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How to Infuse Digital Literacy Throughout the Curriculum

How to Infuse Digital Literacy Throughout the Curriculum
So how are we doing on the push to teach “digital literacy” across the K12 school spectrum? From my perspective as a school-based technology coach and history teacher, I’d say not as well as we might wish – in part because our traditional approach to curriculum and instruction wants to sort everything into its place. Digital literacy is defined as “the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate, and create information using a range of digital technologies.” This is often because most institutions already have rigorous, established curricula with little wiggle room – and this is especially true in schools subject to state and federal testing. Evaluating online content is a research skill Administrators often tell me they cannot meet new digital literacy requirements because they cannot add a “digital literacy” course or requirement. For example, when my students do research in US History, they are not only allowed but encouraged to use online content. Related:  digitalchrisn33

Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources - The New York Times Video and a related lesson plan from TEDEd. Update: Please also see our new, 2017 lesson, Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News _________ How do you know if something you read is true? Why should you care? We pose these questions this week in honor of News Engagement Day on Oct. 6, and try to answer them with resources from The Times as well as from Edutopia, the Center for News Literacy, TEDEd and the NewseumEd. Although we doubt we need to convince teachers that this skill is important, we like the way Peter Adams from the News Literacy Project frames it in a post for Edutopia. As he points out, every teacher is familiar with “digital natives” and the way they seem to have been born with the ability to use technology. Below, a roundup of tools, questions, activities and case studies we hope can help reduce this digital naïveté. Getting Started: What is News Literacy and Why Do You Need It? Video and a related lesson plan from TEDEd. 2.

Social Media in Education: Resource Roundup Creating Social Media Guidelines A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom, by Vicki Davis (2014) Davis, in the first half of a pro-and-con discussion about social media in the classroom, positions it as a vital life skill and provides 12 positive examples of classroom use. For the second half of the discussion, read this post by Ben Johnson: "Too Much Technology and Not Enough Learning?" The Digital Lives of Teens: What Time Is It? Now! by Matt Levinson (2013) In this first installment of his Digital Lives of Teens series, Levinson considers the problem of translating the teenage urgency of 'always on' into the mindfulness of 'being present.' Back to Top Student Engagement With Social Media Tweeting the Read-Aloud: Engaging and Motivating Readers, by Monica Burns (2014) Engage young readers by showing them the value of composing and sending tweets to authors whose books they've enjoyed during a read-aloud. Selecting Social-Media Tools Home, School, and Community Connections

How to Reinvent Project Based Learning to Be More Meaningful By Thom Markham This is a crucial time for education. Every system in every country is in the process of figuring out how to reboot education to teach skills, application, and attitude in addition to recall and understanding. That’s why so many educators are using the project based learning (PBL) model. However, it’s also time to reboot PBL. If PBL is to become a powerful, accepted model of instruction in the future, a vocabulary change may be in order — preferably to the term project based inquiry. 1. Infusing inquiry into the curriculum is the goal, so that instruction starts with questions rather than broadcasting content. First, think skills. Think strategically. Use PBL for entrepreneurial inquiry. Differentiate subjects. 2. It is impossible at this historical juncture to figure out how much students need to put into hard-wired long term memory versus how much information they simply download, pass through, and apply. Let go of theory. Analyze the project. Use direct instruction.

5 Dimensions Of Critical Digital Literacy: A Framework 5 Dimensions Of Critical Digital Literacy: A Framework Digital Literacy is increasingly important in an age where many students read as much on screens as they do from books. In fact, the very definition of many of these terms is changing as the overlap across media forms increases. Interactive eBooks can function like both long-form blogs and traditional books. This is the modern digital era. The above framework was developed by Juliet Hinrichsen and Antony Coombs at the University of Greenwich. The framework is minimalist in design, forgoing any kind of analysis of each dimension, or examples of how readers may use them, but that’s part of its charm: At a glance it refracts digital literacy rather succinctly. 5 Dimensions Of Digital Literacy 1. Focus: the media–modes, structures, and conventions of digital media 2. Focus: the reader–style, purpose, interpretation 3. Focus: the author–aesthetics, ethics, and related choices 4. 5.

