Wrapping up....

Today's workshop was a whirlwind of exploring software tools, websites, and 21st century web 2.0 tools to support digital literacies. Please share your comments about the workshop, what you learned, or where you plan to go from here.

Thanks for joining us! Stay tuned for a few give-aways....

Writing websites

Engage students in writing with online activities and the chance to see their own work online.

Scholastic.com's Writing with Writers offers writing lessons on a variety of genres and the chance for kids to publish online.

Two poetry websites, Giggle Poetry, and Poetry for Kids, offer funny poems to read and rate, and lessons on writing from well-known poets.

East of the Web has short stories in a flavor for adults and kids. You can read and rate the stories and then comment on them. Comments are anonymous and published for all to see.

You could create an online publishing repository with Scribd. Since anyone can publish and there are all sorts of subjects, I would recommend creating a group for your professional contacts, students, or school. Then parents or other members of the community could read student's writing online.

Uses of blogs

There are many ways that blogs are used in education. Here are a few examples:

• Teachers using blogs - Bob Sprankle used his blog to write a poem using personification.

• Students using blogs - Bob Sprankle's students wrote their own poems on their blogs.

• Class blogs - Will Richardson's class used a blog to study a novel they were reading and the author joined in the discussion! - Another class writing blog

• Principals using blogs - Tim Lauer shares professional development thoughts with his staff and offers school updates.

How could you use blogs as a professional tool?

Supporting Writing

Tools to Support Writing

Prewriting and drafting

• Inspiration
• Draft:Builder
• Spelling supports
• MS Word
• Co-Writer
• WordQ
• Clicker 5
  

Notetaking

• SOLO
• Creating guided notes with MS Word

Editing and Revising

• MS Word editing supports
• Highlight text
• Using comments
• Track Changes

Presenting information

• PowerPoint
• Windows Movie Maker
• Microsoft Photo Story

Thoughts about using wikis

What did you think about the wiki-writing experience? Can you think of ways to use wikis professionally? For students?

Wikis

We'll discuss both student and teacher uses of wikis.

• Here's an example of a wiki as an online textbook.
• Here's an example of a wiki as a student collaborative writing project.

We'll use a wiki in a similar way. Form workgroups and collaborate on writing about supported text. The result will be a wiki with definitions and examples of supported text written by YOU.

You'll need to create an account at Wikispaces.com to get started. Once your account is set up, then go to the Supported Text Wiki and join.

Locating, Adapting and Storing Digital Text

Many resources for finding e-text can be found on the HIAT website. Links to support teaching are arranged by subject area. On the e-text page, you'll find links to books, poems, and fables. The best place to find e-text across topics is on the curriculum page.

Finding leveled text is important for differentiating reading material based on your students' level. Some subscription sites are netTrekker or SIRS Discoverer.

When you don't have text that is already leveled, you can use some tools to gauge readability. Try Okapi, Amazon's book statistics, or the stats you can see in MS Word when you run the spell checker.

Now that you have found some sites, you need a way to organize your links. There are many free online tools to do this, but we like Diigo.

• Our links in Diigo: http://groups.diigo.com/groups/CTGlinks
• Sign up for your own Diigo account

Sometimes it makes sense to save your e-text as a document that you can store and retrieve later. Create your own e-library, but be sure you know the basics about e-text formats!