Teacher Magazine Articles on Digital Literacy

Below are a few articles from Teacher magazine on students and Digital Literacy - not just the reading and writing but the understanding and the knowing.  

It makes for some interesting reading - and I would bet my bottom dollar that a lot of adults would be in the same boat as well with very minimal deep reading skills. 

 It seems that, although we do our best to encourage students to read for pleasure, we rarely do the same for adults - and adults need to develop the same deep reading skills for all of the same reasons .. and, as is often said 'what you don't use, you lose!'

Although - to be fair .. just having someone READ, whatever they are reading - is seen as a win in today's world!  But then, if the skills are not being developed - can it really be a win? 

Take a few moments to check out the offerings below and hopefully there will be something to catch your interest. 

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/developing-literacy-skills-in-a-digital-world

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/critical-thinking-tools-the-crap-test

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/the-research-files-episode-25-why-young-people-are-easily-fooled-by-fake-news

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/developing-a-nation-of-innovative-thinkers

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/a-stem-program-to-develop-digital-literacy

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/adults-engaging-in-reading-for-pleasure

Weblinks on Digital Citzenship.

Would you call your students Digital Citizens?  Check out the weblink below and see what you think.  It's a possibility that even though they are constantly connected to technology, they don't actually have what it takes to be a digital citizen!

http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/blogs/libraries-and-learning/12-03/are-your-students-digital-citizens

As well, just as food for thought, I'm sharing these links that I came across that talk about Digital Citizenship including the 5 fluencies, Digital Etiquette and Digital Health and Well-Being.  Something to think about and maybe talk over with your students, especially the etiquette and the health and well-being ideas.

http://sbhera.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/the-five-fluencies-of-digital.html

http://sbhera.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/digital-health-and-wellbeing.html

http://sbhera.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/digital-etiquette.html

Have a wonderful day - and remember it''s Week 6 - only 4 more to go!

History and Holidays

I came across this on the Teacher Librarian listserv the other day and thought I would put up the link as it may catch someone's interest.

Some of the data was interesting in how things have changed over the years.  From the days of books chained to the shelves to todays mobile libraries being delivered on phones and computers which requires little effort, it is a whole new ball game out there.

Most of our work now isn't about guarding shelves of dusty tomes, as well as being decapitated and ripped to pieces on the steps of the library while defending it - but about finding, curating and providing access to all sorts of information.

I am not sure whether to be nostalgic or relieved......

http://librarysciencelist.com/libraries-of-the-future-visualization/

Wishing you all a safe and happy 4 week school holidays. 

Further musings on Digital Citizenship

Becoming a digital citizen and being a digital native is the way of the future. It can’t be stopped and it can’t slow down. The material world that we live in feels sometimes as though it fades into the background and we are communicating more and more via digital methods.

For those of us that are old enough to remember, the internet was something that you did research on and received information about a topic. You could basically look at the internet as a one way street; giving us information without giving us the means to return the favour. This was called Web 1.0. Today however, Web 2.0 is here and this is the natural habitat of the digital native. Within this habitat, the digital native has many tools that it needs to survive. These tools include: blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, ebay, twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Wikipedia, Skype, Photobucket, flickr and visual thesaurus, just to name a few.

Many of the tools that the digital native is competent with are also useful in an educational setting. What does this mean for the modern library and more importantly, for this particular library? Do we need to think about changing the way that we provide information to many of the digital natives (students) that we assist every day?

With the introduction of eBooks, iPads and media players, we already have a big fat foot plonked heavily into the digital world.

So where to now? We use facebook, ebay and many other Web 2.0 tools every day. Many of them could be utilised in schools to deliver information efficiently because of the collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0.

Although this all seems fine and dandy, there are a few complications. How do we control the flow of information so that it is still beneficial to our students learning? We have a duty of care with our students and it would be necessary to make sure that they are aware of online privacy laws and what that means for them. Do they know that you are not allowed to put up any one else’s photo without their permission, and what can they do if someone has done this to them? Do they know how to adjust the settings on Facebook or similar to block out unwanted people/comments? How do we moderate digital conversations so we know that students are safe from bullying in the library, the one place where students traditionally come to feel safe and secure at recess and lunch times?

Questions I think we need to ask ourselves/to ponder upon.........

·        Most of today's young people are comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately – or even capably?

• Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?
• What are our own personal standards / ethics, especially if we think we cannot be caught or seen?
• How can we, as adults, help children to become responsible digital citizens?

These are challenges that at some stage, every school library is going to have to face. To provide relevant information to students we need to be in tune with the ways in which they are comfortable with receiving, and in using it. Libraries have been doing this reasonably successfully since around 3 A.D, and this is just another step along the long road of information storage/retrieval and usage. We just keep changing our methods of doing this to suit the clientele we are working with.

The scary part of this ramble is that it sounds like I know what I am talking about – and I do, to some degree, but in actual fact, I am being a duck. Calm and unruffled on the surface – but paddling like crazy underneath, just to keep my head above water. The good bit is I don’t think I am alone – and that is comforting in a way – we can all keep paddling along together and learn from each other. After all, isn’t that what this digital and social world is all about – collaboration?

Digital citizenship and what it could mean.

Have you ever used the internet to comment on what you see online, share information about yourself or others, communicate with friends, play games, get material for an assignment or buy stuff? If you answered YES to any of these then you are a digital citizen.

According to Wikipedia:

"A digital citizen commonly refers to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology...through means of digital tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices...

People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use information technology extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication. Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, buys merchandise online, and/or participates in any [kind of] electronic function."

Using the above criteria, at face value, it would seem that most, if not all of us are digital citizens.  However, a discussion has been happening in the Library over the difference between digital citizen and digital native, terms which are often used interchangeably. The feeling in general here is that these are actually distinctly different terms.

One of the ideas put forth is that most students would be considered digital natives as they have been born into this era, where it is all there for them to access, they are not afraid of using the technology and have reasonably unrestricted access to it.  Depending on our ages many of the staff fit into the digital citizen term – or in some cases may even need to be ‘naturalised’ before fitting into this terminology.

Another comment made was that instead of digital citizen, maybe digital immigrant is a better term, with digital citizen being used to define someone who can manage their digital footprint safely and responsibly in our online world, and this is a comment that I can feel comfortable with.    

I cannot give you my own definition. This is because the definition is a collaboration of what many people think, not just one singular person coming up with the idea. Many websites split the population up even further. Digital toddlers, digital deniers and digital immigrants are some of my favourites. I don’t know how far I have to go until I earn my digital citizenship but I am excited about the places that it will take me (digitally of course!).