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"The digital tools offer students new opportunities, no doubt, but they still need to be intentional in the way that they craft their pieces of digital writing."  This quote sums this article well.  Despite the new technology, teachers and students must be intentional in the ways they approach writing.  The article discusses Troy Hick's book Crafting Digital Writing.  The book looks very interesting.  Part of the article also discusses some of the arguments against digital writing with Tony's counter arguments.  There are also some great links within the article to various writing resources.

This article points out the significance and the approach to the digital writing in a dialogue style with Troy Hicks, an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University. He uses 'MAPS' heuristic -- mode (genre), media, audience, purpose, situation -- to help writers "intentionally" and "deliberately" think through composing digital texts. He also suggests teachers give themselves and students the opportunities and permission to play (and possibly fail) with the tools, as this can serve as a model of overcoming learning curves and digital writing process. This reminds me of the idea, 'dabble' with the tools, brought up by Jeff Utecht(2013).

This article, written by EDUDEMIC author, Jeff Dunn, offers 5 distinct reasons why schools need to move toward Digital Textbooks/ebooks as opposed to traditional paper books/texts. He begins by adding support to his stance by citing Ed Secretary, Arne Duncan's call to make "textbooks obsolete". Among Dunn's reasons and pertinent to our Media/Inform Literacy discussion are these ideas: Using digital texbooks or ebooks on line, allows for students to interact with the book. Some books have videos, highlighting/notetaking features, moveable models and interactive diagrams. In addition, such technological books are more immediate-they are simply accessed by the press of a button. Arne Duncan also remarked that the US is lagging behind other countries in converting to these computerized books. With states desiring a lead position in education in the US, and Obama's push (Connect Ed) campaign to have all schools connected (internet/computer/tech), this transition to Digital Text/ebooks seems a likely probability-and exciting one too. Though sitting back, especially in a beach chair, with a paper book still holds an appeal for me.

Technical.ly Philly reporters Juliana Reyes and Thomas Creedon contributed to this report. The lines between digital literacy and adult education are blurring. Today at Congreso , the well-regarded North Philadelphia nonprofit that has served its Latino community for 40 years, digital literacy is part of just about every adult education course.

I'm not sure whether Steve wanted an article on information/media literacy in the sense of evaluating news content, but I've interpreted it here as multimedia literacy, or digital literacy in the information age. This article is just another example of the reason I wanted to take this course in the first place: these days, digital literacy is essential.

Digital Cameras & Digital Imaging in the Math Classroom

This is a resource that explains that students who can only read text but not analyze, synthesize and utilize that information are still considered illiterate! The resource reviews a program that was put together called Digital Youth Network (DYN) and how this organization empowers young people with critical digital literacy skills that make them academically and professionally competitive.

This articles talks about our current college graduates being "digital natives,"  teaching digital natives, and how the use of  technology must be tied to subject matter, and  pedagogy.  

This blog contains the first 3 steps (out of 7) for website evaluation.  The author is using letters to represent each step.  Thus far, he has A for author; B for bias; and C for currency.  Each step is explained and a poster is included for teachers to print and use in the classroom.  This is very important information for students in order to become responsible digital citizens.  Students need to think about who is writing, why they are writing, and when they are writing.  I am anxious to see what other steps the author will include.

Very useful resource for teaching information and digital literacy. The idea of A to G is brilliant and inspirational! I think the break-down steps of each aspect can be truly helpful for students to understand what exactly they're looking for in terms of author, bias, or currency (and soon more). For teachers, each aspect could be introduced and focused in each topic or project, and the posters can serve as visual prompt in classroom.

This blog emphasizes the importance of stressing being a "good citizen" when using the Internet with our students. A week was spent with the following learning objective: "A renewed focus on the choices we make and how they affect us, specifically about balance, responsibility and safety." Each day time was spent on some aspect of this objective. As a culminating activity, students were invited to an assembly where the theme was " Digital Citizenship mean..... to me" Students were able to share what they learned throughout the week.

