Gift wrapping makes a great day

Today began happily with a package from LiteratiCat, which held my gift-wrapped winnings from the contest on teenliterature. An excellent way to begin the day.

I wrote my Ideas section for this week’s Inbox, this week on reflection as a part of assessment. Then I moved on to edit a new ReadWriteThink lesson plan: Questions and Answer Books–From Genre Study to Report Writing.

We also published a new Flash interactive today, the Flip Book, which helps students create those a staggered length book–page one is the shortest and page ten the longest. I can only take credit for helping with the design, but it’s taken almost a year to get it from design to reality, so I’m happy that it’s finally done. We’re planning spin-offs on the tool, interactives that use the same idea of templates and drawing tools to publish other artifacts (e.g., book covers, CD covers). Ideally, those won’t take as long.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the Books Team about my series proposal. I hope all goes well.


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Literary Parodies and more…

Finished writing and published a ReadWriteThink lesson, Literary Parodies: Exploring a Writer’s Style through Imitation.
It’s a pretty typical assignment, but I had nice links, including to the Guy Noir episode, that I wanted to put together.

Reading Click Here, which has some scary imagery and dialogue that I’ll have to type up tomorrow. I did go ahead and update my list of what I’m reading and new books that arrived. Tomorrow morning, I’ll finish writing an Inbox Ideas entry on reflection and writing assessment.


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meblogging

Just found that not only is my plan to use technorati to track different technologies in the book reivews okay—it’s even got a name: meblogging! The practice that site describes is slightly different, but it’s the same idea really, so I feel a bit less guilty about perverting technorati to fit my needs :)


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under review

Took time today to read the technorati documentation and begin tagging my changelog entries. I’ve finished all of May, which sounds impressive unless you realize that it’s only the 7th. Still, I think I have a system set up, and I like the idea that even if people don’t use the technorati links, the keywords will help with generic search engines.

I decided it was also time to figure out how to handle book reviews. I want to post details on the books I read, both those that have a technology connection and those that don’t. I like the idea of building a library of reviews that I can return to when I need to remember something about a book. I did a bit of research on the available tools. There’s a drupal book review module, for instance. Ultimately, I decided that just adding another plain, old blogger account was enough—and I can get underway much more quickly than would be the case if I had to learn and configure a new tool.

So I’ve added reviews @ tengrrl.com to manage the project. I think I’ve allowed for everything that I want to list, and I’ve created a basic template that automatically pops up whenever I create a new post. I decided to try using the technorati keywords for my own purposes to get things started. In addition to the basic keywords, I want to tag the technologies that are mentioned in a particular book. The goal is not only to have the info for anyone reading the review but also to help with sorting and finding (e.g., if you want to locate the books that refer to chatrooms). Until I figure out a better way, I have created custom technorati tags, which work out generally to [technology in the book] + tengrrlreview. For instance, should get you a list of books about chatrooms that I have reviewed. There’s only one right now, so it’s not very exciting to clickthrough. I think the strategy can work for the short term. It’s not quite what technorati had in mind, I’m sure; but it’s a good compromise for now.


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From The Little Red Computer to The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez

xposted to Kairosnews.org

Quick—how would you say children first learn about and experience technologies? My typical answer used to point to television and movie depictions, commercials and advertisements, video games, access to computers in the home. As I’ve spent more and more time reading and exploring children’s and young adult literature for my work with ReadWriteThink, I’ve found that computers and other technologies are more and more frequently integrated in the books that students read. Students without computer access may first experience the format of instant messages and e-mail in a novel, and students’ experiences with the many netiquette and social issues surrounding technology issues may stem just as often from picture books and novels as it does from what they see on television or at the movies.

Over the last 3 years or so, I’ve been gathering fiction (and some nonfiction) that is directly aimed at pre-K to 12th grade readers to try to determine how the books that students read shape their attitudes about technology. The earliest picture book, The Little Red Computer, published in 1969, entertains listeners with the tale of a computer that doesn’t understand numbers but ultimately succeeds because it is “a computer with a mind of its own” (27). Over the intervening years, children could choose from such picture books as Kermit Learns How Computers Work, Franklin and the Computer, Patrick’s Dinosaurs on the Internet, and A House with No Mouse. Chapter books over the years have included The Computer That Ate My Brother, The Boggart, and Doing Time Online. Books published most recently not only include computer technologies as part of the setting, but they also include faux computer-mediated messages and texts as part of the story. M.T. Anderson’s Feed shows readers a sci-fi vision where computers feed directly into the characters’ heads, feeding these characters just-in-time facts and information. Lauren Myracle’s TTYL and Ellen Wittlinger’s Heart on My Sleeve are told through IMs and e-mails (and some letters). Click Here: To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade by Denise Vega and The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez by Judy Goldschmidt tell their stories through blog entries and Web pages.

I’d like to propose a conversation about the resources that students are likely to encounter, how they are likely to think about technologies as a result, and how we can tap these experiences in the classroom. It’s unlikely that participants in the conversations will know (let alone, have read) the various texts that will contribute to this conversation. As a result, I’m thinking of this discussion as a highly hypertextual series of book talks that provide summaries and key issues from several of the books and then invite discussion about these texts. Rather than a polished piece, I am thinking of this presentation as an extended opportunity to make online resources that share the information that I have been gathering on my bookshelves. My goal is to begin and develop a project on technologies in children’s literature that will be an ongoing source of information for K12 teachers as well as college teachers who are exploring how students’ literacy skills are shaped before they reach the college classroom.


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More on NCTE’s SAT/ACT Report in the News

Chicago Tribune
The Beauty of Brevity (editorial)

USATODAY.com
English Teachers Group Says New SAT Test Could Backfire

Minneapolis Star Tribune
Verbosity Over Eloquence Is New Worry on SAT Test

HindustanTimes.com
New SAT Attacked as Test of Stamina


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Puppy with a Dead Bird

I finally finished the technology profile lesson plan. It became Paying Attention to Technology: Reviewing a Technology. It doesn’t feel like a stellar lesson, but it’s done. I can’t decide what to write next. I have several ideas written down, but I can’t seem to focus. I should do something with all the YA lit that I’ve been reading, but I can’t quite decide what. I especially don’t want to come up with something that is so tied to a single book that it has limited usefulness.

I like this idea of adding keywords to entries. It would be even handier if I were to do it for my Lists of Ten. I should convert them or something. I never really know if they’re in the best setup. Actually, I guess they probably never are in the best setup because I’m never using the cutting edge stuff.

I’m feeling very puppy proudly bringing an excellent gift to my owner who looks down at a dead bird. My writing isn’t great. No one could be excited about that lesson plan. I don’t seem able to come up with anything new that I can write. I’m just not having a great week.

On the plus side, I think that I finally have DSL setup for my trip to Houghton. It’s taken the effort of five people, and I don’t really have any confirmation on the payment. Maybe I should just give up and stay home. Things seem very messy right now. Or maybe scattered is the better word.


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Technology Counts 2005

x-posted to kairosnews.org

EDWeek‘s Eighth Annual Report on School Technology:
Technology Counts 2005: Electronic Transfer: Moving Technology Dollars in New Directions
“The report includes in-depth articles on issues surrounding technology spending, state profiles, and the first-ever ranking of state technology leaders.”


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Celebrate


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More on NCTE’s SAT/ACT Report in the News

Washington Post
Tom Toles: SAT Test: Essay (editorial cartoon)

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Don’t forget the facts: Adjust the new SAT writing section to give accuracy more weight (editorial)


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