Over the past few months I have received a number of requests and interest from mom and schools about developing education technology and digital literacy workshops for parents. Therefore, I am delighted to invite you and any UAE moms to…

Mom 2.0 by Bon Education @ the Magrudy’s Education Resource Center

Children inhabit a world in which media plays an enormous part of their social and educational landscape, the Internet, cell phones, mobile devices, Facebook, Club Penguin, Twitter and more!

Mom 2.0 is a series of workshops aimed at helping moms understand the digital knowledge and skills their children must have in order to 1) be digitally literate, 2) be responsible consumers and producers of media, 3) interact safely online and 4) realize the amazing educational potential of education technology tools!

Join other moms at the Magrudy’s Education Resource Center (Dubai) in a series of fun and collaborative workshops that will build your technology skills, teach you about free digital tools for you and your children and save time and homework stress down the road!

We welcome you to our upcoming workshops (each workshop is offered twice and runs from 9am until 12pm):

• M01: Digital Tools for Homework Help (Dec. 6 & 15, 2009)
• M02: Blogging 101 (Nov. 24 & Dec. 9, 2009)
• M03: Developing Young Readers: Strategies & Technology Tools (Nov. 25 & Dec. 13, 2009)
• M04: Digital Literacy & Cyber Safety: What Kids and Parents Need to Know (Dec. 8 & 16, 2009)

For further information and to register click here. To download our brochure click:

Mom 2.0 by Bon Education Nov and Dec Brochure

Feel free to pass Mom 2.0 information along to your UAE mom friends!

Sincerely,

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

Thanks to tools like the WordPress analytics tool, Google Analytics and HootSuite I can gauge how many people visit my blog, website and Twitter feed, which sites refer the most readers, most popular posts, etc.

When it comes to referrals, I am eternally grateful to sites like  Web English Teacher, FreeReading, Reading Rockets and the Reading Tub (amongst many others) for continuing to send large amounts of traffic to this blog and for sharing so many wonderful posts and literacy resources themselves. It is so wonderful that from Dubai, I can connect with literacy-lovers from around the world!

Yesterday, I noticed two new referral sites that I thought I would share simply because their content was so useful to me!

The transliteracy sideshow above by librarian Bobbi Newman and featured on library professional Gena Hasket’s post on BlogHer is an excellent presentation to share with educators, learners, librarians and parents on the importance of transliteracy – the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media. Thanks Gena for recommending that readers think about and promote transliteracy. And, thank you for sending readers here to this blog!

I would also like to give a shout out to the American Association of School Librarians for including a link to this blog in the School Library Media Specialist’s Roll in Reading Toolkit. If you are looking for toolkits and advocacy materials for helping parents, teachers and others understand the importance of transliteracy, digital literacy, information literacy, etc., make sure to view all of the toolkits on the American Association of School Librarians’ site.

Thinking about transliteracy…

Anna

@bon_education

This morning I read, “The Digital Promise: Transforming Learning with Innovative Uses of Technology” by Jeanne Wellings and Michael H. Levine–a white paper that I highly recommend reading if you are looking for rationale to support the integration of technology and edtech PD within your school.

To summarize, the article points out that when technology is skillfully integrated into school curricula, the benefits are many:

• Technology supports student achievement. (ISTE 2008)
• Technology builds 21st century skills. (ISTE 2008)
• Technology engages students in learning and content creation. (America’s Digital Schools, 2006)
• Technology increases access to education, virtual communities, and expertise. (ISTE 2008)
• Technology fosters inclusion. (Apple Inc. 2009)
• Technology helps prevent dropouts. (Smink & Reimer, 2005)
• Technology facilitates differentiated instruction. (Apple Inc. 2009)
• Technology empowers learning and research in critical STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. (CEO Forum, 2001)
• Technology strengthens career and technical education. (Apple Inc. 2009)

And, if that is not enough to make you want to brush up your school technology plan, think about this and ask yourself how comfortable you are with media:

A Kaiser Family Foundation study, “Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds,” confirms the immersion of American children in contemporary media. The average child spends over six and a half hours per day engaged with various types of media,  television, movies, music, electronic games, and computers. Over one week this equates to a full-time job with a few hours of overtime (Rideout, Roberts, and Foehr, 2005).

