I started using Twitter about two months ago and it truly is my favorite way to get connected.  I like reading blogs and various websites, but I find that I never can make the time to do it…it’s kind of like exercise…you know it’s good for you, but it’s easy to let life get in the way and not make it a priority.  When I first started using Twitter as part of my Multiliteracies Course, One of the moderators of the course Vance Stevens wrote a blog post about my use of Twitter.  I felt really honoured and it was the first sense that I got that I really could be a part of a networked community through the cultivation of a PLN.

The 140 character limit in Twitter really is brilliant.  I added a twitter feed to my homepage and find that outside of my email, it is the number one thing I check a few times throughout the day.  I am still definitely a newbie with Twitter, and predominately a lurker, but can’t wait to use it to its full potential and be one who shares resources and contributes to the community of educators I am currently following.  The surprising thing to me is that despite only having posted 4 Tweets, I already have 11 followers which speaks to the potential of this tool.

Jane Hart created a fantastic online guide for Twitter called How to Use Twitter for Social Learning that I am excited to use to  increase my understanding of the tool.  I’m still fuzzy about following lists,  retweeting, and searching for people to follow.  I found out today too that there is an iphone app called Tweetie so that I can read my Twitter feed on the iPhone.  So getting better at using Twitter and putting up at least one Tweet a day on Twitter are my next goals for developing my PLN.

This video was presented at the k12 online conference and is one of many outstanding videos from that conference.  Tolisano has also written a free ebook on Digital Storytelling that can be downloaded here.  Additionally, she has made some really cool digital posters about using web 2.0 tools which can be downloaded here.  Tolisano is an inspiration for me, because not only is she deeply networked and connected, but she gives back so much to the educational community.  You can also check her blog at langwitches.org out which is rich with resources and has won numerous awards.

http://www.linworth.com/images/linworth_books/reviews/2/Warlick_RedefiningLiteracy_FNL.jpg

I recently finished reading Redefining Literacy 2.0 by David Warlick.  The power of this book is how he is able to break down digital literacy skills into 3 (although I would argue 4 ) main areas.  When I read Blogs to Bombs the list of literacy skills was quite daunting, and although both books are important when thinking about and framing digital literacy skills, Warlick’s book provides a simpler framework though equally powerful.  The main premise of this book and the reason for the need to redefine literacy is as he states:

“In the 21st century, literacy involves not just reading and comprehending the text in front of you.  It now includes a range of skills to find, navigate, access, decode, evaluate, and organize the information from a globally networked information landscape” (p. 17).

He goes on to say, “if all our children do is learn to read, they will not be literate.” (p. 18.)

Warlick notes that even the act of reading is fundamentally different.  Print reading is two-dimensional while reading on the web is 3 dimensional.  You have to navigate and make choices as you read online.  Warlick’s four core features of 21st Century Literacy which are divided as chapters of the book are as follows:

• Exposing What Is True
• Employing the Information
• Expressing Ideas Compellingly
• Ethics and Context

Exposing What Is True

This first skill involves finding the information you need for any given task and assessing it for validity and usefulness.  Warlick includes the following investigative strategies as a part of this skill:

1. Keeping a Personal Digital Library (He recommends social bookmarking and tagging here)
2. Finding Witnesses (finding community and experts who can help make sense of the information)
3. Finding Evidence (using search skills to get the information you need)
4. Using Search Logs (having students pay attention to the differences that different types of searches produce)
5. Identifying Search Language (creating phrases and language that narrows down a search to what you are looking for)
6. Utilizing RSS (training the information to find you)
7. Evaluating the Information (filtering for validity)
8. Defend Your Information (Being able to show that the content is indeed valid) Here Warlick mentions the following criteria:  true, consistent with other sources, authoritative, dependable, reliable, without value-depleting bias, and applicable to the question being addressed. (p. 60)

Employing the Information

This skill refers to dealing with the incredible increase in capacity of the way we handle information and the sheer amount of information available.  Warlick argues, “In a rapidly changing world, where the answers to questions are going to be changing, then what our children know will be less important than what they know how to do with it.  Rather than being the end product for students to simply memorize, information should become a raw material that students learn to do something with” (p. 69)  Digital content can be manipulated in ways that is much more cumbersome than with print content.  There are powerful databases at work that can index, display, and leverage information in endless ways.    Warlick details a number of skills that will be required to employ and even remix this information including working tabular data and employing web content, images, video, audio, RSS feeds and mashups.

