Hi ladies, Hope I'm not too late this evening for you to catch my comments. Life is stressing me out right now, too many hours driving back and forth to Central!!!

I'm so glad the text continues to mention thes "new literacies" and redefining them, I'm just not used to including them in my general vocabulary. My 4th graders have a very difficult time sorting through the options of sites to explore when they do a google search. This seems to be the most necessary new literacy for me to go over with them. (other than safety, but we have soooo many blocks at school there is minimal risk right now.) It takes alot of teacher time to show them how to defferential between useful and not needed sites. I have a parent volunteer on computer days so that is definately helpful.
I am rethinking my opinion about how and how much to use computers in the classroom since starting this class. I love the "publishing" opportunities, and the way we can find just about anything we want so immediately. We even had a conversation going with my cousin in New Jersey once when I was trying to to get Google Earth up and running so we could find places around the world. Some of those sites in our text seem to connect so well around the globe, it really is cool!
Kathy