Digital Literacy in the Classroom

Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the internet.

There are many different advantages to being digitally literate. Essentially, digital literacy can help you:

• Save time
• Learn faster/ study at your own pace
• Stay informed and connected
• Make more knowledgeable decisions
• Teach you skills important for many jobs. 

Since there is such an emphasis on technology in our world today, it is important for schools and teachers alike to encourage digital literacy in the classroom and out. Students who are unable to work in a digital world will struggle with connecting through technology and may not be as proficient both in the classroom and the working working.  Students who are unable to work in a digital world may also learn slower since their skills to access to the information is typically slower.

Pomo. (2014). Digital Literacy. Retrieved from http://pomo.com.au/blog/digital-literacy/

Digital literacy is important for all children and in all different environments. Digital Literacy promotes higher order thinking, breaks down the walls of learning and information, and prepares students for a digital  post K-12 world.  

Teachers can incorporate digital literacy into the classroom with information shared through google slides, the information on PowerPoints, google docs, and slide share. Students can also use digital literacy at home through social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and researching topics of interest on search engines like Google or Yahoo.

Wikipedia. n.d. Copyright. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Copyright means that the tangible work that I produce will be protected. This protection means that if I produce a piece of writing or a picture of any kind, the tangible document will be protected. Not only is it important for teachers to know the rules of copyright, students should be informed, as well.

Students need to learn about copyright because in today’s millennial society students share and take so much information from one another and from other sources that they need to know how effectively conduct themselves professionally with their work.Copyright infringement is very serious and they should be careful to not directly copy any works from online (avoid copy and paste) and to avoid coping information and changing a few words. Turning in prior work is also a copyright infringement on themselves which many students may not be aware of.

Older children need to understand that plagiarism is any act by which they are stealing the intellectual property of another content creator. In order to properly teach plagiarism and copyright, teachers should show students examples to explain their similarities and differences. Children should be taught the severity of this act and that there are severe penalties to both.

Molly Pennington (2014), Tips to Help Your Child Avoid Plagiarism. Retrieved from: https://www.noodle.com/articles/tips-to-help-your-child-avoid-plagiarism

PBL and IBL: Advantages and Uses in the classroom

There are two effective types of teaching that all teachers should incorporate into their classroom. To encourage students to be more interactive with the material and responsible for their learning, a teacher should incorporate inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning into the classroom.

Inquiry-based learning is learning based on posing open, structured, and guided questions that make students critically think about a topic and find the answers on their own. The image below shows the process that students go through when completing inquiry-based learning. Inquiry Based Learning sets students up to seek resolutions to questions and issues.  Students who are successful in completing an inquiry-based learning assignment will successfully have posed questions, investigated ideas, discussed and reflected on the material. Infographics can be used to enhance inquiry based learning through websites like Wordle or Tagxedo.

Buffalo County University of Wisconsin-Extension. n.d. STEM Inquiry-Based Learning. Retrieved from: http://buffalo.uwex.edu/stem-inquiry-based-learning/ 

Project Based Learning is an interactive, hands-on way for students to learn information that puts them into real-world situations and allows them to learn by doing rather than listening. This can be done through simulations and hands-on activities. Below is an image showing the process that students go through when learning using a problem-based learning process. Problem-based learning is effective because it is interactive, hands-on, and it gets the children directly involved in the topic. It also promotes social and critical thinking skills.  For project based assignments, the smartboard can be utilized along with websites like socrative that actively engage students. For more information on on project based learning, please visit the following website. Project Based Learning

Integrating instructional technology. (2010). Problem Based Learning. Retrieved from http://integratingtech301.pbworks.com/w/page/20021598/Problem%20Based%20Learning

Get to know me!

My name is Morgan Gerdes.  I live in Greenville but I'm from New Bern which is about an hour away.  I'm an elementary education major with a concentration in reading at East Carolina University.  I have one sister who is an English teacher in Durham.  I started playing piano when I was five and still enjoy playing in my free time.  I love to travel and studied abroad in Poland and the Czech Republic this past summer.  I included a picture from my trip below.  

Any passionate teacher can reflect on one of their extraordinary teachers and the impact this teacher’s dedication had on their career decision. I believe teachers, individually and collectively, have the ability to greatly improve our ever-changing world.  All children have within them the potential to be great students; it is our job as teachers to create a great atmosphere where this potential can flourish.  In his remarks to the Chamber of Commerce President Barack Obama said, “From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom... America’s future depends on its teachers.”