Ed Tech Blog
Introduction
Each day, cutting-edge information technologies provide us with new ways of tackling challenges in and outside our classrooms. Along with these rapid enhancements and solutions comes the challenge of staying up to date with current developments.
In a digitally enriched world where messaging apps and social networks have replaced face-to-face communication, where collaboration happens in real-time and online, and information is obtained via digital libraries, vlogs, and video content, digital literacy is becoming a fundamental skill to promote through our courses.
What is digital literacy?
While there is a plethora of definitions for digital literacy, it can be defined as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills” (National Digital Inclusion Alliance). Digital literacy in the classroom comprises a set of skills that allow students to use digital technologies to obtain and evaluate information, solve problems, complete assignments, and create content.
How can teachers in humanities promote digital literacy and digital citizenship as they assist students in developing essential skills such as communicative and collaborative abilities, critical and analytic thinking, creativity, and social responsibility?
Here are five ways to foster these skills while incorporating digital literacy into your classes.
- Enhance media literacy
One of the vital skills in digital literacy is the ability to tell fact from fiction and become conscientious and critical users of information resources. To encourage this, you can have students analyze different pieces of information, provide a critical reading of an op-ed article on history, analyze a blog post on ethics or complete a fact-checking assignment for a news piece. To further aid students, you can provide them with media literacy toolkits or organize workshops on detecting misinformation, decoding media messages, fact-checking, or the ethical use of online resources. Additionally, class...
Read more: 5 Ways to Promote Digital Literacy through Humanities
If you were to go into any public library today, one of the services you would most likely find in the database would be login information for ancestry.com. Interest in family history is no longer for aging people hoping to get back in touch with their roots. Genealogy can become an important part of any social studies curriculum. In fact, it can become an important project in your classroom. In this article, you will learn about how you can incorporate different genealogy projects in your classroom, research findings on the importance of genealogy in the classroom, and different resources you can use to get yourself started right away.
Genealogy projects can be a great way of getting parents and grandparents involved in the education of their children. According to Karen Bogenschneider and Carol Johnson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “a consistent body of research concludes that parents are the first and foremost influence on their children’s development and school success. When parents are involved, students get better grades and score higher on standardized tests” (2004). Genealogy projects encourage students to ask their parents/grandparents more about their heritage. It can become a bonding experience for students and their...
Digital libraries are now a norm at most universities and colleges. Not only do digital libraries combine information resources and technology, but they also allow remote access. That breaks down all physical barriers and makes the information available 24/7.
Now that remote online education is also gaining popularity, digital libraries help students gain a mammoth of knowledge without stepping out of their homes.
But that doesn’t mean we should restrict digital libraries to remote learning only.
Setting up digital libraries at schools empowers students and allows them to maximize their access to extensive study materials. That's why today's schools ensure that they have digital and traditional libraries.
This post will highlight the many benefits of introducing digital libraries to schools. We will also give you valuable tips for setting up a digital library.
Why Does your School Need a Digital Library?
If you want your students to become tech-savvy, you must give them access to digital resources. However, many students can already access the internet and social media content. However, their sources are not as credible as scientific research and high-quality materials.
Thanks to a digital library, a school can provide a rich source of information to help its students...
If there is anything that lights up the faces of children and adults alike, it is robots. Little electronics that move and perform various functions make everyone curious. If you are an educator yourself, you might be wondering how you can take advantage of the excitement that your students have for robots. Using robots in the classroom is one of the easiest ways to integrate the 4 Cs of learning, which are collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. In this post, we will go through how a robot can take your classroom learning to the next level, what types of robots to consider, how to use robots in the classroom efficiently, and what are some concepts that can be taught with the help of a robot.
There is a specific niche of robots called educational robots. These are the robots that an educator should be interested in if they want to properly introduce their students to the world of robotics. Some of these educational robots need to be assembled, some can help students understand a concept, and most of them are programmable. This means that students will learn fundamental engineering designs and programming skills from a young age.
Many concepts...
As educational technology advances, there are an increasing number of educational tools that are useful to help make learning interactive for students in the classroom. This tool has a significant number of uses that can turn any lesson into an interactive experience for students in any subject.
Flipgrid is a web-based program, which can be accessed in a wide array of settings, for in-person, hybrid, or remote learning, and can be accessed on any device that the student has access to. The program is easy to use for all teachers, simply create a free account with a google or Microsoft account, and connect to your students with a simple code or link.
The Functions of Flipgrid
This very diverse tool is focused primarily on the use of videos that make student interaction with the content more engaging. The teacher is also able to create groups for classes where students join through a code. This allows the teacher to better view student progress as students complete assignments in this online program.
Students can view a video and then respond to a question in the program about the lesson or the topic that the video was about. As the lesson...
Read more: Flipgrid: A Useful Tool for Interactive and Collaborative Education
If you ever wanted your students to speak up more, or if you have ever felt like a few students dominated all classroom discussions, then Parlay might change your classroom for the better. Parlay is an online class discussion tool that assists teachers to create classroom discussions. Classrooms that have used Parlay have reported an 85% increase in participation. This post will go through everything you need to know about Parlay, from why it is beneficial for the classroom, to an overview of the steps you need to follow to start the discussions.
What’s the big deal with discussion forums in the classroom anyway? When you bring discussions into the classroom, you will more than double a student’s achievement, and teach the students about analytical reasoning and communication. But there is one thing to point out, these benefits are limited to the students who actively participate. A discussion forum in the classroom provides a unique way for every student to participate in discussing a particular topic.
Parlay is a discussion forum for the classroom that provides all the advantages that a traditional discussion can have for the classroom. Parlay has reported that students feel more comfortable participating, and communicating, as well as feeling more respected by their peers.
Read more: Parlay: A Place where Students have Meaningful Discussions