Greetings and salutations!

 Under the category of digital "footprint", what DOES your email address say about you? I don't really get this blog (The Oatmeal) but the graphic is great (click to enlarge), and the concept compelling.




 Summary:
@owndomain = skilled and capable techno-wizard
@gmail.com = pretty tech savvy
@hotmail.com = still thinks MySpace is hip (haha - I liked that one)
@yahoo.com = types in capslocks and forwards alarming emails about conspiracies

@aol.com = prints emails out and brings them to your house for you to read

This is an interesting time in communication. Many educational institutions are doing away with their email platforms in favor of Gmail or just leaving it up to students. Email is already seen as dated and an outmoded technology. Social media platforms, wikis, Moodles and the ubiquitous cell phone texting have eclipsed email.

The question is, who is teaching communication conventions? Letter writing used to be taught in the classroom. I have vivid memories of lined paper and various forms of "salutations". Is "Yo" an acceptable salutation these days? If we polled students I think we would get a unanimous "du-uh".

I have a gmail account. Am feeling good about my placement on the chart.

Source articles:
 EduDemic � What Your E-Mail Address Says About Your Computer Skills

The Oatmeal: What your email address says about your computer skills

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons

Email me. 1/365.
from Mona rocks.....not

The Changing Face of Literacy and Learning in 1-1 Laptop Csasrooms: The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension

MassCue Session 5 -

Keynote: The Changing Face of Literacy and Learning in 1-1 Laptop Classrooms: The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension
Donald J. Leu, Prof and Director, New Literacies Research Lab, U of Conn
J. Gregory McVerry, W. Ian O’Byrne, Lisa Zawilinski, U of Conn and the New Literacies Research Lab

Internet is a reading comprehension and learning issue – not a technology issue.
Internet is this generations defining technology for reading and learning and requires new literacies. Where are the standards?

1 out of 4 people, nearly 25% of world’s population has internet connectivity. Projection is that in 10 years every erson will be covered.

Internet World Stats - Internet World Stats is an International website that features up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions.

We are small potatoes compared to saturation in other areas of the world. This is a global phenomenon.
2005 was the tipping point year when students spent more time reading online than in books. Updated data not yet available.

• Ireland re-tooled their education system 10 years ago and now have a highly trained workforce, are the number 1 global creator of software, and are importing workers. A boom economy in Ireland right now.
• Mexico has a national plan for integrating the Internet into every home and school. 15 year systematic plan. e-Mexico details the plan.
• Japan provides Internet connections for all households 16x faster, at $22/month to support Internet integration at national level.
• How many states in the US measure student ability to read search engine results on state reading assessments? 0. Our students use a click strategy.
• 0 states allow students to perform assessments using a word processor, despite the data that shows that students would preform better if they were allowed to use a word processor. Boston College did this research.
• 0 states assess online reading comprehension in state assessments. This is an important reading task. (Extend info literacy skills to source evaluation.)

LMS are central to schools as we shift from page to screen. These will be school leaders and these positions should be protected.

Internet is defining technology for this generation, and other nations are adapting policy and education systems. They see it, and the US does not. NCLB assessments do not include new literacies.

Achievement Gap - our policies are increasing these gaps. Poor students have less access, and come to poor school districts. These schools are under pressure to improve NCLB reading scores without access to technology. Pressure to get students ready to pass an irrelevant test. The poor are left further and further behind in developing Internet reading comprehension skills. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.

The Internet requires new literacies - focus on online reading comprehension. 10% lowest performing readers are actually quite good at reading on the Internet. They are more functionaly in online environments - text units are very short. When they get to info the text expands but they have skills in plave (controlF) to manage their content. They get to choose what they read based on links they follow - and this builds engagement.
Also very good at reading pictures - strong visual skills and they can exploit this extra info to build their comprehension.

Their data shows no corelation between assessed reading skills and online reading skills. New literacies are Internet skills.

• reading to define problem
• reading to locate information
• reading to evaluate information
  
• reading to synthesize information
  
• reading and writing to communicate information

Kids are great at certain technologies, but not good with information skills. Use semantic skills and ".com" strategy. They don't incorporate search engines in their inquiry process.

Model for teaching online reading comprehension in 1:1 latptop classrooms
Predict within 10 years we will have total shift to 1:1 environment - Maine already made this shift. May need to be a decsiion at state or federal level.
Everything changes in content when you make this shift.

(Apple Remote desktop for in class space so thumbnail allows oversite of student activity)

Phase I - Teacher-led Basic Skills
(nuts and bolts - 2 weeks)

• teacher-led deomontsrations of basic Internet use skills and cooperative learning strategies
• explicit modeling by teacher
• largely whole class instruction
• mini-lessons as transition to Phase II.

