The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty.

The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE.

Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to read closely, cite evidence, and make evidence based inferences when they read. They are expected to deepen their learning by valuing textual evidence and reading critically.  Annotating text is one way students can cite textual evidence, infer and deepen meaning as they read..

Annotations make thinking visible for teachers and students. We can use the words and features of a text to better comprehend it, ask questions, and note our thoughts while reading. One goal of comprehension is that students will be proficient annotators of texts to understand more deeply by interacting and making thinking transparent while they read.

There are many reasons to ask students to annotate text: for basic comprehension, to show evidence of conceptual understanding, to show what is implied, to identify the claims in an argument, to read like a writer and identify characteristics of genre, to notice the nuance of language…and many other reasons.   Giving guidance as to what we want students to annotate for will be beneficial for the reader. Otherwise, they will annotate everything that comes to mind, and the work may not be helpful to the reader or the teacher.

Annotations are often a singular, individual experience. Annotexting ups the ante all around.

Annotexting is a process that involves the collection of thoughts, observations and reactions to reading that show evidence of critical thought. These annotations, rather than being on paper, can be collected with different web tools so that students can collaborate, both locally and globally, around the conclusions that they will ultimately draw from their reading.

Students submit their annotations via their smart phones or other digital devices, and then analyze each other’s notations collectively.  They could be looking for main ideas, thematic and literary elements, or big ideas from the work.   They could be looking for evidence of connections to other texts, their own experiences, or world issues. They could simply be searching for meaning to support them when reading complex texts.

In addition, students could reflect on the collective evidence as a metacognitive activity to assess their own learning.  Perhaps the collaborative exercise raised new questions for them or offered them new ways of thinking about the text. Perhaps there is something else the student wants or needs to know?

Metacognition can be strengthened when citing evidence in text.  Textual evidence that supports the thinking behind what they are thinking is a gigantic first step into the depth and complexity that the Common Core is asking of students.  Annotexting kicks that up a notch by engaging task specific tools that offer opportunities for strategic thinking and globally connected opportunities.

Consider THIS ANNOTATED TEXT.

The student wrote all over this poem. The student underlined specific words and wrote annotations about them in line with the text. This student is engaging in a thoughtful, albeit singular, analysis of this poem.

What changes with multiple perspectives?

We have our own ideas about squat pens and writing utensils as weapons  (based on the student’s annotations) but they are different than this student’s collection of evidence. What would have changed in the interpretation of this poem if our perspectives were woven together? Does the collaborative process of conversation yield a greater product? Does the thinking extend when multiple perspectives are mixed? Does the evidence yield to strategic thinking when multiple viewpoints are involved?

Besides the strategic and capable use of digital tools, annotexting offers students the opportunity to value evidence, think critically and engage with different perspectives.  Rather than working independently to read, comprehend and analyze text, annotexting will allow students to engage with other audiences in tasks with an expanded purpose, supporting college and career readiness.

We’ve created an example of what this could look like in Corkboard using William Blake’s poem, “The Tyger.” (Click on the Corkboard tab in the Livebinder. The example is in a subtab.) You can see other examples in several of the tabs in the binder. We would also like to share this DISCUSSION RUBRIC (2007) that you can use as students submit annotations and begin to draw conclusions about what their evidence is pointing to.

In order to get students to own this process, we have to relinquish some control. Let them think, let them make mistakes and respond. Let them draw conclusions even they are not the conclusions we would have drawn. We can be there to coach them through misconceptions.

The college and career ready student (on page seven of the ELA Common Core document) is expected to attend to audience, task, purpose and discipline in both reading and writing. The standards also expect students to think critically and value evidence.  The document goes on to explain that the college and career ready student should use digital media strategically and purposefully.  Annotexting is at the intersection of all of these capacities.

In addition to collecting evidence with web tools, there are also digital APPS that we’ve come across that would work for Annotexting too. (These are represented in the LiveBinder as well.) Some are notetaking apps that let you collect evidence and annotations with a digital device and some let you edit and annotate PDF files and documents. There are resources in the binder for both iTunes and Android Market Apps.