Classroom Management and the Flipped Class Editor's Note:This post was co-authored by Aaron Sams, CEO of Sams Learning Designs, LLC and founding member of the Flipped Learning Network. Let's face it. We teachers spend far too much time and energy trying to keep students quiet so that they can listen to us. We have taken countless courses and workshops on classroom management in our careers, and it seems that the underpinning goal of classroom management is for teachers to keep kids quiet so that they can learn. Is there a better way to think about classroom management? What if the goal of class was for the students to actively engage in the content and participate in tangible ways in the learning process? Noise Is Good As we pioneered the flipped class, we got away from the front of the room and got a whole different perspective on what classroom management could look like. As we did this, the dynamics of the classroom dramatically changed. But, as with any change, we found some new challenges. 4 New Management Issues

Lowell Milken Center: Discovering Unsung Heroes Who Change The World There are eight steps to start the development of a project with the Lowell Milken Center: 1. Determine if you want to work with an individual or a group. 2. 3. A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. 4. A. B. C. 5. A. B. 6. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. E. 8. A. B. C. D. E. F. Contact our award winning Program Director, Megan Felt, for assistance in developing a project with project based learning. Digital Differentiation Technology is a tool that can be used to help teachers facilitate learning experiences that address the diverse learning needs of all students and help them develop 21st Century Skills. At it's most basic level, digital tools can be used to help students find, understand and use information. When combined with student-driven learning experiences fueled by Essential Questions offering flexible learning paths, it can be the ticket to success. Here is a closer look at three components of effectively using technology as a tool for digital differentiation. Note: The interactive graphics you see below have been updated. The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilitated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths. Essential Questions: Student-driven learning experiences should be driven by standards-based Essential Questions. Teacher Facilitated Learning Experiences:

Cyberbullying Toolkit An Anti-Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators This free toolkit has the resources schools need to take an effective stand against cyberbullying. Rely on it to start your year off right. Each occurrence of cyberbullying hurts students, disrupts classrooms, and impacts your school's culture and community. So how should you handle it? What are the right things to do and say? Even with the best, most proactive intentions to reduce the risks associated with cyberbullying, there will always be times where something does occur. Download our Cyberbullying Response Flowchart.Better understand how your school can activate student compassion to help stop cyberbullying with No Bully.Make sure your students have access to help when they need it the most with the Crisis Text Line Flyers. In partnership with No Bully We have highlighted our cyberbullying lessons for each grade level, along with giving you everything you need to teach engaging lessons for your classroom around this topic. Grades K-5 Lessons

Project-Based Learning PBL Institutes and 21C Conferences | PBL Trainers | PBL Videos | Study Tours and Site Visits | PBL Handbooks and Guides | Design Thinking in Schools K-12 Updated: January, 2017 The Autodesk Foundation deserves credit for bringing Project-Based Learning (PBL) to the attention of educators across the country during the 1990s. January 22, 2017: Two new papers on PBL Math by Jo Boaler. November 4, 2016: Does PBL hold back poor pupils in the UK? September 24, 2016: PBL in Chile. August 12, 2016: Elementary Math PBL: "Take Me On Vacation"! May 9, 2016: Mount Vernon Presbyterian School's (Atlanta, GA) Focus for Summer+ Learning 2016-17 - Project-Based Learning. March 19, 2016: Best PBL Videos. January 29, 2016: New PBL website from OCM BOCES features PBL Resources, Tools, Rubrics, Research, Videos, and more November 18, 2015: Updated Project Libraries Links includes Real Projects from the Innovation Unit (UK) and EL's Center for Student Work Featured PBL Video -- July 2014: II. PBL Research

Teaching Students to Effectively Use the Internet A search engine is essentially a database that points to Web sites and Internet resources. The search engine database is compiled by means of often called spiders, crawlers, or bots. These spiders, crawlers and bots are programmed to find web pages, follow all the links they contain and add any new information they find to the master database. It is important to remember that when you are using a search engine, you are not really searching the entire Internet, but a database of pages and resources from the Internet compiled by the bots. Once the information has been collected by the robot programs it is turned over to the search engine's indexing program. An helps to establish access points to the information collected by the robot programs and indicates these access points in the database. All of this information is presented to your by means of the search engine's , the actual web page you see when you enter your query. Search engines are only as smart as the questions you ask

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