A presentation to the Philadelphia Reading Council, a local council of the Keystone State Reading Association and the International Reading Association.

1. Teaching Reading in a Digital World Philadelphia Reading Council Eric C. MacDonald, Ed.D. Benchmark School April 9, 2011

2. I Need My Teacher to Learn

3. “Every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of time until 2003.” Eric Schmidt CEO, Google

4. Exactly How Much Are Times A-Changin’? (Newsweek.com)

5. Exactly How Much Are Times A-Changin’? (Newsweek.com)

6. World Internet Usage

7. Today’s Students 93% of teens are online 89% of teens say the Internet and other digital media/devices make their lives easier 94% of 12-17 year olds use the Internet for research 78% feel it helps with school work Teen Internet use grew 45% between 2000 and 2005. (Hitlin & Rainie, 2005; Lenhart, Simon, & Graziamo, 2001)

8. Today’s Students 93% of teens surveyed use the Internet for social interaction 39% showcase artistic creations 33% work on web pages or blogs for others 28% have created their own blog or online journal 27% have their own web page 55% have created a profile on MySpace, Facebook or other social networking site (Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, Smith, 2007)

9. Students Online Students spend an average of: 27 hours online at home 15 minutes at school (Miners & Pascopella, 2007)

10. Infowhelm Are you feeling overwhelmed with information?

11. Brain Freeze (Newsweek.com) Newsweek Headline: “I Can’t Think! The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence – our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions.”

12. Brain Freeze – Consequences Oxford English Dictionary “information fatigue” Added in 2009 “But as information finds more ways to reach us, more often, more insistently than ever before, another consequence is becoming alarmingly clear: trying to drink from a firehose of information has harmful cognitive effects. And nowhere are those effects more worrying, than in our ability to make smart, creative, successful decisions.” (30)

13. Brain Freeze – Too Much Information! It is possible to have too much information With more information we actually make worse decisions. We tend to give more weight to recent information, even if it is not salient. How do we help our students (and ourselves) manage information to “think smart”?

14. Brain Freeze – Think Time We need time to think Our unconscious (think gut feeling) makes an important contribution to good decision-making. “If emotions are shut out of the decision-making process, we’re likely to overthink a decision, and that has been shown to produce worse outcomes on even the simplest tasks.” (33)

15. Brain Freeze – Step Away “Experts advise dealing with emails and texts in batches, rather than in real time; that should let your unconscious decision-making system kick in. Avoid the trap of thinking that a decision requiring you to assess a lot of complex information is best made methodically and consciously; you will do better, and regret less if you let your unconscious turn it over by removing yourself from the influx. Set priorities; if a choice turns on only a few criteria, focus consciously on those.” (33)

16. Brain Freeze - Strategies We can become more organized in how we access, organize and assess information. We can be more strategic in our approach to information-rich tasks. We can emphasize the importance of prioritizing, synthesizing, and even time-management as important 21st century strategies.

17. Brain Freeze – Classroom Implications Metacognition Critical Thinking Strategic Reading Print Text Digital Text

18. The Internet & Reading The Internet is a reading comprehension issue, not a technology issue. - Don Leu

20. Thinking About Literacy and Technology Literacy Issues in Reading & Writing Importance of “traditional print literacies” Need to adapt, shift, and teach online and Web 2.0 literacies. Teaching & Learning Conceptualizing the tools available for teaching & Instruction

21. A Framework for Thinking About Technology Tools

22. Decision Point – Where do you want to go today? What is Web 2.0? Ideas for Teaching Reading in a Web 2.0 World Tools for Students and Teachers My favorites My “To Do” List

23. Web 2.0 The Read-Write Web

24. What is Web 2.0?(Solomon & Schrum, 2007) “By the early 2000s, the notion of interactivity went from linking and clicking to creating and sharing. Now individuals not only find and read information but also create and share their own in real time. It is a new Web, known as Web 2.0” “We no longer just find and use information: the Web is now a participatory, interactive place where we create information collaboratively and share the results.”

