Literacy Tools at LoneStar EduBloggerCon
I’m spending a chunk of the week in Austin for TCEA 2010, and today was the day for LoneStar EduBloggerCon. This is the first year for the “unconference” at TCEA. A nifty promotional video is here:
A great session was delivered by Scott Floyd, who is the technology curriculum specialist over at White Oak ISD in east Texas. He is an outspoken advocate on the state level for students and technology, and runs the influential ed tech blog, A Piece of My Mind.
Scott is a former literacy teacher, and technologies that facilitate and encourage student literacy are always fascinating to him. I sat in on a session he delivered on using blogging to encourage reading and writing with students.
The interesting thing about using blogging tools, WordPress in this case, for students in the classroom is the way their use resembles gaming. Students are charged with a task, often collaborating with one another in producing their product, and complete the “quest” together.
But when the product is published, deep concerns arise among teachers and students regarding errors in the text. So, Scott said, what’s a teacher to do? Should she let an error-riddled post go live on the Web, refuse to allow it to go online without student editing, or just edit it herself? Interestingly, the problem seems to resolve itself through the students, and more concern on “getting it right” is displayed by them when they realize everyone in the world can see their work.
Cool stuff. Anything that helps kids read and write more gets a thumbs up in my book. For more neat stuff on technology and student literacy, follow Scott Floyd on Twitter here.
Tags: EduBloggerCon, Scott Floyd
Educational Conferences, TCEA | John Rice | 
February 9, 2010 8:26 pm
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By Scott S. Floyd, April 12, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
Thanks for the kind words, John. It is an interesting thing to watch how students utilize these tools and leverage them for their own personal gain (learning, entertainment, communication, etc). They are not scared to mess them up. They realize how easy it is to just learn from their mistakes and start over in a better frame of things. If only our teachers were so easy to convince.