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Reading online is much different from reading print sources. Maria Konnikova's article clearly outlines these differences and their implications for learning and deep reading.

Her theory is that “there are so many possible sources, so many pages, so many alternatives to any article or book or document that we read more quickly to compensate.” She argues that it is  more tiring to read online. “Online, you can find yourself transitioning to entirely new layouts from moment to moment, and, each time you do so, your eyes and your reading approach need to adjust. Each adjustment, in turn, takes mental and physical energy.” (Konnikova)

Read the link below to learn more:

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Soon after Maryanne Wolf published " Proust and the Squid," a history of the science and the development of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first century, she began to receive letters from readers. Hundreds of them. While the backgrounds of the writers varied, a theme began to emerge: the more reading moved online, the less students seemed to understand. There were the architects who wrote to her about students who relied so heavily on ready digital information that they were unprepared to address basic problems onsite. There were the neurosurgeons who worried about the "cut-and-paste chart mentality" that their students exhibited, missing crucial details because they failed to delve deeply enough into any one case. And there were, of course, the English teachers who lamented that no one wanted to read Henry James anymore. As the letters continued to pour in, Wolf experienced a growing realization: in the seven years it had taken her to research and write her account, reading had changed profoundly-and the ramifications could be felt far beyond English departments and libraries. She called the rude awakening her "Rip van Winkle moment," and decided that it was important enough to warrant another book. What was going on with these students and professionals? Was the digital format to blame for their superficial approaches, or was something else at work?

Certainly, as we turn to online reading, the physiology of the reading process itself shifts; we don't read the same way online as we do on paper. Anne Mangen, a professor at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research at the University of Stavanger, in Norway, points out that reading is always an interaction between a person and a technology, be it a computer or an e-reader or even a bound book. Reading "involves factors not usually acknowledged," she told me. "The ergonomics, the haptics of the device itself. The tangibility of paper versus the intangibility of something digital." The contrast of pixels, the layout of the words, the concept of scrolling versus turning a page, the physicality of a book versus the ephemerality of a screen, the ability to hyperlink and move from source to source within seconds online-all these variables translate into a different reading experience.

The screen, for one, seems to encourage more skimming behavior: when we scroll, we tend to read more quickly (and less deeply) than when we move sequentially from page to page. Online, the tendency is compounded as a way of coping with an overload of information. There are so many possible sources, so many pages, so many alternatives to any article or book or document that we read more quickly to compensate. When Ziming Liu, a professor at San Jose State University whose research centers on digital reading and the use of e-books, conducted a review of studies that compared print and digital reading experiences, supplementing their conclusions with his own research, he found that several things had changed. On screen, people tended to browse and scan, to look for keywords, and to read in a less linear, more selective fashion. On the page, they tended to concentrate more on following the text. Skimming, Liu concluded, had become the new reading: the more we read online, the more likely we were to move quickly, without stopping to ponder any one thought.

The online world, too, tends to exhaust our resources more quickly than the page. We become tired from the constant need to filter out hyperlinks and possible distractions. And our eyes themselves may grow fatigued from the constantly shifting screens, layouts, colors, and contrasts, an effect that holds for e-readers as well as computers. Mary Dyson, a psychologist at the University of Reading who studies how we perceive and interact with typography and design online and in print, has found that the layout of a text can have a significant effect on the reading experience. We read more quickly when lines are longer, but only to a point. When lines are too long, it becomes taxing to move your eyes from the end of one to the start of the next. We read more efficiently when text is arranged in a single column rather than multiple columns or sections. The font, color, and size of text can all act in tandem to make our reading experience easier or more difficult. And while these variables surely exist on paper just as they do on-screen, the range of formats and layouts online is far greater than it is in print. Online, you can find yourself transitioning to entirely new layouts from moment to moment, and, each time you do so, your eyes and your reading approach need to adjust. Each adjustment, in turn, takes mental and physical energy.

