Reading Review # 3

     When I last left this assignment, I was getting slightly overwhelmed with the amount of information and ideas for teaching students about digital citizenship and information literacy, as well as torn as to which of these topics I wished to explore further; for example, research skills versus online safety and ethics. I realized that although these are different facets of 21st century learning, they are certainly not mutually exclusive and can of course be taught alongside each other. For example, students need to be able to discern what is "real" as they attempt to research a topic, and that in turn spurs them to think critically about all of their activities on the web, whether it's for a research project for school or making an informed opinion about an issue before posting it on Facebook or Twitter for all to see.

     In that sense, I began to focus my research on teaching students what exactly digital citizenship is, as an introduction to the myriad of activities and exercises I found initially for my second blog post. Just as we teachers have to have a solid "why" for what we do, so too do students need a rationale for why they are learning something.

     For this particular focus, I started looking up different keywords and phrases, such "importance of digital citizenship" or "engaging students in digital citizenship." I love infographics and was looking for something simple that would be a good beginning to a discussion. Perhaps a good interactive assignment would be to get intermediate students to create their own infographic on what they believe is important in regards to digital citizenship and use them to teach the younger students.

    This article has some good suggestions on broaching the topic with the youngest students, such as starting by talking about respect and how the internet is a place to learn.  I loved the infographic, and was able to find it on another site through Pinterest (where I found even more great ideas for actual lessons.)

Photo Credit: 

http://thebookfairygoddess.blogspot.ca/2015/09/digital-citizenship-update.html

I also thought this one would appeal to intermediate students who might already have a device and use social media:

Photo Credit:

http://cohort21.com/blog/2014/02/04/guest-blogger-anthony-chuter-on-digital-citizenship/

      Overall, I found this inquiry to be very helpful, as I knew that I wanted to make teaching digital citizenship my focus for this year in the library but I wasn't quite sure where to start. I also found that many of the most practical resources appeared through more "informal" ways of searching, such as blogs, Twitter, Pinterest and simply networking with other TLs, rather than looking at academic articles through the UBC library.   Now that I have seen the multitude of ways that students can develop these skills, I feel more confident that I will be able to engage students and get them truly thinking about both their online presence and their ability to gather valid information.

Reading Review # 2 Literature Research and Data Collection

For this assignment, I had chosen to investigate the "access vs. ability" issue and look for resources on teaching elementary-aged students information literacy, critical thinking and digital citizenship skills. 

I began by searching some of the main blogs that I follow on the topic, as I find these to be the most practical in terms of providing links to things I can use right away with my students. 

Edutopia- Suggestions for online tools to teach "new" social skills

Edutopia- Teaching research skills to third-graders

Both of these posts, by Mary Beth Hertz, have practical suggestions for ways to introduce both social skills and research skills online to younger students. Since one of my main questions is how to effectively reach elementary-age students and engage them on the topic, I look forward to reading more posts by this author on what strategies worked for her. 

Edutopia- The Path to Digital Citizenship

This post also outlines some ways to start the conversation on digital citizenship with your students, which is an important first step before actually teaching it; students need to know what it is and why it is important. 

Edutopia is one of my top Twitter accounts to follow, as there are thousands of blog posts and articles on relevant and interesting ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. 

I soon realized that I could spend hours looking at different ideas just on Edutopia, but that is certainly encouraging for further research! After seeing how much great stuff is simply just online, I decided to open up my Delicious account (which I had forgotten about!) and start keeping track of the links I was finding. A bit of an "ah-ha!" moment as that is exactly what I have told students to do in the past- keep track of your links!

Link to my Delicious Page

Another blog that has been useful in the past is Richard Byrne's Free Teach for Teachers. He has numerous posts on ways to use online tools in the classroom. This one had a comprehensive list of resources for varying grade levels on teaching about ethical online behaviour:

 12 Good Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship. If you are searching for a similar topic, I would recommend this post!

Another resource that I hope to explore and possibly use this year is Passport to the Internet, an online tutorial for digital citizenship for grades 4-8. A colleague used it with all intermediate classes at her school and she said it was quite successful in getting kids thinking more about their online presence. 

Academic Journal Search:

I then spent some time searching for journal articles through UBC library, in order to get some literature on the "why" we teach digital citizenship and perhaps see some in-depth case studies.

• Young, D. (2014). A 21st-century model for teaching digital citizenship. Educational Horizons, 92(3), 9-12.

The author of this article teaches an entire course on digital citizenship and discusses the issue of students being digital natives but not necessarily skilled how to use these tools properly. She offers an outline of her course and some links to teaching ideas.  

Landreau, J. (2011). Research: Why wait till high school? introducing elementary students to research skills makes their learning more active and pays off by deepening and improving their abilities over time. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 55.

This article illustrates the benefits of starting to teach the research process as early as possible so that students are used to it and don't "dread" it by the time they reach high school. An article like this could certainly be used to encourage teachers to collaborate with the TL on that front. 

After this initial research session, I am seeing that my keywords are very broad- I have information literacy and research skills, in addition to digital citizenship and online safety. While these are all certainly connected, there are different issues related to both. I'll continue my research and see which aspects I lean toward investigating more...

Reading Review #1 LIBE 477B

     Students today are consistently bombarded with information everywhere they look. As teachers and teacher-librarians, I feel that it is a crucial part of our job to help students gain the skills they need to effectively navigate their way through various types of media in order to find what they are looking for. As I have discussed in other courses in this diploma, one of the main reasons I decided to enter the field of teacher-librarianship was the joy I felt in helping students become efficient researchers so that they can ultimately be self-directed, lifelong learners. Since that is essentially my goal when teaching any class or individual student, I am planning to explore the topics of information literacy and digital citizenship for this Reading Review. I am also delving into these areas further in LLED 462 for a Learning Curation project, so some of my research findings may overlap.  

Some key words and phrases that I will plan on researching for the next instalment will likely include:

Media literacy/Digital literacy/Information Literacy

Ethical online behavior

Digital natives

Critical thinking

                I already had these areas in mind for this assignment, but a statement in Why School really reiterated my beliefs and goals as a teacher-librarian: “Access doesn’t automatically come with an ability to use the Web well” (Loc. 171). Just because our students are digital natives and know how to use an iPhone and a computer from very early ages does not necessarily mean that they are using them efficiently, safely or ethically. The older our students get, the more complicated (and possibly dangerous) the web can really be, which is why I am hoping to use my position at the elementary level to try out some strategies to improve younger students’ skills in this area. I have also included critical thinking for a key phrase as well, as this is one of the most basic aspects of teaching students how to use the Web (or any kind of resource) properly. As I research these topics, I am hoping to find case studies and real, authentic exercises to use in the library with my students this year in order to improve their literacy skills and have success in the classroom. I also have a number of professional and pedagogical queries to explore, as much of my experience in teaching media literacy has been at the secondary level. For example, when and how does one start teaching these skills? How does one engage a kindergarten student who is just beginning to explore the world around him or her? How can I get more teachers on board? I’m sure I will end up having more questions than answers as I begin my research but I am looking forward to delving in!

References:

Richardson, Will (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere. Kindle Version. Retrieved from Amazon.ca