Tech2Go

Apparently the last post has been rolling around in my thoughts more than I anticipated. What struck me as a good idea has moved into a much more conceptual dialog (in my own head of course!). I know the physical structures of a school need to be redesigned and aligned to current practices, but the broad notion of redesign has gotten me thinking about literacy.

Interaction with several discrete sources is moving me toward a convergence in my own thinking. I’ll list three items in particular, and I hope you will explore them to inform your own thinking about literacy in the 21st century.

First David Warlick asks a group of teachers in Shanghai, China how literacy has changed (or how it remains the same). Portions of the conversation appear in podcast #81 at Connected Learning. Listen to the short podcast, and consider your own answer to the question he poses.

Next Cory Doctorow’s article You Do Like Reading Off A Computer Screen made me realize that soundbytes have a counterpart. The “readbytes” are influencing the way we engage with text. Is our curriculum acknowledging this phenomenon?

Also Donovan, Harley & Strudler reaffirmed, and validated, key aspects of the ACOT (Apple Classroom Of Tomorrow) study findings with their article  in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education(JRTE) this month. A key notion of our integration and change revolves around teachers’ practices moving to a student-centered model. 

Technology has influenced how we name revision and improvement (even school has a version number). So what does School 2.0 mean to you? What are the implications for your school? Easy access to technology is implied, but it must be more than student-to-computer ratios and bandwidth! What are the implications for writing in “digital genres”? Are there strategies specific to reading on-screen text? What are you thinking?