25. Web 2.0 (Dr. Helen Barrett, http://electronicportfolios.org/learning/)

26. Web 2.0 Tools Many free, open-source Internet applications Some share similarities to “regular software.” (For example, Google Docs) Interactivity, easy publishing/idea sharing, and collaboration are hallmarks of Web 2.0 tools

27. Examples of Web 2.0 Tools

28. Web 2.0 is often referred to as the Read/Write Web! So, what are we literacy educators waiting for? Web 2.0 has our name written all over it!

29. “To be literate today involves acquiring new skills, including those of using technology, understanding science, having global awareness, and most important, having the ability to keep learning, which involves gathering, processing, analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting information as well as communicating and collaborating.” (Solomon & Schrum, 2007)

30. These skills and dispositions should be very familiar to literacy educators. It is what we have been teaching in print text all along. Now we need to be on the forefront of figuring out how to teach these skills online and in providing effective instruction to our students.

31. What’s new? – New Literacies!(Barone & Wright, 2008)

32. Traditional Literacies & New Literacies The Internet and Web 2.0 tools “extend traditional literacy experiences with comprehension of information on the Internet; effective use of search engines to locate information; evaluation of Internet sources; communication using e-mail, texts, and chats; and the use of word processing programs.” (Barone & Wright, 2008)

33. IRA– Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum The Internet and other forms of information and communication technology (ICT) are redefining the nature of literacy. To become fully literate in today’s world, students must become proficient in the new literacies of ICT. Therefore, literacy educators have a responsibility to integrate these technologies into their literacy curricula. The Association believes that much can be done to support students in developing all the forms of literacy they will require. We believe that students have the right to

34. IRA Position Statement (cont’d) The Association believes that much can be done to support students in developing all the forms of literacy they will require. We believe that students have the right to Teachers who are skilled in the effective use of ICT for teaching and learning A literacy curriculum that integrates the new literacies of ICT into instructional programs Instruction that develops the critical literacies essential to effective information use

35. IRA Position Statement (cont’d) Assessment practices in literacy that include reading and writing with technology tools Opportunities to learn safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies Equal access to ICT

36. So what do I do? Professional development “Play” with the tools Determine how tools can enhance your current objectives Experiment!

37. Adapting to Teaching Literacy in the 21st Century Literacy Meets Web 2.0

38. NAEP Framework for Reading Locating/Recalling Integrating/Interpreting Critiquing/Evaluating How do we teach these today in print text? How do these apply to reading online?

39. Reading in a Digital World Teaching reading in the 21st century requires a “mind-shift” for non-digital native teachers. Changing our thinking about text and teaching about text can be difficult.

40. Why teach online reading to digital natives? Science Assignment: Find information about an animal that interests you and create an informational poster. Student searches Google for “octopus” and finds a site that interests him and creates a poster. Among the facts on the “tree octopus” he writes: Found in Washington State Amphibious, but lives in trees Largest brain-to-body ratio for a mollusk

41. Why teach online reading to digital natives? You can’t imagine an amphibious octopus living in trees, so you check his bibliography and find the following site: Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

42. Why teach online reading to digital natives? 24 of 25 students, identified as “good readers” said they would recommend this site to others! “Even after they were let in on the hoax, most of the students had difficulty deciphering the clues that betrayed the site’s fictitiousness. Some still maintained that the octopus really exists.”

43. Why teach online reading to digital natives? In a related study: 57% of students report never checking accuracy of websites 59% never check the source of a website 4% of students checked the background of the site’s creator. (Bettleheim, 2007) This research was done by the New Literacies Group at The University of Connecticut

44. Major Skills for Teaching About Online Reading (Leu, 2007) Question – Identify important questions and be able to revise questions as needed. Locate – Locate information online. Evaluate – Critically evaluate information. Synthesize – Pull information together to answer questions. Communicate – Communicate your findings with others.

45. Question – Pre-reading Steps Brainstorm what students know Assess background knowledge – do I need to do some easy reading? (Internet Bkg. Building) What do I want to learn?

