In Novemember at NCTE I headed into a session where PJ Haarsma, the author of The Softwire series, was presenting on Science Fiction and Gaming in the High School Classroom. I was hoping to have PJ sign his up and coming book The Softwire: Wormhole Pirates on Orbis 3. When I walked in, Jim Blasingame, [...]

Posted in NCTE, books, presentations, publications, technology, travel, video

In a session about the public profile as a literary genre. The presenter is talking about Facebook, and she mentioned it’s origins. I guess her son went to the Ivy league, so she truly knows where this all began. There are about 75-100 people in here, and I am concerned about the “random” public profiles [...]

Posted in NCTE, conferences, culture, presentations, technology

Students Generating online communities: How they teach us & how that shapes pedagogy by js Miller. (Check out her LBST 499 @ english.iup.edu/sjmiller)

Miller began by having us examine the spaces in which we inhabit. The room we were sitting in was very neutral and drab. Moving into her discussion, she began discussing how she sends [...]

Posted in NCTE, conferences, culture

The most exciting presenter I saw in the program is Marc Prensky, who has been writing and speaking on “Digital Natives” now for a few years. Some of my colleagues think he’s old hat, and I wondered what his topic would be today. He mentioned his most recent book called Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m [...]

Posted in NCTE, conferences, presentations, school, student2.0, teacher2.0, technology

In terms of 21st century literacies, in the next ten years we will see Increased Global Interaction, hyper localism, extreme diversity and increased out of school learning. In terms of diversity, it’s not just race anymore. It’s play out in age, gender, and even extreme religious views on education. Dale Allender’s, the director of NCTE-West, [...]

Posted in NCTE, conferences, curriculum