The school lives of students and educators have long been affected by technological changes, but the advent of digital technologies, from smartphones to social media, have amplified the effects on their daily lives. Unfortunately, school curricula rarely focus on critically examining our relationships with technologies. Daniel G. Krutka, Jacob…

An educational team founded by Seymour Papert at MIT has developed an evolving series of computing environments designed to facilitate computational thinking. Papert outlined the goal of developing educational environments to facilitate the use of computer as a computational object in a seminal publication, "Teaching Children Thinking"…

This article describes the implementation of blogging in ninth-grade pre-advanced placement language arts classes to support strong writing practices. In particular, the writing workshop's elements of student choice, continuing revision, discussion of craft, publication, and process orientation meshed well with digital composition. Blogging in the…

Composing with different modes--image, sound, video and the written word--to respond to and analyze literary and informational text helps students develop as readers and digital communicators. This article showcases five multimodal strategies for engaging children in rich literature-based learning using digital tools and Internet resources.

This article provides an overview of the Autobiography Project, listing the topics of the ten chapters and the targeted skills that accompany them. The authors discuss the purposes of each chapter and describe the methods incorporated to promote the four broad components of literacy. This unit also addresses almost all components of the Common…

This paper examines how virtual worlds and other advanced social media can be married with problem-based learning to encourage creativity and critical thinking in the English/Language Arts classroom, particularly for middle school, high school, and undergraduate college education. Virtual world experiences such as "Second Life," Jumpstart.com, and…

Wilhelm is a vocal advocate for the substantive integration of technology into language arts classes in ways that support the "critical" use of technologies and the learning of new concepts and procedures for reading and composing. He makes the case that no one can be considered fully literate without a familiarity with and appreciation for our…

In the authors' experience as teacher educators, many preservice teachers view literacy as a print-bound process. With multimodal literacy becoming more important as many states push for 21st-century learning standards, the authors are always looking for ways to help students break their concepts of literacy away from the printed page. As they…

In addition to building student knowledge and skills, educational strategies for all students should be aimed at increasing school engagement, motivation, and learner independence. Innovative technological tools, programs, and software can be used to promote student engagement, motivation, and ultimately enhance the quality of the learning…

This set of lessons is designed to be carried out in all of the subject-area classes. Science lessons are expanded and taught in social studies, math, and language arts classes. This highlights the far-reaching impact that science has on other worldviews. To complete this objective, you and your team of teachers must work together using the…

Conceptions of literacy in the secondary English language arts classroom today have expanded in multiple directions, moving far beyond former emphases on reading comprehension and writing ability. This article presents the efforts of two secondary English language arts teachers in the Midwestern United States to expand the meaning of literacy in…

What happens behind classroom doors--the content, experiences, and interactions with teachers that students encounter--is the "sine qua non" of student classroom learning. But everyone's inventory of instructional practices across different subjects and grades is limited; and the same can be said about everyone's knowledge of what makes for good…

Middle grades teachers should create meaningful learning activities involving stimulating literature and interesting composition prompts. This article describes a unit in which eighth graders read short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Using multiple learning and teaching approaches, they expanded their vocabularies, responded artistically to "The…

YouTube, the video sharing website that allows viewers to upload video content ranging from cute dog tricks to rare rock videos, also supports a lively community devoted to the performance of Shakespeare and Shakespearean adaptations. YouTube is also a popular site for student producers of Shakespeare performances, parodies, and other artistic…

A first glance into the classroom where Phillip Tillery teaches may leave visitors overwhelmed due by the array of high-tech equipment wired and ready for access by his students. Some students are working independently at computers while others are immersed in teams at a green screen and motion-capture setup. Various computer programs with myriad…