The immense presence of digital media in the lives of elementary, middle and high school students today make digital and media literacy a key focus of teaching and learning in history/social studies classes.

 

 

This week's virtual workshops are designed to explore how teachers can help develop the skills and dispositions of digital and media literacy.

 

 

 

READING   Activity 1: Finding Reliable Resources     Activity 2: Identifying and Combating Fake News     Activity 3: Learning about Technology through the History of Technology     Assignment Due November 9   CHOOSE 2 OF 3 WORKSHOPS

 

READ

A Day in the Life of an Online Student ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2018

 

 

 

Young people are using technology all the time in their daily lives.

 

 

Check out real time Internet Live Stats

 

Teens Are Spending Nearly Half of Their Waking Hours on Screens, MarketWatch (October 2019)

 

• Children 8 to 12 spend 5 hours a day on screens—in addition to school and homework

 

• Teenagers spend 7.5 hours online, again in addition to time spent in school and for homework

 

45% of Teens Say They're Online Almost Constantly, Pew Research Center:  Internet & Technology (2018)

 

• In 2014-15, that percentage was 24%

• As of 2018, 

• 89% said they were online "almost constantly" or "several times a day."

• 95% have access to a smartphone

• YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are used regularly by large majorities of teens

• Girls (50%) are online "almost constantly" as compared to  39% of boys

 

Although young people use technology, they do not have the skills to critically analyze and critique technology. Researchers have found that most students are naive consumers of online information, tending to willingly believe much of what they encounter on the Web. This makes them particularly vulnerable to manipulation by advertisers selling products and interest groups promoting political messages.

Stanford Study Finds Most Students Vulnerable to Fake News, NPR (November 22, 2016)

 

• Go here for Executive Summary: Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Online Civic Reasoning

 

 

 

Activity 1: Finding Reliable Resources

 

 

 

Review our How to Find Reliable Resources Infographic

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

Add one reliable historically accurate, student-friendly resource that you would use with students to each of the boxes in the infographic and explain why you are selecting that resource.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity 2: Identifying and Combating Fake News      Sign-Up for the Washington Post Fact Checker here

 

READ

 

How Do Fake News Sites Make Money, BBC News

How Facebook's News Feed Can Be Fooled into Spreading Misinformation, PBS NewsHour

 

How Misinformation Spreads on Social Media—And What To Do About It, Brookings (May 9, 2018)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

We Tracked Down a Fake News Creator in the Suburbs. Here's What We Learned, All Tech Considered (November 23, 2016)

 

The Fake News Fallacy, The New Yorker (September 4, 2017)

 

Learning Activities

 

Evaluating Sources in a "Post-Truth" World:  Ideas for Teaching and Learning about Fake News, The New York Times

 

Fighting Fake News, The Lowdown, KQED News

 

How To Teach Your Students about Fake News, PBS Learning Media

 

DIRECTIONS: 

 

Review the list of Top Sites to Help Students Check Their Facts, ISTE (October 7, 2020)

 

Choose Two from the List and Explain in one or two paragraphs How You Are or Would Use Them in Your In-Person and Online Classes with Students

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity 3: Learning about Technology through the History of Technology

 

 

 

Developing students's Digital and Media Literacy includes getting them to understand the impacts of technology on their lives and communities.

 

New technologies create benefits and drawbacks, intended and unintended consequences, advances for some and harm for others.

 

From an instructional standpoint, students can learn about technology by exploring the history of technology.

 

Technological change and diffusion is one of the main engines of history, propelling new developments and the radical rethinking of old assumptions and practices. Think of The Scientific Revolution, for example, and how it transformed Europe and the world, even though many of the new ideas had already been developed in non-western societies.

 

The Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework is filled with opportunities to explore technology and its impacts on people and societies.

 

• At the beginning of Grade 6, students learn about the technological changes of Hunter-Gatherer Societies of the Paleolithic Age.

 

• There are monumental technological accomplishments to explore such as Who Built the Pyramids and The Great Wall and the Grand Canal

 

• There are hidden histories and untold stories of science and technology: Women of Scientific Revolution and Grace Hopper, Computer Pioneer

 

• There are enormous historical events connected to technology: Atomic Bombs in World War II and Sputnik, the Space Race and Women in STEM

 

DIRECTIONS:  Write a 1 Page Response

 

1. Review the Massachusetts curriculum standards for the subject and grade level you are teaching and locate one or more standards that address science, technology, technological innovation and societal change.

 

2. Examine resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page(s) for that standard or standards and assess the resources provided by teaching about technology and technological change.

• Rate the usefulness of those resources.
• Propose 2 additional resources for the page that will support learning about technology

 

3. Explain how you plan to integrate teaching about technology in learning experiences related to the standard(s) you are reviewing.

• Include an inquiry question you will ask students to answer as they explore the impacts of technology

 

Resources to Guide Your Planning

 

Technology: Past, Present and Future, AAAS Science NetLinks, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overflow/Not Part of the Assignment

 

 

 

Search Engine Diagram, Image on Wikimedia Commons by Jakob Voss

 

Co-Constructing Knowledge with Technology

Delivering on the Promise of STEAM, Nigel Counts (August 28, 2016)

The Web We Need to Give Students This article proposes that students need to given the opportunity to construct and manage their own online domain to assert voice and agency with technology for learning.

 

• For more on this concept, see the Domain of One's Own Initiative at the University of Mary Washington

What Does Research Really Say About iPads in the Classroom, e-School News, February, 2016

Our Choice by Al Gore: A Next-Generation Digital Book

 

Educating for Democracy in a Digital Age:  Teaching Channel