Table 1: RUNTK? (decoded for those that can’t read text messaging abbreviations: Are You in the Know?)
Online resource
How can it be used to promote literacy?
Blogs
Blogs are a great way to facilitate as well as generate discussion on any given topic. Blogs can be easily
monitored and student’s safety and identity protected.
Club Penguin
Children practice reading, develop keyboarding skills and participate in creative role playing. Students
can practice math and learn about money management.
A popular social networking site that originated in 2004. Its network-based structure makes it
significantly different from most other social network sites, which are based on a single open network
(Palfrey, 2008, p.346).
This is a great way to organize classroom photos. It is a safe way to share photos with your students
and parents.
Face Book
Flickr
Instant messaging
(IM)
Widely used among youth. This is real-time Internet communication via small pop-up windows with a
transcription of the conversation (Palfrey, 2008, p. 347).
MySpace
An interactive user-submitted network that allows friends to share personal profiles, blogs, groups,
photos, videos, and music internationally (Palfrey, 2008, p.347).
Search Engine
A service organizing a vast array of information available on the Internet into an ordered list based on
relevance to the keywords entered (Palfrey, 2008, p. 349). Popular sites include: Google, Yahoo,
Dogpile, AltaVista, Ask.com, Lycos, and HotBot.
Second Life
Inspired by the cyberpunk literary movement and gained attention from main stream media in 200607. It is a user-generated world where people can play, interact, do business, and communicate using
an avatar interface and a virtual currency (Palfrey, 2008, p. 350).
Skype
Skype communication offers free voice and video conferencing (Palfrey, 2008, p.350).
Texting
Check out these websites for texting abbreviations. Find out how students of the iGeneration are
communicating. http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp#k
http://www.txtdrop.com/abbreviations.php
Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read
other users' updates known as tweets.Micro-blogging is defined as a quick update usually containing a
very limited number of characters.
Webkinz
This site offers various contests that encourage writing, creativity, and problem-solving. Students will
also learn how to count and save money while learning about the responsibility of caring for a pet. This
is a great idea for a class pet.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia that is constantly evolving and can be edited by anyone. Great
resource for researching information.
You Tube
The most widely used video-sharing service in the world. Known for having an abundance of amateur
video recording and funny video clips, you can even leave video response for a specific video (Palfrey,
2008, p. 351). We also recommend Teacher Tube, which offers video-shared instructional strategies
and resources for your c