21st Century Literacy

[Ann E Darling]

Recently I was asked to contribute a writing stategy that I use in the classroom to a faculty meeting. I knew that I wanted to highlight the work my students had done on wiki's blogs and now our classroom ning.

I also knew that being the art teacher put me on the fringe of credibility(dont worry its been going on for years) and I really wanted to find some research to back me up. My students were learning important things-not just 6 traits writing skills- this was bigger.

Finally I stumbled upon the National Council of Teachers of English who, in conjunction with 21st Century Learning had published a policy brief, resources and curriculum framework on TA DA....21st Century Literacy. Gotta Love those English Teachers.

What the policy brief was advocating was exactly what I knew was important for my students in my Multimedia and Art Classes. 21st Century Literacy is more than reading and writing but the whole idea of communications we know and understand from being denizens of the web 2.0 world. Yes wikis are important, yes students do learn from social networks like ning. Hooray for us, we are ahead of the curve this week.

Here are the links to this information if you haven't already seen this, I can't believe I didn't find this sooner but it will be important as I develop curriculum for some time to come.

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/21st...

http://www.ncte.org/governance/literacies


I am now running 2 nings for 2 classes, one for multimedia II and one for graphic design through w.n.c.c.
I really like using them and if you are considering taking the plunge, I would advise you to "go for it". Here are the links for our nings.
Multimedia II
Graphic Design at w.n.c.c.