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Hi this is Tania Kim and today I'll be sharing some ideas on Promoting Digital Literacy in
Middle School Digital literacy can be defined as using digital
technology communication tools and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create,
and communicate information in order to function in knowledge societies.
In order to foster digital literacy students need to learn how to access information effectively.
To this end we need to teach how search engines work, how to conduct deep search and use operands
to middle school children or even younger. Engaging students with Google a Day puzzlers
or creating scavenger hunts is a good way to sharpen their search skills.
Once students know how to conduct effective searches, they need to learn to manage the
information. The use of applications or services such as Pinterest, pocket or blendspace can
be integrated into research projects. There is no better way to teach this than to have
students see its value in action. Once students have conducted a search and
have a way to manage the data and resources, they must now integrate it, or put it together
in a way that makes sense. Collaboration tools can help kids achieve this, sharing Google
docs to have other people's expertise and opinion as the information comes together
and takes shape in the student project. Kids can also use canvases or boards to integrate
information into their argument or as they come to their own conclusions.
Of course, there is lots of information and many resources out there, and in order for
students to learn, they need to also be able to evaluate the information they have mined.
How do they know the information is reliable and trustworthy. Kids can be exposed to website
verification techniques; such as REAL or RADCAB. They can also learn how to look at a website's
history and ownership. A simple exercise after introducing students to these techniques is
to have them evaluate a series of digital resources as "trustworthy or not".
Students have by this point in their research project accessed, managed, integrated and
evaluated the information. They are ready to create. Here there are many options and
tools, presenting a few tools to the class and allowing students to choose is a great
way to go. You may want to limit the options for younger students, or introduce only a
couple to tools at a time. Students can put together Prezi presentations, blendspace canvases,
powerpoint, they can create screencasts, a cartoon or a podcast, just to name a few.
Keep in mind the teacher will have to provide background information on how to create these
projects. It may be worth the instructor's time to slowly build a library of tutorials
and make them available to students on a website or through a learning management system.
Finally students are ready to communicate their ideas. The middle school student is
quite capable of creating great projects using digital tools, but like any good idea, it
is not worth much if it is not shared. Students need to communicate effectively. This can
of course be a live presentation of their digitally created project, or a showing of
their project online or through YouTube. It can be communicated as a Fakebook page of
a famous historical or scientific person, or what their tweets might have been at critical
times in history or as discoveries were made. The point here bring students need to realize
that creating something great, and not communicating it, is like finding the cure to a disease
and not letting anyone else know. Students will need to be taught how to upload files
or create podcasts with their audio files while being mindful of copyright laws. Many
middle school students want to use favorite songs and music in their presentations not
realizing they cannot do this. Promoting digital literacies in middle school
can be a daunting task, but remember it doesn't have to happen all at once. It can be presented
as separate skills and reinforced along the way with small assignments and projects. All
elements of digital literacy fit well with any research project, and while ultimately
we want our students to use them all, it is OK to focus on a single or a couple elements
of digital literacy per project. As students work from project to project and through small
assignments, they are still gaining the skills that will enable them to be not just consumers
of digital media and resources but true digital citizens. I encourage you to give this a try.
Thank you.