Some Youtube tutorials:

GoodReader app
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIrBS8d_CCA

PaperPort (this one’s free)  it let’s me import my pdf files…and annotate them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yu1Fg4xu9E

Note Shelf- for notetaking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H7es6CkE8k&feature=related

iAnnotate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHoAGbQcp2o&feature=related

Phatpad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55Y6M-hriQ

If you would like to explore this and other Modern Learning moments more in depth, check out Curriculum21’s Webinar Series and our all new LEAD21 Academy at this year’s Curriculum Mapping Institute.  We will also be exploring the Common Core as it relates to Curriculum Design at the upcoming Ohio Regional Conference in May. (Space is limited!)

Fisher, Michael L., Jr. and Nancy Cook.  ”Notice, Think, and Wonder: New Pathways to Engage Critical Thinking.” IN TRANSITION: Journal of the New York State Middle School Association. 25.1 (2007): 15-18. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nysmsa.org/associations/611/files/ITv25n1_Fall 2007.pdf>.

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I have written about 21st Century Skills, Literacies and Fluency before. I listed a definition and differences between being literate and fluent.

Fluency is defined by Free Dictionary as:

Ability to express oneself readily and effortlessly

The term is usually used in a language context, but I like how it was used at the 21st Century Fluency Project:

The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly.

Wes Fryer blogged about a presentation by Ian Jukes of the same title and described the difference between literacy and fluency:

- when you are literate, you still have to think about what you are going to do next
- fluencies are unconscious skills, you just know what to do next

I am continuing to be intrigued by the relationship between illiteracy, literacy and fluency.

• How do we define each stage? What are its characteristics and milestones?
• How does each stage look like at the end of 2010?
• How does one progress from one stage to another?
• What happens to the ones who do not move forward and stay illiterate?

As I am asking myself these questions I am reminded of the stages one goes through as you learn a foreign language. From being illiterate as you are not able to read nor write in the new language to becoming literate and (hopefully) fluent in speaking and interacting with other speakers of that same language. As I am exploring the analogy, I am asking myself:

• What does it mean to be fluent in a language?
• What is the difference between being able to read and write a language and being able to speak it? Are you fluent if you can speak but not read or write?
• Are you considered fluent if you know “a lot of vocabulary words”, but are not able to put them in the grammatically correct order?
• Are you fluent, if you can participate in a rehearsed conversation: “How are you?”, “Fine and you?”, “Good, how is your family?”, etc.
• Do you speak fluently, if you need to translate in your mind before you are able to form and utter a sentence?

Language Fluency

I was reminded of a story, I had heard at a TPRS workshop for Word Language teachers years ago. The story by Jack Engelhard titled “His French Comes our Greek” (.doc) describes well what fluency means. It is quite humorous too.

Speaking up and down versus sideways

An American, with High School French education, travels to French Canada and is surprised when native speakers do not understand his “conjugated” French. Although he knows the words and even the grammar rules of conjugating (speaking up and down) , he is incapable of making himself understood nor understand (communicating with) the natives (who speak sideways).

The analogy lies in the fact that learning or teaching tools, such as Skype, PowerPoint, Twitter, wikis, blogs or VoiceThread, will not make the user capable of knowing when it is appropriate to use each one of these tools nor will they be used unconsciously. When every step of using a tool or program becomes an effort (formatting, recording, dragging & dropping, editing, saving, inserting, posting, etc.) or when obstacles become insurmountable stumbling blocks then the objective of expressing oneself or communicating has not been achieved. The tools become the vocabulary words one needs to know in order to be able to start forming sentences. If you are at a “loss of words”or stutter, conversation stalls or becomes cumbersome. Standalone words are not considered a language. We just use them in order to create meaning.

Once you have mastered vocabulary and grammatical rules you might be able to read and write in the new language which gives you basic literacy…but are you able to fluently speak the language? Grammar rules tell you where to place a word inside a phrase and how to “format” it in the right tense, conjugate for the right person, but will you be able to speak without having to translate from your native language? Will it feel intuitive, smooth and fluid to express yourself, communicate and connect to others in more ways than just “using the same words”?

