Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

I believe this document is important for educators, parents and other educational stakeholders to read through.  It presents important matters in relation to implementing digital and media literacy into the K-12 curriculum.  The plan explains the term literacy and how its meaning has expanded due to technological advancements that are fast-paced and a necessity to keep up with.  Not only does it give the positive implications of integration but also touches upon the challenges such as addressing the potential risks associated and expanding the basic concept of literacy.

The report outlines the different means available that would allow the integration of media and digital literacy into the world of education such as through parents, educators, students and the community as a whole.  It stresses the importance and benefits of bringing appropriate knowledge and understanding of media and digital literacy into the classroom and educational world.

Teaching for Tomorrow

I would highly recommend this book to all future educators.  Our world is changing at a fast-pace and education is changing just as quickly.  It is beneficial for all educators to stay on top of these changes and advancements and understand and apply the concept of a "complete" or progressive education.

As I was skimming through the chapters it reminded me of many of the themes and ideas I learned about in my Philosophy of Education course last semester.  John Dewey is a strong supporter of a progressive education and the elements described in this book surrounding a "complete" education correlate to Dewey's beliefs surrounding a progressive education system.  The education system needs to extend beyond the traditional beliefs and prepare our students for the real-world such as leaning how to problem solve and understand real world scenarios, not simply material that comes from the textbook.  I feel this is a valuable book that can help current and future teachers understand the value of incorporating a new style of education and teaching into the classroom.

New Agendas in Communication

New Agendas in Communication is a part of a series of media education and communication books.  Media literacy has become a fast paced movement in not only education but business and medical fields.  It amazes me how quickly the media literacy movement has grown and advanced over the past couple of years.

Media literacy is broadly defined as media education for students and youth, but the concept has expanded to adults, educators and businesses.  In today's fast-paced society, it is beneficial to have a strong understanding of media literacy and its many advantages.  Particularly, it is important as educators to gain an understanding of media literacy and what it means and how we can apply it both inside and outside the classroom.

This volume provides scholarly data from various contributors in the world of media literacy, along with classroom examples and activities using media literacy.  It is important to expose this concept to our students, especially at a young age, after all, they are the leaders of our future.  This book is a valuable tool for educators to refer to practices, lessons and ways to incorporate media literacy into the curriculum and the educational classroom.

Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom

This book provides a wealth of information for all educators and their students.  Each chapter contains ideas, incite, lessons and experiences from teachers who have practiced Web 2.0 in their classrooms.  I think this is a tool all teachers should utilize in their classrooms because it shares a variety of ways to bring the web into the classroom.  After all, our students are hooked on their technological devices, the internet, social platforms and more and if we can find a way to connect their interests to teaching in the classroom, this is an excellent way to get the students engaged and interested in the material.

The book provides unit plans, activities, rubrics and breaks down into different subjects and grade level appropriate activities.  I see myself referring to this textbook in my future lesson planning as a Spanish teacher.  It will be a beneficial tool to have in creating lesson plans and activities for my students.  However, I have to keep in mind the fast paced changes in technology and how quickly one idea can be mastered by a more innovative and advanced technique or approach.

Web Literacy for Educators

This is an excellent book for all pre-service, current and future educators to read.  It is an excellent resource that provides an elaborate explanation of web literacy and includes a variety of activities, lessons, assessments, exercises and tips for educators.  Web literacy is a term that is becoming a buzz word in education and it is beneficial for educators to understand what it means and the implications it has for the world of education. 

The chapters are organized in a way that allow the reader to ease in to the world of web literacy.  Each chapter includes hands-on, interactive activities for students and teachers that allow them to practice and explore the different aspects of web literacy both in the classroom and individually.  The internet is a major information resource for students of all ages and it is important that as educators we teach our students how to properly "surf" the internet and become web literate.

Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and New Media

I strongly believe this is a valuable book for all educators, both current and pre-service to read.  This book serves as a great introduction for all secondary education teachers to the students they will be teaching and working with both now and in their future careers.  The new generation is highly tech savvy and almost completely digital and it is important for us to keep-up with the changes in order to find new ways to innovate in the classroom and use these tools to teach in the classroom.

The book not only explains the "digital generation", but connects their practices to schooling and education, as well as explains the reasoning and debate among gaming, the internet and other media-type innovations.  Our students are fully immersed in top-technology, web-related and media advancements and it is part of our job as educators to be aware and keep up with these trends.  Afterall, one of the most important things a teacher needs to accomplish is getting to know each and every one of their students; and this book is a great starting point.

The Socially Networked Classroom

As a future middle-school Spanish teacher, I found this book useful in terms of lessons, activities and projects. Aside the vast amount of technology information and terms I learned throughout the book, I enjoyed the presentation of new lesson plans, activities and classroom tasks that I could incorporate into my own classroom planning one day.  I also found the book to be a beneficial resource for all teachers to skim through in order to learn new terms and social networking resources.  Many of the activities were aimed for use by English teachers such as having students create poems, analyze films and create reading and writing portfolios, however they can be implemented and adjusted to work in the foreign language classroom as well.