Group items tagged

Social media has changed the way teenagers communicate and the way they consume information. There is understandably some concern about this, as teachers and parents worry that their children will experience cyber-bullying or become addicted to their mobile devices. While these concerns are reasonable, social media is like any other technological tool, and it can be used for good or bad. We show how teachers can integrate social media into the classroom to engage students in the learning process and train them to use digital technology in productive ways.

"Social media is a phrase we throw around a lot these days, often to describe what we post on sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and others. So you can infer that social media are web-based sites that allow people to interact with each other. "

A recent study by University College London (UCL) has suggested that heavy use of social media can cause lower levels of literacy in children. The study was based on 11,000 children tracked from their births in 2000 and has found that time spent on social media could be distracting children from reading and homework, thus having an adverse effect on their literacy.

"Two-thirds of parents in the U.S. say parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago, with many citing technologies - like social media or smartphones - as a reason"

The rise in popularity of social media platforms and apps has opened the door for storytellers to deliver their content in inventive ways that let them engage with the audience. Transmedia storytelling is becoming a way of life for many who create content, but the definition of the phrase isn't always clear. Basically, it's taking a single story and breaking it down into pieces that are delivered via varying and multiple media platforms. Those platforms can include websites, films, YouTube videos, Twitter accounts, apps, paper brochures - you name it. Ideally, each piece of the story should stand on its own while also feeding into a bigger picture.

"Digital stories are short multimedia presentations that combine a variety of communicative elements within a narrative structure. Media may include any combination of the following: text, images, video, audio, social media elements (like tweets), or interactive elements (like maps)." the site includes a range of examples.

Edutopia's collection of articles, videos, and other resources on internet safety, cyberbullying, digital responsibility, and media and digital literacy.

In an age where the majority of us get our news through social media, the rise of fake news sites, hoaxes and misinformation online is concerning, especially considering that many young people lack the skills necessary to judge the credibility of information they encounter online.

social_media, libraries, librarians,

Transliteracy might provide a unifying perspective on what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century. It is not a new behavior but has only been identified as a working concept since the Internet generated new ways of thinking about human communication. This article defines transliteracy as "the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks" and opens the debate with examples from history, orality, philosophy, literature, and ethnography.

This document contains links to tutorials, videos etc which aim to assist the students with basic skills in both the use of computer technology and learning skills. The ICT skills include applications such as word processing, podcasting, social media, web publishing, presentation software, blogging and communications. The learning skills range across a number of areas and have been selected from university websites which have tutorials in vary formats which may be of assistance to students.

Since digital reading is still in its infancy, for many adults it's hard to know exactly what the issues are-what's happening to a young brain when reading online? Should kids be reading more paper books, and why? Do other digital activities, like video games and social media apps, affect kids' ability to reach deep understanding when reading longer content, like books? And how do today's kids learn to toggle between paper and the screen?

"the social media dimensions of Web 2.0 coupled with the semantic dimensions of Web 3.0 are already providing a new context for information seeking, synthesis and analysis."

This free database is available to everyone anywhere in the world. It is especially useful for those working with children. Besides annotations for each of the 300+ books and hyperlinks to free teaching resources, we have included many different ways to find just the 'right' books. There are Australian curriculum links, the Early Years Learning Framework links, author, title, publisher, date, subject access and free text searching. You can find books in specific languages, books written and illustrated by children, or books by your favourite authors and illustrators, for example. You can share what you find with colleagues using social media links.

"What can we as teachers do to educate students about censoring books and help them to navigate a society in which they are allowed to access all kinds of social media platforms that often lead to psychologically damaging results while great literature is considered incendiary? "

A list of library blogs on Edublogs. These blogs are wonderful examples of what library blogs can be, and they will hopefully provide you with a little inspiration and a lot of good ideas.

23 Research Things is an online learning programme for university staff and graduate students, showcasing a range of digital tools that can support research activity. It originally ran from 24 March 2014 as a series of weekly blog posts but the site will remain active as a continuing resource and will be periodically updated. For ease of reference, here's the full contents of the programme.

Instagram is an excellent platform to practice digital communication and curation on a global scale. While a typical research project may be read and critiqued by teachers, peers, and parents, a series of thoughtfully curated Instagram posts have the potential to be discussed and praised by a much broader audience.

"This post unpacks 18 benefits of blogging for teachers and students. But first, let's explore why blogging has lasted while other tools have come and gone."