Resources

What is project based learning?

Suzie describes what is project-based learning in a short 5 minute video from Common Sense Education.

The March Through Nashville project features Kimberly Head-Trotter of McKissack Middle School, in Nashville, TN, with her 6th grade ELA/History class. To see other videos of Gold Standard project based learning, go to this PBLWorks page.

How does project based learning and literacy provide opportunities for equity?

What is digital literacy?

What is Digital Literacy

Excerpt from Common Sense Media

Digital literacy is part of media literacy. They're both included in the idea of "information literacy," which is the ability to effectively find, identify, evaluate, and use information. Digital literacy specifically applies to media from the internet, smartphones, video games, and other nontraditional sources. Just as media literacy includes the ability to identify media and its messages and create media responsibly, digital literacy includes both nuts-and-bolts skills and ethical obligations...

Here are some key digital-literacy skills kids can learn at home and at school:

  • Searching effectively. From researching a school report to watching the latest music video, kids need to learn how to evaluate the quality, credibility, and validity of media and to give proper credit to the source.

  • Protecting their and others' private information online. With so many ways to share information, kids need to learn internet safety basics, such as creating strong passwords, using privacy settings, and respecting their friends' privacy.

  • Giving proper credit when using other people's work. In a world where anything can be copied, pasted, and even claimed as one's own, it's critical that kids learn to correctly cite sources.

  • Understanding digital footprints. What makes digital media so cool -- the ability to interact -- also creates tiny tracks across the web. Kids need to know that whenever they create a profile, post something, or comment on something, they're creating a composite profile potentially viewable by others.

  • Respecting each other's ideas and opinions. To be digitally literate, kids must understand that what makes the web an amazing place is that for this vast virtual world to function properly, we must all be good digital citizens.


Digital Literacy: An Evolving Definition

By Liana HeitinNovember 8, 2016Excerpt from Education Week

While the word "literacy" alone generally refers to reading and writing skills, when you tack on the word "digital" before it, the term encompasses much, much more.

Sure, reading and writing are still very much at the heart of digital literacy. But given the new and ever-changing ways we use technology to receive and communicate information, digital literacy also encompasses a broader range of skills—everything from reading on a Kindle to gauging the validity of a website or creating and sharing YouTube videos.

The term is so broad that some experts even stay away from it, preferring to speak more specifically about particular skills at the intersection of technology and literacy.

The American Library Association's digital-literacy task force offers this definition: "Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills."

More simply, Hiller Spires, a professor of literacy and technology at North Carolina State University, views digital literacy as having three buckets: 1) finding and consuming digital content; 2) creating digital content; and 3) communicating or sharing it.


Learning the Landscape of Digital Literacy

By CORY COLLINS KATE SHUSTERExcerpt from Teaching Tolerance

With a global library of resources at their fingertips, students and educators can research more broadly and deeply than ever before. Social platforms allow for personal and professional connections, regardless of location. Networks of people connected by a common cause have expanded the definition of activism and collective action. And though access to digital resources remains an important equity issue, information has never been more widespread, allowing many students and educators to reach beyond the limits presented by their locations, budgets or other circumstances.

But as the digital landscape becomes more complex and expansive, it is also becoming more difficult to navigate and easier to manipulate, as high-profile reports about the influence of “fake news” and Twitter bots reveal. The ability to navigate this landscape effectively without succumbing to the pitfalls of media manipulation requires a multi-faceted skill set often referred to under the umbrella term digital literacy.

Digital literacy is more than the ability to identify misinformation or avoid bad guys online; it means being able to participate meaningfully in online communities, interpret the changing digital landscape, and unlock the power of the internet for good. Digital literacy, in the modern United States, is fundamental to civic literacy.

Video and text excerpt below taken from Teaching Fact Vs. Fiction When Seeing Is No Longer Believing

by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren HudginsOctober 23, 2020 ISTE

Learning to recognize how our emotions can be used to manipulate our behavior is a skillset that will continue to serve our students as information consumers no matter how advanced the technology used to fool us becomes. That’s not to say, of course, that there aren’t some practical tips that can also aid our kids in identifying false or hoax video content. We think some important skills in this category include:

  1. Identifying a primary from a secondary source in a social media context.

  2. Determining the publication date vs. the posting date.

  3. Understanding perspective.

  4. Triangulate. Triangulate. Triangulate.

How can we help students develop their digital literacy?

What are some other resources for teaching information literacy skills?

(Excerpt form Help Students Become Savvy Media Consumers by Caitlin McLemore, ISTE) | Resources are active links.


How do I teach my kids about bias in the news?

(Excerpt form Common Sense Media)

  • Be aware. We parents try to be as objective and nondiscriminatory as possible, but even our non-verbal communication sends kids messages about our biases. Make sure you're sending kids the messages you really want them to get.

  • Reinforce what they're learning in school. Discovering the role bias has played in our history and currently plays in modern culture is part of school curriculum. Go over these lessons at home by discussing how people can develop bias and when -- and how -- it turns from an opinion into something oppressive.

  • Look at how different media cover the same story. Read or watch the same news story on sites that you know have ideological differences. Ask your kids to compare and contrast the different ways the story is presented.

  • Talk about perspectives. Where you grew up, when you grew up, what situations and experiences you were exposed to -- all of these inform your perspective and lead you to your preferences. Talk to kids about how and why people from different backgrounds could view a story differently.

  • Recognize your biases. We're not perfect; we're just parents. You don't have to eliminate all your biases to raise your kids. But do consider what kinds of ideas you're passing along and why.

  • Expose your kids to a variety of sources. Consuming news from only one source can lead to bias. It's good for kids to see a range of ideas, topics, and even story treatments. They are inheriting a world that's totally interconnected and need exposure to a range of coverage.


What are other literacy and digital literacy resources?

Literacy Integration (Blog Posts)

Digital Tools for Accessibility

Fact- and bias-checking sites

(Excerpt from ISTE's blog post, Top 10 sites to help students check their facts)

  • AllSides. While not a fact-checking site, AllSides curates stories from right, center and left-leaning media so that readers can easily compare how bias influences reporting on each topic.

  • Fact Check.This nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.

  • Media Matters.This nonprofit and self-described liberal-leaning research center monitors and corrects conservative misinformation in the media.

  • Truth or Fiction.This nonpartisan website where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, fake news, disinformation, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email.

  • Open Secrets.This nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit website run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks how much and where candidates get their money.

  • Politifact.This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”

  • ProPublica.This independent, nonprofit newsroom has won several Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 Prize for Explanatory Reporting. ProPublica produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

  • Snopes.This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.

  • The Sunlight Foundation.This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization uses public policy data-based journalism to make politics more transparent and accountable.

  • Washington Post Fact Checker.Although the Washington Post has a left-center bias, its checks are excellent and sourced. The bias shows up because they fact check conservative claims more than liberal ones.

Creation Tools

Additional Resources Mentioned During the Presentation