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"How can we, as parents, educators and leaders, prepare our children for the digital age? Without a doubt, it is critical for us to equip them with digital intelligence. The digital world is a vast expanse of learning and entertainment. But it is in this digital world that kids are also exposed to many risks, such as cyberbullying, technology addiction, obscene and violent content, radicalization, scams and data theft. The problem lies in the fast and ever evolving nature of the digital world, where proper internet governance and policies for child protection are slow to catch up, rendering them ineffective. 8 skills suggestions and a great infographic to visually set out different area."

Article written by James W. P. Campbell. He has travelled the world together with Will Pryce the architectural photographer, visiting and photographing 85 of the world's greatest libraries in 21 countries. He now has written a book The Library: A World History (Chicago University Press), which he claims is the most complete account of library buildings to date.

"Supported by over 500 historical sources from across Europe, this resource examines key themes in the history of World War One. Explore a wealth of original source material, over 50 newly-commissioned articles written by historians, teachers' notes and more to discover how war affected people on different sides of the conflict. Collection items featured on this site have been contributed by Europeana 1914-1918 institutions."

The World Digital Library hosts more than 10,000 primary documents and images from collections around the world. It is sponsored by UNESCO and the mission is to promote the study and understanding of cultures. The WDL can be searched by date, era, country, continent, topic, and type of resource. There are a lot of maps and images as well as text documents.

"School safety is a top priority.  Educators work to ensure that students are safe physically, socially, and emotionally.  Helping students be safe online and using technology responsibly is crucial to their development and well being.   We live in a digital world where we interact digitally everyday. To be successful in this digital world we have to know what is right and wrong, be able to capably use technology, and exhibit responsible behavior when using it.  This is the concept of digital citizenship. To be a good digital citizen, you need to be digitally literate, and teaching students digital literacy is crucial for them to be good digital citizens"

While the battles, uniforms, and weapons that made up a World War I serviceman's life are very well documented in the history books, the day-to-day monotony of a soldier's life doesn't often get as much attention. The ALA Archives has recently migrated our collection of digitized lantern slides from World War I into the CONTENTdm system, which shows one way these men filled their downtime: reading.

"A good digital citizen will experience the advantages of the digital world but like a citizen of a nation, they will be identifiable, speak using the appropriate language, serve his or her duty to judge what is appropriate within the laws of the land and ethical behavior, uphold their social responsibilities and be virtuous. The internet is a little like the proverbial elephant that never forgets. Our digital footprints are not like the footprints on the beach, washed away by the next wave or rising tide. Rather they are like footprints left to dry in the wet concrete of the footpath. They are a permanent reminder of our actions, inactions and interactions. To navigate and to survive in this dynamic digital world requires some basic rules and guidelines, we call these tenets of digital citizenship."

This visual encyclopedia is created by the publisher DK. It is new, so somewhat limited but they have plans to grow. I see it as useful for younger students, ESL students and special education students. The site is easy to use and has clear categories. It also offers other sections: What's New?. Videos. Quizzes. Fun Facts. Galleries. Another section called My Space will also be added. Teachers may create an account and access a lesson planner. The DK Online World Desk Reference may also be of interest. You need to create an account to use it which takes seconds to do. This site "explores topics in physical and human geography for every country in the world, and practices critical-thinking skills

"Our students are living their lives online. They can share everything and anything with the world with just a tap of a button and with it comes a new way to connect. It's nearly impossible to keep up. With technology changing constantly it can be difficult to know where to begin teaching digital citizenship. Fortunately for us, there are many apps, tools, and resources available to educators to help our students navigate the digital world safely. In a recent #Ditchbook chat, educators shared over 15 incredible resources to get you started teaching digital citizenship and take it farther than just a one-off lesson or unit."

