MCTE Conference

MCTE Conference October 5, 2007

9:00am – 10:00am

Keynote Address – Kathleen Blake Yancey

“Literacy, Technologies, and the 21^st Century: Where We Have Been, Are Now, and Are Going”

I found Kathleen Blake Yancey’s keynote address to be very interesting. I thought the presentation of two separate sideshows with key points was interesting, but I wish I would have known so I could have chosen better seats.

I liked that she had crowd involvement, beginning with having us discuss what literacy meant. I discussed this topic with other ENGL 4790/4800 students and we all had the same basic definition; literacy is the ability to read, write, and comprehend. We further elaborated upon what we meant until we came to a firm definition.

Yancey then asked us to define literacy in the 21^st century. I turned to my classmates and we came up with a list of ideas including, internet, television, radio. There are so many different aspects with technology that literacy has grown into a large interconnected web.

She discussed social networking which is an every day occurrence for me. I check-up on my facebook and myspace pages multiple times a day, never really considering their function as literacy tools. I think it might be interesting to create a facebook group about my class, within certain boundaries.

She also discussed the use of Pandora to create an online music collection. I thought this could be applied with a text to have each student create a soundtrack they think matches the text they read.

Yancey also brought up the terms digital native vs. digital immigrant. I consider myself a digital native, but with all the new developing technologies it won’t be long before I’m a new digital immigrant. Where will that leave the old digital immigrants?

10:10am – 11:00am

Session A – Dr. Jill VanAntwerp, Grand Valley State University

“Hanging on by your Fingernails until you gain a Toehold: Advice for Future Tachers from New Teachers”

To be honest I was disappointed with this session. I had hoped there would be a panel of educators to whom I could ask questions. Instead Dr. VanAntwerp had conducted a survey of 50 teachers from the Grand Rapids area. I felt let down. Most of the information I already knew, I felt my time would have been better spent elsewhere. The presentation was all on overheads, and it dragged on far longer than it should have. It was a good refresher on what to expect, but next time I’ll so something more constructive with my time.

11:10am-12:10pm

Session B – Melissa Brooks & Carrie Eade

“Creativity Meets Content Standards: Digital Storytelling in the Secondary Classroom”

Unfortunately this session encountered some technological issues and we were unable to see the clips they had wanted to show us. This is something to consider, because students using digital storytelling could encounter the same issues. Another thing to take into consideration is copyright issues. There are many things you have to cite and get permission for, that digital storytelling seems more of a hassle than a worthwhile project. Instead creating websites could be a good idea with digital media. I’m not sure I’ll be using digital storytelling in my classroom, but it is nice to get resources so I can do it if I wish.

Overall I had a good time at the MCTE conference. It was nice to hang out with my peers in the College of Education. For $25 I couldn’t have asked for more. I even got some amazing deals at the $1 teachers bookstore!