Promoting Literacy in a 21st Century World

  

Promoting literacy in the 21^st Century world through technology allows educators to teach good literacy skills that enable the students to decipher and evaluate, written works but also visual images, graphics, and video. Literacy is no longer confined to written words only.

Educators will face the challenge of creating lessons which develop inquiry based learning, critical thinking and good analysis and comprehension of information obtained while integrating technology into their curriculum. Teachers will need to engage in their own inquiry based learning to learn and use the vast array of tools available on the Internet while taking risk with, what for some educators will be unfamiliar domain.

Educators will have to re-think how they teach literacy for it now encompasses digital media as well.  They must encourage collaboration in learning by engaging their students in the read, write and collaborative aspects of the web.  Students will develop a curiosity about all that is available on the web and become risk takers as they come to be empowered by the knowledge that they have obtained.

Producing learners who are proficient in 21^st Century skills requires a change in the way in which students learn. Educators must engage learners in higher order thinking skills and inventive thinking. Creative people developed the tools available on the web and these great tools encourage creativity, communication, and collaboration by all who use them.

Educators must re-think how they teach as they embrace the social aspects of web 2.0 and it myriad of applications. The way people learn is changing dramatically we as educators must embrace this change and teach our students how to navigate through these new waters and realize that learning is and always has been a social thing. If you think back to early learning it was knowledge told by storytellers and elders of a tribe or community, it wasn’t as isolated as it has become.  Think of the web, as a social network of caring teachers who want to pass on what they have learned to the world, be not afraid of it, and embrace it.

More Web 2.0 Tools

Wow, there are so many great Web 2.0 Tools out there, Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Google Docs, Zoho, to name a few and some new ones. Check out some of these fun sites.

Wordle, great sight to create catchy Word Clouds, the word that is used most frequently is the largest. I use this to introduce new lessons, artists and ideas about art.
Wordle
Top  10 Wordle Uses Site

Voice Thread has great possibilities for discussions and oral histories of images, video, etc. It is another great collaboration tool. I must say students really like collaborating, so I am excited about so many great new Web 2.0 Tools which encourage collaboration.

Toondoo a great site for students to create cartoons, be they humorous, political, or about events in history, current events or bullying prevention.

Podcasting is something that has been around, however, it has never been this easy for students to use. Now that we have Macs with Garageband it is very easy for students to use it. Podcasting stands out to me because I can see it a great way for students to collaborate and engage in Art History, which sometimes can be a bit unappealing to them. I plan to assign student groups to research an artist and an artwork of the artists and create a slideshow with a Podcast describing the life of the artist and a few of his/her most famous works. I plan to showcase the Podcasts at our annual art show. I also plan to have students create Podcasts describing the exhibits in our galleries which the students created, in this way it will be much like a recorded docent tour at an art museum.

Podbean is a great place to host your podcast.

This lesson incorporates the following NETS Standards for Students:

            Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.  Students: a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.  Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:  a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.  b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Taken from the NETS Standards

The Power of Podcasting

I really enjoyed seeing all of the available resources and apps for podcasting. There are so many available that it makes it easier than it was a few years back when I first tried to make one and it seemed overwhelming to me. Since I have a Mac I created my podcast in Garageband which was effortless and really quick. I have used audacity before and feel it has a greater learning curve. Garageband makes it easy to add images in from i-photo as well.


Podcasts in the classroom can be used as a teaching tool to engage the students at the beginning of a lesson and motivate them to learn more. They can also be a great way for students to collaborate and make their own podcasts showing the knowledge they have gained, what a great assessment tool for auditory learners. I feel students would jump at the chance to create a podcast book report or presentation over a written on any day of the week. Creating  and teaching with podcasts incorporate the following NETS standards:

My Podcast about the artist Chagall     

Listen to this episode

Teaching Visual Literacy using Online Photo Sharing

Well I love the opportunities that online photo sharing sites create for the classroom. Being an art educator visual literacy plays a huge role in interpreting and finding meaning in works of art. Visual images are how people process the world around them, the good, the bad and the awestruck moments of life. As learners, students need to be able to understand the images they see by learning how to interpret, evaluate, and find meaning in them. Educators need to encourage learners to look for clues, communications, feelings, and meaning in the images they encounter and create. I found creating and using a Flickr account was a breeze, especially if you set up your Blogger, Google, and Flickr account all through your Google account it works  seamlessly together and there are less passwords to remember.

