeptical about a completely online K-12 education, I do think that students with illnesses, physical disabilities (temporary or permanent), or students who struggle in a traditional school setting could be successful online.  I could even see it working well in a home school setting.  Again, intrinsic motivation and parental involvement would be key to a positive experience.

Overall, I think that teaching online would be very challenging but potentially rewarding.  Initially, the biggest drawback to me is that I find it so rewarding to interact with my young students, get to know them personally, and see the looks of confusion or understanding cross their faces.  I think that would be a definite loss if I moved to an online setting.   However, when reading the article Preparing K-12 Teachers to Teach Online, I found some aspects of online teaching that I think I would enjoy.  I would like to have more one-on-one interactions with students.  In the article K-12 Distance Educators at Work, one teacher pointed out that one benefit of teaching online is that all discipline issues are removed.  She says, “I can only encourage, offer limited incentives, and inform,” (p. 377).  I can admit that in some ways it may be a quieter and more relaxed working environment.  And, as Preparing K-12 Teachers to Teach Online pointed out, I do have the experience of being an online student.

On the other hand, the articles pointed out drawbacks as well.  I would find it challenging and possibly frustrating to keep up with all the new systems and tools used by the school.  I think I would find it difficult to connect with students and keep them motivated from a distance.  Also, as Preparing K-12 Teachers to Teach Online listed, I would not enjoy the time-consuming process of developing online materials.

As the articles predicted, I can only imagine more and more online opportunities being presented.  I think it could be an ideal learning environment for some students, and I hope that online components and independent learning become more and more a part of traditional schools as well.  Still, I think the face-to-face setting is here to stay for a while, and I’ll be happy to stay there.

References

Archambault, L. & Crippen, K. (2009) K–12 distance educators at work: Who’s teaching online across the United States. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(4), 363-391.

Kearsley, G. & Blomeyer, R. (2004) Preparing K-12 teachers to teach online. Educational Technology. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/TeachingOnline.htm.

Five lessons from the nation’s best online teacher. eSchool News. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/09/13/five-lessons-from-the-nations-best-online-teache/.

Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy. Retrieved from http://www.ohdela.com/.

The Virtual Community School of Ohio.  Retrieved from  http://www.vcslearn.org/.

As I watched the student profiles, I couldn’t help but think that I graduated from high school six years ago without ever taking a computer class or needing to know anything more than how to type in a word document. I watched profiles of Dylan and Virginia, an eighth and ninth grader. My impression is that they represent some of the most driven students, who now have the technology access that gives them the ability to connect globally and accomplish something truly significant.

I was really impressed with the video I watched about ThinkQuest (www.thinkquest.org). Students working in groups with students all across the globe to design a website—wow! I was also happy to hear a middle school director in the Educating the Digital Generation video talk about how laptops now should be “standard issue” just as a pen and paper were a few decades ago. It would be nice to see schools move in that direction, where students have more consistent access throughout their school day.

This High Tech Connections article hit on one of my biggest concerns about technology. It discusses how being so tied to technology causes us to lose our ability to simply be present. For students today, they may even struggle to develop proper social skills. As a primary teacher, I also feel that it is developmentally essential for young students to be use technology but also experience real things hands-on. We can’t lose that balance.

Many of the examples I see are students much older than mine. It’s hard for me to picture what this looks like for six-year-olds, and I would love to find more examples of technology-rich primary classrooms. I love the idea of laptops being more standard and more accessible. How else will they learn it if they don’t just DO it?

Using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, I have developed questions for 1st graders to be used during a study of Rain Forests.

Remembering: What is an animal that lives in the rain forest?

Understanding: Which category does this animal belong in: Animals that Live in the Rain Forest or Animals that Do Not Live in the Rain Forest?

Applying: Can you draw a picture of an animal in the correct strata (zone) of the rain forest?

Analyzing: What would happen if a macaw tried to live on the forest floor?

Evaluating: Do you agree with the man who decided not to cut down The Great Kapok Tree?  What reason would you give him to convince him not to cut it down?

Creating: Write a cinquain poem about your favorite animal you have learned about in the rain forest.

