by Joan Rhodes

I’m a Pittsburgh kind of girl! This fact implies I know something about snowy winters, Primanti’s sandwiches, and Steeler football. However, one cannot be from Pittsburgh without also having knowledge of one of our most famous native sons, Mr. Fred Rogers. Many of you recognize Fred by his lace up sneakers and cardigan sweater, his creation - the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and his genuine concern for young children. Mister Rogers was a surprising man, seemingly humble and wise, with kindness for any neighbor he might meet during his daily television program. His efforts to create high quality educational television programming for youngsters earned him a place in the hearts of many children, parents and educators.

Mr. Rogers also had foresight. Prior to his death in 2003, he began working on plans for the creation of a center to advance the fields of early learning and children’s media. This international center housed at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania brings together those interested in capitalizing on the positive potential of television and new media for supporting the development of children from birth to age 5. The Fred Rogers’ Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media serves as “a catalyst for communication, collaboration and creative change” (Fred Rogers’ Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media, 2012, np).

A quick visit to the Fred Rogers’ Center website at www.fredrogerscenter.org is not possible. Once you drop in, you find so much information that minutes quickly turn into hours of engaged reading and viewing. The site clearly outlines the center’s major initiatives for bringing together educators and researchers to explore the role of media as it relates to early childhood. General information about the first two initiatives, the Fred Rogers Center Fellows program and the Fred Forward Conference Series highlights the opportunities for professional development offered by the center. The Fred Rogers Archive includes information about Mr. Rogers including an extensive digital library for research related to educational television and early childhood development. An on-line multimedia exhibit detailing Fred Rogers’ childhood and career is a highlight of the archive section.

What really captured my attention as an educator was the expansive resource section that housed links to media education websites, issue briefings, and publications. Researchers and educators from a variety of disciplines contribute syllabi, lesson activities and research related to media and early education to the Curriculum Toolkit, an open, accessible resource to support early childhood educators and those interested in media literacy. The video entries from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood address challenging topics from dealing with anger to the death of a pet and are in lesson plan format to share with adult learners. These materials would be particularly effective when working with pre-service educators.

Even with all of these wonderful tools, the Fred Rogers’ Center has outdone itself with its web-based early learning environment hosted by Ele, a cartoon avatar who easily convinced me that I wanted to try some of the on-line activities for improving early language and media literacy skills. The activities are designed to support home-based educators and underserved teachers working with young children using video, text and social media. So far, my favorite activity uses music to encourage establishing daily routines. You might like to test out some of the great selections like Brush Your Teeth, Clean Up and We Love to Read at Everyday Grooves. The songs can even be downloaded onto an iPod for use during those long, cold Pennsylvania nights!

References:

Fred Rogers’ Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media. (2012). Retrieved from www.fredrogerscenter.org

Joan Rhodes is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Reading Program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

by Vicky Zygouris-Coe

Many schools are using e-readers in a variety of ways depending on device availability and teacher capacity. Some school districts are considering widespread adoption of e-readers as a remedy for reduced school budgets; after all, textbooks are costly, cumbersome, and uninviting.  Will e-reader adoption result in improved reading habits? What are key considerations about e-reader use in the classroom? The following are sample suggestions for e-reader use in the classroom.

1. Decide on the role e-readers will play in your classroom—will you use them for exploration or independent reading purposes? Will students use the e-reader to read fiction or non-fiction text?

2. Research e-reader availability and capabilities. E-readers offer built-in dictionaries, the ability to highlight and change font sizes, text-to-speech features, highlighting and bookmark features, word-text search features, and note-taking capabilities. Some e-readers offer black-and-white screens versus color, touchscreens versus keypads. Which e-reader features are important to you?

3. E-book adoption is complicated--collaborate with your school library specialist.  Each e-reader reflects book selections associated to its bookstore. The Kindle is linked to Amazon, the Nook is linked to Barnes & Noble, and the iPad is linked to iBooks. Research available book selections for e-readers. Book selection choices are particularly important for children’s literature. Several book titles are not available in digital format (e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird, Cather in the Rye).

