Digital Literacy Guru Bill Sheskey to Share Tips and Tools in New Jersey

by Elyse Hunter

When Bill Sheskey was a track and cross country coach he used to tell other coaches that the most important thing they could do for their student athletes was to create an environment where they could succeed.

Today his focus is on digital literacy instead of sports, but his message to principals and teachers is the same.

“How can we give students an opportunity to be successful? We live in the greatest time in the history of education … there are so many diverse ways for them to be successful, you kind of have to bring teachers to it sometimes,” he said. “It’s so easy because of our digital age now that we can do it outside of the classroom, too.”

Sheskey will be sharing methods for engaging both educators and students this December at the Curriculum Designers Conference on Upgrading the Curriculum for 21st Century Learners in New Jersey. He will address several topics of interest to both teachers and administrators, such as Creating Dynamic Presentations to Share the Mapping Process, Using Social Networking to Promote Learning Communities, Mapping Strategies for 21st Century Digital Literacy, and Mapping Curriculum to Connect with the Tech-Savvy Student.
With some students who are tech-savvy, writing a traditional essay just doesn’t interest them.

“There are students who are really smart but not achieving in school because they are bored with how the curriculum is delivered,” Sheskey said. “They are not responding to our traditional curriculum the way it’s mapped – we’ve got to change the way it’s mapped.”

As part of the discussion on Mapping Curriculum to Connect with the Tech-Savvy Student Sheskey will explore some of his fun, user-friendly Web 2.0 tools that have proven to be successful with students. Quizlet, for example, is a digital twist on the traditional flashcard format (“Quizlet eats flashcards for breakfast!” the site boasts). Jottit is a tool where students can easily post and share writing on the Web, and Sheskey describes WolframAlpha as a very “contemporary” math and science search engine.

“Anything that there is a statistic for, or a math or chemical equation, it solves it. Google can solve it, but WolframAlpha takes it to a whole other level. It’s crazy fun if you like statistics,” he said.

As educators connect with tech-savvy students they not only capture their attention, but they are able to embrace rather than fight against the average student’s constant use of technology.

“The great thing about all of these digital literacy tools is how much you can empower young people,” he said. “We’ve got to channel them in the right direction. We have huge issues with cell phones in schools. We’re not going to stop them from bringing them, so why not harness them and use it?”

In Sheskey’s session on Creating Dynamic Presentations for Sharing the Mapping Process he will focus on skills for people who are leading the mapping process in their organization. New and engaging methods of presenting are a must in an environment where the traditional conference lecture is no longer as effective as it once was.

“People have to be dynamic or else (listeners) will be on their smart phones or laptops. Whether it’s students or teachers at a conference, we’ve got to engage them with their devices,” he said.

Sheskey will show participants how to use motivating activities to get people to lead and share in the mapping process and then develop presentations to motivate others.

“It’s all about leadership, just getting people to work toward the common goal. You’ve got to create an environment where they want to do that, and that’s the tricky part but today we have access to so many tools to motivate students,” Sheskey said.

When it comes to promoting learning communities, social networking can be an effective tool. In Using Social Networking to Promote Learning Communities Sheskey will discuss Ning, one of the latest communication tools on the Web, and how it can help in the mapping process.

“Say you have 30 teachers in your school and you’re the leader of your mapping process, you set up the Ning page to get the curriculum mapping strategies out,” he said. “It’s just a simple and easy way to network people.”

Ning.com allows people to create their own social network on the Web, sort of a private Facebook.

“Because it’s so easy to use a lot of people are using it to connect their learning communities together,” Sheskey said.

Although in recent years Sheskey has connected with Heidi Hayes Jacobs on the topic of promoting digital literacy, it was when he attended one of Dr. Jacobs’ presentations for the first time that he first gained an appreciation for her work.

“Within the first five minutes she said the best teachers in the school are the coaches and music teachers,” says former coach Sheskey. Sheskey has worked with Dr. Jacobs ever since that day.