On a typical night after dinner, I open up my laptop to check my e-mail. Yes, I have a smart phone, but I’m not glued to it (yet). What could be a five minute check of my e-mail can lead to endless distractions. I see an e-mail from a friend, a sale at a store I’d like to check out, and a Facebook message I need to read. Checking one e-mail account can easily lead to checking another, then checking Facebook, and then checking the news. One article leads me to another, and I find I can spend a lot of time on the web. What I’ve noticed, though, is that the more time I spend scanning websites, the more scattered and restless I feel. Being online is a terrible thing for me late in the evening, because I find that my mind is running too fast for me to sleep. In the summer, I spend hours reading novels nearly every day. But during the school year, I feel stressed and pressed for time, and often the little reading I get done online is all I will get in a day. There is no denying that the Internet has caused a major shift in the way we share and receive information, and even the way we spend our time. But is this change having a positive or negative effect on those who are using it?

Losing an Ability to Think

In a July/August 2008 issue of The Atlantic, writer Nicholas Carr admitted that he has noticed a change in the way his mind works and processes, and struggles to concentrate on long texts that used to be easy for him to become immersed in. See the full article: Is Google Making Us Stupid? With a little reflection, I think many people would agree that they feel the same way. He notes that the Internet has become the source of most information he takes in every day, and his mind is beginning to expect that constant stream of pieces of information.

The setup of web pages with flashing advertisements, littered with links to other articles and pages of a similar topic, leads consumers of the Internet to think in choppy, constantly interrupted patterns. Sadly, the media are motivated economically to promote and continue this constant distraction and redirection. There is no immersion of thought focused on one topic that is required when reading a book. The result is adults and teenagers who now find it very difficult to focus their minds on just one topic for any length of time. Playwright Richard Foreman reflects, “I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the ‘instantly available’” (Carr, 2008). The shift is truly a loss in the rewarding cognitive ability to be immersed in deep reading—and, therefore, into deep thinking.

While adults can recognize this change in themselves, today’s teenagers and children have never known another way. A 2008 New York Times article discusses the effect on teens here: The Future of Reading. As recent standardized tests scores in reading have declined or stayed level, some critics point to the amount of time teens spend on the Internet as a contributing factor. In 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts reported a disheartening decline in the number of teens who report that they read for fun (Rich, 2008).

Moreover, adults and teens alike are shown to have poor media literacy skills when determining whether a website is a reliable source. In a study at the University of Connecticut, where 48 participants were given a spoof website, 90 percent reported that it was a reliable source (Rich, 2008). Even with the amount of time time on the Web, teens shows surprisingly low skill levels. The Educational Testing Service has developed an iSkills test that requires students to solve problems by searching for answers on the Internet. Of the 20,000 students who have taken this test since 2006, only 39 percent have scored at a “core functional level” in Internet literacy (Rich, 2008).

Embracing an Inevitable Change

On the other hand, some say this is a sign that students need to be taught these skills in school. As the world changes, the schools should adapt in turn. It may not be an easy transition, but some supports encourage Internet reading as beneficial to teens. For instance, teens who may be spending their time watching tv are choosing to read and write—even in the context of blogs, e-mails, etc., at least they are reading. The digital skills they are developing may even help them in their futures when they are searching for digital-age jobs. Other nations have embraced this further than the United States: beginning in 2009, some countries have begun assessments of digital literacy for their students (Rich, 2008).

If children and teens are already choosing the Internet as a source of information and entertainment, how can we respond? Supporters of the Internet believe that the amount of information available is actually a benefit. Skimming a few articles and blogs takes a fraction of the time of reading a book, and can give a wider coverage of information. Again, this makes the skill of identifying reliable sources essential. So if students are adapting to this avenue to get information, it follows that they must be taught the skills think critically about the information that is presented to them. For more information about teaching media literacy skills, see my previous Media Literacy post.

Not only can the Internet provide a great breadth of information, it can support students, and adults, who struggle with reading comprehension. Rich (2008) mentions one teen, Hunter Gaudet, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in second grade. He benefits from the short articles and uses search engines heavily to find bits of information that he will later compile for his report. Reading expert Sally Shaywitz affirms Hunters feelings and suggests that the images support on the web can make it more accessible for people who are not fluent readers (Rich, 2008).