4. Allow time for exploration. Allow students to practice using the device to read different types of text (fiction and non-fiction). Have student practice using e-reader features such as (a) the dictionary, (b) changing the font size, (c) highlighting important parts of the book they can reread, share with others, or discuss, (d) note-taking feature, or (e) saving and retrieving notes. Provide students with access to the device’s corresponding bookstore where they can explore titles and download a sample chapter to their device to read. If the device supports audio books that can be downloaded allow students to download and listen to an audio book.

5. Provide instruction on how to read digital text with e-readers. Reading digital text is a non-linear and demanding process. Equip students with comprehension strategies and scaffolded support for reading digital text.

E-readers, if used effectively, can support individualized instruction, promote motivation to read, and develop students’ 21st century literacy skills. E-readers can alleviate the financial strains of print textbook adoption and can also have long-term benefits for the entire school population if they become a permanent component in the school curriculum. Although we have seen improvements in e-reader capabilities and costs, we have not see improvements in compatibility and Digital Rights Management. To make an informed decision about selecting an e-reader that will best support your students’ learning needs review the pros and cons of each e-reader and collaborate with your school library specialist and other teachers.

Vicky Zygouris-Coe is an associate professor in Reading Education at the University of Central Florida, School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, Vassiliki.Zygouris-Coe@ucf.edu.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

by Alexandra Panos

What is multimodality?

Upon first hearing the word multimodality, it could easily be dismissed as another buzzword. Yet, multimodality simply means the ability to create and read a variety of modes of communication. Approaching literacy in multimodal ways emphasizes the many ways that individuals can communicate their ideas. This understanding respects individual students and promotes success in their literate lives.

IRA’s definition of multimodality emphasizes the increasingly digital nature of society’s modes of communicating.  Combining a changing and expanding number of technological modes to communicate and comprehend is intrinsic to multimodality in the 21st century. Literacy today requires competence in engaging with, evaluating, and creating these texts online as well as through more traditional methods. This especially honors our tech-savvy students, while also asking that educators guide learning in digital spaces. 

Our Responsibilities & Knowledge

Increasingly our responsibility as educators involves supporting students in all areas of their literate lives. The call to digital literacy action has sounded throughout our profession, and it often seems daunting. But, teachers already expect and teach skills which help students communicate in multimodal, if not always digital, ways. When we ask students to create a collage, draw a timeline, or read a science text with a diagram, we invite them to create and read multiple modes of communication. We already teach this as an important skill which we expect of our students. While schools and educators are in the process of moving from mostly print modes to a more tech-centered multimodality comprised of reflexive online spaces and design-based meanings, society already demands it of our students. 

Applications & Ideas

As we begin another school year, excited to meet our new students and set them off on an informative journey, we always explore ideas to enliven our curriculum. This year, why not start off by facilitating meaningful multimodal creations online?

The tools compiled here can be used to facilitate a more digital multimodal literacy for the start of a new school year.  In each tool it is easy to recognize an aspect of multimodality you may have used in the past: Glogster is very similar to a poster, Flickr is reminiscent of class picture walls. Ultimately, translating the creation of these complex multimodal tasks into the digital realm is not prohibitively difficult. 

Considering your objective to be purposeful communication, there is no end to what you can do with these tools.  Your room full of tech-savvy users/creators of digital content can support both you and the objectives of the work.  Opening the year using such democratic media will facilitate a supportive community of learners where everyone is both expert and apprentice. As the professional, it is important to have working knowledge of the tools we hope to use. Most of these online tools are very user friendly. However, if you find them unfriendly, tutorials are available on their respective websites.

Two areas educators may use to guide beginning-of-the-year activities center on getting to know our students and the creation of a safe learning community. Digital tools encourage students to share using modes with which they already communicate on a daily basis. Understanding these digital tools as a way of supporting multimodal literacy gives you the space to facilitate complex literacy events for all learners in support of beginning-of-the-year rituals.

