Students Turn Their Cellphones On for Classroom Lessons

Education Week reports: New educational uses of cellphones are challenging the "turned off and out of sight" rules that many districts have adopted for student cellphones on campus. A growing number of teachers, carefully navigating district policies and addressing their own concerns, are having students use their personal cellphones to make podcasts, take field notes, and organize their schedules and homework.

Teacher Tube: Video-sharing site helps teachers improve lesson plans

Thousands of teachers are sharing lessons through Teacher Tube -- a Web site similar to YouTube that launched in 2007 and now has about 54,000 videos and averages 800,000 users each month. "It is allowing teachers from all over the world to share with each other and learn from one another," said Jason Smith, the co-creator of Teacher Tube and superintendent of a Texas school district. "We want to create a grassroots movement in transforming how teachers teach and students learn." Details in this story from the Dallas (TX) Morning News.

Visual Literacy: Stimulant to reading & writing

This essay, from the UK, reflects the value of teachers learning to incorporate visual literacy into the curriculum. An excerpt: "Young people learn more than half of what they know from visual information, but few schools have an explicit curriculum to show students how to think critically about visual data."

More schools are using video games to engage, teach students

The Washington Post reports: Educational video games designed to teach teamwork and other 21st-century skills alongside academic lessons are becoming more popular at many schools. "There is a revolution in the understanding of the educational community that video games have a lot of what we need," said Jan Plass, co-director of New York University's Games for Learning Institute.

Graphica: An Untapped Resource in Media Literacy Education.

NCTE Commission on Media member Peter Gutierrez will be presenting on this topic at two upcoming events. He tells me: " The goal is to share pedagogy and practical tips for using graphic novels, comics, and manga as a hub/content platform from which to explore various media as well as the principles of media literacy itself. "

1) January 31, Fordham University, Graphica in Education Conference, New York City. Keynote speaker includes NCTE author/Webinar leader James Bucky Carter. http://www.graph-ed.com/

2) February 7, New York Comic Con. 5:15pm, room assignment TBD. http://www.nycomiccon.com
For more information on either of these presentations, or on the events themselves, Assembly members may contact him at fiifgutierrez@gmail.com. Many educators may not know that they are entitled to a free Professional Pass at NYCC.

The Rush for '21st-Century Skills' New Buzz Phrase Draws Mixed Interpretations From Educators

From the Washington Post news story: "The phrase (21st century skills) has inspired a flood of programs, including Lego engineering clubs for elementary schools, the National Geographic's science adventure Jason Project for middle schools and the High Technology model for high schools. But many teachers say it is just good teaching with a jazzy name. 'The subject of 21st-century or, rather, current-century skills has been around ever since Socrates,' said John M. Clement, a science teacher in Houston. Researchers are struggling to find ways to determine which schools are teaching it well and which are not, while educators wonder whether it will be just one more fad. "

Enhancing News Literacy (School Library Journal)

School Library Journal reports: A movement currently underway seeks to address news literacy in our nation’s schools. The effort is twofold: to give students, primarily in middle and high school, the tools to decide what news is reliable, objective, and fair, and to ensure a well-informed population for the future.