From the authors' abstract: "The purpose of this study was to examine the practices of two teachers who had chosen to use the social network site (SNS) Ning to create online classrooms as supplements to their physical classrooms in order to bridge the self and school-selected literacies of adolescents. The study further aimed to identify whether the ways in which the teachers were using the SNS constituted a new literacy practice and if so in what ways. It supports and adds to the new literacies theory in four ways: 1. by revisiting the notion of what constitutes literacy, 2. by identifying attributes that do and do not constitute new literacies, 3. by supporting the view that new technologies do not automatically correspond to new literacies, and 4. by showing that new technologies may end up devaluing other modes of learning."
For those of you who are thinking about theories of "play" and how they relate to technology, this is really interesting: "A professor at USC shares video from a recent meeting that brought together artists, educators, researchers, and technology experts to discuss "tinkering" for learning in the digital age."
Article by danah boyd from the journal First Monday. Abstract from the site: ""Are you my friend? Yes or no?" This question, while fundamentally odd, is a key component of social network sites. Participants must select who on the system they deem to be 'Friends.' Their choice is publicly displayed for all to see and becomes the backbone for networked participation. By examining what different participants groups do on social network sites, this paper investigates what Friendship means and how Friendship affects the culture of the sites. I will argue that Friendship helps people write community into being in social network sites."
To post: click on the BOOKMARK tab. Remember to "tag" the article. Tagging means you assign the article key words so that similar articles end up being grouped together. IE: socialmedia, teaching, digital, writing, etc
From the NYTimes: "Last week we asked readers to submit questions to James Paul Gee, an expert on how video games fit within an overall theory of learning and literacy, in response to The New York Times Magazine article "Learning by Playing." It featured a public middle school where every aspect of learning is designed to be game-like."
From the Amazon site: "From Fear to Facebook is an insider's view of the journey from peril to possibility with digital media in school communities. Matt Levinson gives a clear picture of how communities need to work together to create safe, innovative opportunities for kids to learn with digital media. From Fear to Facebook tells the story of the cultural shift happening in schools with technology and provides a road map for how to navigate this sea change with buy-in from all key stakeholders. "
In My Freshman Year the author, Rebekah Nathan, has been a professor at a large university for 15 years. Over time she has realized that students are different then when she went to school. She wants to find out what freshmen really go through living on their own, so she decides to re-enroll as a freshman herself. She gives the university her high school transcripts, and they accept her application