The shift from print to digital reading may lead to more than changes in speed and physical processing. It may come at a cost to understanding, analyzing, and evaluating a text. Much of Mangen's research focusses on how the format of reading material may affect not just eye movement or reading strategy but broader processing abilities. One of her main hypotheses is that the physical presence of a book-its heft, its feel, the weight and order of its pages-may have more than a purely emotional or nostalgic significance. People prefer physical books, not out of old-fashioned attachment but because the nature of the object itself has deeper repercussions for reading and comprehension. "Anecdotally, I've heard some say it's like they haven't read anything properly if they've read it on a Kindle. The reading has left more of an ephemeral experience," she told me. Her hunch is that the physicality of a printed page may matter for those reading experiences when you need a firmer grounding in the material. The text you read on a Kindle or computer simply doesn't have the same tangibility.

In new research that she and her colleagues will present for the first time at the upcoming conference of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media, in Torino, Italy, Mangen is finding that that may indeed be the case. She, along with her frequent collaborator Jean-Luc Velay, Pascal Robinet, and Gerard Olivier, had students read a short story-Elizabeth George's "Lusting for Jenny, Inverted" (their version, a French translation, was called "Jenny, Mon Amour")-in one of two formats: a pocket paperback or a Kindle e-book. When Mangen tested the readers' comprehension, she found that the medium mattered a lot. When readers were asked to place a series of events from the story in chronological order-a simple plot-reconstruction task, not requiring any deep analysis or critical thinking-those who had read the story in print fared significantly better, making fewer mistakes and recreating an over-all more accurate version of the story. The words looked identical-Kindle e-ink is designed to mimic the printed page-but their physical materiality mattered for basic comprehension.

Wolf's concerns go far beyond simple comprehension. She fears that as we turn to digital formats, we may see a negative effect on the process that she calls deep reading. Deep reading isn't how we approach looking for news or information, or trying to get the gist of something. It's the "sophisticated comprehension processes," as Wolf calls it, that those young architects and doctors were missing. "Reading is a bridge to thought," she says. "And it's that process that I think is the real endangered aspect of reading. In the young, what happens to the formation of the complete reading circuitry? Will it be short-circuited and have less time to develop the deep-reading processes? And in already developed readers like you and me, will those processes atrophy?"

Of course, as Wolf is quick to point out, there's still no longitudinal data about digital reading. As she put it, "We're in a place of apprehension rather than comprehension." And it's quite possible that the apprehension is misplaced: perhaps digital reading isn't worse so much as different than print reading. Julie Coiro, who studies digital reading comprehension in elementary- and middle-school students at the University of Rhode Island, has found that good reading in print doesn't necessarily translate to good reading on-screen. The students do not only differ in their abilities and preferences; they also need different sorts of training to excel at each medium. The online world, she argues, may require students to exercise much greater self-control than a physical book. "In reading on paper, you may have to monitor yourself once, to actually pick up the book," she says. "On the Internet, that monitoring and self-regulation cycle happens again and again. And if you're the kind of person who's naturally good at self-monitoring, you don't have a problem. But if you're a reader who hasn't been trained to pay attention, each time you click a link, you're constructing your own text. And when you're asked comprehension questions, it's like you picked up the wrong book."

Maybe the decline of deep reading isn't due to reading skill atrophy but to the need to develop a very different sort of skill, that of teaching yourself to focus your attention. (Interestingly, Coiro found that gamers were often better online readers: they were more comfortable in the medium and better able to stay on task.) In a study comparing digital and print comprehension of a short nonfiction text, Rakefet Ackerman and Morris Goldsmith found that students fared equally well on a post-reading multiple-choice test when they were given a fixed amount of time to read, but that their digital performance plummeted when they had to regulate their time themselves. The digital deficit, they suggest, isn't a result of the medium as such but rather of a failure of self-knowledge and self-control: we don't realize that digital comprehension may take just as much time as reading a book.

Last year, Patricia Greenfield, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues found that multitasking while reading on a computer or a tablet slowed readers down, but their comprehension remained unaffected. What did suffer was the quality of a subsequent report that they wrote to synthesize their reading: if they read the original texts on paper or a computer with no Internet access, their end product was superior to that of their Internet-enabled counterparts. If the online readers took notes on paper, however, the negative effects of Internet access were significantly reduced. It wasn't the screen that disrupted the fuller synthesis of deep reading; it was the allure of multitasking on the Internet and a failure to properly mitigate its impact.