Wow! To find specific examples of resources and innovative things you can do as an educator to promote student learning via creative and engaging uses of technology, check out the blue call-out boxes throughout the report!

For more practical and easy-to-read research on the impact of technology and digital media on children’s learning, visit the Joan Ganz Conney Center. You won’t be disappointed!

Anna

@bon_education

I just posted the blog entry below on the Curriki blog and suspect that the LIP community will find it of use as well. To see the original post, click here.

Recently on Twitter, I posted a link to “Copyright and Open Content: What do you know?”—a lesson by Curriki member Karen Fasimpaur. Not only did the link get RTed seemingly hundreds of times, but it also got a record number of clicks indicating that Internet Copyright is a topic of interest to members of the Curriki and edutweeter community alike.

As I am sure many of you have discovered in the past few years, being able to mix and mash digital content in new and interesting ways is a definite requisite of the 21^st Century. So, before you or your students post another report, blog or multimedia presentation online, make sure you know the answers to the following questions:

1) If you have drawn a picture, written a song, or taken a photo, you own the copyright (even if you don’t put a © symbol on it).

• True or false?

2) What do you have to do legally to use a copyrighted work in something you’re going to post to the Internet?

• Copy and paste it.
• Cite the source.
• Get the creator’s permission.
• Nothing

3) You can use any picture on the Internet legally in something you’re going to publish.

• True or false?

4) How long does copyright last?

• 10 years
• 50 years
• the life of the creator
• the life of the creator + 70 years

5) You can’t legally use anything copyrighted without contacting the creator and getting permission.

• True or false?

Check your answers here and check out Karen’s fabulously useful lesson on how to teach students about copyrights and open content here (assessment included!). Make sure to download this one-page overview of open licenses for future reference as well!

When it comes to Internet Copyright, it only takes a few minutes to learn your rights and responsibilities. Start learning now! And when you finish going through this lesson, click on over to the Creative Commons website to find a license for your next digital masterpiece!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Karen’s lesson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attributions 3.0 license.

Thanks Karen!

Anna

@bon_education

“I Love to Read” Image by Carlos Porto

I recently came across a fabulous article by Jim Burke on Reading Rockets titled, “103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading“. Given that I am about to lead several workshops on reading and digital literacy for parents at the Magrudy’s Education Resource Center, Jim’s article will surely be on my recommended reading list for moms and dads.

Upon clicking the above link, you will notice Jim’s article was originally written in 1998. While that might seem like ions ago to some, rest assured, the recommendations are still 100% relevant. That said, I thought it would be useful to create a supplement to Jim’s article that includes a few ideas on how recent software and web applications can be used to get kids excited and thinking about what they read Before/During/After a book!

Take a look at the ideas below and feel free to add your own in the comments section of this post!

“Postcard: Write to a friend, the author, or to a character about this book.”

• Select one student to be a character in the book you are reading and to write a blog post from that character’s point of view. Other students can then submit questions and ideas to the character via the comments section of the post. To learn how to set up a blog for this project, click here.

“Mapmaker: Draw a map of the book’s setting.”

• Have students create a Google Lit Trip–using Google Earth to document and map the settings within the book at hand. To learn how to use this tool, click here.

“Trailer: Movie previews always offer a quick sequence of the best moments that make us want to watch it – storyboard or narrate the scenes for your trailer. Focus on verbs.”

• Create a movie trailer in the form of a digital story using tools like VoiceThread or iMovie. For tips on how to get started, click here.

“Collage: Create an individual or class collage around themes or characters in the book.”

• Use Wordle to create a digital word collage around key themes, characters or vocabulary in the book.

“Draw! Translate chapters into storyboards and cartoons; draw the most important scene in the chapter and explain its importance and action.”

• Create a digital comic strip book summary using tools like Make Beliefs Comix.

“Dear Diary: Keep a diary as if you were a character in the story. Write down events that happen during the story and reflect on how they affected the character and why.”

