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Dr. Jim King The MKM reading system was created by Dr. King, the reading program teaches dyslexia students better ways of learning to read and write. Dr. King graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1950. Jim studied pre-optometry at the University of Colorado and finished his education at the Ohio State University School of Optometry.

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Common Sense Media: Age-Based Media Reviews for Families

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Common Sense Media is the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families. Parents trust our expert reviews and objective advice.

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While the word "literacy" alone generally refers to reading and writing skills, when you tack on the word "digital" before it, the term encompasses much, much more.

Sure, reading and writing are still very much at the heart of digital literacy. But given the new and ever-changing ways we use technology to receive and communicate information, digital literacy also encompasses a broader range of skills-everything from reading on a Kindle to gauging the validity of a website or creating and sharing YouTube videos.

The term is so broad that some experts even stay away from it, preferring to speak more specifically about particular skills at the intersection of technology and literacy.

The American Library Association's digital-literacy task force offers this definition: "Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills."

More simply, Hiller Spires, a professor of literacy and technology at North Carolina State University, views digital literacy as having three buckets: 1) finding and consuming digital content; 2) creating digital content; and 3) communicating or sharing it.

Finding and Consuming

In some formats, "consuming" digital content looks pretty much the same as reading print. Reading a novel on a basic e-reader requires knowing how to turn the device on and flip pages back and forth, but other than that, it isn't so different from reading a book. A PDF of a New York Times article looks a lot like the page of a print newspaper, except that it appears on a screen.

Donald Leu, an education professor at the University of Connecticut and a recognized authority on literacy and technology, describes this sort of digital reading as "offline reading."

"It's not interactive, ... there's one screen, and you just have to read it," he explained. "It's the same as reading a [paper] page."

The added skills needed for this kind of reading take just a few minutes to teach.

In comparison, what Leu calls "online reading," in which a digital text is read through the internet, requires a host of additional skills. For instance, a New York Times piece viewed on the web may contain hyperlinks, videos, audio clips, images, interactive graphics, share buttons, or a comments section-features that force the reader to stop and make decisions rather than simply reading from top to bottom.

"The text is designed so that no two readers experience it in the exact same way," said Troy Hicks, a professor of literacy and technology at Central Michigan University.

The reader determines, among other things, when to click on videos or hyperlinks, how long to stray from the initial text, and whether and how to pass the information along to others.

The process of finding digital content to read also necessitates different skills than finding print texts. In seeking print materials, students might flip through magazines or head to the library and search through stacks of books. They learn to use a table of contents and an index to locate information within a book.

But part of digital literacy is learning to search for content in an online space. Students have to query a search engine using keywords and navigate those results, including assessing the reliability of particular authors and websites.

Creating Content

Digital literacy also refers to content creation. That includes writing in digital formats such as email, blogs, and Tweets, as well as creating other forms of media, such as videos and podcasts.

Renee Hobbs, a professor of communication studies at the University of Rhode Island, talks about digital authorship as "a form of social power." At a weeklong professional-development institute on digital literacy held at URI this past summer, she showed examples of student activists sharing their messages about the Black Lives Matter movement through YouTube videos.

Creating digital content is a "creative and collaborative process that involves experimentation and risk-taking," she said. There's more risk-taking than in print writing because digital writing is so often meant to be shared.

Sharing and Communicating

While traditional writing can be a personal endeavor, digital writing is generally intended to be communicated with others. And digital-writing tools are designed to make that easy to do.

As North Carolina State's Spires and her co-author, Melissa Bartlett, wrote in a 2012 white paper about digital literacy and learning, "Web 2.0 tools are social, participatory, collaborative, easy to use, and are facilitative in creating online communities."

That makes digital writing a potentially powerful lever for social good, allowing students to "actively participate in civic society and contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged community," as the ALA notes.

It also makes digital writing a potentially dangerous tool-decisions about when and what to share online can have repercussions for a student's safety, privacy, and reputation.

For that reason, learning about appropriate internet behavior is also a part of digital literacy, many say.

"We need to help kids see they can use digital tools to create things and put things out into the world, but there's responsibility that comes with that," said Lisa Maucione, who attended the URI institute and who is a reading specialist for the Dartmouth public schools in Massachusetts.