Indeed, some data suggest that, in certain environments and on certain types of tasks, we can read equally well in any format. As far back as 1988, the University College of Swansea psychologists David Oborne and Doreen Holton compared text comprehension for reading on different screens and paper formats (dark characters on a light background, or light characters on a dark background), and found no differences in speed and comprehension between the four conditions. Their subjects, of course, didn't have the Internet to distract them. In 2011, Annette Taylor, a psychologist at the University of San Diego, similarly found that students performed equally well on a twenty-question multiple-choice comprehension test whether they had read a chapter on-screen or on paper. Given a second test one week later, the two groups' performances were still indistinguishable. And it's not just reading. Last year, Sigal Eden and Yoram Eshet-Alkalai found no difference in accuracy between students who edited a six-hundred-word paper on the screen and those who worked on paper. Those who edited on-screen did so faster, but their performance didn't suffer.

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Soon after Maryanne Wolf published " Proust and the Squid," a history of the science and the development of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first century, she began to receive letters from readers. Hundreds of them. While the backgrounds of the writers varied, a theme began to emerge: the more reading moved online, the less students seemed to understand.

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This website explains the concept of digital footprint, tracing, and online privacy.

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Logging of MAC addresses is usually done only on the immediate router or host that provides the IP address to MAC address association. Although on some networks the MAC address is logged as well on some routers within the local network. The logs track the IP addresses used by specific hosts on the network and helps in routing the traffic on a network.

To get online on the internet you will need an IP address. Currently IP addresses are provided dynamically by computers (configured specifically for this purpose of giving out IP addresses) known as routers. Since no two IP addresses can exist on a network there has to be a way to track down assigned IP addresses. This is where the MAC address comes in. The MAC address of a computer is logged onto the router with the details of what IP address it has been assigned so that when an IP address will no longer be assigned to another computer. This means at any given time communication on the internet can be tracked down to the level of the actual computer.
Date/Time Access logs of Internet
Every time your computer accesses the internet, the logs will be recorded on your computer and on the internet access point. This gives access to a database of the user's computer and internet activities.
Visited IP Address Logs
Every time you browse a website, your IP address is recorded on the server that hosts the website. This is precious information for the website hosts as they can analyse your internet activity and use it, for example, for targeted advertisement.
Internet Services Access Logs
These are the log files that are kept by Internet service providers (ISP). All Internet traffic can be monitored by the ISP.
Device Name Logs on Router
Every time as a user you are connected to a router, your log details will be registered.
Browser History
The browser history displays the list of web pages a user has recently visited, with the exact page titles and times of the visit. It is recorded by web browser software as a default for a certain period of time. Anyone who has access to your computer is able to retrace which internet sites you have visited. This is especially the case when using a computer in a public space like an internet café.

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Trace my shadow is a tool that allows you to get a glimpse into the digital traces you're leaving - how many, what kinds, and from what devices.

Start by selecting the device and services that you use. See how many traces you leave and what you can do take control of you traces.

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Recommended by Jennifer Hubrecht

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Use these apps to encourage literacy using online sources.

Raz Reading, Headsprout, and Reading A-Z (https://www.raz-kids.com/)

Epic (https://www.getepic.com/)

Whooo's Reading (https://www.whooosreading.org/)

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Introduce your students to a daily searching challenge to hone their skills.

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Put your search skills and Google's tools to use. For instance, you can enter 30.891383, -102.885032 right inside the search bar, and learn that it's directly in the center of Ft. Stockton, TX. A quick Search for [Giant bird ft stockton TX] (or perhaps you're the adventurous type who'll "walk" there in Street View) and you'll have your bird: Paisano Pete.

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Welcome to the new daily puzzle from Google. There is no right way to solve it, but there's only one right answer. Find the answer with your creativity and clever search skills.

