Blogs Digital Literacy, or the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, is an essential skill in the modern world. People need to be more than just tech savvy; they must also be able to leverage technology efficiently and responsibly.
We’ve put together a playlist showing how teachers are educating students on a number of different technology-related issues, including security, research, and etiquette.
1. Super Digital Citizen: What does it mean to be a digital citizen? How can you use the Internet safely, responsibly, and effectively? Mr. Pane’s lesson helps students answer these questions and more.
2. Exploring Copyrights and Wrongs: Explore how copyrights function. Teach students how to ethically use and cite others’ works in their own projects.
3. Improving Research Skills with Effective Keywords: Ms. Ramos has her class practice performing Internet searches by having them experiment with different combinations of words.
4. Using Critical Thinking to Find Trustworthy Websites: Ms. Koch’s middle schoolers learn to evaluate websites as potential sources of information. They then incorporate their research into a presentation, citing it as evidence.
5. Exploring the Concept of Online Privacy: Dr. Johnson makes Internet privacy real for her class by connecting it to their everyday lives. She provides students with a copy of the terms and conditions of a popular website, and has them draw their own conclusions about what right to privacy they have under these terms.
6. Understanding the Impact of Digital Footprints: Mr. Van Dyck talks about digital footprints, helping students understand how important it is to carefully curate what kind of information they make public on the Internet.
7. Overexposed: Sexting and Relationships: Ms. Pentland discusses the sensitive topic of sexting with a high school class, focusing on what constitutes sexting, and the negative consequences associated with this kind of virtual communication.
8. Teaching Email Etiquette: Ms. Jizba begins versing her elementary school students in digital literacy by having them draft a business email to their principal. This lesson can be scaffolded to older students as well, particularly as they prepare to apply for jobs or attend college.
