Week+3


 * Week Three - Monday, May 27 - Sunday, June 2 **


 * This Week's Lesson: ** Technology Theory (continued from last week) & Digital Learners and Learning


 * Required Readings: ** There are THREE readings to complete this week (this includes reading Davidson's text)


 * Required Viewings: ** There are ONE viewings to complete this week


 * This Week's Assignment/What's Due: ** There is ONE thing due this week


 * Reflections on Last Week **

that's a really unfortunate screen shot ... but here's my feedback on your work last week. It runs about 8 minutes long.

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First, I want to highlight a section on our wiki: **TE 831 Resources**. In the TE 831 Resources section (left side navigation), you will find links to wiki pages with additional technology related resources. For example, one wiki page, called Free Technology, is an RSS feed from a teacher blog with links to free educational technology ideas and resources. The Technology Grants page contains links to grant information specifically for teachers using technology. Grant-writing is a fantastic way to apply for funds in order to add technology hardware and equipment in your classroom. I want to highlight a grant opportunity through Donors Choose, which is an organization which seeks to match donors to help meet the equipment and resource needs of teachers. This is a wonderful organization and there are a number of teachers who have purchased technology equipment with grant money from Donors Choose. Please feel free to add any other grant opportunities to the tech grants page and if you have some time, try writing and applying for a grant (or two)!
 * This Week's Lesson **

The Ed Tech Ideas & Links is another page which I encourage you to populate with your own technology resources, hot links, and ideas for using educational technology (I will also continue to add resources to this page). Feel free to share website links, embed videos and RSS feeds, and contribute your ideas on this page. NOTE: //This is also a great place to look for possible tech tools you might want to try out and use for the Tech Tools assignments.// Also, __follow the correct format for this assignment and include all the required parts;__ I've also included two examples for further clarification.

The purpose of this week's lesson is to shift this conversation away from what we know and do as teachers to what our students know and do as learners. Take, for example, the phrase “digital natives.” It has become a kind of buzz word in educational technology circles to describe someone raised in a technological environment, who accepts that environment as normal. This person often has grown up surrounded by digital devices, such as MP3 players, smart phones and tablets, and regularly uses these devices to interact with other people and the outside world. I included an article by [|Marc Prensky], the author who coined the term, "digital native." Please read the article closely and think about what content in the article rings true in relationship to the students you teach or those you hope to one day teach. Additionally, I encourage you to make "text to self" connections in your examination of the Prensky text (i.e., in what ways does this reading resonate with your own lived experiences). Finally, be willing to scrutinize Prensky's thesis and critique whether he overstates the difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants."

