Skip to Main Content

British Primary Library LibGuide

Information for students, parents, and teachers in the British Primary Section

What is digital literacy?

"Digital literacy is part of media literacy. They're both included in the idea of "information literacy," which is the ability to effectively find, identify, evaluate, and use information. Digital literacy specifically applies to media from the internet, smartphones, video games, and other nontraditional sources. Just as media literacy includes the ability to identify media and its messages and create media responsibly, digital literacy includes both nuts-and-bolts skills and ethical obligations."

Common Sense Media (accessed 22.01.2018)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-digital-literacy

What is media literacy, and why is it important?

"The word "literacy" usually describes the ability to read and write. Reading literacy and media literacy have a lot in common. Reading starts with recognizing letters. Pretty soon, readers can identify words -- and, most importantly, understand what those words mean. Readers then become writers. With more experience, readers and writers develop strong literacy skills. (Learn specifically about news literacy.)

Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they're sending. Kids take in a huge amount of information from a wide array of sources, far beyond the traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines) of most parents' youth. There are text messages, memes, viral videos, social media, video games, advertising, and more. But all media shares one thing: Someone created it. And it was created for a reason. Understanding that reason is the basis of media literacy. (Learn how to use movies and TV to teach media literacy.)"

Common Sense Media (accessed 22.01.2018)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media-literacy-and-why-is-it-important

Making Media Literacy Central to Digital Citizenship

"It’s easy to get caught up in the hype around the latest and greatest classroom tech, from video games to 3-D printers to Raspberry Pi kits to VR to AR and beyond. The reality is that kind of tech — expensive, bleeding-edge tools — makes headlines but doesn’t make it into many classrooms, especially the most needy ones. What does, however, is video.

While we often get distracted by the latest device or platform release, video has quietly been riding the wave of all of these advancements, benefiting from broader access to phones, displays, cameras and, most importantly, bandwidth. In fact, 68 percent of teachers are using video in their classrooms, and 74 percent of middle schoolers are watching videos for learning. From social media streams chock-full of video and GIFs to FaceTime with friends to two-hour Twitch broadcasts, video mediates students’ relationships with each other and the world. Video is a key aspect of our always-online attention economy that’s impacting votingbehavior, and fueling hate speech and trolling. Put simply: Video is a contested civic space."

Click image for link to article

12 Terrific iPad Games For Honing Critical Thinking Skills

"Developing critical thinking skills turns lessons from a mere relaying of facts into a conversation by which students begin to understand their world. The phrase “don’t play games with me” is about to get a turnover. Play games all you want—your brain (and especially your students’ brains) will thank you for it."

https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/13-ipad-games-for-honing-critical-thinking-skills?mc_cid=85a6f590f5&mc_eid=b940c95f83