• Have students create delightfully illustrated diary entries using the online collaborative storytelling tool Storybird.

“Haiku/Limerick: Create one about a character.”

• Use Twitter to share poems with parents and classmates.

“Notes and Quotes: Draw a line down the middle of the page. On one side write down important quotes, on the other comment on and analyze the quotes.”

• Create a collaborative “wiki-style” notes and quotes page using Google’s collaborative document tools. Feel free to host online book discussions using the live chat functions within the collaborative document applications.

Of course there is nothing wrong with a good ol’ fashion book review assignment, but why not share the reviews with other kids around the world? Check out the Spaghetti Book Club: Book Reviews By Kids For Kids.

Happy Reading!

Anna

Twitter: @bon_education

Website: Bon Education

Imagine if they didn’t.

And so goes the opening statement of the above documentary. I have to wonder what the dropout statistics are for India, Sri Lanka, the UAE…

Visit the homepage of the above documentary and you’ll learn:

This is the compelling question behind award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio’s newest project Ten9Eight, a thought provoking film which tells the inspirational stories of several inner city teens (of differing race, religion and ethnicity) from Harlem to Compton and all points in between, as they compete in an annual business plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

I hope this film makes it out of the States and to other countries that face the challenge of high dropouts, keeping schools relevant and keeping the classroom inspiring! As President Obama recently stated:

I am calling on our nation’s governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving & critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity.

To see where Ten9Eight is showing this fall, click here.

Just imagine…

Anna

@bon_education

I am in the process of planning a number of digital literacy workshops for parents across the UAE. In preparation for this, I am gathering a number of resources that parents can read and watch to gain a better understanding of the digital knowledge and skills students must have “to deal with our culture today,” “to function in the current media environment–with the Internet, with cellphones,” to be a responsible consumers and producers of media, to interact safely online, etc.

The video above (by Project New Media Literacies, MIT) is a nice one to pass along to parents, along with the International for Society for Technology in Education National Education Technology Standards for Students–A document that clearly bullets “What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world.”

When it comes to digital literacy, it is the collaborative responsibility of parents, educators and students to have a clear understanding of the amazing educational potential of the Internet and the associated responsibilities of being a digital citizen in the 21st century… As some might say, it takes a Digital Village!

Feel free to pass the above resources along and to share additional ones in the comments section of this post.

Sincerely,

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

Twitter: @bon_education

Recently I asked Bon Digital Learning Academy graduates and educators across the UAE what their favorite education technology tools and websites are. See what they had to say below:

1) Maram, Grade 9 English teacher, Nad Al Hamr School, Dubai, UAE

• Reading A-Z: “I like it because it supplies me with a lot of different kinds of leveled books, short stories, vocabulary, grammar, phonics and lesson plans. I let my students read stories related to the themes I teach and I use the worksheets and quizzes supplied on the website.”

2) Kim, Teacher Development Specialist, Shamsa Bint Majid Preparatory and Secondary School, Umm Al Quwain, UAE

• LearnEnglishKids (British Council): “I can easily find stories from this site for middle school students.  The stories are of different levels and cater to differentiation, which is really important since all our classes are of mixed abilities. These stories are animated and teachers can pause at any point to allow students to interact through questioning.  Moreover, students can read and hear the words being read at the same time. I normally use stories from here as a launching pad to teach new vocabulary items,grammar, LSRW skills and also visual literacy… The story on Eid Al Fitr … has a task where student can write about their favourite day and post their writing online.”

3) Rob, Instructional Leadership Coordinator, Al Deya Middle School, Umm Al Quwain, UAE.

• “My popular choice is, of course TEDtalks–a primo site with amazing material for teachers to listen to and learn from.  Much of it is far too difficult for our students (but perhaps the translations might help too.) I also like utilizing YouTube for material to take into class.  but we have to be careful, especially here with selection of ‘appropriate’ materials…As Chair of TESOL.org’s Social Responsibility Interest Section, I frequently post websites for my colleagues on our elist.  Two recently posted sites include Amazing Women Rock and ePals Team Earth.

