ETBS staff members are joined by Google Apps Guru and Guitar Hero, Adam Contois, of Palo Alto California. We discussed Google Mail implementation strategies, little known API tools, and enjoyed some electric and accoustic guitar throughout. As always, thanks to all who participated live in the chat.

We plan for NECC and a possible fall student show with Ben squared. See you in September. Happy Summer one and all!

Geek of the Week Links

Chat:

Lisa, Maria and Sheila talked about plans for upcoming NECC09. They shared advice for newbies and talked about sessions. The audio quality could be better so please bear with us.

Chat Log Below

Here's a couple of quotes from a MacArthur Spotlight that describes what you'll hear on this podcast:

On June 10th [the] editors of Teaching the New Writing, a new book from The National Writing Project, a MacArthur grantee. They discuss[ed] new directions in student composing as the boundaries between written, spoken, and visual blur and audiences expand.

Editors Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project ... address[ed] these and other questions in this podcast, drawing from insights and discoveries they made while writing their new book, Teaching the New Writing. The book pulls together teachers’ stories, practices, and examples of students’ creative and expository writing from online and multimedia projects such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and electronic poetry.

Jenna McWilliams (Indiana University) joined us in the chat room during the live webcast. She sparked a lot of lively conversation, and after the show, Jenna wrote a thoughtful revew of Teaching the New Writing:

The drive in these narratives is toward considering how new media technologies, and the accompanying valued mindsets, skillsets, and practices, change how we think about writing. Allison writes that "social networking technology allows us to ask the essential question: How do you get your work noticed online?" In "Senior Boards: Multimedia Presentations from Yearlong Research and Community-Based Culminating Project," Bryan Ripley Crandall describes his effort to shift senior project requirements to prepare learners for "writing for the real world":

[A]s an English teacher, I've had to adapt with new technology to keep up. I feel obligated to provide students the best technological resources I can because I recognize an online, digital life is what my students know and where they'll be in the future. Digital literacy is a growing expectation of higher education, employers, parents, and students.

Here, Crandall points to two key sentiments that run through Teaching the New Writing: That writing teachers recognize the need to integrate new media technologies and practices into their classrooms, and that they feel a little desperate at finding strategies for keeping up with the technological and cultural changes that give rise to this need.

See Jenna's entire Book review: Teaching the New Writing: Technology, change, and assessment in the 21st-century classroom

This podcast is the first of three Teachers Teaching Teachers shows this month that will focus on this book. On TTT#156 (June 17) and TTT#157 (June 24), we will have various authors from the different chapters of Teaching the New Writing on the show.

Join us for this podcast and the next two as well.

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast.

Join Bob and Cheryl while we interview Cynthia Curry, from Maine, as she leads us down the path using assistive technology tools in our classrooms as well as why we should all adopt Univeral Design for Learning as our best practice.

Here are the links from our Geek of the Week:

More importantly, here is the Chat which includes many more URLS from the participants in the chat room.

Matt, Cindy and Lorna traced their steps over the past school year. Highlights of the year were discussed and plans for next falls series were suggested by participants in the chat room.

Chat Log