Evolving Technology

Because the term "digital literacy" is so wide-ranging, it can cause confusion. What exactly is someone talking about when he or she refers to digital literacy? Is it the consumption, creation, or communication of digital material? Or is that person discussing a particular digital tool? Do technology skills like computer coding fall under the digital-literacy umbrella as well?

Some experts prefer the term "digital literacies," to convey the many facets of what reading and writing in the modern era entails.

"The concept should instead be considered plural-digital literacies-because the term implies multiple opportunities to leverage digital texts, tools, and multimodal representations for design, creation, play, and problem solving," Jill Castek, a research assistant professor with the Literacy, Language, and Technology Research Group at Portland State University, wrote in an email.

Leu of UConn avoids the term altogether.

"Is someone who is 'digitally literate' equally literate when searching for information, when critically evaluating information, when using Snapchat, when using email, when using text messaging, when using Facebook, or when using any one of many different technologies for literacy and learning?" asked Leu in an email. "I think not."

He prefers the term "new literacies," which he said better conveys how rapidly technology is changing. Other experts have used terms like "literacy and technology," "multiliteracies," and "21st century literacies."

But for now, digital literacy seems to be the prevailing term among educators. "I understand this is the term that is popular today," Leu said, "just as I understand a newer term will appear in the future that will replace it."

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While the word "literacy" alone generally refers to reading and writing skills, when you tack on the word "digital" before it, the term encompasses much, much more. Sure, reading and writing are still very much at the heart of digital literacy.

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DPLA provides free digital access to banned books

DPLA has launched The Banned Book Club to ensure that all readers have access to the books they want to read. The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned via the free Palace e-reader app.

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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2014 Annual Meeting: Session 67 - Publishing History Digitally

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New print textbooks can still cost students hundreds of dollars, but the cost of etextbooks is falling fast, according to data from etextbook distribution platforms VitalSource and RedShelf -- both of which work with all major publishers.

Since 2016, the average price of etextbooks on VitalSource has fallen by 31 percent, from $56.36 in 2016 to $38.65 in 2018.

Some areas, such as mathematics, have seen more drastic change, said VitalSource. In 2016, the average math etextbook cost $79. Now it's $39 -- a decrease of almost 50 percent.

RedShelf confirmed a similar price drop. In 2015, the average etextbook cost $53.11, the company said. Now it's $39.24.

Mike Hale, VitalSource vice president of education for North America, described the price change as "dramatic." Since January 2016, prices have fallen every month, he said.

"Prices on textbooks were, everybody agrees, way too high," said Hale. "Publishers have finally responded with pricing that is rational."

Tom Scotty, chief operating officer at RedShelf, said the reason the publishers were dropping prices was to capture market share.

"Prior to the affordable ebook prices that we're seeing now, students were looking for low-cost alternatives to new textbooks -- they were going to used books and they were going to print rental books," said Scotty. Publishers "very wisely" realized that they had to lower prices to "fight the secondary market," he said.

Scotty, who was formally co-CEO of Macmillan Higher Education, said one of his frustrations as a publisher was that students weren't buying digital -- despite large investments in technology to make digital a better experience than print. "Students were just looking to spend as little money as possible."

The $40 mark is one that many in the industry were aiming for, said Hale. Now that this "affordable" goal has been reached, Hale isn't sure that prices will continue to fall for individual purchases. Scotty agreed that he didn't expect prices to decrease much more. "The gains have been achieved. I don't think anybody wants to see a race to the bottom."

Since publishers dropped their prices, both VitalSource and RedShelf have seen their sales increase. Scotty said that in 2016, RedShelf sold 3.7 times more than in 2015, and 2.6 times more in 2016 than in 2017. Hale said the big five publishers all saw increased sales as a result of their lower prices.

But both Scotty and Hale note that individual sales through their platforms represent a relatively small share of the textbook market. Both companies manage inclusive access deals -- where whole classes are signed up to digital materials by their institution (on the condition that students have the option to opt out, and prices are below competitive market rates). These inclusive access deals are popular, and their low cost per student has encouraged publishers to lower prices for all their digital content, said Scotty. Approximately two-thirds of RedShelf's sales are attributed to inclusive access, and the remainder to individual purchases, said Scotty. Around 72 percent of VitalSource's sales are through inclusive-access programs, said Hale.