This, then, opens the door to another group of Internet users who are not fluent readers: children. Search engines are constantly looking for ways to improve, and children are models for them to see where to take their next step. Children struggle to think of a keyword that helps them get the information they are looking for. Search engines have responded by suggesting related searches and providing searches with more visual support, such as Google’s Wonder Wheel (Olsen, 2009). Teachers can support their students by teaching them effective search techniques. Google for educators has some great resources for teachers, including printable posters that give search tips and expose students to tools such as Google Book Search and Google Scholar. Explore it more at http://www.google.com/educators/index.html.

Maybe You Can Have It Both Ways

There are many times when I don’t know what I would do without the instant wealth of information available to me on the Internet. I use it, I enjoy it, and I know it’s here to stay. As educators, I believe it is our responsibility to embrace it as a tool: teach our kids how to use it properly, think about it critically, and remember it’s not the only option. Along with that, I want my students to develop a love of books and the ability to get lost in a story. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, and I think we will all be better off if we can embrace both.

References

Carr, N. (2008) Is google make us stupid? The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/.

Olsen, S. (2009) Google seeks to help children search better. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/technology/internet/26kidsearch.html.

Rich, M. (2008) The future of reading literacy debate: R U really reading online? The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=1.

Media Literacy
There is no denying that technology is rapidly changing, and changing the world around us at a shocking pace. Students growing up in the 21st century will need to be literate not only in the traditional definition of reading and writing text, but they will need to be media literate. They will need the skills to “read,” analyze, criticize, and respond to media in all forms: traditional text, digital, visual, and aural. Educators have a responsibility to their students to begin developing these skills, even at the elementary level. Read on to find out what media literacy is, what the core concepts are, and resources and ideas for making it a part of your classroom. Also, don’t miss the links at the bottom to great media literacy resources.

What is Media Literacy?

Media Literacy is a term that began in the United States in the late 1960s, when school librarians were first referred to as “media specialists” and the school library was referred to as the “library media center” to acknowledge the multiple media formats that were becoming a part of the library. In the 1960s and 1970s, the movement focused on the impact of television on children and using television for educational purposes. As the focus of education shifted to a “back to basics” approach in the 1980s, the media literacy movement was pushed to the side (Kymes, 2011). In more recent years, media literacy has been a focus of study in the field of education as well as communications. Scholars have worked to define, measure, and develop media literacy education (Rosenbaum, Beentjes, & Konig, 2008).

As a result of research, leaders in the field have defined media literacy as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate media in a variety of ways” (Flores-Koulish, et al., 2011). Children need not only to be able to read and write in traditional formats of text, but also need to be able to “read” and respond to the language of sounds, images, and other multimedia. Being media literate includes, among other things, an understanding that media are created, and there are messages behind them that must be interpreted. It is being able to look beneath the surface, analyze information, and evaluate that information. Finally, students communicate with media by creating it themselves in a variety of forms (Flores-Koulish, et al., 2011).

What Are the Key Concepts for Teaching Media Literacy?
It is hard to deny that media literacy skills are essential. However, the question for educators remains: how do I teach my students to be media literate? A survey of teachers in my building indicated that there is much to learn about media literacy. Although 95% felt that they had at least some idea what media literacy was, 50% did not know how to integrate into their lessons. Only 12% of teachers surveyed felt confident that they could teach media literacy and find quality resources.

Thankfully, there are multiple organizations providing definition and direction for educators. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) has defined six core principals of media literacy education along with Key Questions that are a great resource for leading in-depth discussions for older students. These resources can be found at http://namle.net/publications/core-principles/. Teachers of elementary students, though, will benefit from the Core Concepts and Key Questions developed by the Center for Media Literacy. The core concepts from both organizations are very similar, but the Center for Media Literacy provides direct application to the younger grades. The five core concepts are matched with a Key Question to guide lessons and discussion (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

Core Concept 1: All media messages are “constructed.”
Key Question 1: Who created this message?
For Younger Children: What is this? How is this put together?

