Ning podcast: Digital Writers' Workshop

I viewed a podcast called Digital Writers' Workshop found at http://k12online.ning.com/video/digital-writers-workshop-1, which highlighted the experience of a class whose teacher led in a digital writers' workshop in which they created a digital story complete with plot, 3-D setting, and theme song. The students created the entire story in small groups which were decided based upon similar or compatible characteristics of the character that each student created. With that group, they created a script, theme song, 3-D setting, and put them all together into a digital video. The project promoted not only technological skill, but also collaborative work and story-writing skills, as well as artistic skills (e.g. music and set-building). The teacher talked about the process, specified which programs they used, and justified what levels of learning were being developed through each stage of the process.

TEWT website review

I explored the Teaching English with Technology (TEWT) website, which can be found at http://tewt.org/englishteachersites.html. It is sponsored by edtechteacher.org, which is an educational professional development provider. The TEWT site is intended to be a resource for English teachers to use technology in their courses, but also as a resource for teachers to access in order to better plan their courses. The site is mainly geared at educating teachers to best educate students, but there are advertisements on the site for other resources (e.g. books and other websites), some of which have to be purchased. The site is well laid out and easy to use. The different tabs are labeled in a way that is easy to understand and navigate, and there are many useful tools, especially the "Commonly Taught Books" section. This section in particular will be very useful for me as an educator. Seeing what other teachers have to say about some commonly taught books and reading what others view as main points that need to be taught with them is a wonderful jumping-off point. There are also videos about the books on the site; I am not sure who posted them, but if they can be posted by anyone, having my students create digital videos to post about books that we read could be a wonderful activity, especially if I am in a middle school setting. There are links to Teaching History with Technology (THWT) as well as to edtechteacher.org, and some other resources for using technology in the classroom.

NCTE-NING website review

I discovered NCTE-NING at http://ncte2008.ning.com/ through Dr. Leftwich's bookmarks. It is sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, a professional organization. The site was created by Emily Nafziger. The purpose of the site is to keep English teachers up-to-date about things related to our content area that are happening around the nation.
The website is very easy to navigate and clearly labeled. The only advertising on the site is for NCTE and the activities it promotes. The site allows a user to connect with others in his/her field as well as resources for English teachers. Not only are there forums and groups to join, but there is also a calendar of events such as seminars and classes that will help English teachers become better digital-age educators. These aspects of the site--allowing me to connect with others who are more experienced than am I, as well as sharing opportunities for professional development--make it a very valuable website for a future teacher. I think that using it to keep up with what is changing in the world of English education would be a great boon for me. There are also innumerable links to external sites for opportunities for further education, English sites, and much more. There is so much interesting and useful information compiled into this one site that it is a little overwhelming! But I expect it to be very useful, both now and in the future.