blurting unduly hamburgers motivated …

The key really needs to be that both methods of delivery are important and finding ways to help kids have a multimedia experience is what is going to carry them through the realities of this day and age.

Our site, The Cupcakes Club tries to do just that by offering girls aged 7-12 an online book club that coincides with the books that they receive every few months. We want to tie both means of reading it together.

Donna
The Cupcakes Club

At the end of last year, my web-savvy 6th grader came home from school for about a week with piles of crumpled up newspapers. They were doing their required “Newspaper Unit” in Language Arts and, accompanying the pile of newspaper he’d stuffed into his backpack was a scavenger hunt type worksheet he had to complete each day of the unit study. I love newspapers, mind you, though I have gone almost totally digital for a number of reasons that I am sure I do not need to list here. I could even like scavenger hunts, despite the fact that they are often tedious busywork without meaningful educational objectives, but I was astonished by this assignment given, frankly, the socio-economic level of our district and the caliber of technology we have at our disposal. I wrote an email, not disparaging the inclusion the paper newspaper, but encouraging a parallel exploration of digital news media within the unit. I noted that digital news media was so full of the things that could interest kids in the news, interactive graphs and maps (geography anyone?), opinion blogs and links, photo albums, and the list goes on. What a better way, what a better setting, to make kids online reading meaningful?!? What a better way to get kids interested in the NEWS?!? This unit, for my son, by the way, was absolutely tedious busywork as he has been engaged in digital news media for years. So, in our case, what a waste of time.

In any case, I contacted 10 school individuals with my concerns and suggestions, including all the teachers on the team, guidance, administration and the technology curriculum director (who might even read this blog). I got NO response. No acknowledgement. Nothing. Now here is what really gets me mad about this whole thing. It seems now that if you are a parent who is making good suggestions, voicing valid concerns about these types of things, the reaction coming back from school staff is often cold, indifferent and, at worst, almost like “who does she think she is telling us how to do our jobs.” I’m sure many out there would argue that it’s partially my fault for not attending board and PTO meetings, and they would be right. Sadly, there are only so many hours in a day. But articles like this only highlight the fact that, even in districts where there are carts and carts of laptops, there is still a great deal of reluctance on behalf of MANY teachers to help kids use technology in a useful, smart and educational way (for reading or whatever)–even when the perfect and easy opportunity presents itself.

I’ve been lecturing for a few years now on creativity in the classroom and much, but not all, of my talks have to do with technology’s contribution to classroom creativity, particularly with Gen Y kids. When I ask a group of teachers if they have a cart of laptops in their school, there are many who don’t even know. I have listened to many tech teachers tell me that the carts often sit, unchecked-out, for weeks and weeks and, in my own kids’ elementary school, a member of the PTO had to stomp into the school to rant about how the newly purchased laptops were not being used and why? I tell teachers that if I had a cart of laptops at my disposal, I’d be a fool to not have my name on the checkout list AT LEAST once a week, if not more.

I also point out that the acronym T.E.A.M. (“Together Everyone Achieves More”) found on the door of nearly every school guidance office is, unfortunately, often thought of as only applying to the student body. I encourage teachers to embrace staff members, particularly teacher to teacher, parents, and students who can help navigate the creative and technological landscape with them. There is no excuse for the divide illustrated in this article. I make books and I don’t think books are going anywhere anytime soon, Kindle or otherwise. But if we don’t have a parallel digital reading objective for our kids too, then there is no one to blame but ourselves for their shortcomings.

Wow. I get really fired up about this.

I have followed the work of Donald Leu at the University of Connecticut for a long time. The article did a good job, I think, of laying out the issue. Reading the Internet is NOT the same as reading a linear text (I got here because I was editing a Wiki that led me to another blog that I added to my Bloglines. Now I am catching up on a few blogs. Very different than book reading.) Unfortunately, this is ignored in schools for the most part.

Janice

2. Do schools need to be involved in this? Absolutely. Just read the stats again from the article:

The Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT, has developed a digital literacy test known as iSkills that requires students to solve informational problems by searching for answers on the Web. About 80 colleges and a handful of high schools have administered the test so far. But according to Stephen Denis, product manager at ETS, of the more than 20,000 students who have taken the iSkills test since 2006, only 39 percent of four-year college freshmen achieved a score that represented “core functional levels” in Internet literacy.

Our methods of relaying information are changing and I think students need to know how to react appropriately, though it pains me… I love nothing more than a good book. I would even rather browse a textbook than use an online recourse. One definite plus to online reading though, hands down, is the ability to search for key words and phrases and skip tonnes of unrelated information at the click of a button.