Beyond Essays: Web 2.1 and the World of the Multimedia Collage"

Stephen Downes provides a summary of a presentation given at the Fusion 2008 conference this week.

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2008/07/beyond-essays-web-21-and-world-of.html

The presentation makes the point of how students are using digital tools whether we bring them into the classroom or not. He moves onto the incorporation of literacies he terms, "Digital, Art, Oral, Written."

He says that the instructor role is still "guide on the side" and "not techno-magician."
He says he goes into the classroom and asks, "Who is using X or Y?" and incorporates that learner knowledge into possible assignments.

I agree. I think the question is to find out who is using what, along w/ the questions, "Will and how will that help your learning in this class?"

Not to be overlooked is the example of multimedia collage created with a beta application called
Glogster. I had hoped to embed it here directly, but the code just won't work:
http://seanfitzgerald.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/glogster-faces-of-edupunk/