Open educational resources have also had an impact, said Hale. High textbook prices drove some instructors to create their own content and share it with others for free. Now the availability of that content is putting pressure on publishers to evolve. "I compare it to when massive open online courses came out -- they didn't replace traditional higher education, but they did pioneer models of how to deliver education," said Hale.

Though etextbook prices are falling, students aren't buying the content like they would a traditional textbook. Students typically buy access to the content for 120 or 180 days, said Hale.

Nicole Allen, director of open education for SPARC, a coalition that supports open policies and practices in education and research, said that etextbook prices can be deceptive for this reason. "Compared to sticker prices, etextbooks may seem like a better deal, but the cost often works out comparable to tried and true analog options like print rentals or used books," she said.

"By renting rather than selling digital content, publishers control when, where and for how long students access their learning materials," said Allen. "It perpetuates the same dynamic that allowed print textbook prices to skyrocket in the first place, except students are even more at publishers' mercy." She added, "We should be leveraging digital technology to expand access and use of knowledge through more open models, not further locking it down."

Richard Baraniuk, founder of OER textbook producer OpenStax, said he was pleased to see etextbook prices coming down so that more students can have access to materials they need. But Baraniuk doesn't think that lower etextbook prices will make them competitive with OER. "To be competitive with OER, a resource should be adaptable, shareable and allowed to be used across various platforms," he said.

Baraniuk noted that courseware sold by publishers -- software integrated with an etextbook -- is growing in popularity, and is not being discounted as heavily as etextbooks. Lowering the price of these options would have "significant benefits for a majority of students," he said.

Brian Starr, vice president of analytics and strategic initiatives for McGraw-Hill Education, said there is a big difference between digital learning platforms that use "adaptive technology and powerful analytics tools to personalize the experience for students," and etextbooks that are "simply an online version of a traditional textbook." But Starr said that he believed McGraw-Hill's Connect materials still offer good value -- at 50 percent less than traditional hardbound textbooks. "We continue to see increasing instructor adoptions of these solutions," he said.

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Publishers race to reduce costs of digital textbooks

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New print textbooks can still cost students hundreds of dollars, but the cost of etextbooks is falling fast, according to data from etextbook distribution platforms VitalSource and RedShelf -- both of which work with all major publishers. Since 2016, the average price of etextbooks on VitalSource has fallen by 31 percent, from $56.36 in 2016 to $38.65 in 2018.

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The internet is an amazing tool for teaching and learning. But, before we can teach students to harness its power and become good citizens of the web, we need to understand the intricacies of how it works and how it can be manipulated to mislead and even harm users.
Learning the Landscape of Digital Literacy

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Digital and Civic Literacy Skills The internet is an amazing tool for teaching and learning. But, before we can teach students to harness its power and become good citizens of the web, we need to understand the intricacies of how it works and how it can be manipulated to mislead and even harm users.

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In partnership with Grovo, Capital One has developed a free and open digital literacy program. This course gives everyone access to the digital skills needed for today's middle-skill roles - jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree, but pay above the national living wage. Start building your skills today!

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DL Activity

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Back to lesson plans archive

Lesson plan: What 2017 news stories mattered most to your students?

What news stories - good or bad - made a difference in your life from the past year? Try this interactive end-of-year activity leading up to the winter break for a look back at 2017. Using Flipboard, an easy-to-use app that lets you curate your own magazine, students will create a list of their top 10 news stories from 2017 to share with classmates and family members.

Subjects

Any and all subjects!* English, social studies, science, mathematics, physical education, English Language Learners

*All subject matters can use this activity to create a magazine. Science classes can cover key scientific discoveries in 2017 and P.E. teachers could create a magazine highlighting record-breaking sports accomplishments.

Estimated time

One 45-minute period

Grade level

7-12

Objective

Using Flipboard, an easy-to-use app that lets you curate your own magazine, students will create a list of their top 10 news stories from 2017 to share with classmates and family members .

Students' choice of articles will give others an opportunity to know a little more about their lives and what events mattered to them.
PBS NewsHour Extra would love to feature your students' magazines on our website. Share them with us at newshourextra@gmail.com!
Main activity

1. What's the main idea?
Since the end of the year is fast approaching, it's a good time for students to reflect on what news events from 2017. Let students know they will each create their own magazine made up of 10 articles from 2017 that impacted their life the most. Some events will come to mind right away, but others may take a little jogging.