Tools

Tools to Get to Know Your Students

• Animoto: Create a video with captions using images. Also, check out the Reading Today Online blog post by Marjie Podzielinski about Animoto.
• Museum Box: Upload text, images, audio and video to describe whatever you wish.
• Glogster Strategy Guide: Includes research basis, useful practice ideas and lesson plans to use this online poster tool. Also, check out the Reading Today Online blog post by Kimberly Kimbell-Lopez about Glogster.
• Flip Book: Create simple animations to share online. (free)
• ToonDoo: Make a comic or character, upload images, and share with peers. (free) See this video:
• Google Maps: Create a map of places visited. (free)
• SurveyMonkey: Get to know what is of interest to students. (basic version free)

Some Unit Plans for Getting to Know Students in Multimodal Ways

• Interviewing & Presenting with Multimodal Texts - A grades 6-8 unit, students interview one another and research interests of their partner, eventually presenting to the class. Easily adapted for any grade level.
• Multimodal Autobiography Lesson Plan - A grades 9-12 unit, students write autobiographies, illustrate them and set them to music.

• Edmodo: A secure social networking site which allows teachers to provide space for online communication and sharing. (free) See this video tutorial:
  

Edmodo Tutorial from Mr. Robitaille on Vimeo

• VoiceThread: In addition to allowing students to upload images and tell a story using audio or video of themselves, it is possible to network and share with a preset group of users. (free) Also, check out the Reading Today Online blog post by Denise H. Stuart about VoiceThread.
• Edublogs: Create a classroom blog where you can moderate comments and posts. (basic version free, charge for student users)
• Flickr: Online photo sharing site for compiling class photos. 

• Wiki Lesson Plan - A grades 6-8 unit, students combine reading fragmented stories and researching online, to create wikis which mimic their online research to help guide them to designing writing for the digital age.
• Multimodal Meaning Lesson Plan – A grades 3-6 unit, students are guided through the meanings authors and illustrators create through different media. Easily adapted for older grades.

Alexandra Panos is a middle grades Language Arts teacher in Chicago. Her future posts will focus on multimodal approaches which support digital literacy.

ReadWriteThink.org is a website devoted to providing literacy instruction and interactive resources for grades K–12 from the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and Verizon Thinkfinity.  

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

by Paul Morsink

In the March 23, 2012 TILE-SIG feature, Thomas DeVere Wolsey wrote about curating a Personal Learning Environment (PLE)—a personalized digital pegboard where students and teachers can hang links to all the digital tools and resources they use. A free interface such as Symbaloo makes creating such a digital pegboard even easier than, well, hanging your do-it-yourself tools on an old-fashioned pegboard.

The benefits of PLEs are that they “provide entry points [to the Web], organization, and a network that makes sense; these entry points serve as a table of contents to an individual user’s multiple digital interactions.” Further, PLEs are easily shared. Students can assemble their own PLE and then share it with the class. Teachers can create specialized PLEs for different topics or units. With a tool like Symbaloo, users can own any number of PLEs (one for each subject area, for example) and switch between them at will.

Which brings us to the logical next step: assembling your digital Personal Reading Environment (PRE).

Think of the PRE as a more specialized PLE. It’s a curated collection of the digital tools, supports, and other resources you like to have within reach specifically for reading—and/or that you’d like your students to have at their fingertips when they read.

Today, such digital tools and supports for reading abound: online dictionary tools (many different ones worth comparing); text-to-speech engines that will speak aloud a selected section of text; virtual tutors that provide reading strategy tips and advice; specialized glossaries; grammar tools; translation tools; digitally annotated pages from Shakespeare plays and other specific texts of interest; various online encyclopedias for quick access to helpful background information; tools to “clean up” webpages and remove from view everything but the text you want to read; and much, much more.

Having your personal mix of favorite tools and supports always at your fingertips is convenient. But it can be much more than that. With the Common Core State Standards (2010) now calling for K-12 students to read more challenging texts at younger ages, digital reading supports (DRSs) need to be part of the conversation. DRSs can help students improve their on-the-spot comprehension of a given difficult text. Over time, DRSs can also be part of an overall plan for building students’ stamina for challenging texts; empowering students to be active, can-do, problem-solving readers (with and without digital tools); and nurturing their motivation to read.

With September approaching, one idea might be to have every student you teach start the year with a blank Symbaloo Personal Reading Environment. During the first week, you might introduce the idea of the PRE and find out what digital reading supports, if any, your students are already using. Over time, have students add new tools and supports they find useful—and have students explain to you and their peers why they’ve added a particular DRS and how exactly they use it.

