What Teacher's Don't (or Won't) Know

Greetings!

I spent the past three days at Westchester BOCES for some professional development; I'll be pioneering the Cambridge Pre-U GPR course in New York, so we've been hard at work learning the do's and don't's of the course. Anway, Cambridge requires the students to do a multimedia project pon a global issue as part of the assessment. The question arose about whether or not it's fair to criticize a student on his or her use of multimedia. If a student is unfamiliar with the use of digital tools, should it affect his or her grade?

Before I began to delve into the world of 21st Century Literacy, I thought that learning a "new tool" would be difficult. However, I have come to learn that digital tools are quite easy. When another teacher commented that he couldn't hold a student accountable for technology because he "couldn't even upload a picture from a camera," I tried to explain the ease of learning these "difficult tasks." It's scary to me that we, as educators, often dismiss digital technology as "too new" or "scary." If we're afraid new ways of thinking, then how can we implement new courses like Cambridge Pre-U?

Thoughts? Comments?


FYI: A link to the FAQ concerning Cambridge Pre-U for those who want to know more. http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/uppersec/preu/faqs

A New Blogging Adventure

This is a first for me--I've avoided the blogger's realm for far too long, mainly because I have no idea what to do with it. First and foremost, I'd like to figure out how to use a blog for my English classes this coming school year. However, since I'm new at this, I'm sure that my students will have had more experience with blogging than I have.

QUESTION: How can I incorporate a blog into an English class? Let me know what ideas you might have, and if you can, give me some instructions on how to set it up!