In exploring this concept, students need to understand that someone, or a group of people, worked together to create the finished commercial, television show, or article they are seeing. The consumer sees the final product, but never the other drafts and ideas that were rejected. Realizing that media are created and perfected helps create a crucial distance necessary to ask other important questions (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

Core Concept 2: Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
Key Question 2: What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
For Younger Children: What do I see, hear, smell, touch, or taste? What do I like or dislike about this?

Media language uses its own forms of communication. For example, scary music produces feelings of fear, close-up camera shots imply intimacy, and large text suggests significance. Understanding that media language is used to appeal to feelings can help the viewer detect and avoid possible manipulation. Moreover, an understanding of media language can even increase one’s enjoyment of it (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

Core Concept 3: Different people experience the same media message differently.
Key Questions 3: How might different people understand this message differently from me?
For Younger Children: What do I think and feel about this? What might other people think and feel about this?

All people have different life experiences that affect the way they view the world around them, including the media. Viewers are constantly attempting to make sense of the things they see and hear, and that is done through the lens of personal experience. The more questions that are asked, the more aware a viewer can be of accepting or rejecting a media message (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

Core Concept 4: Media have embedded values and points of view.
Key Question 4: What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
For Younger Children: What does this tell me about how other people live and behave? Is anything or anyone left out?

Media tell a story. Even a 15-second commercial contains characters, settings, and a plot. Whoever created the media message made choices about a character’s age, appearance, gender, race, lifestyle, and choices. A discussion of this key question could include ideas about what kind of political or social ideas are being portrayed, and what values are being promoted. An even deeper analysis includes discovering possible points of view that are omitted, and why they were left out. Again, recognizing all of this subtext is important for a viewer to make decisions about accepting or rejecting the message (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

Core Concept 5: Media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.
Key Question 5: Why is this message being sent?
For Younger Children: Is this trying to tell me something? Is this trying to sell me something?

Traditionally, many media have been developed as money-making undertakings. For example, the advertisements in magazines and newspapers are the first priority, with news fitting around them. Commercials are carefully placed at different times and channels to target a specific consumer. Realizing that networks and publishers depend on selling time and space helps a viewer step back to reflect on why the message is being sent, who it is being sent to, and who is benefitting from the message. Moreover, the freedom the Internet allows for any individuals or groups to post persuasive messages is further reason to evaluate this key question. A close examination of this question can help a viewer determine if an Internet source is legitimate or unreliable (Center for Media Literacy, 2005).

What Does Media Literacy Look Like in the Elementary Classroom?
As educators become more familiar with the key concepts outlined by the Center for Media Literacy, using the key questions to enhance class discussions can be integrated when a teachable moment arises. As teachers use more and more media as learning tools, these questions follow naturally as an integrated part of the learning process. Critical thinking and questioning of all texts, even traditional print, builds skills necessary for media literacy.

Project Look Sharp, a media literacy initiative from Ithaca College, suggests basic ways to integrate media literacy and critical thinking into any curriculum. First, educators can model their own decision-making process by explaining to their classes how they chose a certain media in class. Teachers can stimulate interest in a new topic by allowing their students to do an informal media search about a new topic, or by sharing a blog, video clip, or news article to activate prior knowledge and start a discussion. When starting a new unit, teachers can involve students in creating an information plan that outlines the types of media that could be used, including their strengths and weaknesses (Schneibe & Rogow, 2008). Teachers can present media content that misrepresents a topic or follows a stereotype and discuss with students the dangers of getting information from only one source. When using video to teach, educators should show the video in segments. Then, stop frequently to discuss and guide students toward what they are looking and listening for (Schneibe & Rogow, 2008). All of these ideas can be easily integrated into lessons to develop media literacy without making drastic changes in curriculum. Project Look Sharp has many more suggestions that can be further explored at http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp/.

Educators can be more intentional about teaching media literacy by creating units that meet core standards, but are deeply embedded with media literacy skills. Media literacy has been required for many Reading Master’s programs, and as a part of their study, Master’s students are required to develop media literacy units. One Master’s student designed a kindergarten unit that examined popular fairy tales and challenged gender roles within them. As a part of the unit, students dictated and illustrated a new version of Cinderella that included a boy Cinderella, mean stepbrothers, and a princess looking for a husband (Flores-Koulish, et al., 2011). Another student took a Social Studies unit, “In and Around the Land,” and expanded the lesson that asked students to analyze their school. The students created a slideshow of digital pictures and focused on appealing to the audience of a new family in town. Their goal was to persuade that family to come to their school (Flores-Koulish, et al., 2011). Using their own creative skills, teachers can integrate media literacy meaningfully into their unit and lesson plans.

