The 3rd round of the Integrating Technology to Enhance Content in the Classroom (ITECC) started last Tuesday 1/31. The first assignment is due Monday 2/6 and the participants are posting responses to the Don Leu article Expanding New Literacies Conversation. For many of the teachers this is the first time they have heard the term New Literacies and the concept that there is a difference between reading off and online is new to many teachers.

It is heartening to read the discussion forum posts and learn that many teachers see that teaching New Literacies is important and even more important is that they learn what the New Literacies are. This course focuses on only one aspect of the New Literacies, Online Content Creation. We chose this topic because creating original content is not a skill that teachers or students are trained to do. The education system gives the teachers content in the form of a curriculum and they are to pass it along to the students. Many teachers do get creative in the way they deliver the content, but no one usually creates original content.

That is what we hope to have happen during this course. Teachers learning how to create original content and then allowing student to create their own. We are introducing digital tools that make it easy to create and share content.