How Teachers CAN Use Twitter

Some educators at the recent European Council of International Schools annual conference in France appeared skeptical that Twitter could be a learning tool. But educator Kathy Schrock told educators that Twitter can be used for professional development or to engage students in the classroom by having them summarize reading in tweets, collaborate with peers or follow breaking news

Get engaged! Add your voice to NAMLE’s media literacy conference

Looking for a way to share your media literacy work with others? If so, then the National Association for Media Literacy Education wants to hear from you. NAMLE is seeking proposals for its 2011 conference, “Global Visions, Local Connections: Voices in Media Literacy Education”, and welcomes program proposals that magnify the core principles of media literacy education; illustrate pedagogical practices in the field; reflect the diversity of voices in the field; showcase the diversity of media and technology forms within media literacy education; or present findings of recent research on the efficacy of media literacy education.

The NAMLE conference serves a diverse constituency, including P-16 teachers, art educators, community leaders, media producers, nonprofit partners, faith-based groups, pediatricians, and other health professionals. Next year’s gathering takes place at the Sheraton Society Hill in the heart of historic Philadelphia, July 22-25, 2011. Proposals are due January 7, 2011. For more information visit www.NAMLE.net/conference.

Using social media to foster student collaboration, learning

A Chicago-area English teacher is using social media to help interest his high-school students in literature and reading. Chuck Moore uses PBworks and edmodo, which both offer free social networks for students to collaborate and discuss assignments. Moore's students use the Internet to further their understanding of books and social networking to discuss books online. "It's like what they're used to doing when they socialize with each other," Moore said.

Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies

Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies is the title of a new text just released by NCTE at its annual convention, here in Orlando. It is a follow up to the very popular Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms. Tell your library media specialist: both would make great additions to your media center professional collections.

Critical Thinking and Elementary Media Literacy

Here is an excellent write up about a presentation that targeted elementary students: it includes some good links, resources, and streaming video clips.

The Power of Classroom Blogging

"The power of classroom blogging is that students are not merely writing to their teachers, what they think the teacher wants to read, and only for a grade," one educational consultant said. "They are writing with the knowledge that at least their classmates will be reading what they are writing and responding to what they are writing."

Students participate more in class when using Twitter

A study published in a November issue of the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning finds that college students asked to complete assignments and engage in class discussion using Twitter over one semester increased their engagement more than twice as much as a group that utilized a different social networking website for these same assignments.

Makingof Website Will Satisfy Film Teachers and Students Alike

MakingOf.com is a huge new web resource for those who love film and also those who teach it. (It is promoted in an essay in the Summer 2011 issue of Screen Education.)
The author says: " a few hundred movies are currently on the site, with more regularly added. While some feature nothing more than trailers or clips from the film, others have extensive, highly informative packages specially shot for the site."

The President: Through A Photographer's Eyes

An upcoming PBS documentary (November 24, The President's Photographer: 50 Years in the Oval Office)could be used both by American History teachers as well as those who teach visual literacy.

An excerpt from the program's press release says: "To a documentary photographer, every presidency has defining stories, and those images are often how we remember a president."

The documentary also has a companion book: http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=6200676
Some images from the book can be found on Amazon's web page for the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Photographer-Fifty-Inside-Office/dp/1426206763/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289145935&sr=1-1
More images from the White House can be seen on the White House's official Flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse
Note: just this week, former President Bush expressed regret over an official White House photo taken of him in a plane that flew over areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina

CBS' Sunday Morning broadcast (November 6) also had a segment on Pete Souza, the current White House photographer.

Coincidentally, I wrote a chapter on visual literacy in politics in my book: Political Campaigns and Political Advertising: A Media Literacy.

Frank Baker

Digital Video In The Classroom/Digital Storytelling Resources

from the current issue of Tech & Learning magazine (November 2010)
Lights Camera Action: Digital Video In The Classroom
http://www.techlearning.com/article/34296

See also Digital Storytelling and Literacy Resources for Kids
http://www.techlearning.com/article/34096

Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics

An educational consultant shares his favorite top 10 sites for creating digital comics in Tech&Learning Online.

Classroom Video: Tools and Strategies to Engage Students in Learning (now available as a free ebook)

This eBook is a guide to understanding student engagement, strategies that work, and how to use and integrate a particularly effective tool in this digital age: video in the classroom. Video is shaping the world around us. Students watch videos and should understand what they see and learn how to create effective videos. Addressing student engagement means turning tools for personal enjoyment into tools for engaged learning. Register here (free) to get access to the document.

School Program Helps Students Think Critically about Media and Persuasion

Today’s youth are exposed to greater volumes of media input than any other generation, from television to radio, iPods, billboards, store advertisements, video games, magazines and the internet, and more.

The goal of the Media Literacy Program is to inform them about how they are being influenced by the media without realizing it, and to get them thinking independently and critically about the messages being conveyed by commercials, television shows, advertisements, etc.

Project VoiceScape Invites Young Filmmakers to Submit Films

In collaboration with PBS and Adobe Youth Voices, POV has launched Project VoiceScape as part of its efforts to mentor and encourage aspiring filmmakers. The project welcomes filmmakers in grades 7-12 to submit their film ideas, films-in-progress, or completed short films for its 2011 competition. Project VoiceScape will select 15 young filmmakers for the program and will showcase their work in PBS and POV media. Winners will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC. Learn how to enter at http://www.pbs.org/pov/filmmakers/voicescape.php.

Deconstructing an Historical Image

Photographer/author William Meyers has written an excellent analysis/deconstruction of a popular Walker Evans Depression-era image in his column from a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal.

No-Cost Social Media For Teachers

This article at the Mashable website has been heavily "tweeted" since it appeared a few weeks ago. The geekiest teachers among us probably won't be surprised to see EduBlogs and Edmodo among the seven tools that teachers can use to engage students in virtual activities and develop and store their own work. But for the rest of you, peruse the info about EDU 2.0, Kidblog, and the various Tube sites (even some schools using YouTube) to see what might be useful in your classroom. PS: the comments are full of other suggestions.