Use of 21st Century Literacy Skills in My Work

 Use of 21^st Century Literacy Skills in My Work

When I was writing online subject matter for KCDL, a company that produced curriculum in all middle and high school subjects, which has now been bought out by K-12, it was necessary to make the course-ware as interactive as possible and to make sure that there was variety in all aspects of the lessons.

One item that was in every course and grade level were interactive discussion Board questions, some much like the one in this class. I believe Discussion Board forums are part of every online course. It was necessary for at least one of our DB assignments to be an interactive one that either included a complex project or a research assignment in which students compared current events with something that was relevant in another time period.

Most of the interactive activities that were inserted were given as directions to the technology staff that created the material that I wanted in my lesson. There were click to learn activities, crossword puzzles, graphics

Here are some examples of what I designed:

<1.1 At top of page, insert image of a newspaper. (Title is: Your History, Then and Now) use newsprint. In bold headline print; “Gutenberg invents printing press, 1455.”

Insert a picture of Gutenberg and his printing press.

At top of page, insert image of a newspaper. (Title is: Your History, Then and Now) use newsprint. In bold headline print; Danger, Danger: The Spanish are Coming!! Insert image of Spanish Armada like those found at

<1.6 This is a graphic that will exist throughout all of the lessons with some slight variations.  There are a series of doors with doorknobs that open with a mouse click. Doors are labeled Door #1, Door #1, and Door #3. Sometimes there will be more or less doors.  When doorknobs are clicked on, the door opens to reveal information given in each lesson.  There is a teen-age boy and a teen-age girl and a teenage boy near the doors dressed in the clothes of the period or perhaps the clothes of teenagers today.. If possible they move to open the doors when the mouse is clicked on a doorknob.  Door #1 has a sign on it that reads, “Welcome!!! Open me first.”  Door # 2 says, “Did you know that…?”  Door #3 says, “There is more….”

. In lesson one: Words behind door number one: Imagine yourself getting off a ship after a long, cold, damp journey and seeing nothing but trees and land.  There are no buildings or other people in sight.  If you and the people with you are going to survive, you have to cut down trees to clear the land, cut the trees into shapes and pieces that will create buildings and furniture.  You will have to till the land, plant seeds, and hunt and fish for food. All of this will take at least a year if you are lucky. Do you wonder if this is an adventure or a bad dream?” Words behind door number two. “Millions of people like you and me walk on this planet everyday and never do anything so special that it gets our names in history books.  All the people in this history books, even though they are long dead, were special enough that you reading about them today. Words behind door number three. Would you have chosen to come to the New World if you knew how hard it would be, but if you knew that you would be one of the ones who survived and did something really important?  What important thing would you have wanted to do that made a difference in the world?

The difference between then and now that I am taking this course is that I could probably do the graphics myself and I expect to be working with sounds as well very soon.