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This is a free curriculum available for teachers, organized by grade and topic. I have used almost all of their resources over the years - they are excellent! They include videos, discussion questions, worksheets, links, and other necessary resources.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Recommended by Jacqueline Bischoff

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Through the Wild Web Woods - A game by the Council of Europe based on the Internet Literacy Handbook

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Through the Wild Web Woods is an online game for teaching basic Internet safety in a fun and friendly fairy tale environment. The game is available in 14 European language versions. The game was supported by and created in the spirit of 'Building a Europe for and with children'.

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Digital literacy is about more than just being able to use technology.

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Digital literacy is about more than just being able to use technology.

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"As the lines between ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ media become blurred and digital technology becomes increasingly central for full participation in society, understanding of ‘digital competence’ has expanded from a focus on technical ability to include the broader social, ethical, legal and economic aspects of digital use."

Schembri, Natalie. "Module 6: Supporting Learners Through the Library: Digital and Media Literacy." LLED 462. University of British Columbia. Course Notes.

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Recommended by Jacqueline Bischoff

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ReadTheory | Reading Comprehension Exercises

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Reading comprehension exercises - online, free, & adaptive. Fits K-12, ESL and adult students. Easily track progress for the entire class.

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"In this Lab, you’ll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You’ll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers."

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Take cybersecurity into your own hands. In this Lab, you'll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You'll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers.

Video Intro About this Lab Educator Guide

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Take cybersecurity into your own hands by thwarting a series of cyber attacks.

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Google has created a complete curriculum, that includes lessons for everything from searching, to using technology, to digital citizenship, and a large variety of downloadable and video resources.

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Free, flexible and ready-to-use

Adapt our free, video-based lessons for remote or in-classroom teaching

Project-based curriculum

Students leave with a useful project, like a presentation, a resume or a research plan

Skills for school, work and life

Teach the 4 C's: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking

Connect with Google Classroom

Connect Applied Digital Skills with Google Classroom to import your roster and more

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Digital Teaching Tools - Applied Digital Skills

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Adapt our free, video-based lessons for remote or in-classroom teaching Students leave with a useful project, like a presentation, a resume or a research plan Teach the 4 C's: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking Connect Applied Digital Skills with Google Classroom to import your roster and more

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Recommended by Jacqueline Bischoff

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The National Crime Agency's CEOP Education team aim to help protect children and young people from online child sexual abuse.

We do this through our education programme, providing training, resources and information to professionals working with children, young people and their families.

I am:

Respecting me, you, us: building healthy relationships and creating positive cultures is a CEOP Education resource for 12 -14 year olds developed in association with clinical psychologist, Dr. Elly Hanson.

Under 18 and worried about online sexual abuse?
To report, click to visit the CEOP Safety Centre.

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The CEOP Education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Education Team aims to protect children and young people aged 4-18 from online child sexual abuse.

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Digital literacy embraces a wide range of competencies.

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Digital literacy embraces a wide range of competencies.

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Students need to develop skills to create, understand, use, and access digital information.

MediaSmarts. Digital Literacy Fundamentals. Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals.

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Have your students generate fake social media posts to practice their skills.

http://simitator.com/

http://www.prankmenot.com/

http://iphonefaketext.com/

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USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools

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USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools

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A digital framework, including detailed lesson plans with resources, organized by grade and topic. Created by MediaSmarts.

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In this section, teachers can access digital literacy classroom resources aligned with curriculum outcomes set out by their province or territory. Also included is a comprehensive study of the current state of digital literacy education in Canada.

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USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools

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In this section, teachers can access digital literacy classroom resources aligned with curriculum outcomes set out by their province or territory. Also included is a comprehensive study of the current state of digital literacy education in Canada.

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Recommended by Jacqueline Bischoff

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Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition quoted above can be used as a starting point to explore what key digital literacies are in a particular context eg university, college, service, department, subject area or professional environment.

Digital literacies encompasses a range of other capabilities represented here in a seven elements model:

Digital literacy as a developmental process

Literacy is about development so understanding digital literacy in this way is important; we acquire language and become increasingly proficient over time and eventually reach a level of fluency. Beetham and Sharpe's framework (2010) describes digital literacy as a development process from access and functional skills to higher level capabilities and identity. However, this will change depending on the context so it also reflects how individuals can be motivated to develop new skills and practices in different situations. A number of institutions have adapted and used the framework in their digital literacy projects (view via UK Web Archive).

