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An interesting discussion about the print phenomenon. Different sources from textbook publishers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say that young people still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning. This is a bias that surprises reading experts when the same group spend so much of the rest of their time on-line. "A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free."

"Photos For Class makes it easy for students to quickly find copyright-free images that are automatically cited upon download." This will be a useful tool for helping to teach my students about being good digital citizens and understaning more about cpoyright and creative commons licensing. I also want them to correctly to cite sources and in the easiest way.

Having the "same" text written for different levels of English comprehension can be a life-saver for a multi-level class of English Language Learners or for a teacher with a mainstream class that includes some students that are facing other challenges. They can be an important tool for differentiation. Listed here are a few sources where you can get these different versions other than creating them yourself.

An interesting article about the skills today's students need. "teaching students to find reliable sources, synthesize research findings and communicate results is more urgent than ever in a world where every blogger with a keyboard can pose as an expert."

""Tools and Materials" contains lists and examples of useful tools and resources in making activities and makerspaces, including suggestions for consumables, hardware, machines, open source software, and other technologies. This category also includes guidance or tutorials on specific tools or skills. The resources in the post are listed in alphabetical order, as a default. They are also organized into subcategories, accessible by the tabs at the top of the grid. When hovering over each box, keywords provide a simple description and glimpse into the content of the resource, which is accessible by clicking on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner."

"Teacher-librarians employ their unique expertise as they walk students through the learning library and demonstrate how to navigate databases and locate resources. They also sharpen research skills by helping students understand the validity of information and evaluate it by recognizing bias and persuasion in various sources. If teachers are open to it, the teacher-librarian can become a valuable support for teacher practice and student academic growth."

From the Australian Copyright Council. Factsheets that are a reliable source of copyright information

"Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. It can include copying and pasting text from a website into a project you're working on, or taking an idea from a book without including a citation to give credit to the book's author. Plagiarism is common, and the Internet has made it even more common. However, if you are careful to cite your sources it's not too difficult to avoid plagiarism."

"A good fact-checking site uses neutral wording, provides unbiased sources to support its claims and reliable links, says Frank Baker, author of Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom and creator of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse. He adds, "Readers should apply the same critical thinking/questioning to fact-check sites." This post offers an annotated list of 10 fact and bias-checking sites that can be shared with students. Here's a rundown of 10 of the top fact- and bias-checking sites to share with your students."

This useful infographic is based on the article and a link provided to a google doc, False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical "News" Sources, prepared by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College.

"These iPod-based audio broadcasts encompass a wide variety of subjects, such as entrepreneurship, politics, history, to entertaining series on serial killers. These downloadable series can be subscribed to, so you automatically get the next installment. However, podcasts can be utilized in the classroom, especially to promote literacy. By using podcasts in conjunction with their transcripts, or by finding engaging podcasts that discuss books benefit students' different learning styles. Podcasts bring together reading, writing, analysis, listening, language and many other ELA Common Core Standards (source). Here is a list of 10 podcasts that promote reading."

Checking news sources - US resource

This site (and app) offers a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult. Most tools will use AI technologies in the back-end to achieve their goals. Currently, this includes OpenAI's models. As the tools and backend improve, the intent is to move to an open-source alternative.

You can explore historical pictures and documents that have been digitized from the NYPL's collection. They are in the Public domain. You only need to click on the picture to access its page. You can download links on the right, The citation details are on the left, under the picture.

Australian history portraits

This page offers aan annotated list of web sitesthat you can use to help with citing Internet resources