New technologies are changing the way we view literacy today. It seems that with each passing year, kids are able to communicate through more and more sophisticated technology. Gaming systems like the new interactive Wii, video games, cell phones, and the internet seem to get more and more advanced features with each new version and kids soak it all up like sponges. My 14-year-old son figured out features on his cell phone that I have still yet to discover on mine. The truth is, we love technology. Why else would people stand in line (for days sometimes) to purchase a gaming system or a phone (like the iPhone) before it comes out? For this reason, I think we as educators need to use this technology to our advantage.
As a sixth grade teacher, I have found that kids enjoy projects that involve researching on the internet rather than a book so throughout the year, I give a few projects that allow them the opportunity to do that. For example, last year I assigned a "The Day I Was Born" project. This was a project that they had to find out certain things about the day they were born (President, price of a house, toys, television shows, etc.). They had to do a lot of research on their own at home. For this reason, I gave them the websites to go to in order to find the information. Let's face it, the internet is not the safest place for kids and I didn't want my students going into websites they shouldn't be in so I checked out the websites first. This was time-consuming but I have found it better to give students a list of websites to go to rather than give them an assignment and wish them luck. The end result was that they loved the project and some of them went on to look for more information on the day they were born. Once more, the kids were still doing meaningful work: reading, distinguishing what was relevant, and writing their paper.
I really enjoyed the YouTube video. I think the bottom line is technology is ALWAYS changing. We as educators need to figure out ways to embrace and incorporate it effectively into our classrooms.
Last summary. Yahoooooo!
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