I would use Online Photo-Sharing Sites in many ways in my art classroom. One as an Art History and Art Criticism tool. I would teach a unit on Architecture, teaching the traditional "Elements of Architecture" i.e. columns, symmetry, facades, etc. and then have the students find or use photos I put in a Gallery which represented these elements. It would be a worldwide scavenger hunt from ancient Rome, to modern contemporary homes who still use those basic elements worldwide. I would add to the fun and have them map point their photos and annotations in Flickr. This lesson incorporates the following NETS standards.

• Communication and Collaboration a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media b.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats  c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
• Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making b.plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project c.collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
  (Taken from the ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Students  NETS
  
  SOME USEFUL LINKS
  Flickr Tour
  Flickr Resources
  Big Huge Lab Photo Editing
  
  
  Flickr Slide Share Ideas and Tutorial
  
  
  
  

Flickr Fun!

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Texting!

Texting!, a photo by theshizniz on Flickr.

Social Bookmarking, a great Web 2.0 Tool

Social Bookmarking, wow what a great research and collaborative tool. As an educator I'm always sending colleagues links that I find are great or relevant, however, it's been a one-way street, I don't get too many back in return. After exploring delicious.com I was hooked, I found a community of learners who bookmark and tag sites that are relevant to my own interest and research. The big misconception is that most people think, "Oh I know how to bookmark," well this app is an eyeopener, and full of potential so don't pass it over. Using delicious.com is wonderfully simple and Diigo.com another bookmarking site has wonderful features that let you categorize your lists of bookmarks, allowing you to refine and categorize your searches and information even more. I will be setting up a group or two with my teaching colleagues in the near future as a educational resource, enabling collaboration and sharing of information.

So how do you use social bookmarking in the classroom? You could probably Google that and create a bookmark and tags to start collecting ideas, making it easy on yourself, why do the work if it's already been done. Being an art educator I would use this as a classroom research tool. What a fabulous way to introduce a period of painting. Set up a social bookmarking site, create a buddy group or limit who can view the bookmarks and tags to protect your students, then let them loose. They can all explore the web for relevant sites, bookmark and tag them. By creating a research tool for the period of art; such as Impressionism, Fauvism, or Contemporary Art, students will easily gather information for a project, wiki, blog, or presentation regarding the information collected. Students will be using their Research and Information Fluency skills a NETS standard by evaluating, locating, and organizing sources and information using digital tools and technology in the classroom.
I hope you enjoy and discover the potential this super Web 2.0 Tool has to offer.

Web 2.0 RSS and Other Feed Readers in Education

So what are the benefits of using RSS or Feed Readers in education you might ask like I did. Well being the curious person that I am I went out searching for what I can do with this Web 2.0 tool and found some great ideas and resources. Adding the RSS Feeds to my blogs was a few clicks and they were up just add it under gadget on your design template.
Feeds are great for gathering research, especially if you set up an interesting activity or research topic that once subscribed to feeds will gather information until you are ready to implement it into your curriculum. Feeds give you the information you are searching for as opposed to you having to sift through information being pushed out to you. Feeds are also a fantastic way to monitor student blogs or your favorite education or technology news feeds or blogs. Using feeds in the classroom integrates NETS-S Standard of using "Creativity and Innovation."  Feeds encourage learners to use existing knowledge and apply it to a new process while identifying trends regarding the topic they are exploring. NETS-S Standard of "Research and Information Fluency" is also integrated when the learners strategically guide their inquiry by collecting information and acquiring knowledge through the use of feeds.
So use this great Web 2.0 tool to its full potential and FEED those hungry minds in your classroom.