Advertising Messages As Tools for Teaching

This site suggests teachers consider using advertising in their English classrooms.

Can Cellphones Be Educational Tools?

Obviously, they CAN be. But this piece, from The New York Times Learning Network site, does not address the need for school districts and schools to revise many of their archaic policies about the use of cell phones in instruction.

Teens Online Lack Ethics (Harvard Study Finds)

In their research, the team has found that most young people are devoid of ethical thinking or consideration for others when using the web.

Education Nation: NBC Initiative Starts September 26

Among other things, NBC's Bryan Williams will talk with thousands of teachers on-air and online about critical issues facing educators. Other details here.

Can videogames transform education?

One of the featured stories in the Sunday New York Times magazine section.

Enhancing English Language Arts Education With Digital Video

Three university professors, writing in the journal "Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education"(CITE), provide a concise history of the use of film in the ELA classroom and examine why teaching with and about digital video is also important for 21st century new literacies' educators.

Researcher links kids' computer use with test scores, behavior

In what researchers describe as one of the first long-term looks at the effects of media use during childhood, a study released September 15 linked hours at the computer with achievement test scores and behavior and found little sign of harm for children ages 6 to 12 as they increased their screen time over a six-year period.

History of American Film: Series Coming to TCM

Series Title: MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD.
Dates & Times: Mondays at 8 p.m. (ET), Beginning Nov. 1 (7 parts)
Where: Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

Description: The true story of the American film industry has as many ups and downs, twists and turns as the latest big-budget thriller, not to mention a cast of characters worthy of a shelf full of Oscars®. MOGULS AND MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD will tell this extraordinary tale over the course of seven one-hour documentaries, each focusing on a different era of American movie history.

Spanning from the invention of the first moving pictures to the revolutionary, cutting-edge films of the 1960s, this production will feature rarely seen photographs and film footage, clips from memorable American movies and interviews with distinguished historians and major Hollywood figures.

At its heart, the documentary series will be a personal history of Hollywood, detailing the personalities, inter-personal relationships, collaborations and conflicts that created an industry and an art form. The series will also serve as a history of America, looking at how moviemakers responded to such major events as the Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights movement.

Forthcoming book: Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies (NCTE)

NCTE members Mary Christel and Scot Sullivan have done it again. Their first book was very popular; this one will be too. Here they present a new set of lessons designed to help you integrate a variety of digital applications—Web 2.0 and beyond—into the courses and units you’re already teaching.

Discovering the power of media literacy for students in the 21st century

Profile of a girl's school that has started to implement media literacy across the curriculum.

Editing, enhancing Wikipedia becomes college project

Some professors believe Wikipedia has no place in the footnotes of a college paper. But some others have agreed to make creating, augmenting, and editing Wikipedia entries part of their students' coursework.