As the need for media literacy becomes greater, there are an increasing number of free resources available to teachers online. One of these resources is Maryland’s Assignment: Media Literacy. Created by Renee Hobbs for Maryland State Department of Education, Assignment: Media Literacy is made up of six units of study for elementary, middle, and high school students. The elementary unit is geared toward students in third through fifth grade. Each unit contains video of commercials, documentaries, and television and movie clips. A downloadable PDF provides a teacher’s guide and reproducibles for students that aid in discussion as you work through each unit. Explore this great resource further at http://mediaeducationlab.com/assignment-media-literacy.

Another great online resource for teaching media literacy is PBS Kids. Arthur’s Guide to Media Literacy uses episodes of the Arthur show to connect to a media literacy concept. Lesson plans are provided for teachers to complete a follow-up activity in class. In one activity, students use pretend money to purchase a product based on an advertisement. This leads to a discussion about how ads can be deceiving. In another activity, students determine if newspaper headlines are fact or opinion. Many of the lessons could be completed meaningfully even without the television episode. All of the Arthur’ Guide lessons can be found at http://www.pbs.org/parents/arthur/lesson/medialiteracy/index.html. For older students, PBS has created the program Don’t Buy It. Appropriate for students in third to fifth grade, this program contains lessons that ask students to analyze their television watching habits, create their own advertisements, and reflect on the use of celebrity endorsements. Explore the scope of this program at http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/teachersguide.html.

Conclusion
In the 21st century, educators must do far more than refer to the library as the media center or show an educational video in class. The media is very much a part of the lives of the students, and it must be a part of their education as well. To be successful, contributing citizens, consumers, and workers, students must learn to navigate the tricky nuances of media messages. This begins at an early age in the classroom, and teachers must be aware of how to develop media literacy skills. It is a process, and it must be started somewhere, no matter how small a step. Explore the links provided below to begin or extend media literacy education in your classroom.

Links
National Association for Media Literacy Education
http://namle.net/publications/core-principles/

Center for Media Literacy
http://www.medialit.org/

Project Look Sharp
http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp/

Assignment: Media Literacy
http://mediaeducationlab.com/assignment-media-literacy

Arthur’s Guide to Media Literacy (for primary students)
http://www.pbs.org/parents/arthur/lesson/medialiteracy/index.html

Don’t Buy It (for older elementary or middle school students)
http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/teachersguide.html

References
Center for Media Literacy. (2005). Media lit kit. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/cml-medialit-kit.

Flores-Koulish, S., Deal, D., Losinge, J., McCarthy, K., & Rosebrugh, E. (2011) After the media literacy course: Three early childhood teachers look back. Action in Teacher Education, 33. 127-143.

Hobbs, R. (2009). Assignment: Media literacy. Media Education Lab Temple University. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/assignment-media-literacy.

Kymes, A. (2011). Media literacy and information literacy: A need for collaboration and communication. Action in Teacher Education, 33. 184-193.

Rosenbaum, J., Beentjes, J., & Konig, R. (2008) Mapping media literacy: Key concepts and future directions. Communication Yearbook, 32, 312-353.

Scheibe, C., & Rogow, F. (2008) 12 basic ways to integrate media literacy and critical thinking into any curriculum. Project Look Sharp. Retrieved from www.ithaca.edu/looksharp.

Below is my advanced Google search. I am actually including two that I tried. It was interesting to learn about the shortcuts such as +, -, and [], but I also think that when I had to limit it to less than 20 examples, it was harder to find what I was actually looking for. Perhaps my topic was too broad, but I felt that about halfway through, even with hundreds or thousands of hits, the top ten were exactly what I wanted. In other words, I think the search engines (or the spiders) are already pretty smart.

