We Tell Stories! In a Million Ways!

Web 2.0 tools give use a multitude of ways to reach students with the love of reading and writing. Thanks to the Remote Access blog, I just learned about another excellent resource that you should take a look at for some terrific ideas.

The resource is a site posted by Penguin Books called "We Tell Stories." This site posted six stories, written by six different authors, using six different digital formats to engage you, the reader. Was I ever engaged! Take a look! Who could fail to be engaged in at least one of these formats?

My personal favorite is "The 21 Steps" which uses Google maps mashups to tell the story. I couldn't stop reading and following along! I went to London once, and it was such fun to recognize places I had seen.

Kudos to Penguin Books and these six authors for giving us such great ideas! Wouldn't it be fun to have students write and tell a story using Google maps? Or how about the design of the graphic story, "Hard Times?"

Have I engaged you yet? Quick - click and lose yourself in a story!
We Tell Stories

I Read Blocked Blogs!

The Internet world of many teachers I mentor at several different schools has been shaken up recently by the installation of “new and improved” school filtering systems. It is not the fault of these schools’ tech coordinators, who are struggling valiantly to unblock good resources and keep within the boundaries of the law while they are doing it. Rather, the schools have been sold services by vendors who seem to believe that the ‘read only’ web is easier to deal with in educational settings and do not understand the learning power of Web 2.0.

Tonight, trying to catch up on some blog reading of my own, I found there is a project that just recently started up to promote more informed use of school filtering systems. Using the slogan, “I Read Blocked Blogs”, a Wiki at: http://ad4dcss.wikispaces.com/I+read+blocked+blogs, and “Word of Web 2.0 Tools”, the word is spreading rapidly.

To quote the wiki site, “Read/Write Web resources provide valuable and necessary experience with 21st Century communication and collaboration tools, and we believe that it is in the best interests of our learners if we take the time to TEACH them how to use these tools appropriately, safely, effectively, and efficiently rather than just block their use altogether.”

I strongly concur! Help spread the word yourself! Follow the links from the wiki, check out the bloggers in my blogroll, many of whom are participating and are posting more information, and help us help learners everywhere! Filter intelligently and knowingly, and help all our learners become strong digital citizens.