Week- 1 K12 Online Conference Session

K12 Session: Keeping Literacy in 21st Century Literacy

I listened to this session on the K12 conference site. It quickly caught my attention since it involved literacy, a subject area I am very interested in.

Through the speaker's discussion (Drew Schrader) and his correlating video, I was able to be introduced to three tools designed to aid in developing literacy for students.

He proposed that by using Screentoaster, a type of tool that records the screen you are using as well as voice and video, teachers could capture and document read aloud discussions. Since it allows students to go back to conversations that would have been otherwise lost I think this could be quite useful for reinforcing concepts, and also useful for accommodation/modification procedures. It is also very handy that you can save the "videos" you make to your computer or upload them to youtube.

He proposed that by using Diigo, a social bookmarking site that allows you to highlight and make sticky notes on text, teachers could help develop more solid comprehension in their students. I like that the text was already highlighted for the students, and especially that teachers could have their personal dialogue for students be in the form of sticky notes for students. This means that students could hear about concepts and comments immediately while they are reading the material, and not have to wait until they are finished to discuss it maybe that day or the following day. It seems like students would be given more opportunity to construct their meaning of the material in a more immediate fashion (which research finds to be key in developing solid comprehension skills) and that would be a tool teachers could really capitalize on.

Overall, I think this website is a great professional development tool for teachers. It seems to be another world of information that they do not have to wait until they sign up for a workshop to get. How great is that when they have the time, teachers can log on (perhaps even daily) and expand their knowledge base, which in turn creates a more promising learning environment for students. Quite simply stated, I guess it adds a lot of tools to the toolbox, without the cost and the trip to the store to buy them. I am excited to keep looking!