A useful article about the profession. Teacher librarians have been teaching students how to evaluate websites and warning students about the dangers of going out on the world wide web without applying a critical lens to what they find since the inception of the internet. We constantly remind our students to evaluate websites and ask questions. Concluding paragraph: "Not only is our profession as school librarians crucial in shining the light of literacy on our students, but we must never forget the importance of our fight against information illiteracy. The very survival of our republic depends on an educated, engaged, and information-savvy populace".

The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children's literature from around the world.

The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children's literature from around the world.

"A new service for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Newspaper Map claims to have put placemarks for more 10,000 newspapers on one Google Map. To find a newspaper you can browse the map then click on a placemark to open the link within to read a newspaper."

By Ken Haycock - Published in 'World Libraries' Vol 19 2009 "Although a popular focus for librarians, advocacy is often misunderstood and rarely evaluated. It is not publicity, public relations, messaging, marketing, or lobbying alone. It is a planned, deliberate, and sustained effort to develop understanding and support incrementally over time. Greatest success comes through positive relationships, employing proven strategies for social influence - consistency and commitment, reciprocation, authority, liking, social proof, and scarcity."

The meaning of the concepts of copyright and fair use, as applied to creative work, has broadened dramatically in the digital world. Students are some of the biggest consumers and creators of work created on digital platforms, but they don't often understand: 1. what they may legitimately use. 2. how they may use it what protection exists for their own creative work. 3.Introducing "fair use" concepts. The authors of the post explain how they took the excellent Rework, Reuse, Remix lesson from Commonsense Media to create the foundational lesson plan for an 8th grade Digital Learning class hat St. Francis Xavier School, in Winooski VT. It introduces the concept of fair use and how to apply it to case studies"

A reflection about one school library faculty's goal of creating a positive learning environment with space that would help students and teachers develop real-world connections and the approach they took to creating it. The ideas for the space included housing the collection, helping students and teachers collaborate, being a hub for learning with a flexible floor plan and supporting newly developing areas in educational technology. The school decided to create a learning commons to move beyond traditional thinking about libraries and respond to what the kids and teachers really needed. The faculty envisioned their environment to be developmentally appropriate for their young students, as well as to foster a sense of creativity, inspiration, and encourage dialogue and a sense of community. The new learning commons library offered more space for stacks, added conference rooms and a lounge area, but the learning commons concept informed more than the library. These design changes increase opportunities to be inspired by student work and performances and create stronger interpersonal connections among students and faculty.

"Plagiarism is a serious charge. If true, it has the potential to upend a career and mar a journalist's reputation for life. And yet, in today's world of aggregated news, plagiarism is an imprecise word that stands for a spectrum of offenses related to unoriginal work. And its severity varies dramatically depending on a variety of circumstances."

A useful resource. An aggregator like Google Cultural Institute can bring together collections from multiple institutions from around the world.

"Digital Compass is a choose-your-own adventure, interactive game developed with 6th to 9th graders in mind, in which students step into the shoes of one of eight characters to experience the twists and turns of daily digital life. Invite students to explore digital dilemmas, make good (and not-so-good) decisions, and try out possible solutions through stories and mini-games â€" all without risking their real-world reputations. Discover how Common Sense Educational's award-winning digital literacy and citizenship curriculum seamlessly integrates into blended-learning environments."

"In a world filled with blogs, tweets, texts, social media posts, and memes, it's more important than ever that students understand the norms of appropriate and responsible technology use. No matter which subject or grade you teach, you can help your students live, grow, and work in a technology-driven global community. Not sure how to begin teaching the many components of 21st century, technology-based learning? The nine elements of digital citizenship are a great place to start."

"What makers this process unique is that it offers a thematic approach to planning and creating a makerspace.  After deciding upon the themes you want to advance in your makerspace, and procuring the necessary equipment, materials and supplies to support each theme, attention can be given then to designing the physical aspects of your makerspace.  A good place to start this process is to think about your school's mission statement and vision and then think through how your makerspace can be seen as a physical representation of that strategy.  "