Michele I had read this article when reviewing them for our assignment. It was great to see all of the topics touched upon, especially about balancing on and off line activities. Love that they stressed being a good digital citizen just as we stress being a good citizen in general. I think we forget to stress some of these points with our students and that they are important in our online life even outside of school. The kids and adults alike.

This article covers the challenges and opportunities of code switching in digital spaces, at home and at school with students today. At the end of the article, the writer provides some classroom strategies to help students adapt in this 'code switching'. One suggestion is the use of a tool called TodaysMeet (http://todaysmeet.com/about), which seemed like an interesting concept.

use as example/resource for Digital Citizenship Project in Computer Literacy

This article examines why media/digital literacy must be added to the common core standards to better prepare students for life in the 21st century. "While they (young people) may be media-savvy, we maintain that they are not necessarily media- or digital-literate. In order to be successful in the 21st century, students need to be both Information and Media Literate. In order to encourage schools to implement Information and Media Literacy in the curriculum, media/digital literacy should be added to common core standards. Assessments should be devised in which students are assessed using digital formats.

"Creativity and innovation are the keys to continued advancement in business as well as education (Sharda, 2010)."  In this article, Sharda discusses how e-learning systems based on digital storytelling can enhance creativity and innovation.

This article discusses a report published by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and the Meteiri Group entitled "enGauge 21st Century Skills: Literacy in the Digital Age" . The brief outlines the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century, but also reinforces the fact that Digital Age literacy is grounded in the traditional 3R's.

Digital Storytelling with the Flip Camera

This site looks at information literacy and looks at the 5 different "minds". They relate them to ethical, disciplined, synthesizing, creative and respectful minds when talking about students using web 2.0 applications.

Interesting article that discusses how our brains change when using Web technologies. The term "partial attention" is explained as "a state of constantly scanning for information." Insightful description of how our world has changed significantly now that technology is here to stay.

This article from eLearn Magazine discusses how neuropsyhcologists are studying the effects of using new media and Web 2.0 tools on our brains. Their results show both positive and negative findings. Some of the benefits include certain areas of the brain being worked harder and making strong neural connections allowing us to process and evaluate large amounts of information quickly. A downside is that we are not retaining information for extended periods of time and we are losing the ability to communicate with feeling because we are not always in face-to-face contact with others. The article also discusses Psychologist Howard Gardner's "Five Minds of 2.0 Learners." These are higher order thinking skills he believes individuals need in order to be successful in the digital world. These include disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful, and ethical minds. This is an interesting read and could start a great classroom discussion about technology use with your students.

Check out these seven video tips, made by Edutopia bloggers and contributors, on using technology in your classroom. Watch teachers, an administrator and consultant talk about real applications of media tools for students. Content for this project is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License.

In these 7 brief video clips, educators share how they use specific technology and social-media tools in classrooms, including Twitter,Facebook, Wikis, Digital Cameras, YouTube, Wii and GPS devices.

10 Ways Digital Slowpokes Can Catch Up! By Ann Handley Even though this article was written for owners of small businesses, I think it is worth reading to stay up on what is happening out there in the "real world" of marketing and persuading people to choose their business *(using all those wonderful persuasive writing skills learned in school!) It also addresses anxieties of people all over who are overwhelmed with how fast technology is moving and encourages them to just "do something now."

This post reviews a digital resources that could be used to assess students prior to or during a lesson.  

Provides a clear and thoughtful description of how to align Bloom's taxonomy (higher order of thinking skills - HOTS) with new technologies. I like that fact that it covers doing Advanced Boolean searches as well as utilizing web tools for student evaluation of HOTS.

Thank you for sharing this article. I plan to use excerpts of this piece with my students. The connections between "action verbs" and "digital verbs" in the thinking process is excellent. I will be interested to hear my students' perspectives on how the use of digital learning tools helps them develop their thinking and understanding of new concepts.