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This article introduces a contest which promotes reading and media skills that began in 2008. It is sponsored by major publishers such as Simon and Schuster and Scholastic and 5 regional libraries, The contest is for students in grades 1-6. The students need to create a storytube on a book they have read. It is important to point out that teachers are not replacing a written report or are using this to enhance the report. I reviewed some of the winners and it is so great to see kids excited about what they read and using technology so easily. With students creating video media at such an early age and being so comfortable doing it only leads me to believe that when these students reach high school the work that they will create will be fantastic.

This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping. Sign up now! By Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 07/09/2008 Funny accents, strange wigs, and spoiler-free plot summaries are the common elements in the winning videos made by contestants in StoryTubes, a new contest for kids that promotes reading-and new media skills-by capitalizing on the popularity of YouTube.

This link explains how libraries are using the power and popularity of YouTube to promote learning, literacy, creativity and technology. StoryTube is a great project idea that uses the power of the contest as a wonderful motivator.

This article discusses collaboration on a large corporation level and allows for small businesses to conduct important daily activities and decision making using social media as well. The article states the Top 5 must have tools, how to set your goals, and how to choose an appropriate vendor.  I think the article can be viewed when working in our classrooms and we are trying to incorporate social media with collaboration tools.

This article proves that we need to prepare our students for the world of work. Companies and corporations are using social networking and social media tools for their employees to communicate and collaborate around the world. The Top 5 tools include several we are learning in our class.

Social media tools can be adapted inside of your company to share data, support employees, and facilitate the exchange of ideas. These days you can find a lot of advice about how to use public social media-such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter-for marketing your company to prospective customers, partners, and employees.

Steve Wheeler's article discusses seven benefits of teacher blogging.

This article is encouraging for someone like me that is just being introduced to blogging. The author, Steve Wheeler, states that blogging causes students to reflect, can open up to other people that are interested in their subject and can provided valuable feedback. He stated, "Blogging can create personal momentum". I hope as a new learner, I learn to understand and appreciate his enthusiasm.

This article discusses the new media literacies (cultural competencies and social skills) that young people need to successfully navigate in the new media landscape. It also provides an overview of programs, and benefits, and challenges associated therein.

Summaries the benefits of blogging: blogging is public, we are more attentive to quality of work; blogging creates a person-centered discussion; and blogging "encourages higher levels of reasoning-- at times upper levels--analyzing, evaluating, and creating--of Bloom's Taxonomy" and ways to get started.

This article presented that a common discussion point amongst schools is how to engage the student in order to make them more successful in the 21st century. It provided an angronym "SAGE" that helps the teacher focus on how to engage students so that they are using techniques to problem solve and process their learning. It is based on "Instruction that supports the development of globally competent student provides multiple opportunities to investigate the world, recognize and weigh diverse perspectives, communicate ideas and take action." I feel this article does provide great "coaching" for the teacher to help students use HOTS.

This article written by two Danish academics, Johan Jessen and Anker Helms Jorgensen, discusses the issue of determining whether sources are credible and how we can do this online. They explain the credibility can be random and that perceived trustworthiness plus perceived expertise equals perceived credibility. However, they put forth that aggregated trustworthiness can actually be an accurate determination of whether information is credible. Readers can look at "likes" and user evaluations to determine if a source is trustworthy. As users of Web 2.0 tools we must become media literate and be able to determine which sources are trustworthy.

This article describes the use of social media for communication following the east Japan earthquake. In a social studies classroom this could prompt a number of discussions about the usefulness of social media in terms of news or communication during emergencies. After all, many students learn about news from social media rather than traditional news reports or newspapers. It could also prompt some interesting comparisons between communication in earlier times and in our own...and the impact instant news or communication has on society.

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.

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.

This article outlines the notion of flipping the classroom to ensure there is more time in class "doing" your discipline and working on skills together, rather than "listening" or "looking" at how it is done. Being selective about what media you ask students to consume for HW, having them do blogs or discussion posts as HW and then using class time to work in groups and go deeper with the analysis of bias, perspective, sourcing, etc. is a great model. If we want to push the thinking further on the media literacy, we need to have class time to do this work with them.

This short article (that I hope you don't have to sign in to read) outlines survey data about how students and schools are using social media to enhance collaboration and the development of a school community. Notably 96% of students surveyed say they use social networking sites and 50% of those say they discuss schoolwork on those sites. The last 5 paragraphs of the article explains ways in which teachers and schools can capitalize on this. The subtext is that schools should move away from bans on social media.

I found this video on Twitter tonight thanks to David Walker (@drdjwalker) who re-tweeted the video from The Partnership of 21st Century Skills. The video is called "Above and Beyond: the story of the 4Cs". Enjoy "In an increasingly complex, demanding and competitive 21st century, students need to learn more than the 3R's they are tested on in school. Although the 3R's are the foundation of learning (most especially reading), students must be prepared to Think Creatively and have Intellectual Curiosity in order to excel in the 21st century.

Oh, what fun! This video is a great tool to share with students. It's simplicity is a delight. The notion is that we all have different talents and skills we can bring to collaborative projects. We need to encourage students to take the time to share their creative ideas together; plan, explore, negotiate, compromise and problem solve together. My fifth and sixth graders will enjoy this video.

This video is fun, interesting and great for students to see. It stresses the collaborative nature of projects and how much more we can do together rather than alone. It reminds me of Odyssey of the Mind type projects, and I will definitely show this to my Advisory. I think they will find it interesting and funny, but more than that it can jump start a discussion about the creative power of collaboration. It also makes me think that it will demonstrate to students that diversity of ideas is powerful.

Sarah D. Sparks in her article above, suggests that recent research indicates that 'video-chat or avatar environments' actually can lead to natural engagements between students. To View the complete article you can either subscribe or sign up for a two week free trial.

This article supports the argument that no one education method is the best on its own. The blend of social media, technology and face-2-face interactions help students to effectively communicate and form bonds with their classmates.

An intriguing article delineating several useful methods to bring online classrooms to life. While text and self-teaching methods were the way of the past, we now have a multitude of means to engage the student both visually and audibly via an incredible assortment of tools and resources just brimming with creative potential.

Using online math course as the example, this article provides teachers and students with a lot of technology tools to create a rich online learning and problem-solving environment. With these digital tools, students get more engaged in learning and become more creative thinking. It's a good reference for subject teachers.

This article asks how we teach students the tools to learn how to talk, read, write, and think online. It mentions many of the media literacy tools presented in one of our readings.

Try using Presi instead of PowerPoint the next time you need to present some information.

One of my student did his senior project presentation using Prezi and it was wonderful. He liked the tool so much he discussed it with his classmates. It was appropriate that his topic was "The Rapid Advancement of Technology: Is it Good or Bad?" His arguments were enlightening coming from an 18 year old heading off to college.

I have had a couple of students use Prezi for their presentations. They came out great. To me, their presenatations had a much better flow and were more visually pleasing than PowerPoint.

This article discusses the success of setting up class blogs involving high school juniors. The author points out that 'students value an authentic audience for their writing'. A great starting read for any teacher that has had thoughts about working with blogs in their classroom.

School district implements common planning time and allows teachers to collaborate using a wike for lesson plans and web links to enhance classroom teaching.

Thank you for sharing that example of the wiki and teacher sharing. I may discuss this to be a possible option for a professional day for my own dept members as we look to design our own text.

Since we are learning about Web 2.0, this article discussed science teaching with the use of social networks and communication tools. Mostly at a college level but I think it could apply to HS.

This article is about the state of Computer Science. It discusses what needs to be done in order for Computer Science be relevant in K-12.