Digital Literacy-How to teach it?

2/18/2018

"Given your already full curriculum, how will you begin to teach digital literacy?" This is a question that is something I have been asking myself since the first day of the school year. According to Common Sense Media, digital literacy is the ability to find, identify, evaluate, and use information using media sources, including the internet and other digital tools. Common Sense Media lays out five key skills students should learn from home and school:

Searching effectively
Protecting their and others' private information.
Giving proper credit when using other people's work.
Understanding digital footprints.
Respecting each other's ideas and opinions.

I feel being a second grade teacher I should only focus on a couple of these, such as searching effectively and respecting each other's ideas and opinions. In second grade we work a lot on respect and respecting others. I feel that would be a great place to start. It ties in with what I am already teaching them. So something I might do is to include a Common Sense Media lesson at the beginning of the year when we are discussing ways we should behave in class. Incorporating it with the way we act everyday might help students understand that the way we act in class we should be acting on the computer too. I feel that would be one of the easiest ones to incorporate into my classroom. Also, we just completed a research on polar animals and next time we do a research project I can have students use the internet to research information about the topic. I will need to explain the correct websites to use and help them write things in their own words instead of coping straight from the internet. I think teaching students about digital literacy can be done if I tie it in with things that I am already doing in class.

9 Comments

Jane Gallagher

2/18/2018 06:07:40 pm

I like that you acknowledge digital literacy need not be everything, everyday. Your ideas on where to incorporate lessons makes sense and would be very doable. The five points you mention make me wonder what your 2nd graders 1st grade teacher may or may not have touched on regarding digital literacy. Maybe not all five need to be taught each year. Rather review what has been previously taught and then focus on the next one. This is likely the ideal that needs time to happen.

Emily Feil

2/18/2018 06:52:23 pm

I love that you have identified ways that digital literacy fits into what you are already teaching, instead of having to find time to teach "one more thing." This feels so manageable. When you are ready for your next research project, don't forget the power of modeling. Before your students are ready to do their own internet research, you can do some whole class practice runs, where students watch as you think aloud through the process of evaluating the credibility of a website. Then you can use shared writing to create a summary in your (plural) own words.

Shawn

2/19/2018 08:36:31 am

I agree digital literacy is so important to teach our students! I too have younger students and found teaching digital literacy embedded with another lesson to be most effective. It takes the "one more thing" out of it and it seems much more manageable. Just like with anything we teach it has to be age appropriate and the 5 points you have chosen are a great place to start.

Madeleine O'Rear

2/19/2018 08:54:57 am

Hi Alicia,

I really like how you talked about restricting the number of digital literacy skills you are going to address at once. I know I have a tendency to want to try out every new thing we hear about in class and then get overwhelmed with everything I've put on my plate. I also really liked how you connected a digital literacy lesson to a social emotional learning lesson. I have also noticed that these two topics often seem to go well with each other. I have found this to be really useful because in the past I have struggled with feeling like my social emotional learning lessons were really impacting my students

Scott Marsden

2/19/2018 01:26:20 pm

Alicia,
I agree that in becoming innovative educators we have to avoid the "one more thing" burnout train. The solution, as you and the commentators realize, is to embed digital literacy into your existing lessons and projects. This integration requires more thought than a simple "plug and play" lesson from Common Sense Media, but it arguably is more powerful.

helen

2/19/2018 01:27:30 pm

I really like how you summarized the five key skills. I too require an animal report. Your blog reminds me how I might work with the second grade teachers and spiral and reinforce the use of digital literacy expectations and the units we teach that are so similar to second grade.

Christina Schreiber

2/19/2018 01:31:57 pm

I agree with a lot of the previous commenters. I think that incorporating how to treat other students respectfully online and offline is a great way to tie in those skills. I also agree that as teachers we should not feel like we are shoehorning in one more thing into our already demanding workload of curriculum to teach.

Mayra Cindy De la Torre

2/20/2018 11:33:14 am

I completely agree with you we should plug in digital literacy in where it fits with our current curriculum. I also thought the beginning of the school year would be a great time to introduce a lot of these topics. I teach 3rd grade and I start my year with a packet about all the different types of bullying and this would be a great place to introduce cyber bullying and how to be safe while on line. I love your idea of only focusing on a few items taking your grade level into account. If we try to cram up everything students might get overload.

Teresa Barron

2/21/2018 12:37:27 am

Alicia, I share your idea about trying to incorporate digital literacy lessons where we can in the curriculum we must already teach. I think selecting only a few topics to focus on id a fantastic idea, especially taking into account that they are second graders. I have come up with the same conclusion since I service students in k-third grade. Just like we, as teachers can become overwhelmed with most things to do, our students run the same risk if we do not take into account their grade level and the added amount of information we are asking them to process when we bring digital citizenship lessons to the table.

EDUC 702

Digital Literacy-How to teach it?

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