YEA!!! New Literacies for New Times.........

When we think about technology in the classroom we have to think how we use the technology and what benefit it is towards the learning progress of the students. The use of the internet opens up a whole new world of learning for students as well as an arena of tools for teachers. Most teachers are prone to give students a book report or a research paper to assess their knowledge on a topic. I was one of those teachers before I learned of the many on-line tools available. Like this article points out, what technology does is allow students to explore the topic (identify), determine the value of the information (evaluate), put it together to make sense (synthesize), and then share their findings with others (communicate). Technology takes the research paper to a whole new level. For instance, the use of Skype allows students to share their findings and then understand how their findings are valid by having discussions with students from all over the world. Or globalschoolnet.org links kids around the world. Nothing a research paper could ever do. Students become connected to the world outside their books and classroom and are able to apply real life to what they learn.

Click on the different links on the site Teaching with internet K-12: New Literacy for New Times site to see what teachers in all grade levels are doing to connect technology and literacy. It does not matter your content, most of these links you can find some example or information that can aid in making the connection for students. Being and FCS teacher, I found webenglishteacher.com to be very informative for how I can incorporate tools into my curriculum.

What link did you find useful? What web tool or idea would you see using in your class? How do you connect the internet to literacy in your classroom? What technology do you use in your class?