Defining digital literacy in your context

This and other models are useful tools for raising awareness and engaging stakeholders in discussions around digital literacies to develop a shared understanding and goals. They also have a practical application to help map how these might be developed, supported and evaluated.

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Provides ideas and resources to inspire the strategic development of digital literacies - those capabilities which support living, learning and working in a digital society View this guide in its original infoKit format on Jisc infoNet (via Wayback Machine)Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital

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There are some key concepts to digital literacy:

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There are some key concepts to digital literacy:

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1. "Digital media are networked.

2. Digital media are persistent, searchable and shareable.

3. Digital media have unknown and unexpected audiences.

4. Digital media experiences are real, but don’t always feel real.

5. How we respond and behave when using digital media is influenced by the architecture of the platforms, which reflects the biases and assumptions of their creators."

MediaSmarts. Digital Literacy Fundamentals. Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals.

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This image touches on just a few things large internet companies know about every person. Go over it with your students, then have students check out their personal Google Ad profile here: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.

What does Google know about them personally? What is correct and what is wrong? What does this mean for personal privacy online?

Image: Stallone, John.  (April 9, 2016).  What google knows.  Retrieved from: http://imgur.com/5APbAcs. University of Texas.

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What Google knows about a common person! - Imgur

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Google's Be Internet Awesome Curriculum for Elementary Students

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Google's Be Internet Awesome Curriculum for Elementary Students

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Includes a game, curriculum, posters, and more tools for the classroom.

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The Be Internet Awesome curriculum gives educators the tools and methods they need to teach digital safety fundamentals. The materials developed by Google in partnership with iKeepSafe enable educators to bring the most critical teachings-and the excitement of Interland-into the classroom.

Included in the curriculum are lesson plans for the five topics, with activities and worksheets that were designed to complement Interland.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Align with ISTE Standards

Don't require any personal information or login

Can be used across devices

Are free for everyone

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We've created internet safety resources to make it easier for educators and students to incorporate and practice good digital habits in the classroom.

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Recommended by the Orange discussion group.

Once Upon a Time Online by David Bedford

UnPlugged by Steve Antony

Online Safety for Coders by Heather Lyons

The Technology Tail: a digital footprint story by Julia Cook

Ollie Outside: screen free fun by Michael Oberschneider

Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd

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Digital literacy is important for teachers and students

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Digital literacy is important for teachers and students

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"The more digitally literate our teachers are, the more they'll employ these skills in the classroom, which will in turn foster a strong sense of digital citizenship in our students."

They outline 7 reasons why digital literacy is important for teachers (and students):

1. Moving Beyond Google

2. Teaching Digital Citizenship

3. Closing the Digital Divide

4. Expanding Conceptions of the Digital World

5. Enabling Differentiation

6. Making Thoughtful Cultural and Platform Decisions

7. Improving the Technology

Levy, Leah Anne. (2018). "7 Reasons Why Digital Literacy is Important for Teachers." Retrieved from https://rossieronline.usc.edu/blog/teacher-digital-literacy/

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The meaning of "digital literacy" has shifted over the years. While there was a time when job candidates were encouraged to list "Proficient at Microsoft Word" on their resume, now such skills are considered standard. This shift toward a technologically savvy workforce has permeated the classroom as well.

It makes sense to assume that the more digitally literate our teachers are, the more they'll employ these skills in the classroom, which will in turn foster a strong sense of digital citizenship in our students. However, the importance and scope of digital literacy extends beyond this simple theory. Here, we've laid out seven reasons why digital literacy skills are important for today's teachers.

1. Moving Beyond Google

Google is a powerful tool. Students with access to a computer and the Internet are able to find the answers to not only simple questions, but also incredibly complex problems. However, there is a significant difference between Googling an answer and understanding why. Looking at Bloom's Taxonomy, we want students to gain the deepest level of understanding when faced with a problem.