Blog Link and Bio
I have decided to follow the blog Cool Cat Teacher Blog. You can find the link in my blogroll, or go here: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ The blog’s author, Vicki Davis, is a full time teacher and IT director at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia. She is a Discovery STAR educator and Google certified teacher. Once a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur creating websites for schools, Vicki later worked toward a teaching degree and began teaching at her children’s school. Since becoming a teacher, Vicki has created wiki-centric projects that allow students to collaborate with other classes around the world. They include The Flat Classroom Project, NetGenEd project, the Eracism project, the Horizon project, and Digiteen. These projects have involved 3200 student in 19 countries around the world. Finally, Vicki’s personal blog won the Edublog Best Teacher Blog award in 2008, along with many other awards and nominations.

Recent Post Summary
This blog is a mix of personal and technology-focused posts. For my summary, I will summarize the four most recent posts that are technology related.

Picking a Perfect Font Size
In this post, Vicki discusses how to use the Fibonacci sequence to choose font sizes in a document in the most visually appealing way. The Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34…) is the starting point. For example, if you choose a 34 font size for a title, then following the sequence, you should use 21 for a heading, and 13 for the body text size. However, 12 is the standard size. You can adjust each number and maintain similar proportions. In this case, you could subtract 1 from each size, and end up with sizes 12, 20, and 33 for your document. She acknowledges that there is a place for “eyeballing it,” but she has taught this strategy to her students, and uses it often herself.

Failure to Communicate
In this post, Vicki expresses her frustration for the times when technologies simply do not work together well. She tells the story of a post she wrote in response to a New York Time’s article, but when she went to include the link to the article in her blog, her blogger lost the entire draft she had been working on. She states, “Technology is an ecosystem. It is getting harder to troubleshoot–at least for me.” She expresses her frustration and gives some hints of possible troubleshooting, but unfortunately, her original post about the article never made it to her blog. Following her post is an interesting discussion of comments about what might be causing her problems.  People are eager to blame Web 2.0 products, but others are quick to jump to their defense.

Our Freshman Software Exploration Project
In this post, Vicki outlines how she begins her freshman class in a skills boot camp. She points out that technology and programs are always changing, and so instead of building deep skills in a limited number of applications, she teaches students how to explore software and build skills by intuitively exploring a new program. She uses One Note Notebook to communicate with her class. The students are divided into groups that must explore a new software and then present it to the class. Some of the software explored included Blender, Google Sketchup (3D object creation tools), Audacity (sound recording and editing), TuxGuitar (sheet music writer), and Picasa (photo taking software). She also makes use of Skype often with her students.  Even when she is not able to be at school, she can use Skype to continue communication and address problems from a distance.

Eventually, these, and other, skills will be applied to a self-chosen Freshman Project that will be completed by May. In beginning her class this way, she is making students the “masters of technology,” letting them build on their own interests, and allowing them the role of students-as-teacher as they share what they have learned with their classmates.

Join us for “Meet the Flat Classroom”
Although I unfortunately missed it, Vicki’s next post was about an online meeting for one of her projects, The Flat Classroom. The purpose was to explain some of the projects that were beginning, including Digiteen, A Week in the Life, and Eracism. I also see that a K-2 pilot was discussed, and as a first grade teacher, I am hoping to find more information about this program. I followed a link at the bottom of her post to read more about it. All projects are aimed at developing students’ media skills, collaboration, and understanding of different parts of the world. I was also excited to see the A Week in the Life is an elementary project that joins classrooms in different areas and countries and has an interdisciplinary focus on how we live, how we communicate, and how to develop cultural understanding.  Students collaborate with other students from around the country and the world in this unique project.

Who Would Enjoy this Blog?
Anyone who is seeking to teach with technology would benefit from the ideas shared and the example she sets. Since she is a high school teacher, many of the examples she shares apply more directly to older middle school or high school students. Teachers of those older students would be able to find a great example for ways to make technology central to student learning.  It’s also important to note that the use of technology seems fairly advanced. Someone just beginning to use technology in their teaching may be overwhelmed with the extent of what she does in the classroom. However, she has some wonderful ideas that could be implemented in isolation, and the projects she created would be great for building in-depth skills in technology, media, and collaboration.

My name is Amy Romanoski, and I created this blog for EDTL 6360.  Watch the video below to learn a little more about me.  I have never used iMovie before, or my webcam, so I’m learning a lot already!