LITERACY EDUCATION VIA ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGYandTECHNOLOGICAL LITERACYAs I’m sure you know, adolescents today are immersed in an electronically based, technology-driven world. Most of your students will have never known a world without television, CDs, DVDs, TIVOs, iPods, podcasting, cell phones, texting, the Internet, instant messaging, Xboxes, PlayStations, and Wiis. Increasingly, articles are being written about the pros and cons of electronic media in the lives of adolescents. Do uses of these media change adolescents’ brains? Do they affect reading and writing abilities? Creativity? Levels of activity and ability to sustain attention? What are the effects of the digital divide? Should teachers use computer games, web-based resources, and Internet research to support student learning? How are students being taught to find, evaluate, and make appropriate uses of Internet resources? These are all questions you will need to answer for yourself. To start you in that process, you will complete a technology resource notebook that includes:1. Summaries (with your responses) of articles that you locate about SmartBoards, electronic grade books, the digital divide, and when it is developmentally appropriate to use computer-based or web-based technologies with adolescents2. an interview with the technology specialist in your school in which you determine the ways technology is used in the district, resources teachers can expect, how students are taught to use and critique Internet resources, and any debates or conversations that are occurring among teachers, parents, and administrators,3. descriptions and critiques of at least five of the websites linked to the web addresses below,4. summaries and critiques of two or three articles or websites you find about innovative uses of technology not covered by the links below.As you peruse the websites, use the following questions to guide your critiques. These are the same questions that would be helpful for your students to answer as they make use of electronic resources. These questions were adapted from The Power of Questions (pages 55-56) by Beverly Falk and Megan Blumenreich, Your critiques should answer these questions and then contain your conclusions about the relative strengths, weaknesses, and potential usefulness of the sites.1. Who is the author of the site? If the author is one person, what are that person’s credentials? If the author is an organization, check it out in the Encyclopedia of Associations. Is there an address or email address given? Why does it matter to know this information?2. What country or state does this website come from? Why does it matter?3. How objective is the website? What is its purpose – to inform you, convince you of a point of view, sell you a product or service, amuse or entertain you?4. How current is the website’s content? Has it been updated to reflect current news and trends? Check the date of creation, the last update, and if the links are up-to-date.5. What is the intended audience for the site? At what age or reading level is it aimed?6. How is the site organized? Is it organized logically? Is it well designed? Is it easy to navigate? Does it overwhelm you with ads?7. Does it represent any biases against gender, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation, gender?8. What are the underlying assumptions about how learning occurs? In terms of literacy instruction, what model does the site seem to represent?ESLPowerPoint Presentation by an ESL teacher about uses of technology to support learning English as a second language.http://www.missioncollege.org/depts/esl/fac/chan/Pres/IntegTechESL.htmlREADING AND LITERACY ASSOCIATIONS International Reading AssociationThis site was created and is maintained by a teacher. Click on On-line writing resources and WebQuest. The WebQuest links provide numerous links to multi-disciplinary learning quests that require reading and writing. http://www.zianet.com/cjcox/edutech4learning/index.html National Reading Association and International Reading AssociationThe next several sites can also be found through the ReadWriteThink website’s resource page at NCTE or IRAhttp://www.readwritethink.org/resources/index.asp . Be sure to look over the Web Resources. Then take a look under the student materials tabhttp://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.aspYou’ll find lesson plans for different grade levels under the lessons tabhttp://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/index.aspSoftware tutorials for the classroom in basic programs like PowerPoint and FrontPage – the tutorials are pretty easy to follow http://www.actden.com/index.htmTeaching with technology - lots of tools like Quizstar for creating online quizzes and organizing results and -ThinkTank – which is for helping students develop a Research Organizer (a list of topics and subtopics) for reports and projectshttp://www.4teachers.org/SPECIAL EDUCATION Learning Disabilities OnLineProvides links and information for educators about how technology can support the learning of students with learning disabilities.http://www.ldonline.org/educators/strategies/technology National Association of Special Education TeachersThis page provides an introduction to the uses of assistive technology, and their potential difficulties. http://www.naset.org/assittech2.0.htmlCONTENT AREA WEBSITESYour choice (please let me know what you
View Full Document
Unlocking...