Category: News and Notes
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A Few Thoughts for Pre-Service Teachers on Standards and Standardized Tests
This week, a colleague invited me to share some brief thoughts about standards and standardized testing with her preservice teachers in a private discussion forum for her class. I composed this quickly, but I hope that it has something to say for those of us who are interested in teaching writing, authentic writing, and substantive…
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What Have We Learned from Digital Learning Day
The tweets have slowed to a trickle. The webcasts are all archived. And the proclamations about the power of digital learning are a distant memory in our multi-tasked lives. Digital Learning Day 2013 is in the books. The post that follows is, really, in two distinct parts. First, I summarize my cynical vision of what…
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Open Letter to Educators: (Re)Defining Digital Learning Day
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Dear Educator: Tomorrow (well, technically today by the time I am done writing this) is the second annual Digital Learning Day. Cool. I’m all for digital learning, as the title of my blog implies. But, as we prepare for the onslaught of tweets, blog posts, videos, webinars, and other celebrations, it is worth exploring the definition…
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Teacher Leadership and Digital Writing
This weekend, I began working with teacher leaders from the Columbus Area Writing Project on the hybrid course we are calling “Teacher Leadership in Teaching Digital Writing.” I’ve been fortunate enough to make many trips to Columbus in the last few years, and look forward to having this opportunity to work with these NWP colleagues…
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Citelighter Releases New Features
As I have stated before, I generally don’t do product endorsements, but once in a great while there is something that comes along that I think has great value for teachers and students as digital writers. Citelighter is one of those tools. I found out about Citelighter last summer, and used it as a tool…
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Social Network “Fail” Leads to A Renewed Approach to ENG 315
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Another semester began this week, and I have been updating my syllabus and wiki site for ENG 315. Last semester, I was quite surprised and delighted by the number of you who asked me about my Wikispaces to Edmodo shift. Well, we learn from our failures, right? This is one that taught me a great…
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Reflection on #literacies Chat: 12/6/12
My thanks again to Anna Smith for inviting me to host the last #literacies chat of 2012 focused on digital writing and the common core standards: “Broadening the Scope: Teaching Multiple Literacies in an Era of Common Core Standards.” Before reading much further in my reflections, you might be interested in catching up on the…
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Broadening the Scope: Teaching Multiple Literacies in an Era of Common Core Standards
Originally posted on the #literacies chat blog: On 12/6 7PM EST, guest host Troy Hicks (@hickstro) will lead our last #literacies chat of 2012: While scholars of literacy studies push the envelope and explore ideas such as multi-modality, digital writing, and critical literacy, our colleagues in K-12 classrooms continue to face a number of challenges. Most notably, countless…
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New Resource on Tablets vs. Textbooks from ProCon.org
If you need a different debate for the Thanksgiving dinner table, here is a new issue posted on the always useful ProCon.org, which their president, Kamy Akhavan, shared with me earlier in the week from their press release: Should Tablets Replace Textbooks in K-12 Schools? ProCon.org Delves into High-Stakes Print vs. Digital Debate Santa Monica, CA –…