Language connects more than words and phrases

Should we not strive to learn 21st Century skills by using tools (vocabulary words) in order to become skilled? From possessing skills should we not push further in order to become (basic, information, media, network, globally) literate (stringing words together according to grammatical rules to form sentences and eventually to create meaning)?

As we immerse ourselves in the culture of others who communicate as we do (speak the same language) would we then not, by osmosis become fluent (speaking without translating or hesitations, smooth and unconscious of grammatical rules)? Being fluent means that the language will “just sound right” to your ears. It will just sound right to contact and skype in an expert to help your students learn about a specific subject. It will just feel right to use Google Docs (or whatever tool)  in order to collaborate intuitively. Fluency will come when you just know what to do next, when you don’t have to think about your next step or how you used to do it before.

I am interested in other analogies for 21st Century Fluency. It was natural for me to make the connection to speaking a language fluently. What connections are you making?

What does it mean to be literate? I am asking myself this question more frequently lately.

Does being literate mean the same for this class?

School Class in 1912- Image licensed under Creative Commons by HistoricBeaverton

Image by Historic Beverton

than for this class?

Graduating Class 1986

or this class?

Class of 2022 ~ Image licensed under Creative Commons by Melanie Holtsman

image by holtsman

The official definition from the dictionary defines “to be literate” as:

able to read and write

There is change in the air though.

Being able to read and write seems to remain as the same definition. What is changing, at a rapid speed though, is the medium we are reading in and writing with.

No longer is reading a handwritten letter or note, a printed sheet of paper, a poster, a telephone book, a newspaper, a magazine or a book the only medium of communicating information. Since having access to the Internet has become mainstream over 10 years ago, being able to find and read a website has expanded the notion of what it means to be “able to read”. New forms of media are being developed and are allowing us to take information in , to be able to “read” in new shapes and forms. With the beginning of web 2.0, the shift from simply consuming (reading) information/content to having the ability of producing (writing) information and content has now expanded the notion of writing as well.

The options, that are available to us humans, to communicate in another form, other than speaking verbally to someone face to face, has exponentially grown in the last 5 years. Being able to expand the reach of our communication has opened up opportunities that have not existed before in history.

So, what does that mean for the initial question of this blog post:

What does it mean to be literate?

I have written often on this blog,  how I see the concept of “Literacy” changing & expanding. I am reminded of the Norwegian video clip about the Medieval Help Desk, when one monk explains to another how to use, this new way of reading text, called a book. The monk had tremendous difficulty in grasping the concept of the book, compared to the scrolls he was used to until then.

What if that monk would have thrown the towel in and refused to become comfortable with the new form of reading and writing? Would he still be considered literate in an era where information and learning is mostly transmitted in a form of a book? What about his job, as a scribe of the church, to write on the scrolls? Would it soon become irrelevant?

As I have been busy in the last few months with workshops about “Blogging with Students“, I am realizing that we can’t just assume that every teacher is web “literate”. Before we start talking about how blogging can support 21st Century skills for your students, we need to step back and make sure that the teachers are literate (enough) to be able to read and write through this medium called a blog!

We need to start out by establishing a common vocabulary base and understanding how printed material differs from digital content. I ask teachers to start reading, reading, reading other blogs before attempting to blog with their own students. Basics, such as knowing how to search for blogs, recognize blog structures, searching within blogs, and experiencing the “mechanics” of how a blog platform operates are important “pre-reading and pre-writing” skills.

Establishing common vocabulary

In addition to establishing common vocabulary, we also need to start a conversation about the importance to go beyond the traditional teaching of the traditional communication methods of reading and writing  (through books and with paper) that still dominates in most of our schools. Otherwise our teachers and students will be like the monk in the movie clip above…being left “illiterate”.

I would like to recommend the following book by Alan November titled Web Literacy for Educators. It is a wonderful resource in the process of  becoming web literate. It goes beyond the basics and talks about being able to “read” and “write” as a researcher, understanding the grammar and being able to decode the structure of the web towards pushing us to being critical thinkers in a an online digital world.

by Alan November

Below you will find my notes as I was reading Alan’s book, taken with iThoughsHD Mindmapping app.

