Social change agents used to go to "the press" (remember that?) to expose social ills and make things better. Now they go to social media. Stop and think about what a huge difference that is, in terms of the actors, the actions, the issues, and the medium. The social activists can now be anyone. They don't have to persuade an editor that something's important. No matter how small the issue, if the … [Read more...] about Courageous 13-year-old change agent
digital citizenship
Takeaways from SxSW, Part 1: The Brazilian Dream
[This article was originally published March 18, 2012, then my service’s server crashed, losing months of data. So reposting 10/8/12.] In addition to the panel mentioned in my previous post about Hope North and the one I participated in, "Reaching Teens on the Digital Streets," here – in two parts – are some takeaways from two areas I focused on at South by Southwest (SxSW) last week: featured … [Read more...] about Takeaways from SxSW, Part 1: The Brazilian Dream
Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
Digital literacy educator Diana Graber is crowdsourcing a media literacy curriculum for 8th-graders at Journey School in southern California. It's Year 3 of the school's CyberCivics program that Diana's building, she writes in the CyberWise blog. Reading her resource-rich post got me thinking about all I've learned about digital literacy, media literacy, and social literacy since I first heard … [Read more...] about Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
All kinds of learning all at once with ‘BYOT’
With their bring-your-own-technology (BYOT) program, teachers in the Forsyth County (Ga.) School District are "learning along with our students how their devices work for their learning," Tim Clark, the district's instructional technology coordinator, told me in a phone interview. My excitement about the promise this represents for students grew as we talked. What this school district is doing … [Read more...] about All kinds of learning all at once with ‘BYOT’
‘Save the Universe’: Clear space for learning
Last week, Part 1 about the "whitewater-kayaking kind of learning needed today"; here, in Part 2, a great example: An alternative headline might be: "A bucket of bricks for learning," but I'll get to the bricks in a minute. First the backstory. Marianne Malmstrom teaches the richest possible kind of media literacy to and with, elementary and middle school students at the Elisabeth Morrow School … [Read more...] about ‘Save the Universe’: Clear space for learning