46. Question Important to know what you are looking for when reading online. Volume of information Multiple (and multimedia) distractions.  Need to have a plan for research! (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007)

47. Locate Key skill in effective online reading. Strategies for locating information online should be one of the first things taught. Provide explicit instruction and guided practice in using search engines & directories

48. Locate: Key Questions/Skills What search engine should I use? Selecting keywords Refining search Importance of vocabulary/background knowledge Directories vs. search engines Nettrekker The “Deep Web” – Access PA

49. Locate – Reading Web Pages Provide explicit instruction and guided practice in reading websites. Menus Is there an “about?” (Important for evaluation.) Locations for menus Differences between print text navigation and hypertext navigation. Links – Importance of predicting in hypertext Knowing when you are leaving the site to go to another site Multi-media

50. Internet Text Linear/Print-Like Text Hypertext

51. Social Studies EPR – Types of Text on the Internet What is hypertext? What is the difference between the text you read on the Internet for homework over the weekend and the text you will read on the Internet for tonight’s homework? (Hint: What do you have to do to read everything on government in Athens? How do you navigate or find your way around the text?) Why might it be important to be aware of the differences in types of text found on the Internet? (In other words, why might it be useful to know that some sites/pages use text that is more like print text and others use hypertext?)

52. Evaluate Second critical strategy set for online reading. Key elements: Reliability – Is the information trustworthy? Bias – Knowing the source of information is important as everyone shapes information. Stance – Importance of being a critical reader or “healthy skeptic.”

53. Key Strategies for Evaluating Read the Search Results URL Read the descriptions Evaluate the website Authority – Who wrote it? (Check the “About” page.) Purpose – Should be clear on the homepage. Objectivity Timeliness – Good websites include a footer with information on when the page was created/updated. (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007)

54. Synthesize Pulling information together from multiple sources or across sources. Importance of knowing what to ignore. Knowing when you have answered your research question.

55. Communicate This is where English/Language Arts teachers should feel at home… Except, we need to add a twist Instant Messaging Blogs Wikis Websites Podcasts, Video, and more! Audience Awareness

56. My Favorite Tools

57. Everything Google Google Docs Google Reader Google Sites Google Earth & Maps And so much more

58. A Google Tool for Everything

59. Graphic Organizers Webspiration Classroom Exploratree Bubbl.us Thinklinkr Cacoo And many more…

60. Flash Cards Quizlet Study Stack

61. NoodleTools Note taking Organization Bibliography Links to Google Docs

62. NoodleTools

63. NoodleTools

64. Wordle

65. My “To Learn” List & More

66. My “To Explore” List Museum Box Diigo Bookmappingor Google Lit Trips

67. Elementary Sites Primary Wall – web-based, collaborative sticky note tool Fry’s Word List Activities Book Trailers – 30-45 second introductions to books at a variety of levels.

68. Other “Word” Sites Snappy Words – A visual dictionary/thesaurus. Lexipedia – Another visual dictionary/thesaurus. Wordia – video definitions of words. Write-n-ator – A video clip on a vocabulary word followed by a writing challenge. Save the Words – A cool site that is hard to describe but good for vocabulary building with older students. Wacky Web Tales – Sort of a mad lib type activity with stories for grades 3 and above.

69. Spelling Dictionary.com- Has 6 spelling/word games that might make for constructive reward or free-time activities. Miss Spell's Class - Test spelling skills by catching misspelled words. Adlib - Your little brother has been transformed into an owl by an errant spell. Form words to piece the incantation back together. Master the spellbook to save your brother! Word Machine - Make words starting with a provided letter. Second and third words must also include additional provided letters. The longer the word, the more points you earn. Using the same word twice in the same game gives you less points Meaning Fall - Help the warrior cross the watery caverns. Read the word definitions and guess the words that are hidden behind the clouds. Bonus points for getting letter-streaks. Clockwords - You are an inventor who discovers plans for a mysterious word machine. Suddenly, your lab is infiltrated by bugs that want to steal your secrets! Make words that include provided letters to fend off the invaders. Word Kingdom - Build your kingdom by arranging letters to form words. Correctly spelled words can be converted into resources to feed your warriors, fortify your fortress and dominate WordLand. Spelling Match - Spelling games for grades K-8.

70. Other Sites 60 Second Recap – provides short videos related to literature. Readability – Allows you to “cleanup” the screen and only see key text. Free Audio Books – public domain books for students to listen to.