Living and Learning with New Media Report Released

The Digital Youth Research (digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu) group, a group of USC and Cal-Berkeley reseachers working with a MacArthur Foundation Grant, released their Living and Learning with New Media report. Included with in the release was a two page summary of their findings, a white paper report prepared for the MacArthur Foundation, and an online book (chapter by chapter links). The introduction to the white paper states: Digital media and online communication have become pervasive in the lives of youth in the United States. Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures […]

Life Magazine Photo Archive Hosted by Google

You can now access millions of photographs from the Life Magazine photo archives in a Google Image Search. Google, in partnership with Life has now made these photographs, many which have never been published available. You can access these images by either going to http://images.google.com/hosted/life or by adding “source:life” to any Google image search. These images are quality and can now be used for inclusion in many digital story-telling projects.

NCTE Creates Ning for Conference Collaboration

The National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference will be beginning in less than 24 hours. This year’s conference theme is Because Shift Happens: Teaching in the 21st Century. They have a great list of presenters which are scheduled to be participating in the conference in San Antonio. The better news is that I have heard of nearly all of them! To support the conference, a Ning has been created to allow those who attend the conference in person and those who are virtually attending have to opportunity to interact. They have set up discussion forums for people to […]

Learning by Observing

It is 4:30 a.m. and I am wide awake, with many idea fragments and thoughts running through my brain. I cannot sleep and have to capture these kernals and observations so that I can retrieve them for the daunting task which I am currently facing, which is to act as an unbiased mirror, reflecting and confirming the observations of another school. I am both excited and giddy about the intense process which I am currently undertaking and will be doing so for the next 96 hours. It provides for me an opportunity for  professional development which is enriching and exciting. […]

What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago, yesterday, began the the most challenging year in my life. My daughter was hospitalized for the third time in nine weeks, but we began to unravel the problems that she was having. Fast forward to this year. She is off on a school trip to the UK with a group of her classmates. The stresses we face are typical junior year stresses, not ones caused by medical issues. She is happy, completed a successful junior varsity volleyball season, and her academic acheivement is as high as it is ever been. We have had a number of opportunities […]