I predict you will find these discussions about DRSs to be a valuable addition to the conversations you’re already having with your students about reading strategies and how to tackle difficult texts. Having students talk with each other about their PRE, about the DRSs they find most useful, and about the DRSs they wished they had, is a great way to foster metacognitive reflection about reading.

One final nice thing about using Symbaloo to host your PRE: it’s web-based, so a student can instantly access her Symbaloo PRE from any computer or other device that has an Internet connection. So your PRE really is a toolbox you can bring with you wherever you go!

Paul Morsink is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University, morsinkp@msu.edu.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

by Mary Beth Scumaci

It’s back to school time! You know what that means...it’s time to set those technology resolutions for the year into action. Make time to get your teacher website designed or surf for fresh ideas to enhance your current website. Why websites, you may ask? They are a fun, engaging, and professional way to communicate with your students, their families, and colleagues. Teacher websites are a great place to compile all of your resources and ideas. Once posted, you have an archive of all of your favorite teaching resources and curriculum materials. According to Cleanapple.com, the top ten reasons for creating a teacher webpage are:

10.  It’s an easy way to meet the needs of many students who have an IEP and 504 plan.

9.  You’re creating an archive of your class-complete with the exact materials you've used.

8.  A teaching website keeps you organized and on track.

7.  It’s getting so easy to do that it can actually save you time.

6.  You have an easier answer to “What did I miss?”

5.  Helicopter parents have an off-site landing pad.

4.  Your contributions go farther than you think-global possibilities.

3.  It’s okay to show off–share your amazing lessons and activities.

2.  It’s a two-way street-an efficient communication tool (e.g. teacher-student & student-teacher).

1.  It’s your gateway to engagement-a great resource posting site and way to communicate with and engage your students.

Below you will find a link to a model teacher website that will help motivate you to start clicking, blogging and communicating in tech savvy, colorful, and educational way.

This month’s spotlight shines on Mrs. Amanda Madden, a second grade teacher at Bell’s Crossing Elementary School in Simpsonville, South Carolina for her attractive and informative website, Madden’s Monsterous Masterminds. Visit her website, it is just delightful! She has designed an attractive and engaging website that provides students and their families with resources, curriculum materials, and a great social space for communicating. Mrs. Madden’s first page captures a sense of fun, community, and organization. You will find her class mission statement, a class brochure, student bios, a guest book for virtual visitors, and a map where you can add a pushpin to mark your geographical footprint.

Madden’s Monsterous Masterminds has followers across the United States. Mrs. Madden has included a range of option tabs on her website that include: Welcome, Site Map, Students’ Spot, Parents’ Place, Meet The Teacher, Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop, Mathematics, Units of Study & Blog Buddies.  Speaking of blogs, Mrs. Madden has a blog for teachers. She posts lots of great ideas, tips, and strategies including freebies, and interesting ideas to use in the classroom.

Mrs. Madden is a true professional who believes in teacher sharing. You will find many resources throughout her website that will inspire you. Below are a few screen shots from her website.

The Class Home Page

Meet the Teacher, Mrs. Madden

The Parent’s Place

The Students’ Spot

Reading Workshop

Units of Study Writing Workshop

So, how did Mrs. Madden accomplish her goal of setting up her own webpage? She went to http://www.teacherweb.com and signed up for an account. You can set up webpages for any grade level, group, or organization. The fee for an annual account membership is currently $39 per year and there is a risk free, 30 day trial. Before you sign up for a free trial, explore the Teacher Web Designs section. There are a variety of template options to explore.  I’m sure one of them is bound to meet your personality and educational needs. The “For Teaches” tab offers links for sign-up, features, teacher site example, pricing, pre-service, and workshops. It’s as easy as a few clicks of a mouse to get started. You can blog, create a photo gallery, synch it with your grade book, upload multimedia files, post homework assignments, and more. Why not give it a try?

Sample Template Designs

Good luck and best wishes for a tech savvy school year! 

Mary Beth Scumaci is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Technology Coordinator for the School of Education at Medaille College in Buffalo, New York. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).