2. Getting started

Students should sign up for a Flipboard account on their computers or smartphones. See privacy note below.*

Let students know that you'll be walking them through the steps so they wouldn't get lost. Students should help each other as well!
First off, a lot of storieswill appear on students' screens once they make an account. Ask students if they notice the three icons on the top right of each article. They are:

a red circle with a plus sign allows you to "flip" or add articles to your magazine

a heart sign which allows you to "like" the article

and an icon of an envelope in order to share the article with a friend via email or Twitter or Facebook.

3. Create your magazine
First, have students write a few lines about themselves for their account profile. Again, they do not have to use their real name.

4. Search for articles

Next, students should create their magazine by clicking on their account button (small circle in the upper-right corner of the page) and then hit "Create Magazine."

They should give their magazine an original title relating to the end-of-the-year and write a brief summary of their magazine. This will let their friends and family know what their project is about and why they included the articles they did.

Next, students should search for articles of events they want to include in their magazine by using the "Search" button in the top right-hand corner, which lets them browse by topics, sources and people.

In order to help jog students' memories as to what events took place over the last year, they can also check out the "Categories." A slew of articles will come up. Encourage students to take their time searching for articles that speak to them.

Remember in order to "flip" (a.k.a. include articles in their magazine) the article, students need to hover over it until they see the red circle with a plus sign. Click on it and add it to your magazine. See example here:

5. Add a caption to each article

Once students choose their 10 articles, they can go back to their summary and make any necessary edits.
6. Some tips on the layout

For each article, ask students to write down a caption that explains why they chose the article or how the story affected them.

To do this, students should click on their magazine and hit the "Edit" button at the bottom of the screen.

Hover over the article and you will see a red box that says "Click to edit." Hit that box and you will see space for a caption. Add a sentence or two explaining what interested you about the story.

Don't forget to click "Save."

In order to see the caption, click on your account located on the top right of the screen and click once more on your magazine.
To see the full caption, you'll need to click on "Add comment" in the bottom left of the article. You may need to remind your readers to do this, so they can see what you wrote. When others read your caption, they may wish to respond by clicking "Start the conversation."

7. Share away

If you'd like to change around the layout of your magazine, click on the magazine, and you'll see an "Edit" button in the bottom right corner. You will then see all of your articles on one page. If you hover over one article, you will see three icons in the top right corner:

an "x" which lets students delete a story

a box with a line to the left which allows students to promote the story to the cover of their magazine (this is a really neat tool!)

an arrow which quickly allows you to move the article to the front of the magazine

PBS NewsHour Extra would love to include your students' magazines on our website!

Once students have completed their magazine, they should share it with friends or family by clicking the "Share" button on the bottom right of the screen once they have opened up their magazine.

Have students check out two of their peers' magazines (organize a list so that everyone's magazine is read by at least two other students).

Students should browse through the topics and pick two articles to read from each magazine. They should read the caption and then comment on both articles.

After this activity, ask students to send a friend or a family member a copy of their magazine via email.

In the email, ask students to write a little note about the project and why they thought of sharing the magazine to that specific family member or friend.

If students would like to maintain some privacy on their magazine, it's possible to hide the magazine and just those with the link may view it.
To do this, open the magazine and hit "Edit" in the bottom right corner of the screen. On the left side, you will see an option that says, "Let Everyone See My Magazine" with a sliding tool to make the magazine discoverable or not.

Check with the student first and ask him/her to share the magazine with us at newshourextra@gmail.com. Specify which article stood out to you that you'd like us to highlight. You can also take a screenshot and send to Extra's Twitter feed using the hashtag #NHExtra2017

NOTE: Be sure to double-check your school's technology policy as well as Flipboard's own privacy policy. This is a good opportunity to hone students' digital literacy skills.
by Victoria Pasquantonio, PBS NewsHour education editor

While personal account information on Flipboard is kept private, you may want to ask students to create a pseudonym for their public profile name. Discuss with students why as the author of this lesson, my profile as a journalist and educator is public but why they may choose to keep their account private.

*Flipboard gives you the option of making magazines "Discoverable" (available for the public to see) or "Not Discoverable" (not available for the public to see)-more details on this below!

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Lesson plan: What 2017 news stories mattered most to your students? | Lesson Plan | PBS NewsHour Extra

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Back to lesson plans archive What news stories - good or bad - made a difference in your life from the past year? Try this interactive end-of-year activity leading up to the winter break for a look back at 2017.

