Digital Literacy-Thing #11

Digital Citizenship is so important. Just as citizens of one of the best democratic societies in the world requires responsibilities, so does the life of a citizen on the World Wide Web. Dr. Bell showed us in library classes, how there are so many bogus sites out there on the internet. I used these last year with my fifth graders. I told them since they were getting ready for their science TAKS test, I was going to help them with their studies. I displayed the "Tree Octopus" and began to read the facts on the website. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html
No one said a word, and they were entranced with the image on the screen of an octopus climbing the side trees. They were shocked when I told them this was bogus and there really were no tree octopi I used this as a hook to teach responsible web surfing. After teaching the areas of credibility and reliability points of research tools, I sent them out in groups to look at websites and tell the credence of sites I gave them. It was very interesting to watch these web detectives search and discover seemingly reliable sites had so many disparities. I think if I now could extend this lesson further, by teaching them to use sources discreetly when researching. I would point out that some very good sources still need to back up their claims for factual information. Students need to be taught the identifiable difference in a virtual game and the internet as a whole. Playing for real is a whole different scenario in life than keeping Mario from falling between the bricks.

Thing #13

I was not able to look at the video, but did access the other materials giving the instructions on Delicious. Setting up an account was fairly easy with the website. Creating the bookmarks in the site and seeing the connections to others opened a whole new door for me with researching. An example is putting in new librarian and I got several other bookmarks linking me to many other sites with tips and advice for librarians. I could see my students using this to research and finding connections from others quickly, streamlining the process. Last year, my students researched a President. This site would have made some of our fruitless efforts nil, as we could have immediate efficient sites at our fingertips with Delicious. Another site I found within this Thing was Diigolet.com. With this tool, I can highlight, create post-its(floating) with comments, and much more. I absolutely loved this. Last year in my Reading Workshop, I taught my students to not just ingest information, but to comment or make a comment(highest level of thinking is making a judgment) about that information. I could so use this for media literacy and non-fiction reading strategies with my students.