I am very happy to be working with educators in Tennessee. The only other time that I recall working in this very fine state was many years ago, presenting at an iEarn conference in Chattanooga, and most of the attendees had accents other than southern. So This is a special treat.
My keynote address is called Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century. It is based on the fact that the very nature of information has changed in just the last ten years. It has become increasingly:
- networked,
- digital, and
- overwhelming
These three fundamental characteristics of information lead to some fundamental changes in our notions of literacy. Certainly children should learn to read, perform arithmetic, and write. But there are additional skills needed by any 21st century citizens that are as basic and as critical as the ability to decode text, count and calculate, and write. This presentation seeks to make a case for what I call Contemporary Literacy.
I will also be doing a breakout session about Web 2.0. As the nature of information has changed over the past ten years, it has accelerated during the past two. The new web is characterized by increasing user participation in the information landscape, the readers influence over the content that they use, and the ease at which we can now connect with each other through our ideas.
This session will demonstrate a number of Web 2.0 tools, including blogging, podcasting, RSS, aggregators, and social bookmarks. Come see how I’m going to fit all of that in 😉