Expressing Ideas Compellingly

Here Warlick argues that students will need to have powerful communication skills.  Just as various websites and corporations vie for the attention of students.  Students will also be required to express their ideas compellingly so the stand out in the world of work using a variety of web tools.  It’s not just enouqh to write an essay well.  Expressing ideas compellingly in a digital age involves:

• Communicating compellingly with text, images, video, animation, audio, and web publication and a remix of all these things.
• Communicating clearly but also as efficiently as possible as well
• Warlick sees that programming will also be included as a form of communication and should be taught at an early age.

Ethics and Context

Although not included as a literacy skill…I think it should be and I believe Warlick would agree as he states on page 137 of the book, “literacy is described as the skills involved in using information to accomplish goals.  But literacy also should describe behaviors related to how we leverage our information environment to accomplish goals.”  The landscape of copyright and intellectual property is dramatically changing as a result of the shift from being solely consumers of information to being both consumers and producers of information and the muddied water this shift produces.  As Warlick notes there is “a major divide between the way that my generation thinks about information and my children.  For us, information is a product that we purchase and consume, i.e. a book to be read, a CD to be listened to, a DVD to be watched.  For my children’s generation, information is a raw material.  At least part of the value of the information that they encounter is in what they can do with it–how they can remix it with other content” (p. 141).  It is important to make students aware of how to ethically use information and to pay attention to the context of information and whether it has been removed from it’s original context.  This includes the knowledge that information is property and the copyright laws that go with this as well as understanding information as infrastructure that can cause benefit as well as harm to society.  He calls for educators to teach students how to attribute information appropriately to their rightful owner and highlight when it is not appropriate to use the work of others.  Warlick suggests making students property owners to learn this lesson and to make them aware of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 which assumes that all information is copyrighted unless explicitly stated otherwise.  He encourages teachers to have students add the copyright symbol to their work and also to explore alternative means of copyright through an exploration of Creative Common.  Warlick ends by encouraging the use of a Teacher and Student Code of Ethics related to using information.

Even though Warlick has laid out the 21st Century Skills a student will need to succeed clearly and efficiently, it still remains a daunting task…he ends the book with a chapter on implementation where he urges educators to adopt learning as the main goal of literacy that educators must model for students.  He states on page 160-161:

“If we accept that learning is a predominant part of today and tomorrow’s work and lifestyle, then perhaps we should rethink literacy and start to explicitly talk about literacy for learning, or learning literacy.  If learning becomes the clear aim of literacy, and not focused so exclusively on literacy skills to be taught and checked off, then literacy habits practived every day in every lesson, will become the outcome of our classroom experiences, and we and our students will embrace a learning lifestyle.”

He encourages educators to prune and develop a personal learning network and to model this for students so they can do so.  This book is a thoughtful gem in how we need to rethink education as our purpose as educators has dramatically changed.  I also recommend Warlick’s Blog, 2 Cents Worth and his companion wiki for the book, Redefining Literacy.

• I set up accounts with the following web 2.0 networking sites and have begun to use them:  Diigo, Netvibes, Twitter, Google Sites and Vodpod
• I read the books From Blogs to Bombs by Mark Pegrum and have started to read Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott and Redefining Literacy by David Warlick
• I gave a presentation on Diigo to the staff at my school and set up a Diigo group for my staff to share resources
• I created a wiki in wikispaces (though it is still blank) to create a school wiki where resources can be shared
• I am creating a 9 week curricular unit on Growing Up in a Digital Age that I will use this Spring in my English I class to help students grapple with many of the digital issues and literacies that they need to be aware of to be successful in our connected world
• I also signed my class up to be a part of the NetGenEd Digital Project hosted by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
• I am working at creating a course for Moodle about elearning and developing quality online lessons.  I also hope to develop Moodle training tools as our staff is making the transition from Blackboard to Moodle

And here are a few things I hope to do as I continue on this plan of developing a professional network:

• Develop my design and presentation skills by studying design principles, Adobe CS4, and video products such as iMovie and Camtasia
• Follow and read my favorite blogs regularly and find some new ones I like.  Comment on the posts that resonate.
• Revamp my own personal and professional blog and post to each one at least once a week.
• Spend a couple of hours each week studying new resources and tools
• Post quality links to Diigo and Twitter and develop my skills at tagging
• Develop a professional development workshop modeled after the EVO2010 Multiliteracies workshop

Hopefully in about 6 months I will have grown my own network in a way that leverages the many wonderful tools out there to do so.