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Being digitally literate is more than obtaining “isolated technological skills. It is about generating a deeper understanding of the digital environment, enabling intuitive adaptation to new contexts and co-creation of content with others"

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Being digitally literate is more than obtaining “isolated technological skills. It is about generating a deeper understanding of the digital environment, enabling intuitive adaptation to new contexts and co-creation of content with others"

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When I was a kid I thought we'd all be living on the moon by 2016, so the fact that I still don't even have one robot servant is pretty disappointing. However, every time I start thinking the 21st century doesn't feel enough like the future, I remind myself that my nine-year-old daughter takes LEGO Robotics programming classes at her elementary school, and suddenly it feels like maybe hoverboards aren't all that far away.

All over the world, kids as young as five and six are learning how to write their own software code, which is AMAZING. Some are self-taught and some are learning it in computer science courses at school, but regardless of how they're introduced to it, programming code has become something children are interested in, and that's very, very cool. And who can blame them? What kid wouldn't want to learn how to make their own video game, or design their own Minecraft mod? Coding has become THE cool new language that kids are dying to learn. (Take that, Latin!)

So, if you think your game-loving youngster might also love learning how to make their own games or code their own programs, here are some wonderful books that introduce kids to the basics of coding, programming, and writing their own software. You can thank us later when they grow up to become technology billionaires.

by John C. Vanden-Heuvel, Sr.

The game designers of tomorrow have to start somewhere, right? So, why not get your baby chewing on a board book that may actually teach them a thing or two about coding syntax? This adorably goofy primer will introduce your young reader to the very, very basics of HTML markup code - open tags, close tags, etc. There's even a follow-up board book, CSS for Babies, which will also let your toddler geek out about cascading style sheets!

by Linda Liukas

Originally launched as a Kickstarter project, which earned more than $380,000, this lighthearted, accessible introduction to the concepts behind coding reads more like a storybook than a computer programming guide. It follows an imaginative girl named Ruby who learns lessons about pattern recognition, computational thinking, and higher-level concepts vital to understanding coding. There are also several tie-in apps, online games, and additional information that will help your young Ruby fan learn more about taking a fantastic voyage into the wild world of writing software.

by Jon Woodcock

The subtitle of this engaging DK instructional book is "A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Games," and it definitely delivers what it promises. The book offers a compelling visual walk-through of using Scratch - a free programming language that many schools are using to expose students to the basics of coding - to create several different kinds of basic games. Your kids will love the book's Minecraft-esque graphic design, and you'll love how it makes Scratch into something even parents can understand. If your kid wants to stop reading about code and actually make something, this is the book for them.

by Jon Woodcock

Another title from astrophysicist Jon Woodcock, Coding Projects in Scratch offers 18 creative projects, all with step-by-step instructions that help kids learn essential coding basics. What kinds of stuff can they make? They'll learn how to code their own characters, animations, sound effects, and more. Today they're coding a dinosaur dance party, tomorrow ... who knows?

by Jason R. Briggs

Scratch isn't the only programming language kids are experimenting with these days. Python is another popular one, but most higher-level Python guides are about as exciting as tax-code documentation. Fortunately, this book really bends over backwards to make its information digestible and visually appealing to nervous new Python users. Briggs keeps the tone irreverent throughout, finding intriguing ways to keep kids' interest while talking about software coding concepts. A very well-executed guide to something very complex!

by DK

Does your kid like getting their hands dirty rather than just following along in a book? If that's the case and they have an interest in coding, you might want to try one of DK's awesome series of interactive coding workbooks. Each one offers a collection of exercises and projects designed to get kids using the concepts they're learning, reinforcing key coding concepts in a very hands-on way. These make great companion material for titles like Jon Woodcock's Coding Games in Scratch. Check out the workbooks in the series, including Computer Coding, Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook, and Coding in Scratch: Projects Workbook.

Is your kid a master coder? Can they make Minecraft do whatever they want? If they picked up any of their mad coding skills from a book or online resource, let us know in the comments below.

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Terrific Coding Books to Introduce Programming to Kids | Brightly

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When I was a kid I thought we'd all be living on the moon by 2016, so the fact that I still don't even have one robot servant is pretty disappointing.

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The essential elements of digital literacies: Doug Belshaw at TEDxWarwick