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"Stories bring us together, encourage us to understand and empathize, and help us to communicate. Long before paper and books were common and affordable, information passed from generation to generation through this oral tradition of storytelling. Consider Digital Storytelling as the 21st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling with a twist: digital tools now make it possible for anyone to create a story and share it with the world."

"Digital learning is different than non-digital learning from the moment an experience starts. That's not to say it's better or worse-just different"

"This is the seventh in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. The first posts covered financial literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, historical literacy, numeracy, and data literacy. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse information literacy and digital literacy skills into the curriculum."

this is an excellent powerpoint, circa 2012, which highlights the changes afoot in learning and teaching facilitated by facility with digital tools. The table of 8 essential elements in the periodic table of digital literacies organizes the discussuion. All 8 elements begin with the letter C and include critical, communication, creative, confident, creative, civic, constructive and culture. I think I would add connective...but I digress.

"Digital storytelling is an art form conveying a message. It uses images and voice narration to convey emotion with the message, and to ignite empathy from the audience. It incorporates storyboarding and writing a script. It is created with digital tools and published on the Internet."

"So you want to be able to create and access your digital portfolios on the go. There are apps that allows you to do that and some of don't cost a dime. There is also the possibility to work on your digital portfolios on Google Drive, in fact EdTech did a great video tutorial on how to use Drive as a portfolio solution in your iPad classroom. Below are some of the good apps you can try on your iPad to create digital portfolios and as always if you know about another good app to add to the list, please share with us in the comment form below. Enjoy"

This year, in conjunction with October's Connected Educator Month, Common Sense Media is hosting Digital Citizenship Week from Oct. 21-25. Throughout the week, there will be a webinars and other ways for schools and educators to get involved. But really, now is the perfect time to discuss digital responsibility, safety and citizenship with students, and there are plenty of valuable events and resources that you can use. Here are six of my favorite:

"He lost me, though, when he pushed the notion of digital immigrants and digital natives on the audience. His language was all too familiar:  Today's kids are savvy.  Today's teachers are not.  Fixing the problem depends on our willingness to put kids in charge of technology in our schools.  At one point, he even asked all of the teachers under 30 in the audience to raise their hands.  "There's your future," he said. #ouch"

"The following infographic from dailygenius.com makes sense, then, in that context of being able to sketch out what might be required of a digitally-savvy and competent teacher. (You can give dailygenius a follow on twitter as well.) 7 Characteristics Of A Digitally Competent Teacher"

"When we think of digital literacy, we usually think of research-finding, evaluating, and properly crediting digital sources. The "research" connotation makes sense, as it is the sheer volume of sources and media forms on the "internet" that stand out. But we are living in a world where the internet is disappearing, replaced by sheer connectivity. Are you "on the internet" when you tweet? Skim through a social reader like Flipboard? Send a text? Mark up a pdf and sync it with the cloud so you can access it later? Are the cloud and the "internet" the same thing? As the internet dissolves into something more seamless-that no longer requires a clunky web browser to make itself visible-we might adjust our perspectives in parallel."

Take a moment to reflect: How many minilessons have you taught this year that guide students to become effective digital readers? Do you have anchor charts or scaffolds in place that will support them as they attempt to read digitally with independence? Have you provided ample time for them to read diverse genres or self-select their onscreen reading material?

""Our teachers hopefully have hours and hours of support and training for integrating [technology] into the classroom, but what help are parents getting?" This is an important question posed in Educating Parents in the Siri Generation, a blog post by Carl Hooker that explores how "analog parents" can rise to meet the challenges of their "digital kids." It's this exact problem-the difference the learning environments that most parents experienced versus the ones in which their children are learning in-that formed the basis of our Smart Parents series and culminating book project (launching in August 2015). If you've been around the edu-innovation space for awhile, you've probably come across Carl Hooker-or @MrHooker as many of us know him. With a title like Director of Innovation and Digital Learning (Eanes ISD, Texas), he knows a thing or two about the next generation of teaching and learning. Here are some pearls of wisdom from his perspective as a parent and an administrator in a one-to-one mobile device district."

D. Kuropatwa's emphasis on digital ethics and digital citizenship for his blogging students.

"Ready-made lesson plans about digital citizenship can serve as the perfect launchpad for discussing this topic in class. The following resources have what you need to help you organize your thoughts and present digital citizenship in an appealing way:"

"The notion of digital literacy, or "Information, Communications, and Technology Literacy" (ICT Literacy), usually takes into account the vocational skills required to operate digital machines or the intellectual skills required to program or 'code' them. The concept does not account for the social and intellectual advantages that are available to affluent students with access to more, and better integrated, educational technologies. In other words, it is not only about skills, but also about cognition, etiquette, motivation, socialization and culture - the context within which one uses the tools."

"Digital storytelling is a powerful way to engage students in the writing process. Whether they are telling stories from a summer vacation or writing a persuasive essay on a community issue, technology tools can help motivate reluctant writers. Students can use their writing, audio recordings, video creations, illustrations, and images to create a digital storytelling product that demonstrates their understanding of a concept."

"Evernote users are about to have more reasons to make the service a central hub for their digital lives. Today, the company is announcing Scannable, an app that will scan any document you have and upload it to their service. Better yet, your scanned documents are also searchable via Evernote, so you can find them alter on. You'll also be able to send the documents along via just about any digital means you like. Images are automatically rotated, cropped and adjusted , too."