I recently finished reading From Blogs to Bombs:  The Future of Digital Technologies in Education by Mark Pegrum.  A little over 100 pages, this powerhouse of a book takes a holistic approach to viewing digital technologies in education and society.  Pegrum uses what he call the 5 lenses (discussed in detail in previous post) of digital technologies:  technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical, and ecological to explore the issue of what it means to learn and live in a digital age.  He uses countless anecdotes and research to explore a gamut of issues that impact how digital technologies are changing education, identity and society.  One of the most powerful chapters of the book is where Pegrum lays out what he sees as important literacies students must grapple with to be successful in the 21st Century.  These are the literacies he suggests are important:

• Print Literacy:  Foundational literacy;  what we have come to think of as the 3R’s:  Reading, Writing and Basic…the importance of these skills has not diminished.
• Search Literacy:   The ability to search for information efficiently and effectively
• Tagging Literacy:  The ability to use tags to categorize and search for information
• Information/Critical Literacy:  The ability to evaluate information for validity, accuracy, and relevance
• Filtering Literacy:  The ability to quickly go through a multitude of sources to find relevant information
• Network Literacy:  The ability to leverage social and professional networks to get timely information
• Hypertext Literacy:  The ability to understand the effects of links and how to navigate them effectively
• Participatory Literacy: The ability to participate in a variety of networks in an appropriate and positive way
• Visual Literacy:  The ability to decode messages in images, graphics, and iconography
• Audio/Video Literacy:  The ability to critically analyze audio and video
• Media Literacy:  The ability to analyze commercial media and its impact
• Virtual World/Gaming Literacy:  The ability to interact appropriately in virtual world/gaming environments
• Remix literacy:  The ability to read and create remixed content
• Personal Literacy:  The ability to understand how to present oneself online safely and how others will read them on the web
• Communicative literacy:  The ability to conduct online interactions appropriately and safely
• Cultural/Intercultural literacy:  The ability to interact and appreciate the value of various cultural differences and attributes
• Technological literacy:  The ability to use text and graphic software, web 2.0 applications and simple authoring tools and the ability to adapt new ones as they become available
• Code literacy:  The ability to read, write and modify computer code
• Programming literacy:  The ability to bend technology to one’s needs and purposes
• Texting literacy:  Raising awareness of features of textspeak and when to use it

Chapter 4 and 5 of the book that talk about social and sociopolitical lenses also offer great insight into how children today are using digital technologies to shape their identity and how the broader sociopolitical landscape is being shaped by digital technologies and the implications this has.  The last chapter about the ecological lense is a bit short but it brings up important issues of the impact of digital technologies on one’s health and the environment.  As Pegrum notes luxury in the future may be the luxury of time away from these digital technologies.  This is an important book and anyone who cares about education should read it.

I started a workshop called Multiliteracies for Social Networking and Colloaborative Environments as part of Electronic Village Online 2010.  In this workshop we are reading the book From Blogs to Bombs:  The Future of Digital Technologies in Education by Mark Pegrum which looks at digitial technologies through 5 lenses:  technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical, and ecological.  As I was reading the introduction during the first week of class, I couldn’t help but notice how two news headlines highlighted the growing prevalence of digital technologies in shaping the major events in our global and  personal consciousness.

First, there was the headline that Google was considering pulling out of China in reaction to a cyber-attack which brought  issues of internet freedom as well as claims from China of internet imperialism to the center stage of world politics.  Then there was the earthquake in Haiti that showed two flip sides of digital technologies.  It showed how a natural catastrophe can wipe out communication that depends so heavily on these digital technologies, but it also revealed the power of them as well as over 10 million dollars was donated to relief efforts via text messages.  This underlines the importance of what Pegrum identifies as the critical need for “education about digital technologies and their effects, positive and negative, known and unknown, predictable and unpredictable” (From Blogs to Bombs, p. 9).

As an English teacher and project facilitator at an online high school I appreciate the fact that Pegrum starts his introduction with an essay written by a Scottish teenager in textspeak.  It is a good focal point for the many issues surrounding digital technologies in education and one I can relate to as I grapple with my own understanding of the changing definition of literacy in the world.  As an educator, I find myself increasingly frustrated at having to teach to standards that aren’t preparing students for the world they are going to work and live in, and yet I don’t feel confident in my knowledge and ability to navigate this digital world to know what is important for my students to know and engaging to them.  One mantra I find that I must constantly whisper to myself is that “I don’t have to be the expert…no one is.”  I’m looking forward to the further exploration of the five lenses that encapsulate so many of the pressing issues in education and society.  The introduction to Pegrum’s book was brilliant and I would make it required reading for anyone who cares about education.  It can be accessed at:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multilit/files/EVOMlit2010/pegrum_blogs2bombs_manylenses.pdf if you are a member of the group or join it.  I also found Mark Pegrum’s wiki which seems to have a wealth of information about elearning which I am looking forward to checking out further.  The web address is:  http://e-language.wikispaces.com/

A passion for helping kids and helping kids learn:  This is kind of critical to all types of teaching, but because your students are not there in front of you, this trait becomes all the more important.  In an online world you don’t have to deal with discipline problems;  in fact, if you didn’t care whether your students passed or failed, then having most of your students fail would be easier than in a regular classroom.  The students in an online class can much more easily just not go online and then for the teacher that means one less set of assignments to grade.  But if you are a teacher who truly cares about kids then you have to find creative ways to connect to kids and develop a relationship with your students.  You have to really want to make your online lessons engaging and interesting to students.

