Viewing? Presenting?

Evidence that the teaching of Enlgish is changing can be found with this rumor I heard last week. New York State's Ed department intends to add "viewing" and "presenting" to the well established ELA strands of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

If this is true Standard 1 will now read something like this: "Students will read, write, listen, speak, view and present for information and understanding."

Just what "view" and "present" mean and how "presenting" differs from "speaking" are two questions that immedately come to mind. I'm no expert, but clearly, this New York State's way of trying to bring technology into the English classroom. Or, to be more harsh about it, this is New York State's way to bring the 21st Century into the English classroom. My guess is that "viewing" has to do with actively watching non-print texts, and "presenting" probably means the ability of students to seemlessly incorporate technology into speches. Like a PowerPoint, or short film produced with Windows Movie Maker.

My hope is that New York is trying to go where the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has already gone. Take a look at these standards for English, written in 2004.
As one of my students would say, these standards are "off the hook." This is where we need to go as English teachers, in my opinion. Yes, the "sacred texts" are certainly important; I would never advocate doing away with literature, but we do need to think about what our role is in teaching students what Jim Burke and others have called "the world of discourse."