Digital Learning

Evolving the Research Paper

Author: Jack Zangerle Summary: This blog post describes an alternative research-writing project: developing public service announcements (PSAs). This resource may be helpful as a model for any instructors who want their students to develop PSAs for civic engagement or for the development of digital skills and message-making. This digital “making”...

VoiceThread Ties Together Student Voices, Images, and Writing

Author: Shullamuth Smith Summary: Writing Project teachers discuss ways in which they have used the website VoiceThread with their students to create online, multimodal presentations that allow for a range of feedback. In addition to enabling students to add voice narratives to their own work, VoiceThread allows teachers and others...

The State of Student Technology: A Webcomic Analysis

Author: Kevin Hodgson Summary: An innovative and multi-purpose webcomic provides an example of how to: 1) survey and represent data from students about their use of technology and media (mostly outside of school), and 2) document and reflect on one’s teaching (and use of digital tools) in a useful format...

Reading in a Participatory Culture (NWP Radio)

Summary: This radio show discusses the book Reading in a Participatory Culture and the complementary digital book Flows of Reading. The show examines what it means to be a reader and writer in an increasingly participatory and social culture, in which readers read across different media and understand reading as...

Students Tell Their Stories Digitally

Author: Joel Elliott Summary: When designing a digital storytelling workshop, it may be easy to forget that it’s really about the telling of stories and the writing practices that generate powerful narratives. This piece provides a good conceptual starting point and reminder that in such settings, students are more engaged,...

Community Connections for English Learners: Changing the World Starts with Just a Few Words

Author: Art Peterson Summary: This short article illustrates ways a teacher can engage colleagues in professional learning and provides examples of classroom activities that build connections between EL students, their parents and their community. Engaging students in creating digital movies to document the history of discrimination along with the impact...

Chocolate and Change: Gaming for Social Justice, from Assessing Students’ Digital Writing

Author: Christina Puntel Summary: In this sample chapter from Assessing Students’ Digital Writing: Protocols for Looking Closely, a teacher-consultant shares insights from the collegial feedback she received on a student-led food justice project and the implications for her instruction and assessment. For teachers whose students engage in complex projects, this...

Challenges for Writing Teachers: Evolving Technologies and Standardized Assessment

Author: Anne Herrington and Charles Moran Summary: This introductory chapter discusses existing and emerging technologies and electronic text types for use in curriculum and assessment. While the authors provide examples of how teachers have embraced new forms of writing by developing relevant learning objectives and e-projects, they also argue that...

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

Author: Henry Jenkins Summary: This resource challenges teachers and schools to have conversations about the social skills, technological access, and cultural competencies involved in a connected-learning approach to learning and literacy. Written by Henry Jenkins and members of Project New Media Literacies, it describes “new literacies” that rely on collaboration...

Professional Development in the Digital Age: A Virtual Conference on Digital Literacy

Summary: This short article on the 4T Virtual Conference on Writing could be the perfect starting point for sites/leaders looking to integrate online learning into a program or those ready to make the jump to a fully online conference/professional development experience. Key to the success of the 4T annual online...