Nov
27

NWP Take Aways

Filed Under (Digital Is, National Writing Project) by blogwalker on 27-11-2009

On the heels of a very full week in Philadelphia (attending both NWP and NCTE Conferences), jet lag, and a mad dash to clean and cook for Thanksgiving, I’ll tap into a  thoughtful post by Bud Hunt to provide insight into the NWP events.

In a nutshell, my ‘take aways’ include:

* Danielle DeVoss’s Digital Is presentation, in which she explains that:

Digital is…

  • Networked — composing in networked spaces
  • Collaborative —connecting and creating through networks. Example: LolCats
  • Multimodal — involving typography, kinetic type, digital stories
  • Re-Mediated — taking a media object and recreating it so it moves across media; moving across text to audio to video. Example: StarzBunnies
  • Remixed — taking bits and pieces and parts of other media to create new messages and meaning. Example: Scary Mary Poppins
  • Policed — evolving policies: digital millennium copyright act; You Tube copyright issues. Example: Fair Use
  • (Requires) Critical thinking — because of the visuals (amazing what a little ‘photoshoping’ can do to Harry Potter’s Hermoine and Redbook models)
  • (Can be) Democratic — Iran and Twitter, YouTube Debate

* Rafi Santo’s Global Kids Project, with its focus on ‘local to global and global to local’ in an effort to empower youth as global citizens.

* Power of Youth Media panel, led by Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Nicole Pinkard, and Renee Hobbs.

Thanks to all of the above, I’ve clarified my thinking and my reservations about districts jumping on the IWB bandwagon (whether it be Smart, Promethean, etc).  When I return on Monday to my day-time job, I will be recommending that before districts spend the big bucks on outfitting all classrooms with IWBs, they first provide STUDENTS with computer access across the school day and curriculum and cameras!

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2 Responses to “NWP Take Aways”

  1.   Dawn Hogue Says:
      December 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    If the teacher is the only one using a smart board, then he/she is still the sage on the stage and the controller of learning. The point is to shift that old paradigm to enable students to be much more actively involved in their own learning. I agree about computer access. We used to talk about acquiring software knowledge, but with Open Source and so many Web tools that are easy and intuitive, we must now talk about making sure students have hardware and are able to get online!

    [Reply]

    blogwalker Reply:
    December 6th, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Dawn,

    Because a number of sites in my district have hopped on the Smartboard bandwagon, I am in search of ways to extend learning – especially writing skills – via the Smarts. I attended a recent training at one of our sites provided by the vendor. We were given a block of time to explore the lessons on Promethean Planet, which struck me as mediocre at best, and then moved on to using the clickers. I’ve listened to Marzano’s talk on IWBs – http://cuecast.blip.tv/#192464 – and can appreciate how clickers could provide quick information to the teacher. But it also concerned me that the trainer loved the fact that you could end the school day with all your grading already done…thanks to the miracle of multiple choice assessements and the clickers…yikes.

    But I fully realize that IWBs + good teaching could = increased student engagement and learning, so I am now in search of those best practices. I think a recent news feature from a Sacramento school is one such example (be sure to click on the video link). And I got a brief glimpse into your use of the IWB to build on vocabulary in the Talkies – http://quizlet.com/368410/roots-up-1-flash-cards/.

    Would love to join in IWB Best Practices discussion, with an emphasis on writing, via listserv, blog, ning, etc. Almost seems like a good use of a wiki…Any suggestions?

    [Reply]

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