Digital technologies and the instructional contexts in which they are embedded can increase students' access to meaningful learning opportunities. Although there is a tradition of designing and integrating digital tools in secondary-grades project-based science instruction to enhance learners' access to disciplinary learning, the elementary grades…

Multimodal approaches to second-language learning can boost language proficiency (Ajayi, 2009) by providing foreign-language learners with greater exposure to the target language's culture, enabling multiple-literacy competencies in the target language, and appealing to students' learning preferences. This article aims to present a…

This brief explains what digital literacy skills are and why they are important. It describes what skills students need for digital literacy and provides tips for integrating digital literacy in the adult education classroom.

In this article, the author states: "It doesn't matter how many computer-related devices we have in school, what matters is how we employ technology toward a large learning goal, toward a new vision of education." She continues, "When I suggest the cultivation and integration of digital, media, and global literacies, I do so…

Young adolescents are immersed in 21st century literacies in their daily lives, and they bring into schools a level of appreciation and expertise that often goes untapped. This article presents an eighth-grade English classroom's experience with digital video composing and informal classroom drama as multimodal literacy practices. Students in this…

At a middle school, English language learners "beg" to take quizzes via iPod, engaging in interactive language arts exercises that seem more game than test. In a high school classroom, students write, videotape, and edit public service announcements, documentaries, and films. Students from the Seattle metropolitan area create stories via…

Literacy skills honed from reading books and writing papers has long been recognized as invaluable to building and sustaining intellect. Educators are charged with strengthening literacy programs, and they typically rely on conventional practices and increased time focusing on text-based media to do so, yet their efforts have not significantly…

Reading projects that integrate technology engage today's students and prepare them to be literate in the 21st century. In this article, we describe in detail successful podcasting and wiki projects conducted with NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated books. We also explore additional digital literacy projects that teachers can use in their literature…

Writing is a recursive and complex set of cognitive processes that can be taught effectively to students with disabilities. Employing an adapted cognitive theory of writing, a broad view of what constitutes evidence, and the support of a variety of assistive and internet-based technologies, we developed a writing instructional program to meet the…

Multiple states set coursework in content area literacy as a requirement for secondary teacher licensure. This paper discusses the author's Content Area Reading and Writing course at the University of Louisville, designed for secondary preservice teachers who are in a range of disciplines: secondary English, science, mathematics, foreign language,…