Click to see larger version

I received this link to the following book trailer from the librarian at the school I work at.It was very timely, since we just had a discussion about “real books”,  e-books and the advantages/disadvantages of each.

I am very interested in the topic, have written about it before here and here and am monitoring my own reading habits along the journey.

The following video clip illustrates and highlights nicely

• the gap of digital and “real book” readers
• some of the differences
• new vocabulary associated with digital readers
• on one level reading is reading. Reading a book can take you away for hours as can reading and “surfing” a digital book.

As you are watching the short video clip, what are your reactions? Where do you stand in the journey from paper books to digital books? Are you holding on to the “real thing” with your tactile and olfactory senses? Are you a hybrid and enjoy reading both? Have you completely abandoned the physical book and are reading purely online, on your iPhone, iPad, Kindle or Nook?

It was a post titled “Formats for Visual Thinking in the Classroom“  from Richard Byrne on Free Technology for Teachers, that prompted me to write this post.

Visual Learner

I am a visual learner, which means I prefer to learn through seeing.

On Wikipedia you can read about Visual Learning:

Visual learning is a teaching and learning style in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and techniques. It is one of the three basic types of learning styles that also includes kinesthetic learning and auditory learning.

Visual learners also prosper when shown graphs, graphic organizers, such as webs, concept maps and idea maps, plots, and illustrations such as stack plots and Venn plots, are some of the techniques used in visual learning to enhance thinking and learning skills.

What I have learned too though, is that I learn best when I not only SEE visuals, but when I CREATE visuals. I purposefully dissected Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ book Curriculum21- Essential Education in a Changing World via visuals I created.

As I was reading the book (hard copy, not on my Kindle), I was using highlighters to not miss thoughts or quotes that I wanted to remember. It did not take long to realize that I was highlighting too much How was I going to get through this book and make sense of it, connect and wrap it around my thoughts which were floating around but had not been verbalized?

I know that I work best through concepts and ideas when I create diagrams or use mind mapping tools. I really like using the SmartArt Graphics in PowerPoint. The visuals below are a summary of what I “read out of the book”, the most important points in my mind and quotes.

I am resorting more and more to creating images, when I am trying to Wrap my Mind Around a Concept.  I don’t seem to be the only one learning by creating visuals. There has been an increase of Infographics all over the web. Recently, I also lead a workshop on upgrading presentation from “Death by PowerPoints” bullets and overwhelming text slides to replace them with visuals to get your point across.

I know that I want to bring, what I am figuring out about my own visual learning and my experience/background with digital images, web design and desktop publishing, somehow into the classroom and to students.

• One of the 21st Century Skills is “CREATING”
• The highest level on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is “CREATING”
• Media literacy, is not only analyzing and evaluating media, but also “CREATING” media.

The above mentioned post “Formats for Visual Thinking in the Classroom“  from Richard Byrne gave me the final push to start concretizing an approach to integrate CREATING visuals for learning into the classroom.

I used iThoughtsHD on my iPad to brainstorm ideas, lesson topics, possible learning activities and tools that I would like to use for students to explore their own visual learning abilities.

Take a look at Laurence Musgrove‘ s SlideShare presentation. It is full of great examples of (hand drawn) student created visuals! Please share examples of visual learning of your own student or learning activities you are “envisioning”!

Visual literacy is defined by Wikipedia:

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.

I believe that visual literacy cannot only include the ability of “reading” a picture, but needs to also include the ability of “writing”/creating images, that represent a thought, idea and concept.

Coming from a Web Designer background and having been a PhotoShop-user for the past 15 years, PowerPoint presentations that had slides with clashing colors, animated non related clipart zooming noisily into each slide with transitions that made my head hurt and my designer heart bleed. As always, the villain is not the program (the tool), it is what we do with the tool. Then I started reading  Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
by Garr Reynolds and it struck a chord with me. My latest presentations are attempts to create slides according to his model.

