This article provides 12 tips for teachers to help make online teaching successful. Included are suggestions with examples, a scoring rubric for assessing student responses in threaded discussions, and examples of student comments. (Contains 1 figure.)

South Africa's higher education policies have opened up access to university for students from diverse backgrounds, with different learning styles, levels of motivation and levels of preparedness. This has necessitated a move from the lecture style of teaching to innovative teaching styles that engage the learners and equip them with skills to…

The digital world, much like any new or changing environment, demands an assessment of the situation and development of new ways of thinking or working. School librarians must, therefore, partner with other educators to identify and teach the digital literacy and inquiry skills that will enable all students to be effective digital learners.…

Wilhelm is a vocal advocate for the substantive integration of technology into language arts classes in ways that support the "critical" use of technologies and the learning of new concepts and procedures for reading and composing. He makes the case that no one can be considered fully literate without a familiarity with and appreciation for our…

Digital technology is providing a growing variety of methods for school leaders to connect with parents anywhere, anytime--a tactic mirroring how technology is used to engage students. Through Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, and text messages sent in multiple languages, school staff members are giving parents instant updates, news, and information…

In this article, the authors share how cloud-based applications, such as Google Calendar, Wikidot, Google Docs, Google Sites, YouTube, and Craigslist, played a big part in the success of their plan of implementing a technology training program for customers and employees. A few years ago the Denver Public Library, where the authors work, developed…

In this article, the author describes the Jazz Workshop, a unique blend of collaboration and constructivist learning using videoconferencing and Web 2.0 tools. Each summer it draws about 400 participants--mostly teachers, technology facilitators, teacher librarians, and videoconferencing coordinators--who convene in 20 locations across three…

Many low-income children do not have the opportunity to develop the computer skills necessary to succeed in our technological economy. Their only access to computers and the Internet--school, afterschool programs, and community organizations--is woefully inadequate. Educators must work to close this knowledge gap and to ensure that low-income…

New literacies are affecting the ways that we choose to spend our time in teaching and learning. In this article, Hagood describes the work of nine middle grades teachers' explorations of new literacies, including digital technologies and pop culture, and their implementations in their content area instruction. She also highlights some of the…

Many school library media specialists (LMS) would gladly pass along the responsibility of teaching online safety. Others may feel that it is the job of the computer lab personnel, the classroom teacher, or the parent. So how does the LMS fit into this scenario? While it is certainly appropriate for parents and classroom teachers to take joint…

Those who work in schools understand the demands placed on teachers in the face of mounting pressures from parents, administrators, and standardized tests. It would be foolish to assume these demands do not overshadow aspirations to remain current in educational technology trends and tools. That is why it is more important than ever for ed tech…

Stavros Demetriadis is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in Greece. He also earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master Diploma in Electronic Physics from AUTh. He became interested in information and communications technologies when he was a high school…

Reading and writing are being transformed by global changes in communication practices using new media technologies. This article introduces iPed, a research-based pedagogy that enables teachers to navigate innovative digital text production in the literacy classroom. The pedagogy was generated in the context of a longitudinal digital literacy…

Megan is a 14-year-old from Nebraska who just started ninth grade. She has her own digital camera, cell phone, Nintendo DS, and laptop, and one or more of these devices is usually by her side. Compared to the interactions and exploration she's engaged in at home, Megan finds the technology in her classroom falls a little flat. Most of the…

This article defines Twitter[TM]; outlines the features, affordances, and common uses; and conceptualizes "tweeting" as a literacy practice, comprising both traditional and new literacies, and impacting both informal and formal learning settings. Also provided is an overview of traditional and new literacies, and insights from a scan of the…