New Media & New Literacies

  Quizizz     Quizizz is a free, online learning website. This website is a lot like Kahoot or Blooket because it has students answer questions based on a topic that a teacher assigns. Teachers can create their own quizizz based on a topic or they can search for a pre-made quizizz. There are numerous quizizz that are already created that align with varying topics.      Quizizz just added a feature that allows you to upload a topic, standard, or document and it will generate a review quiz using AI. This feature is great to use when you are making a Quizizz to review for a test or review a certain standard students may need more practice with.  What students see:       Students will be given a question to answer. There are over 15 ways to format questions for variety and to best fit the question being asked.      As students answer questions correctly, they earn points. With their points they can earn power ups to help ...

  Seesaw :  Seesaw is a communication, learning tool geared toward elementary aged students. It allows direct communication between parents and teacher, parents and administrators, and teacher and students. Seesaw also provides learning tools and assessment features for teachers to assign to students. Lastly, it is an online digital portfolio of a student's school year, where both teacher and students can post work, pictures, and updates throughout the school year.  Seesaw provides a safe and secure place for teachers to effectively communicate with families. This is done in the messenger part of the app that is user friendly. Parents sign up through a QR code at the beginning of the year using their email. Message notifications are sent to seesaw directly as well as email. The easiest way for parents to engage with this program is through an app on their phone. Parents are also able to engage with this through a desktop computer. Students and teachers are able to post p...

    A topic that interests me is the use of digital literacy and digital resources in the elementary classroom to support literacy learning. I find this interesting as an educator that works with many students that are reading below grade level. I am interested in the idea of using different digital literacies available to students today to enhance my literacy instruction to support my students' needs, as well as teach them using more relevant resources. I am also very interested in using storytelling and drama/theatre education to support students' literacy education. I believe there is a way to combine both digital literacy and theatre education to help support students' literacy and digital skills in a modern age. The resources below center around digital literacy in early-intermediate childhood education.  Cahill, M., & Moore, J. (2017///Spring). A Sound History: Audiobooks Are Music to Children's Ears. Children & Libraries, 15 (1), 22-29. https://sunyem...

          This week I was very inspired by many of the articles. I particularly enjoyed reading the articles, Reframing the Medium, from Literacy Today, and Expanding Early childhood Literacy Curriculum through Play-Based Film-making and Popular Media. These articles go beyond students using technology in solitude and discuss ways to use technology to improve curriculum.  There are many opportunities that technology can provide for our students. The idea of using film and film-making in the classroom is one that is very interesting to me. I have a lot of struggling readers in my classroom that could benefit greatly from this switch in media to learn various standards. I love the idea of teaching storytelling and story elements both through paperback books and movies. (Hernandez, 2017). There are so many books that have been adapted into movies too, this could be an opportunity to watch some of those, and engage students through multiple mediums. Intr...