I also would recommend watching Kim Cofino ‘s stunning “Designing Compelling Presentations” and her other presentations she generously shares on Slideshare.net using the Presentation Zen model.

Currently I am in the process of reading Reynold’s second book Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

Garr Reynolds points out that

we live in a time in which knowledge of design and visual communication skills are increasingly valued.

I decided a few weeks ago to read a book (Curriculum 21) , then create visuals of quotes, summaries and concepts from it. I wanted to experience if I could remember, categorize and learn visually from the book by creating.

As I am thinking about how I can represent a concept or a quote, I am making connections. As I am looking for images that will show what I am visualizing, these connections are being stretched and are expanding. One search for an image that represents “disseminate” washes up results for “blowing dandelions”. A visualization that I would have not thought of before.

You can check out wonderful examples of other educators creating visuals at the “Great Quotes about Learning” Flickr group. Great inspiration and discussion starters.

I am working on a blog post to show step by step the logistics of how I create images. Stay tuned if you are interested.

Using visuals to create and support stories is a skill we should encourage and nurture in our students . It should be obvious by now that I consider storytelling an integral part of a teacher’s toolbox. You can read about the Need for Storytelling and Why Storytelling Can/Should Be Anywhere/Everywhere and will understand why storytelling can fulfill many roles in the learning process.

Storytelling:

• helps us pass on knowledge
• connects the overwhelming flow of information,  so our brains can digest and remember it better
• uses a format that students of today are familiar and comfortable with

Now add visuals to the mix…

According to Wikipedia, Visual literacy is

the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.

It is hard sometimes to make/find images available to your students (especially for the younger ones) that they can use in their digital storytelling projects or for creative writing. I am always hesitant to let them loose on Google or Flickr to find their own images, because of copyright issues, but also inappropriate content.

I wanted to share a Flickr set of the Travel Bear from Argentina, China, Egypt, Costa Rica, Peru and Italy. There are all in one place and licensed under Creative Commons to share and use with your students.

In the past, students have made up stories with images from the bear for younger students by using PhotoStory

Students could choose different images from the set to create whole new stories made up by them. Sixth graders created short movies for their first grade buddies.
Andrea Hernandez from edtechworkshop encouraged her first graders to choose an image from the Travel Bear’s Italy Blog, download the image into Pixie (or you could use KidPix or TuxPaint ) and the six year olds wrote a postcard style letter to Jose, the bear.

Here is a slideshow of images available from the travel bear around the world. I would love to hear what kind of creative writing projects you have come up with by encouraging your students to use creative commons images from the web? Please share…

I am guest blogging on My Wonderful World Blog (National Geographic Education Foundation) in honor of Geography Awareness Week 2009 the week of November 15 – 21!

This year’s theme is “Get Lost in Mapping: Find Your Place in the World”.

I wanted to share a successful geography lesson that continues to grow throughout the school year.  I have blogged about the  News Events Assignments with a Twitst and The Logistics of creating a Current News Events Google Map previously.

The lesson was born out of a very traditional  “Current Events Assignment”, handed in to the teacher on paper, which had been part of the curriculum for years.

The Middle School Social Studies teacher at my school (Martin J.Gottlieb Day School) was not satisfied with the paper and pencil assignment and was looking to bring the old and tried task into the 21st century. She wanted students to not merely be looking up random and disconnected news events that were handed in to her on a weekly basis. She wanted students to be really making connections among these events by involving higher level thinking skills such as evaluating, analyzing and creating. The new assignment was to not only involve geography skills, but also bring into the lesson information literacy and global awareness.

We decided to create a collaborative map for each grade level (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) with Google Maps. Each student was assigned a different colored or shaped placemark within Google Maps . They were also given the class username and password to be able to log in from home.

Their weekly “Current News Events” assignment now consisted in:

• Logging into their grade level map
• Placing a placemark on the location the news event had taken place
• Entering the location’s country as the title of the placemark
• Using the description box to add a category the news article was falling under (Ex. politics, environment, entertainment, etc.)
• The source link to the original news article or citation if from a paper newspaper
• A summary of the article. Preferably in 140 characters or less.

