Tag: literacy

  • Thinking about Educational Technology Support for Fall 2020

    Today I attended a virtual webinar presented by Mike Gwaltney (@MikeGwaltney) for ISM (Independent School Management – @isminc) titled, “How to Create an Academic Technology Plan for the 2020–21 School Year.” Here are a few of my takeaways and reflections on the information and advice Mike shared. First of all, Mike’s recommendation that schools plan…

  • Deep Work and the Race to Minecraft

    Last Thursday was the last day of our second trimester at school, and therefore the end of my second opportunity in 2019-20 to teach Digital and Media Literacy to 5th and 6th Graders. As classroom teachers, one of the things we quickly learn is how different the dynamics of separate classes can be based on…

  • Facilitating Student eBook and Book Publishing with Book Creator and Lulu

    For the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to partner with our high school English department chair, Whitney Finley, who teaches a unique and engaging creative writing class for 12th graders in which they write and publish their own children’s picture books. After creating their books, as a group students visit our Kindergarten students…

  • Tips for Media Literacy and Avoiding Foreign Political Propaganda Influence

    The United States is not only engaged in a new “Tech Cold War” against China and Russia, we are also under information influence attack from foreign as well as domestic adversaries who are aggressively working to build “followers” on Facebook and other social media platforms they can use to exert unconstitutional influence on our political…

  • Loquendo nos ostendimus

    I have updated my Twitter header image to include a statement in Latin which I’ve been thinking about now for several years: Loquendo nos ostendimus Latin phrase translated by Brianna Titus Our wonderful 7th grade Latin teacher, Briana Titus, translated this idea for me into Latin. In concise and elegant language, this means: by means…

  • Podcast465: Reflections on The 2019 Summer Institute on Digital Literacy

    Welcome to Episode 465 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features a reflection by Wes following the 2019 Summer Institute on…

  • Guidelines for Digital Sharing

    The predominant technologies of a culture change literacy. When our society was primarily a print reading culture, reading and writing texts were appropriately the main activities of students in schools working on developing literacy skills. As our society has become increasingly dominated by multimedia, the imperative grows stronger to formally change the predominant literacy development…

  • Digital Literacy Tips: Strategies for Online Fact Checking

    Has someone you know shared an article link via email, Facebook, or another social media website that seems too outlandish to be true? Before liking, favoriting, or re-sharing the article link, did you take a few moments to fact-check it by searching online for other sources which either corroborate or refute the article’s claims? If…

  • Periscope Reflections from ISTE 2015 on the Soledad O’Brien Keynote

    This is an archived recording of a Periscope broadcast on June 28, 2015, from the 2015 ISTE Conference in Philadelphia. People interviewed in this broadcast included Shelly Fryer (@sfryer), Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne), Rodney Turner (@techyturner), Julie Lindsay (@julielindsay), and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer). We primarily reflected on the opening ISTE 2015 keynote by award winning journalist Soledad O’brien. The complete video runs…

  • Understanding Why eBooks “Feel Different”

    This is the best explanation I’ve read to-date about how and why ebooks “feel different” than print books for readers. I particularly like the analogy to Google Maps: In contrast [to print books], most screens, e-readers, smartphones and tablets interfere with intuitive navigation of a text and inhibit people from mapping the journey in their…