New Norms New Literacies

With all that is advancing in the world today in regards to technologies, I am not surprised that NETS for Students and Teachers has developed. When reading about the new literacies, I was pleasantly surprised that they are not that different from what is currently going on in my classroom today. I see the new literacies in relation to the scientific method. Students form a meaningful question and connect sub-questions to this idea. Next,  students must explore the Internet (and other resources) for related pages. Once they find these pages, they must make sure that the information presented is accurate through evaluation of the website and sources. When this is complete, students can critically analyze the information and synthesize the information given in order to relate it to the original question. Once this is complete, students must communicate when they have learned to their peers around them. In simpler terms, students must learn how to navigate the Internet in order to successfully answer posed questions.


The NETS for students' purpose is to prepare students for the technological world ahead of them. As teachers, we need to make sure that students are able to use technology to learn, explore, and analyze all that is around them. By giving them critical skills that will help them prepare to be digital citizens, these students will be much more likely to successfully work and live in the digital communities of the future.


The NETS for teachers' purpose is to assure that educators have the necessary skills and knowledge to teach, work, and learn in a society that is becoming more and more digital. It is crucial that teachers understand how to teach students to become technologically savvy adults. Not only do teachers need to teach their students technology but they also much be refining their instructional strategies through technology and being digital citizens themselves!

One example of how I incorporate the new literacies and the NETS in my classroom is through research projects. Not only are my students required to have multiple sources from the Internet, but they must also required to prove that the sites they found information on are accurate and professional. For more information regarding how to incorporate the NETS into your classroom, check out NETS for teachers.

I leave you with the following question. How can related service workers accurately be evaluated in regards to these standards when they can only take partial ownership over student learning?

World's Changing...Is Education?

When reading Richardson's text, titled "Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts", I found myself agreeing to many of his ideas. The overall theme seems to be that "The world is changing around us, yet as a system, we have been very, very slow to react." I completely agree with this point. As an educational system, we are hesitant on focusing on technology and instead, continuing to focus on aspects of learning that are less effective, especially when it comes to standardized testing.


With today's search engines and social media sites, students are being exposed to an extensive amount of knowledge and information that was not as readily available within our own childhoods. Because of this, I feel as though we need to put a great deal of focus into modifying our pedagogy and CURRICULUM to assure that our students are prepared for the world around us. As we have heard and seen, careers are being created around technology. The business world now relies heavily on technological programs in order to run successfully. If we want our students to become successful and efficient adults, we need to start incorporating technology into the classroom.

Another point I strongly agree with is that, "today's students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy." I feel as though many teachers are set in their ways and are not comfortable learning a new skill, such as managing a social networking account or creating a classroom blog. With such accounts and blogs in place, not only will students further their learning (especially at home), but they will also be exposed to creating, managing, and contributing to a technological measure.

When I related chapter 2 to my own school, I felt as though we are on the right track; however, not yet there. Breakthrough Magnet School (breakthroughmagnetschool.org) has a very parent and student friendly website. They even have a website full of student resources that help further student learning at home! Additionally, they have grade level "Peek of the Weeks" that give parents a summary of what is going on within the classroom. Other school-wide announcements can be found here as well. When exploring further, I found that many of the teacher pages/peek of the weeks were outdated, some even from the last school year! I think this is another problem when incorporating technology into the classroom; staying up-to-date on postings!

I compared my school's website to lewiselementary.org. What I found was amazing! Not only was the main page updated almost daily with current news and events, but the teacher notes were extremely detailed and informative as well! This is what all schools need!

Finally, when looking for wikis and blogs, I found that there were none where students and parents could contribute to the information/posts. As Richardson states, critical reading and writing skills, management skills, and collaboration skills can all be refined through blogging activities. Personally, my one concern is how can I incorporate a successful blog into my classroom due to the fact that I work with special education students. I do not have these students daily, or for a specific subject or task. 

How can I create a blog that not only is informative for students and parents, but also helps to work on specific student strengths and deficits for special education students?

Hello!

Hello!

My name is Jamee Freitag. I am currently in my second year of teaching at Breakthrough Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut. I work with nineteen talented middle school special education students. Student disabilities range from learning disabled to OHI to autism. On top of working with the students during school hours, I'm also the volleyball and basketball coach!

In my free time I love to dance, hike, and rock climb. I used to love to snowboard as well...until I broke my wrist this snow season!! My next big adventure includes moving to Argentina for a year to teach students English. I am currently preparing for this through a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course and Rosetta Stone. Buenos Noches! Como esta?