Phase II - Collabortaive modeling of online reading strategies
(reading skills of evaluating sources)

• students presented with information problem to solve
• work in small groups to solve problem
• exchange strategies as they do so
• debrief at end of lesson
• initally: location and critical evaluation
  
• later: synthesis and communication

Phase III of IRT (Internet Reciprocal Teaching)

• inquiry - initially within class
• then with others around the world (ePals - good child-safe digital environment)

"Help the last become first." - Make them the leaders, privilege them in powerful ways.
Include email in your curriculum. It is the primary method of communication in the business world.

"The fact is that people don’t read anymore." —Steve Jobs

I take exception with Mr. Jobs' statement (1/15/08, MacWorld Expo, The Passion of Steve Jobs). People are still reading, they are just reading differently. Postliterate, new literacy, 21st century skills, call it what you want. We are in the midst of a cultural revolution.

In Doug Johnson's very smart article Libraries for a Postliterate Society, he examines the role of libraries in a society that is less and less paper based. For librarians this can be a tough discussion. We are a group of people with a strong sensory bond to the book-in-hand knowledge experience. "Postliterate" feels like a creepy shift towards illiteracy and a loss of skills. This is our paper bias.

The postliterate library, according to Johnson, will offer new materials and services for patron needs. Material in diverse formats, platforms for collaborative work, media creation resources to share learning, and these are just a few.

So, what does postliterate mean?

Wikipedia defines it this way (2008): Postliterate Society ,"In a postliterate society people can read words, but choose not to. They generally receive information in a visual form instead of a verbal form."

Webster's Online Dictionary's definition (1960): relating to or occurring after the introduction of the electronic media

Oxford English Dictionary (Sept. 2009) says: postliterate adj. of or designating a time or milieu characterized by a decline in the importance or prevalence of the written word.

According to Andrea Lunsford of the Stanford University Study of Writing, "we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization". Technology is revitalizing writing and communication. This revitalization has brought new literacies.

Our students are communicating at a greater rate than ever before. Just watch the computers at CCHS. Writing for class assignments, writing for social networking, texting, IM, reading in multiple formats, music, dialogue - they are engaged in a multiple sensory experience. Their world is rich and multi-dimensional. They are already in the postliterate world. The old fluencies are there, but augmented with so many new genres of learning, information, collaboration and sharing. Their world is so exciting!

And this brings us full circle. As Doug Johnson so eloquently states, "culture determines library programs; libraries transmit culture." The postliterate culture is here. Viva la revolution!

Source articles:
Libraries for a Postliterate Society
Multimedia & Internet @ Schools, Doug Johnson

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

Education Business Blog:
Wired Nails it on the New Literacy

New York Times:

The Passion of Steve Jobs
By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: January 21, 2008

Photo Credit:
Flickr Creative Commons

Treasured Books

Uploaded on October 4, 2008
by 1bluecanoe

Are you literate? Writing in the 21st Century - making connections

Jeff Utecht posted to his blog from Bangkok. He attended the BLC '09 conference in Boston last week. Clearly, he is in the zone, and he is a leading voice in defining the educational conversation. I like what he has to say.

Digital Literacy vs Networked Literacy | The Thinking Stick

For those of us above the age of 25 it can be a strange conversation. Yeah, we know how to read. This is a new type of reading. We are looking at broader contexts and skills and making connections. There are new paradigms and different stakes. Education is to provide children with the critical skills to work and provide a livlihood for themselves and their families, right? If you are a 22 year old college graduate chances are you are struggling to find a job. Has your education really given you the skills you need to compete? To contribute? These are tough times. A lot of people are being left behind. We can do better. We have to do better.

Literacy = reading and decoding skills
Digital reading = technology access skills
Networked literacy = understanding and making connections

From Jeff Utecht:
"Networked literacy is what the web is about. It’s about understanding how people and communication networks work. It’s the understanding of how to find information and how to be found. It’s about how to read hyperlinked text articles, and understand the connections that are made when you become “friends” or “follow” someone on a network. It’s the understanding of how to stay safe and how to use the networked knowledge that is the World Wide Web. Networked Literacy is about understanding connections."

Take a look at what the National Council of Teachers of English have to say about Writing in the 21st Century.

For our kids to be literate they need to have the skills to create their own networks, frame new questions, seek reliable information, assess for bias, identify alternate sources from around the world, collaborate, generate opinions, and share their results. These are new and incredibly powerful skills. This is a great time for education.

Image: Wordle - word cloud generator
Text source:Digital Literacy vs. Networked Literacy, The Thinking Stick