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From cyberbullying and phishing to conducting better research, digital citizenship is the keystone of educating K–12 students on how to best navigate the internet.
Now ed tech’s most popular device, the Chromebook is getting some built-in technology aimed at boosting one tenet of digital citizenship: media literacy.
Studies indicate that media literacy, or the ability to recognize the quality of a news story or article, is pretty low among today’s digital natives. With rises in untrustworthy sources proliferating across the internet, it’s more important than ever for educators to make sure their students have the skills to assess online media.
Chromebook Apps Build Literacy into Browsing
Earlier this summer at ISTE’s annual conference, Google announced that it had worked with educators to develop media literacy apps specific for Chromebooks to help students evaluate the information they see online.
“Bringing current events into the classroom is a great way to engage students in what’s happening around the world,” writes Google for Education’s Karen Greenleaf in a blog post. “With countless online news sources to choose from, it’s more important than ever for students to develop media literacy skills that help them understand the difference between reliable information sources and ‘fake news.’”
As one part of its effort to boost media literacy, Google launched Be Internet Alert to teach students how to explore online content with confidence that they won’t fall for fake or misleading stories. This is just one component of the tech giant’s Be Internet Awesome campaign of interactive curricula.
In addition to this, Google also bundled media literacy apps on its ever-popular Chromebook to help facilitate critical thinking. The Scrible app helps students collaborate to find authentic online sources. They can annotate passages, comment on key points and engage in a live conversation about the quality of sources.
The other app in the bundle, Frontier, is a library of online lessons that allows students to have choice in the topics they read and write about.
With these apps and initiatives working together, it can foster an interest in digital citizenship and media literacy in young people.
(Story via Ed Tech)