Journalism, English Teacher Conferences Incorporate Digital Media Lessons

11.19.09 | The National Council of Teachers of English kicks off its annual conference today in Philadelphia. This year’s theme is Once and Future Classics: Reading Between the Lines. A look at the full program is available here.

Educators interested in learning more about blogs, wikis and Ning community sites can visit the New Media Gallery all day on Friday. Sponsored by NCTE’s Commission on Media, the gallery will showcase teachers and students who are working with new media in innovative ways. Sessions are ongoing throughout the day, while presentations and installations will spotlight “teachers who are promoting critical literacy, while also expanding their repertoire of texts to include such new media as podcasting, blogging, videomaking, web publishing, and text messaging.”

Anyone interested in the conference discussions can follow along on Twitter (hashtag #ncte), or check in at the NCTE Ning community.

Documents at the NCTE website that may be of particular interest to educators using digital media in the classroom include a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education and Beliefs about Technology and the Preparation of English Teachers.

The conference comes on the heels of the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Washington, D.C., which featured dozens of digital media sessions, including Creative Commons and the Future of Sharing on the Web, Social Media and Sports Reporting and The Media World You Will Inherit. The conference blog includes all the student awards.

Jeff Stern and Jordan Michnoff, students at Ward Melville High School in New York, turned a camera on conference participants and produced this time lapse video, which was shot entirely in the elevator at the convention hotel. It’s a unique way to introduce some of the students and their hopes for the conference.