I enjoyed the article, videos and handout.  I liked that they put more focus on technology and being online for learning rather than written reports and the normal assignments.  I also believe that the world is using more and more technology and learning should focus on using technology more and more as well.  I actually have students produce movies, songs, videos and presentations instead take a pencil and paper test.  Students are so much more engaged in theri learning if they incorporate the things they love which is often through some sort of technology.  I also agree that they will be better communicators through the use of technology.  In many careers they would have to communicate through the use of technology and the internet.  The ethics on the internet is where I have heard the most issues in my school.  Plagiarism and innapropriate use has been an issue.  I also agree that through technology we can make learning more relevant.  Students learn better through experiences and creativity.

So, I find out on a daily basis, how much more I have to learn. Growing up, I was expected to read, study, write and take a test.  Whatever I got on that test, told my teachers and parents how smart I was.  I remember sitting in class and others always raising their hands asking, what does this have to do with me?...  Teachers responded the same usually.  "You will need to know how to do this at some point in your life."  The truth is, I didn't and don't need to know a ton of what I "memorized" through school. As I watched the video, I could relate to those students, students today.  As a teacher today, I realize that there is a huge burden on us to teach contemporary literacy.  Am I up to the challenge?
I hope so.  I can daydream about it all day, but in the end, it's up to me teaching myself an incredible amount of information so that I don't disappoint my students.  The article, The New Literacy said that "We live in a time when the very nature of information is changing."  There is no such thing as relying on my lesson plans from year to year if you know what I mean.  There are teachers in my school that use the exact same plans from year to year.  For years.  They don't change.  Its the same ole, same ole.  Read, write, test. Then forget about it.  Things have changed and keep changing.  Your lessons need to change too!
Contemporary literacy is the key to my future and our students futures.  I know that I have the burden to "Expose Knowledge" and teach them how to do that.  I have to teach them to employ that information, and express ideas, incorporating not only words, but images, sounds and videos into their writings.  I need to teach them respect for information.  This is a lot of work.  I feel that I am a digital immigrant, that wants very badly to be fluent in this confusing language!  
I want a classroom where students are teaching each other and I am there as a facilitator.  IDEO's Ten Tips for Creating a 21st-Century Classroom Experience might just have to be a new poster hanging in my classroom just to remind me everyday how I can be a better, stronger teacher.  I strongly agree with the tips, especially "Pull, don't push."  I teach in a low socioeconomic middle school.  I learned in a matter of weeks, that you cannot push at my school.  The only way to reach and teach, is to pull.  And following that, is relevance.  My students will not listen to me or anyone else, unless I can make it relevant to their lives, their lives, that I think about on a daily basis and worry about.  So, I wonder, will I be able to make learning relevant to them?  Will I be able to help them connect the knowledge that I give them to their every day lives and make something out of themselves?  I think that I better start working on becoming a "native" fast!

Mr. N-

My post is still on my page.  The one I just posted to you yesterday.  It was dates July 19.  A few days before it was due.

Thanks!