Create: Produce new or original work; Evaluate: Justify a stand or decision; Analyze: Draw connections among ideas; Apply: Use information in new situations; Understand: Explain ideas or concepts; Remember: Recall facts and basic concepts

Simply Googling an answer does not provide students with true, deep learning. And while most students understand how to use a search engine, it is up to teachers to provide students with the additional skills to bring the answers to the next level.

There are several ways teachers can embed digital literacy skills into Internet searches:

Teach students to evaluate and question their sources. Students need to know the difference between a trustworthy and untrustworthy source.

Teach students how to draw a strong conclusion. Sure, students might find the right answer to a problem, but what use is that search if they've only memorized the logic to get them there? It's up to teachers to teach that logic and to contextualize the answer.

Push students to new levels of creativity. Once students have a deeper understanding of the answers they've found, push for creative application of that knowledge. This could be anything from challenging students to pose related questions to having students use other digital platforms to create something new. Examples include:

Again, digital literacy does not mean knowing how to use every piece of software students will encounter. Teachers should encourage students to seek out and learn the software they need to know in order to do what's required.

2. Teaching Digital Citizenship

Being a good digital citizen means understanding and applying appropriate and responsible uses of internet and technology. Two issues top the list when it comes to digital citizenship: academic plagiarism and cyberbullying.

Academic Plagarism

In a culture where students are constantly sharing content, they may not know what plagiarism is, let alone when they're doing it. Teachers should set clear anti-plagiarism policies at the beginning of each year.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place through the use of electronic technology, and is a pervasive issue in schools and online communities. And while today's students may be digital natives, they still need to be taught that social norms apply to online behavior. Resources should be in place to prevent cyberbullying and to help students who are being bullied.

3. Closing the Digital Divide

According to a 2014 report by the Federal Communications Commission, 31 percent of urban schools and 41 percent of rural schools do not have an Internet connection. Students in these schools struggle to take advantage of the tools, platforms, apps and resources available to their connected peers. But this digital divide isn't just in schools - there is also a lack of access to devices and broadband at home. The divide is pervasive and accentuates already destructive achievement gaps. Digitally literate teachers advocate for change and seek innovative solutions.

4. Expanding Conceptions of the Digital World

While students may be adept at using digital tools, their understanding of what these tools can do is often limited.

For example, students use Instagram to post photos but don't think to use the platform for art or history projects. They record themselves with a voice memo app but do not realize those apps could also be used for journalism projects or a historical narrative piece. Digitally literate teachers know how to inspire students to use today's technology as a powerful toolset to expand their learning opportunities.

5. Enabling Differentiation

Differentiation in the classroom is essential to meeting the needs of all learners, but it is time-consuming, especially for new teachers. Technology, when used creatively and correctly, can be used to mitigate those differences, such as in one-to-one classrooms. Teachers can lead the class through a lecture, while visual learners follow along with illustrations on their tablets and audio learners record the lecture for later review. Technology like this enables teachers to give their students choice in the kind of work they create for projects, such as a video, podcast or written story. Digital literacy is required in order to set the standards and boundaries for this kind of differentiation.

Digitally literate teachers also understand that it is less about the technology itself than it is about the tailored experience the technology can provide to each student. This is what drives differentiation and can make it powerful and highly targeted to students' individual needs.

6. Making Thoughtful Cultural and Platform Decisions

Teachers often receive mandates from administrations to use a particular technology product or app even though it doesn't make sense for their students. Good teachers know how their students engage and learn and can use that knowledge to push for technology that will unlock new teaching potential. This makes digitally literate teachers great advocates for the appropriate technologies. These skills become increasingly important in diverse classrooms in which students are bringing different cultural contexts into the mix. Both the content and the technologies chosen may vary in effectiveness given a student's familiarity with the tools and the various norms within their culture. A sensitive teacher will make digital choices that reflect these varied cultural contexts.

7. Improving the Technology

Teachers can offer important pedagogical and practical insights for edtech companies developing learning technology for students. Today "teacherpreneurs" are sparking teacher-based technological innovation - and they're drawn largely from the ranks of the digitally literate. Teacherpreneurs are teachers who see the need for digital solutions in their classrooms, and some take on roles where they coach other teachers on using technology as a powerful differentiation tool. As teachers master digital literacy with their lessons, they can collaborate with peers to share technology and work toward improving learning outcomes for their students.