Since the start of the assignment,  several weeks have passed and new lessons have been learned, input from educators around the world received and new dimensions to the lesson have crystallized themselves.

As more news events are added,  we are asking questions such as:

• In what category do most news events we added fall?
  
• In what continents and countries are these news items in?
  
• What area of the world do we know or hear the most or least about? Why?
  
• How can we expand our horizon to cover more areas of the globe?

It has been good to observe that students are branching out in their search for sources. They are reading newspapers from different locations around the world, such as the UK, Australia, and Japan.

They are realizing that:

• different sources bring different points of view, opinions and kinds of news items.
• not all perspectives are represented in one source
• to get a “fuller” picture of a news event, you have to look at more than one source
• location of a source influences the content and perspective of the article

We  are asking ourselves:

• What does it mean if the majority of our sources are US based by coming from CNN.com and Foxnews.com?
• How are other countries affected by events happening in different countries or continents?
• What is ( or is there) a difference in terms of validity of news when the source is BBC or Comedy Central?

Each week students, after they have entered their news event, present the location and summary of their placemark to the class on the SmartBoard.

As students present their news event, other students are working with their laptops at their desk and are editing their peer’s placemark. They are becoming collaborators and critical thinkers  by validating and cross-referencing sources, asking for clarifications if the summary was not understood and making suggestions to where to place the placemark best.  As Mrs. R., their teacher said:

In previous “Current News Events” assignment, there was never an element of self- and collaborative checking of their work. Students handed in their news event and summary on a paper. I was the only one reading it.  The collaborative web based map has brought a new dimension of deeper thinking.

Why are students motivated to go over and check their own and classmate’s work?

Students are aware that their Google Maps of Current Events have been viewed by over 10,000  people (all three maps combined). Over 20 comments have been left by others from far away countries such as Israel, Australia and Korea, leaving students with a sense of pride and that what they do in class matters. Other teachers are using their maps as examples to teach their students. Commenters have:

• asked students to add source links to the original articles
• requested that we double check location placemarks
• challenged students about the “worthiness” of adding articles in the entertainment category
• encouraged students to look for patterns about their news event locations
• shared links to images about a news event

As the Social Studies teacher and I reflect on this weekly task, we want to continue to add new elements and enter into additional phases of the assignment in order to prevent it from becoming routine or just another thing to do for the students.

We are contemplating:

• To give students a broad topic and asking them to find relevant news sources, representative of different countries? Is there a difference in the “facts” that are reported or omitted depending on location? What is their “take” on a specific event?
• Ask students to come up with a world news topic, add their opinion and take on the subject, then ask others around the world to contribute their unique perspective to that topic.
• Have students analyze responses from different locations around the world and consider responses on basis of geography.

What are your thoughts and ideas how to expand, develop and create even more facets to this assignment?

Take a look at the GoogleMaps at and leave a comment for our 6th graders, 7th graders and 8th graders.

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

A few days ago, I read a tweet with a link to the following video clip from  Rachel Maddow‘s The Revolution will be Digitized. If I remember correctly, the original sender’s intention was for the clip to be shown to any reluctant educator who insists that there is no need for change in what and how we teach information literacy in schools.

My thoughts are not addressing or analyzing the political revolution that is taking place in Iran, but is trying to look at it from the perspective of what it means in terms of the (r) evolution process of receiving/obtaining/searching/ distributing/manipulating/ monopolizing/ censoring information.

The US State Department asked Twitter to delay taking their service off line for a scheduled maintenance, recognizing that it is a vital service to Iranians AND the world to find out WHAT is going on.

Iran would loose one of the important ways they have to communicate with each other and the outside world about what is going on in their country right now.

Traditional media, such as television and newspapers are restricted in what they are allowed to air or publish. Rachel Maddow says:

[...] Iranian government media restrictiosn mean that this revolution might not be televised, but it is definitely tweeted, blogged, youtubed and flickered. These sources, these means of posting citizen journalism online are collectively the most comprehensive, up to the minute way of following this huge news story.

