Welcome to Bridging Literacies!
Today more and more students use certain nascent technologies, such as the Internet, gaming software, video conferencing, web pages and weweblogs (“blogs”) to communicate and read and write, both at home, and in outside-school settings. The challenge for us teacher educators – who are technological “immigrants”—is to provide our younger, technologically “native-born” students with both expertise in their virtual world, and also critical perspectives on its place in the real world. This weblog provides a forum for constructive conversations among pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators, students and parents toward achieving these goals. More specifically, the weblog serves the following objectives:
- To learn how to weblog;
- To respond to others’ thinking and ideas, educational policy, and recent research trends in a thoughtful and critical manner;
- To share with others ideas, tips, and resources about literacy and language arts instruction in general and in particular with modern technologies;
- To model to our students meaningful, respectful, and thought-provoking collaborative learning with modern technology tools;
- To encourage and model multimodal composition;
- To create space for celebrating our best writing pieces;
- To create a community of learners through a multi-channeled interaction with peers and the audiences beyond the classroom wall.
SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF FUN!!! THANKS…..
Veronica — August 23, 2006 @ 9:22 pm
Hi,
Oh, that I could turn back the years and enter your course as a pre service teacher! My practice in my 35 years in the classroom would have been so much richer and more effective. I find your thoughtful objectives so very relevant for educators in today’s world. The tone of your guidelines and expectations model for your future educators a perfect blend of challenge, excellence, and nurturing in my humble opinion.
Your students are in for a very special learning experience on their path to becoming educators. I look forward to following your journeys.
Best,
Lani
Lani Ritter Hall — August 29, 2006 @ 10:18 am
A great statement of aims - your students are fortunate!
chris — August 29, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
I can remember sixteen years ago, starting out as a classroom teacher, a senior member of our department stated, “you do not begin to teach effectively until your fifth year.” After five years I began to agree and understand what he meant. However, as technologies change, and students become much more diversified, I have come to the conclusion that our craft is in a perpetual state of instructional and learning flux. We educators continuously strive for innovation while attempting to construct an engaging environment for our students. Teaches must therefore reengineer their craft year-after-year. The difficulty that many of us face, is recognizing this process and accept its inevitability. Failure to do so, will maintain the status quo. Long gone are the days of pulling out last years planner, and copying the curriculum. I only wish I had available these technologies sixteen years ago, when I first became a high school teacher. My students would have benefited greatly.
Pat Aroune — September 13, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
I am so excited that teachers are getting into all this and I see that students in the future will have lots of opportunities to make links and have conversations without the barriers of time and distance. Go bloggers!!!
Jo McLeay — September 13, 2006 @ 8:53 pm
What a great course! Best wishes as you enter the new web and the engagement that it creates. It is truly exciting to participate in this new media and engage with a global audience. Best wishes!
Vicki Davis — September 17, 2006 @ 10:10 pm
[...] I want to welcome you to the world of educational blogging. You are about to enter a journey that will take your learning to new heights. I am so impressed with your professor’s blog, Bridging Literacies. The objectives she has listed on her welcome post are excellent. I have to admit though that this one filled me with delight: To model to our students meaningful, respectful, and thought-provoking collaborative learning with modern technology tools; [...]
EduBlog Insights » Blog Archive » A special welcome to EDLA 7550 Class Members — January 4, 2007 @ 9:05 pm