A belief that online education offers the opportunity to do things differently in education and a commitment to do things differently:  The world is changing very rapidly. Our educational system, unfortunately lags behind it.  Many teacher complain about the lack of access to technology in schools.  Inherent in an online schooling environment is access to technology, but if all you are going to have students do is do the same things they would do if they didn’t have access to technology then you are doing a disservice to the students and really have no place being an online teacher.

Creative and innovative nature:  Having a lot of creativity and a passion for innovation is another is another critical aspect of online teaching.  There are so many new technology tools and new ones being created every day.  The possibility of utilizing them must be exciting to you.  I think  a quality online teacher must always want to take their courses to the next level to keep them on the cutting edge.

Although many of the same qualities that make a good instructor in the brick and mortar classroom certainly apply to online teaching.  The 3 skills listed above are essential for anyone considering being an online instructor.

Interest Inventory-  I am creating an interest inventory that I hope gets at some of the interests of my students.  I think it’s important to have the interest inventory be content specific, so you get a sense of what is most interesting to the students about your content area.  It should also include more general interest questions, so you get a sense of what is important to individual students.  I think also you need to get a sense of what is going on in the students’ lives right now.  When possible get at what personal concerns students have and what their schedule is like.

Pre-Assessment-  This is critical to know where your students are starting at with your content area and their academic and readiness level.  Regardless, of the course, I think it is important to include a writing sample, which is a lot more telling in many ways than a multiple choice assessment.  A combination of both is a good idea.  

Learning Style/Intelligences Inventory-  This is valuable for the teacher and the students to know what their learning preferences are as well as strengths and weaknesses.

Letting Students Get To Know You and Your Course:

It is equally important that students get to know you as well.  It is hard to develop a presence in an online setting.  Some ideas are:

• Teacher video that includes personal information so they see you as a person and hence feel they can relate to you.
• Course orientation video that shows students how to get around the course and do the major tasks required in the course.
• Class Treasure Hunt that includes a variety of tasks and scenarios that prepare students for the course and get them comfortable with where to locate important materials in the course.
• Course Syllabus that lays out everything about the course.
• Pacing Guide that breaks down what they should be accomplishing each day or week in a course.

One of the difficulties of being an online teacher is that it can be very hard to develop a rapport with students you don’t ever see.  Yet the relationship between teacher and student is just as critical as in any classroom setting.  In the online world, behavior problems are not the problem.  The biggest problem are the students who are totally tuned out.  We need to think of different and creative ways to reach these kids.  We need to develop a relationship with the kids so we can find out what motivates them.  We need to find out what they care about and let them know that we care about them.  So calling them to let them know they haven’t done their assignments really isn’t what the task calls for as they know this already and it only makes them tune out further.  It might be more useful to call them and say, “What can I do to help you?  How can you and I work together so that you are successful?  High expectations need to be accompanied with a  solid support system for these students.  As my principal said,  online education demands a new bag of tricks.

On a side note, the boxing gym where I used to take my students, East Oakland Boxing Association, was recently featured on NPR.  They are being creative about providing a community haven for young people in a tough community where a support system can be hard to find.  Listen to the feature:  http://www.crosscurrentsradio.org/archives.php?post_id=1663

One idea in the book that really hit home to me was what the book calls “the twin sins of traditional design”.  These two sins are activity-oriented design and coverage design.  Both are equally bad.  The first is an emphasis on hands-on activities that students might find engaging and fun, but don’t require students to learn any major concepts.  The second concept is coverage where teachers try to cover everything in a textbook our curriculum guide and end up covering nothing of substance.  Neither help students to understand and learn.

Understanding by Design lays out a clear format for curriculum design that can help anyone build rich curriculum.  The three stages of backward design are:

1. Stage 1:  Identify Desired Results-  What should a student know, understand, and be able to do?  What content is worthy of understanding?  What enduring understanding are desired?
2. Stage 2:  Determine Acceptable Evidence-How will we now if students have achieved the desired results?  What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?
3. Stage 3:  What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (processes, procedures, strategies) will students need in order to perform effectively and achieve desired results?  What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?  What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of performance goals?  What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?

I am beginning to create my first unit lesson plan based using the UBD template.  I signed up for the UbD Exchange website, but wasn’t impressed by what I saw so far.  I highly recommend the Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook that has tons of activities to help you create a unit based on the principles of Understanding by Design.