4) Asma, Special Education Consultant, Dubai, UAE

• The International Reading Association and Read Write Think: “Both sites are loaded with information on how to promote, support and encourage literacy and reading across age groups.  They provide evidence-based practical tools for parents & teachers, lesson plans, and many more resources that are sure to be very helpful at home and in the classroom!”

5) Kevin, Grade 4 Primary Years Teacher/Education Consultant, GEMS World Academy/KDSL

• MyMaths.co.uk: “Mymaths provides educators and students with online mathematics games, tasks, and homework. I have used the variety of online lessons and games during math workshop to engage my learners and as a source of differentiation where students selected mymaths.co.uk for their learning contracts.”

6) Robin, Ph.D., Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Zayed University

• TeacherTube: “This site has a variety of features, from lesson plans to videos of classrooms at work.  I find the videos particularly helpful in letting student teachers see particular strategies in practice before they try them in their practicum classroom. The sight also includes a variety of podcasts.  Teachers can also contribute their own materials to share with educators around the globe.”

What are your favorite education websites? Share your thoughts and feedback in the comments section of this post! And, thanks to the educators above for sharing their favorite education websites with the Literacy is Priceless/Bon Education community!

Sincerely,

Anna

Founder, Bon Education (home of the Bon Digital Learning Academy)

NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 14: Nelly Furtado reads a book to a group of children during the Jumpstart Read for The Record 2009 launch event at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on September 14, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Jumpstart)

Today while reviewing the WordPress.com blog for the latest and greatest updates, I came across a post titled, “Free Access to Premium Images“… Wow! What a find!

Finding free high quality legal images for blog posts and websites can be a challenge, especially if you live in a part of the world where websites like Flickr are many times not available. That is why I often rely on my own images, free stock photos or WikiMedia Commons for images to spice up my writing and online blog reports.

Thanks to an update on the WordPress.com blog, I now have another source to rely on for high quality free and legal photos: PicApp. As the site About page states:

We have over 20 million premium images, editorial and creative, covering any imaginable category—from news, sports, to celebrity, travel fashion and more.

Our content partners include Getty Images, Corbis, Splash News, Pacific Coast News, Newscom, Image Source and more. We support the largest blog platforms: WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and more.

Eager to see what PicApp has to offer, this morning I created an account (which took only 10 seconds!) and started exploring for pictures of my favorite actors, topics and more. A quick search for “reading” revealed loads of photos of famous and not-so-famous people doing what we know is so important to do–reading!

Next time you are need of images that are legal to post on your blog/website, stop by PicApp! To see how to use site, watch the video below! To learn what you can and cannot do with the images, click here.

Anna

Twitter: @bon_education

Dear Literacy is Priceless Readers,

I am writing to inform you on that on Saturday October 10, 2009, educator Kevin Simpson and I will broadcast the TEDxDubai 2009 conference from the Twitter name @TEDxDubai. For those of you that are new to TED, here is a summary from the TED (HQ) website:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

If you’ve never visited the TED website nor witnessed a TEDTalk, I highly encourage you to drop what you are doing and take the next 20 minutes to listen to entrepreneurs like Bill Gates (TEDTalk: on mosquitos, malaria and education), comedians like Emily Levine (TEDTalk: theory of everything), MIT graduate students like David Merrill (TEDTalk: Siftables), and musicians like 11 year old violinist Sirena Huang (TEDTalk: live violin performance!) share with the world “ideas worth spreading”.

What I love about the TED website is that it harnesses the educational opportunities of the web to provide anyone and everyone free exposure to ideas from some of the world’s top scientists, creators, writers and more!

In order to inspire others, we must be inspired ourselves… Watch a TEDTalk and tune into @TEDxDubai on Saturday to hear ideas worth spreading!

Sincerely,

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

a.k.a. Official TEDxDubai Blogger/Tweeter (on 10.10.09)

P.S. Here are a couple of past Literacy is Priceless posts about education-focused TEDTalks:

• Once upon a school, one-on-one attention, and 100% inspiration
• How do you make a teacher great? (Gates on Education)

P.P.S. To see the line-up of TEDxDubaiTalks for Saturday, click here.