Excellent Tool to Teach Students about Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy

April 22, 2015

Digital Compass is a new tool released by Common Sense Media to help kids learn the fundamentals of digital citizenship and digital literacy through playing interactive games designed specifically for grades 6-9. The games came in the form of a simulation of the digital world we live in  and provides kids with an informed understanding of the implications involved in creating  digital identities.

Digital Compass is available as a web-based tool to be played online, the iOS and Android app is expected to be released soon. The game starts with a short  introductory video about the game after which  kids are prompted to select a character and dive in with it in its digital world. While creating a story for the selected character, students will engage with a variety of thinking and conceptual skills. They have to think strategically about how to create a  good digital path for their character, the decisions to take to solve unexpected problems and how to anticipate potential risks. All of this takes place within an immersive game-based environment that students will definitely enjoy.

Watch this video to learn more about Digital Compass

Thanks to Tom D'Amico and Shannon Miller through whom we learned about this resource.

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The 8 Digital Literacy Practices Required for 21st Century Learners

January 4, 2015
Theoretically speaking, digital literacy is a concept that is in constant flux. It is perpetually shifting and expanding to include new practices and skills afforded by new emerging technologies. In their excellent book "Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction", authors Jones and Hafner provide a detailed analysis of what it means to be a digitally literate in the light of the social media revolution and the widespread of web 2.0 technologies. As I was perusing it today, I came across this section in chapter one where the authors talk about the different digital literacy practices that are required to thrive in this digitally-focused era.

Here is a quick overview of these practices:

• The ability to quickly search though and evaluate great masses of information.
•  The ability to create coherent reading pathways through complex collections of linked texts.
•  The ability to quickly make connections between widely disparate ideas and domains of experience.
•  The ability to shoot and edit digital photos and video. 
• The ability to create multimodal documents that combine words, graphics, video and audio.
• The ability to create and maintain dynamic online profiles and manage large and complex online social networks.
•  The ability to explore and navigate online worlds and to interact in virtual environments.
•  The ability to protect one’s personal data from being misused by others. (Kindle Loc. 262)

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