NECC fall out and the swirling literacy storm!

I have been spending the past few weeks, a little busier than I have been, but still engaged in what has been going on around me. I presented at the GoogleIT CTAP sessions with Kathleen, Jerome and Cheryl, which was pretty awesome and I have blogged about recently and I have been working as the Summer School Principal at San Mateo High School.

I blogged last week that I was dissappointed that I could not be in Atlanta, but I think being here and reading what other's have written, including: David Warlick, Vicki Davis, Wesley Fryer, Will Richardson, Mark Wagner and Jeff Utecht has given me a satellite view of the brewing 'Redefining Literacy' storm that has been growing for some time. I have blogged on the topic myself several times, offered some of my suggestions and continued to follow the conversations from my own vantage point. I also received three EdTech magazines this week, all of which had articles about redefining literacy for the 21st Century.

So, the conversation is definitely at the forefront now, how does someone make sense of all of this?

I really liked the wiki Will created for his NECC session that deals with student's "9 - self's" and is definitely a step toward redefining literacy. The basic paradigm shift of changing from "handing it in" to "publish it" is really powerful since it has several under the surface issues that strengthen students responsibility for their own learning.

Wesley Fryer has also started a wiki project called 95 Theses. Borrowing from the list posted on the door at the church by Martin Luther in Wittenberg in 1517. The idea behind the site is to collect what are imperative skills for 'a new generation of learners.' There are actually only 8 theses listed at the present time, but I think the list will be populated soon. Projects like this, that elicit contributions from the group as a whole, have the potential to lead to an ongoing conversation about the skills necessary for students to contribute in a digital world.

Converge Magazine has an article in their current editon has an article about a North Carolina program where schools are using the 'IMPACT' model for technology integration and collaboration. Their 21st Century skills list includes: Digital-Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication and High Productivity.

Edutopia, in the June 2007 edition, Grace Rubenstein authored an article about an Indianapolis School District that has redefined literacy by creating 'seven literacies' for students to master. The model allows students to demonstrate their own learning by completing their own projects that meet each of the district literacy standards. Editor Jim Daly's note regarding "Bringing School into the Information Age" was also on target when speaking to new literacies.

I also want to bring up the work that Bailey and Ribble have done at Kansas State with Digital Citizenship. I feel like this part of the conversation doesn't get as much time as others, but it is a very important part of the process. The material this program has developed is an important part of the conversation.

Joyce Valenza also has a wiki for her 'information fluency' project. This wiki has the material she uses in presentations to groups. I just spoke to one of the librarians in our district that had attended the ALA conference that was going on at the same time as NECC and mentioned that Joyce had decided to attend NECC instead, the impact was not lost on the librarians. I really liked the movie trailer below on Joyce's site!



I think the best part of all of this is that the conversation has definitely started and it is starting in many different places with many different ways to look at the same set of issues. The conversation is going to make all of us richer from taking part in the exchange of ideas that is now occurring. I use the phrase that, "all of us are smarter than one of us" in many of the presentations I do, because I think it makes the point that together we can solve the issues we all face.