Digital Literacy in the Library

What a great example of the importance of privacy settings! Although your students might see nothing wrong with this, what they think they're sharing with friends on social media can easily be found by others. Most of my students would ask why not get as many views for your photos as you can? I imagine adults would see this differently.

This would be a good discussion starter. Be prepared for your computers to be taken over, though, as students immediately head there to look for their cats....

"Colleges are increasingly considering social media posts in the application process, and students are getting smarter about it."

Photo via JEShoots/Pixabay

Meet Xavier Di Petta and Kyle Cameron, ages 17 and 19, whose ability to build a massive audience from nothing may be unparalleled in media today.

Katie Lepi writes: "Instagram is a hugely popular social network for photo sharing. Though the use of social media in the classroom may have skyrocketed, Twitter and Facebook definitely reign supreme as the key social media tools for schools and teachers. Somehow, despite the widespread popularity of Instagram, few teachers are employing it in the classroom."  

John Spencer writes: "I've noticed a trend toward educating students on the notion of a permanent digital footprint. Often, this leads to a conversation about personal branding. Do this and don't do that. Craft this image to make yourself look great for an employer. Don't get caught saying or doing anything dumb at sixteen."

Following the pattern here would make an intriguing assignment for secondary students. Campaign goes viral, campaign gets criticized, campaign gets forgotten or breaks down horribly? Are those always the steps? I know we saw it with Kony 2012 and Invisible Children. I doubt we'll see that kind of public flame-out from the good people at the ALS Association, but it's certainly worth studying viral campaigns.

Is this slacktivism at its best, and does it matter, since money is allegedly being ...

With all the "sky is falling" cries about American students reading less, I often wonder why we don't track how much reading and writing students do daily on social media. Bring social media into your lessons is crucial to helping students develop critical thinking about the media many of them consume and create in large amounts every day.

In this article from Edudemic, Dave Guymon suggests that pairing visual or non-linguistic ideas with text-based ones can help students recall or interpret...

Eric Randal posted: "Wikipedia is an experiment in crowdsourcing as much human knowledge as possible, and the logical outcome of that process is that the wisdom of the crowd often rules—as insensible as the crowd can be."

Aaron Davis writes: "In a post titled, 'The Importance of Modeling Positive Use of Social Media', +Chris Wejr suggested that schools need to do more to both model the appropriate use of social media, as well as promote more positive stories. This got me thinking about some of the other things that we may do personally online , but not necessarily model all the time in school. One such practise is that of reading and responding online. So often students are told to use tracks and be active readers, to write regular journal reflections, but this usually starts and stops at the physical book. When are students getting the same opportunity to read and respond online?"

The best ads of 2014 share one common trait: they all tell stories -- beautifully. Sometimes they grab you from the get-go, and never let go. Sometimes the stories are visual -- or audio -- picnics.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reports that children spend an average of seven hours a day consuming various types of media. This data illustrates that society’s voracious appetite for media makes media literacy more important than ever.

Ann Elliott writes: "Conveying information in a striking, concise way has never been more important, and infographics are the perfect pedagogical tool with which to do so. Below, you’ll find my experience with designing an infographic-friendly classroom research project, explained in a step-by-step process you can implement in your own classroom."

Just weeks after a celebrity hacking scandal, members of an anonymous online message board claimed to have accessed hundreds of thousands of photographs of noncelebrities.

Katie Lepi writes: " The Creative Commons licenses allow any internet user to easily understand how they can (and can not) share what they find on the web. The licenses are visual, and if you aren’t sure of what you see on the work you’d like to use, you can refer back to the CC website to see. The handy infographic below gives a pretty thorough overview of the licenses and what they mean. Whether you have a personal blog, a class blog, or your students want to use a photo they’ve found in a presentation, this guide will be super handy!"

Cindy Boren writes: "It isn’t clear exactly where NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is, but, if he’d chosen to attend at game Sunday at MetLife Stadium, he’d have seen a plane fly over  the place, trailing a banner calling for him to go in a larger #GoodellMustGo protest over the weekend."

Emotionally abusive comments are becoming more common online, and the consequences could include scaring away from the web those subject to attacks.

There are so many ways that teachers are using social media –  both in the classroom and for their own professional development. From Instagram and Facebook in the classroom to Twitter lists and hashtags for their PLN, there are so many social networks and so much content to choose from when you’re looking.