[...] As traditional journalists are confined to their offices, prevented from filming on the streets and are blocked from the protests, what we are able to get to supplement their reporting is raw material, essentially from the participants in this uprising. We are 6000 miles away from where I sit right now, but we have never been closer.

My thoughts are coming together, as I am trying to wrap my brain around what all this means.Without citizens participating in social media such as twitter, youtube, blogs and flickr (the ones that Rachel mentions in the video clip), we (the international public) would be

• restricted to bias information from governments through censorship
• confined by traditional media to what they seem “newsworthy”
• completely left out of receiving information  when traditional media is not “allowed” to cover

What does this mean to the traditional way (television and newspaper (paper AND online) most people in the world (still) rely on as their primary means of receiving information? What does it mean, when we can’t rely on these traditional media anymore to receive the information we are looking for?

What if we will rely more and more on social media as the up to date, most authentic and reliable source of information?

What happens to the people who don’t know how to search, view, read, evaluate, connect and contribute to/with/from/for that kind of information? What if these people will be left out of “What is going on in the world, in their own country, in their own city and neighborhoods”?

Will they still be considered to be literate in today’s world?

Business Week’s article Iran’s Twitter Revolution? Maybe not yet cautions to attribute too much to Twitter’s role in the Iranian’s revolution.

Some Iranian election protesters used Twitter to get people on the streets, but most of the organizing happened the old-fashioned way

but admits that Twitter played a crucial role in raising INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS

… the main reason to use the tools is the attention it generates in the international media. Indeed, one of Twitter’s primary contributions in the Iranian elections has been to raise awareness of the issue among tech-savvy users outside the country.

Here are some twitter thoughts about what “The revolution will be digitized” could mean:

We want our students to start creating…
We want them to use different media to express themselves, demonstrate their understanding, learning and connections to the world.

So, the teacher has agreed to the substitution of the traditional written book report (from years past) with allowing students (5th Grade) to create and record a PhotoStory based on a biography of  a famous person.

Step one was to give students an overview of using PhotoStory. Step two was the issue of obtaining images they could us.  I was amazed at how many students were STILL thinking that it was OK to just google images, right click, save as and voila!

I know for a fact, that most of them were introduced to the issue of copyright through one of the projects they had done in TechConnect last year.

• They did not listen?
• It was too complex to understand?
• It did not sink in?
• It was not reinforced on other occasions?

Some students had even their parents help them save images obtained from a google search. (Note to myself: Need to offer Copyright issues workshop for parents next school year)

So, Step two was an opportunity to revisit and reinforce copyright issues students encounter when creating digital projects involving images.

Allowing my elementary school students to “freely” search for images on the web is not an option.

At the beginning of this school year, I had created a  Media Library on our server, where I placed public domain and creative commons licensed images, sounds and video clips to be used in projects.

The question is though: How are they going to learn, if we (teachers)  pre-chew everything for them?

For this biography project, I wanted them to search for images of their famous person on Wikipedia and learn to be  (1) aware, (2) check the licensing options of each image and (3) cite the image credits properly in the PhotoStory project.

As a whole group. I showed them to check  for copyright license by clicking on the image itself .

Scroll down, pass the image to take a closer look at the license of the image.

If the image is in public domain, students are free to save the image and import into their project. They do not need to credit any source.

If the image is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License or  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License, students are free to download the image, but are required to give credit to the author or owner of the image. They are to save the image with the “by author or username” before importing it into their project and include the name in a credit page in their project.

I believe that elementary school students are NOT too young to learn about copyright and copywrong. A school project should not be placed into a different  category that make it ok  to not follow the law because:

• well, it does not really matter…
• it is not “real”…
• it does not count…
• I am not “really” doing anything wrong…
• no one will know, except my teacher…

Expressions, like “YES!!” with accompanying body language could be heard all around the classroom, when students found a good image and it happened to be in public domain.

They are being aware of copyright issues and they are becoming familiar with terms such as Creative Commons and Public Domain.

Will it “sink” in this time?