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">In connection with our readings focused on digital natives and immigrants, there are compelling ideas related to Prensky's notions of being a "digital immigrant" or "digital native." Are two "digital" labels enough? Educational technologists are now including a third category for being digital, namely the "digital pioneer" (watch this short video before continuing to read). In this instance, this comes <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">from Kathy Schrock(if you aren't familiar with her, definitely check her out - she has some //terrific// resources for teachers connected to educational technology which can be found on our Ed Tech Ideas and Links page). However, n <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">o matter which category suits you, the important part is not so much the labels, but a deeper understanding of how digital technologies define much of our current culture and humans' uses/modes of communication. Just a final thought about Prensky's work. Academics often criticize Prensky for over-exaggerating his claims or not providing sufficient empirical evidence for his terminology. For a example of such criticism, click HERE. Yet, despite the critiques, Prensky's labels and ideas have gained a lot of traction in the fields of education and educational technology as well as in popular culture. Just a question to think about: //what do you think accounts for Prensky's work being so popular and, at least so far, somewhat "timeless"?//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Another important technology skill which is often considered to be synonymous with "21st Century Learning" is "digital literacy." Digital literacy (or sometimes called "new literacy)" is described as //being proficient in basic computer and digital concepts/skills in order to use digital technology in everyday life//. Some argue that the affordances of being "digitally literate" include social and economic opportunities, greater access to information, and being deeply connected to the world. Dr. David Buckingham, a British researcher/professor, is one of the leading "digital literacy" thinkers. I've posted one of his articles, "Digital Media Literacies: Rethinking Media Education in the Age of the Internet", to give you a richer sense of what it means to be digitally literate. There's also a recent article from the journal, //The Reading Teacher// posted below, which focuses on digital literacy and iPads. This article, however, focuses more on literacy skills for students. //In any case, like the other conceptual theories and ideas presented in this course, "digital literacy" is meant to be critiqued, discussed, debated, examined, and explored.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Additionally, being digitally literate also requires one to think about what it means to be a "digital citizen." Digital citizenship concerns the ethics and etiquette of using the Internet and digital tools. A great example of digital citizenship is being familiar with and abiding by copyrights and image credits. We will continue to discuss digital citizenship throughout this course. To help engage the concept, please consider the following resources:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**1.) YouTube launched a [|Digital citizenship curriculum for teachers].** This curriculum is aimed at secondary students, age 13-17, and there are nine lessons with additional resources for parents/teachers.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**2.)** **[|Edutopia] also has resources connected to [|digital citizenship],** which contains nine elements of being a well-informed and well-equipped digital citizen. This site also has connections to #digcit, which is one hashtag people use on Twitter to categorize posts that connect to digital citizenship (i.e., anyone tweeting about digital citizenship and uses this hashtag (i.e., similar to "tag" on our wiki) will have their tweets show up on this Twitter feed). Definitely check out this [|Twitter] feed, especially if you're not familiar with Twitter. Side note: some teachers claim that Twitter is one of the best professional development tools they use - you can follow anyone on Twitter as well as follow specific topics (i.e., hashtags). We'll talk more about Twitter later this semester when we examine social media within educational contexts.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**3.) [|Common Sense Media] provides [|digital literacy and citizenship classroom curriculum for K-12 teachers]**. Check out their site for how to integrate digital citizenship into your classroom AND connect it to the Common Core State Standards (for U.S. teachers).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">If any of you decide to use any parts of these curriculum resources in a lesson, please share how the lesson went with the rest of your TE 831 colleagues. I also encourage you to keep sharing resources, ideas, and links which many of you have been doing in the weekly discussion forums (keep it up!). //This is a great way to support each other and add to our professional learning community.//


 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Required Viewings (there is ONE): **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. Watch this video, "Teachers Speak About Educating the Digital Generation," focused on teaching digital natives, including digital citizenship (something we're going to talk about in the next few weeks).


 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Required Readings (there are THREE): **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Ribble, M.S. & Bailey, G.D. (2005). Developing ethical directions. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Learning and Leading with Technology //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">, 32(7), 36-39.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Hammett, R. F. (2011). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Digital technologies, new literacies, and 21st century skills <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">. Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, Informatics, and Cybernetics and the International Symposium on Integrating Research, Education, and Problem Solving (pp. 28-33). N. Callos, Chu, H-W., Horne. J. & Welsch, F. (Eds.). Orlando, FL, November 29-December 2, 2011.


 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">This Week's Assignment/What's Due (there is ONE thing): **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1.) **Post/Comment on Week Three's Discussion Board** - Respond to this week's online discussion group prompts, focused on 1:1 technology and/or digital natives. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Initial posts are due Fri., May 31. ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read through your peers' posts and then add at least TWO **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> follow up comment/responses Sun., June 2. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Respond to the following prompts:**


 * **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">What connections did you make between the concept of digital natives, as connected to the videos and reading, and your own teaching/learning experiences? **
 * **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">The terms 'digital literacy' and 'digital citizenship' do have a lot of caché nowadays. As experienced educators, we know that sometimes folks make a lot of hay, so to speak, about new terms for the sake of having something new, and sometimes there really is something novel going on. I'd like you to consider what you think is in fact distinct, new, or different about the concepts 'digital literacy' and 'digital citizenship', and what do you think is enduring or similar between these concepts and just plain ol' 'literacy' and 'citizenship'. It would probably make your post clearer to focus on just one of these two comparisons/contrasts, that is, 'digital literacy' and 'literacy' or 'digital citizenship' and 'citizenship', but you don' t have to. **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Initial discussion posts should be between 200 - 250 words (maximum). **__You must add AT LEAST TWO follow up comments/responses to your peers' posts this week__**. I look forward, once again, to reading and "listening in to" your discussions this week.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Looking forward:** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">You will be asked to created a vodcast as an example of digital storytelling. The project is due Sunday, June 9, but you may want to preview it to get a sense of how much of a learning curve you'll have in using this specific technological tool.