Category: Reflections

Introducing Assessing Students’ Digital Writing

Jul 11, 2015

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by

Troy Hicks

in Assessing Students’ Digital Writing, Assessment, Books, Collaboration, Connected Learning, Digital Is, Educational Research, English Education, Gaming, Literacy, Media and Pop Culture, Multiliteracies, New Literacies, New Media, News and Notes, NWP, Professional Development, Reflections, Teaching, Writing

By all measures, I am fortunate to work with so many incredible colleagues from the world of education, both K-12 and higher ed. Many times those collaborations happen in just a few hours, or a few says, and they then disappear. However, sometimes they last for months or even years, and they transform into something…
Summer Institute, Stillness, and (Digital) Storytelling

Jul 8, 2015

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by

Troy Hicks

in CMU, Collaboration, CRWP, Digital Storytelling, New Humanities, New Literacies, Professional Development, Reflections, Teaching, Writing

We are in the middle of week three of our Chippewa River Writing Project’s Invitational Summer Institute, and I am sitting in the late afternoon calm of writing time. At this moment, eight of the seventeen of us are here composing various pieces, including our digital stories. The rest are scattered around our building, or…
Reflecting on Digital English in Taiwan

Jun 12, 2015

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by

Troy Hicks

in Academic Life, Assessment, Copyright, English Education, Fair Use, Internet Research, Literacy, News and Notes, Reflections, Shih Chien, Teaching, Writing

With a little bit of time in Tokyo’s Narita Airport, I figured I should try to capture some of my thinking about teaching my Digital English Learning course at Shih Chien University (USC) in Taipei, Taiwan. As expected, the three weeks have disappeared already, and we focused conversations and class activities on issues such as online privacy, creating a professional…
Fandom Mashup with Mozilla’s Popcorn

Apr 13, 2015

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by

Troy Hicks

in Best Practice, CMU, Composition, Connected Learning, Digital Mentor Texts, Media and Pop Culture, New Literacies, News and Notes, Online Learning, Open Content, Reflections, Teaching, Writing

For anyone that has read this blog, seen my guest post on the Heinemann website, or heard me speak in the past few months, you know that I am becoming more and more intrigued with Mozilla’s Popcorn as a digital writing tool. Last week, my students in ENG 201 started playing around with Popcorn as…
Digital Learning Day (Week/Month) 2015

Mar 10, 2015

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by

Troy Hicks

in Connected Learning, News and Notes, NWP, Presentations, Professional Development, Reflections, Teaching, Writing

Celebrating Digital Learning Day this year has been quite an experience, beginning last week and going all the way through this weekend, with the “official” celebration happening, of course, this Friday with a live feed from the Teaching and Learning Conference in Washington DC. Last week, I was honored by my friend and colleague, Dawn…
More Thoughts on the Digital Reading/Writing Workshop

Nov 19, 2014

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by

Troy Hicks

in Best Practice, Choice and Inquiry, Collaboration, Connected Learning, Digital Reading, Digital Writing Workshop, News and Notes, Online Reading, Professional Development, Reading in a Digital Age, Reflections, Teaching, Writing

Earlier this month, Kristin Ziemke and I co-authored a blog post in response to Nancie Atwell’s blog post about the role of technology in her classroom. In short, the response to our response has been, well, overwhelming and positive. As so many of us in the world of English language arts prepare to head to DC this week…
Digital Media in Content Area Learning

Sep 26, 2014

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by

Troy Hicks

in Connected Learning, Crafting Digital Writing, Digital Writing Tools, Gaming, New Media, News and Notes, Professional Development, Reflections, Social Networking, Teaching, Virtual Learning, Writing

Earlier this week, Liz Piazza asked: @hickstro Can various forms of new digital media (ie social networking, gaming) be effective in all content areas? — Liz Piazza (@mspizza5) September 22, 2014 At the time, I didn’t think I could answer in 140 characters, and I’m glad that I didn’t try. There are quite a few…
Networked Conversations and Transformational Technology

Sep 12, 2014

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by

Troy Hicks

in CMU, Connected Learning, Education Reform, ENG 315, Methods, News and Notes, Professional Development, Reflections, Social Networking, Teaching, Writing

This past week has been a busy one for me, with professional experiences ranging from face-to-face workshops and two webinars, to our first school-based field experiences with pre-service teachers; additionally I met with my writing project leadership team, facilitated two writing groups and ended last night by helping to moderate a panel discussion amongst principals…
Contributing to the Conversation: Pre-Service Teachers Get Started on Twitter

Sep 3, 2014

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by

Troy Hicks

in Best Practice, CMU, Collaboration, Connected Learning, ENG 315, News and Notes, Professional Development, Reflections, Social Networking, Teaching, Writing

Over the past week, my ENG 315 students have been joining Twitter and using the #eng315cmu hashtag to start discussing ideas related to teaching writing and creating their own PLNs. I provided them with a few resources to get moving along. First, to create your own professional learning network and reading list, begin by reading How…
Managing Learning and Assessment in a Connected Learning Environment

Aug 11, 2014

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by

Troy Hicks

in Assessment, Connected Learning, CRWP, Curation, Digital Reading, Digital Writing Workshop, Interviews, News and Notes, NWP, Professional Development, Reading in a Digital Age, Reflections, Social Networking, Teaching

Earlier this evening, I participated in a wonderful closing discussion as part of the sixth and final webinar in KQED’s TeachDoNow series. The archived video as well as a summary of my tweets with links from the conversation are below. Broadly, our conversation centered on this big question: How do you manage learners, tasks, resources, and assessment…