Technology+in+Action

=Teacher Testimonials= toc **"[|Teachers’ Views on Technology in the Classroom] " ** This //New York Times// video article offers testimonials and viewpoints from multiple teachers of multiple grade levels around the US on teaching with digital aids. The majority of the teachers in the article report that the use of technology offers unparalleled opportunities for learning and collaboration. Although most acknowledge there are issues with the use of technology, all feel it is a valuable experience for student learning.

**//[|A Digital Show to Help Digital Writing: Teacher Teaching Teacher]// ** This is a weekly webcast that supports rich conversations about teaching and learning in the 21st century. This was started by technology teachers connected via Skype to give each other updates about their classroom work and recorded these calls before putting them online as podcasts. Here, you can find many different view points from a multitude of teachers teaching at all levels all over the country. There is a link to every school and many organizations that are discussed. Related resources on NWP.ORG also included.

= ﻿ Journaling with Email=

**//[|Global learning with eno]//** Two schools from either side of the globe team up to connect via eno; a totally green interactive white board that allows students to discuss social and ecological issues in a global, interconnected society. This was done as an “educational experiment” with the work of PolyVision, makers of the whiteboard. Because it’s a “green” whiteboard, there are no wires and no carbon footprint. With this interactive technology, teachers in both schools were able to collaborate lessons, share ideas and teach each other about their daily life. This is just another way of staying connected to the global community. Many students won’t ever get a chance to travel half way around the world, but with eno, now they can do it right in their own classrooms. There are also many opportunities for technology-based grants and one could even contact the company for more information about this exciting new technology.

**//[|E-Mail Dialogue Journaling in an ESL Reading and WritingClassroom]//** A case study centered around an electronic-based environment in which using e-mail as a writing tool for dialogue journaling was considered. A control group of six ESL students journaled through e-mail to their instructor while the rest of the class journaled using the conventional method, paper and pencil. Many central questions were addressed including: What were the students’ attitudes toward dialogue journal writing via e-mail? What was the instructor’s perception regarding e-mail dialogue journal writing? What problems occurred in the process of using e-mail as a tool for doing dialogue journal writing? The findings were significant-many more students who used e-mail journaling tended to write more grammatically correct sentence structures such as the use of opening and closing greetings, a variety of sentences with correct end points and in the end, e-mail communication was more spontaneous than paper dialogue. This allowed for the any students who dislike journaling to actively engage in the activity.

=Digital Stories=

**[|Digital Comics Spur Students’ Interest in Writing]** A fourth grade teacher from Oregon encourages his students to use comic books as part of his digital learning classroom. He states that “Technology pushes writing to mean more than just putting sown words; it expands what it means to write-not just how to write-because it changes the possibilities in the media.” Students are able to create comics on their own or in small or whole group. This site even supplies a link to Comic Life where you’ll find software that is easy to use. There are also nine related resources included in this site.

**[|Digital Writing Workshop] ** This video from National Writing Project shows multiple models of how one teacher has taken writing workshop to the digital platform. Students create and "publish" their writing using various types of digital media such as blogs, emails and social networks.

Teacher-created Wiki of collaborative story writing by k-8 students from around the globe. The wiki is open to new followers. = =
 * Progressive Story Project **