Connected Learning
Panel Discussion: Making, Coding, Writing
Summary:
This keynote discussion from the Scratch @ MIT 2014 Conference, featuring Mitch Resnick (MIT/Scratch) interviewing Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (National Writing Project) and Dale Dougherty (Maker Education Initiative), emphasizes making, coding, and writing as deeply related modes of creating meaning and sharing it with the world.
How would we teach reading if our end goal was that people became strong, powerful, authoritative, engaged, participatory writers? If that was our goal, and then we saw reading, actually, the ability to access the knowledge of others as something that you do on the way to what you produce, would we think about both of them differently?
And I think there’s probably actually both on the coding and the making side this notion that if your real emphasis is not on the consumption side, but on what somebody will produce themselves or with their peers, we would shift a million things in teaching.
— Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, NWP Executive Director
Also Recommended
See all
Curriculum Rewired: Teachers and Students Come Together Around Innovative New Pedagogy
"Grinding New Lenses," a four-week summer camp supported by a MacArthur Foundation grant, combined intensive professional development in design thinking for teachers with their leading a program for sixty-five rising sixth- and seventh-grade Chicago area students that engaged them as game designers and digital storytellers. "The end result: students who learned to take on roles as proficient designers, philosophers, writers, and activists; teachers who become avid systems thinkers; and strong curricula that underwent a rapid process of iteration, innovation and refinement." This article and the related NWP Radio show offer inspiration for teacher leaders planning youth opportunities focused on developing students’ digital literacy.
Read more
Students as Writers and Composers: Workshopping in the Digital Age
In this collaborative conversation between former middle school teacher and current National Writing Project site director Troy Hicks and third-grade teacher Franki Sibberson, they consider a range of teaching and learning practices that “guide students to consider themselves multimodal text-makers who combine words, images, sounds,and gestures” as they compose. In the process, they consider key issues related to writing and technology, including redefining "text" and assessing digital writing. A link to the audio of their conversation is included.
Read more
Foster a "culture of creativity" with these 826 Digital Resources
This holiday season, explore curated lessons from 826 Digital that spark creativity in young writers and their teachers.
Read more