Technology
While the prevalence of technology in our daily lives requires the mastery of new literacies (keyboarding, internet research skill, etc.), technology also supports effective literacy instruction.
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21st Century Literacies
Because success with technology depends largely upon critical thinking and reflection, teachers with relatively little technological skill can provide useful instruction. But schools must support these teachers by providing professional development and up-to-date technology for use in classrooms.
Creating Podcasts with Your Students
Creating podcasts in the classroom has many educational benefits, including strengthening skills in research, writing, and collaboration — and podcasting is easy to do. This article walks you through the steps of preproduction, recording, postproduction, and publishing.
Enhancing Adolescent Literacy Achievement Through Integration of Technology in the Classroom
In this International Reading Association article, three educators examine ways that technology supports adolescent literacy in the classrooms, and the areas where more research is needed to clarify best practices. They specifically note seven promising areas: online coursework; communication tools such as instant messaging (IM) on cell phones or email; artificial intelligence products that give instantaneous feedback to student's writing; word processing features such as spell check; 'new literacy' practices that allow student to critically examine electronic information; professional development delivery via technology; and Internet-based parent communications.
Hot Technologies for Education: What's Happening Now and Later?
Perhaps the greatest promise of emerging technologies is their potential to transform learning. What's on the horizon?
Options: Turn Them On for Learning
This article provides brief research summaries on the benefits of providing students access to optional features in consumer electronics followed by practical suggestions on how to integrate these features into instruction and studying.
Reading Software: Finding the Right Program
With the range and variety of commercial software products on the shelves today, how can an educator or parent choose a program that will most benefit a particular student? Where are product reviews that can inform the decision?
Tech Teaches
While the shorthand used by teens in instant messages and chat rooms might seem to undermine adolescent literacy, technology can play an important role in helping struggling readers and writers improve their skills.
The Need for Flexible Alternatives to Print
An important change in special education law in 2004 was the inclusion of NIMAS, the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. This new regulation requires educational publishers to provide textbooks and other print materials in a digital format, so that students who have trouble with print can access the curriculum.
Using Assistive Technology to Support Writing
In this article, CITEd examines how technology can support students' writing skills, including such tools as text-to-speech engines, word prediction software, speech recognition software, and larger keyboards.
Writing, Technology and Teens
Lenhart, A., Arafeh, S., Smith, A.,and Macgill, A.R.,(2008). Writing, Technology and Teens. Washington, DC: The Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project and National Commission on Writing surveyed teens and their parents about teens' definitions of writing, the influence of e-communication—email, text messaging, etc.— on traditional writing skills; the types and frequency of writing assignments students receive; and ways that writing instruction could be improved.