Moving Forward

It is crucial that school and district administrators emphasize teacher digital literacy to avoid policies that simply mandate placing technology into the hands of students without thought for how that technology will be used.

Digitally literate teachers see technology for all of its creative potential, rather than something they are mandated to do in a step-by-step fashion. Digital literacy doesn't require that teachers become experts, but it does require that they understand the digital tools that can unlock their deeper teaching potential.
Graduate Degree Programs From USC Rossier School of Education
USC Rossier offers a range of online graduate degrees for aspiring teachers and experiences educators. Request information to speak with an admissions counselor.

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7 Reasons Why Digital Literacy is Important for Teachers

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Our shift towards a tech-savvy workforce has permeated the classroom. Here's your crash course in the importance of digitally-literate teachers.

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"Learn how to use technology and communicate online in a safe, responsible, and positive way."
Note: subscription needed.

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A collection of Digital Citizenship resources for grades 3-8, including animated movies, quizzes, activities, and learning games plus lesson ideas for educators.

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Microsoft has created a brief course to introduce students and teachers to digital literacy topics. They are currently updating their courses so I'll update this link when they're done.

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The Digital Literacy Certificate Test consists of 30 questions that cover key points from all five of the Digital Literacy courses. When you complete the test, you will get a Learning Plan with links to the course lessons you may need to review to master all of the topics.

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It is important for adults to embrace the digital tools their children/students are using.

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It is important for adults to embrace the digital tools their children/students are using.

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"Empathy is shaped by one’s community. You want teachers, aunts and uncles, coaches and other adults getting involved in young people’s lives and connecting with them online."

"Parents are giving mixed messages because they want to put a digital leash on young people but have no limits on their own behavior. We get so caught up in our imagination of the worst-case scenario. What we need to do is start the conversation on building bonds within a community."

Kang, C. (2014, March 5). Why all that time texting is good for your kids. A Q&A with author Danah Boyd. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/05/why-all-that-time-texting-is-good-for-your-kids-a-qa-with-author-danah-boyd/.

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"Join your favorite NetSmartz characters on a new adventure! “Into the Cloud” will be NCMEC’s flagship online safety product for children in grades K-3."

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Copyright © 2001-2019 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. All rights reserved. Animated Characters Excluding Tad and Tera Copyright © 2000-2019 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. All rights reserved.

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"Our resources for educators offer multiple ways to engage students, parents and communities in important lessons in digital citizenship and online safety.

Empower your students to be safer online with our free collection of teaching materials for families and students in grades K-12. "

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Copyright © 2001-2019 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. All rights reserved. Animated Characters Excluding Tad and Tera Copyright © 2000-2019 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. All rights reserved.

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Digital literacy is not the same as media literacy.

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Digital literacy is not the same as media literacy.

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"Although digital and media literacy both draw on the same core skill of critical thinking...media literacy generally focuses on teaching youth to be critically engaged consumers of media, while digital literacy is more about enabling youth to participate in digital media in wise, safe and ethical ways."

MediaSmarts. The Intersection of Digital and Media Literacy. Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/intersection-digital-media-literacy

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Videos, games, comics, quizzes, and other resources specifically for teenagers.

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These videos have been developed to introduce digital literacy and related topics to students.

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While MediaSmarts' research shows that teachers place considerable importance on teaching their students digital literacy skills such as authenticating information, managing privacy, addressing cyberbullying, and being safe online, evidence suggests this is not reflected in Canadian classrooms. The intent of these resources is to support teachers in implementing digital literacy into their teaching practice and to help them to develop digital literacy lessons and activities that suit their students' needs.

Digital Literacy Training Workshops

The Digital Literacy Training Program for Canadian Educators workshop provides an overview of essential digital literacy skills and key concepts of media and digital literacy, familiarizes participants with the digital experiences of Canadian youth, and introduces the resources and tools that are available through MediaSmarts' digital literacy framework.

Each workshop is available as a self-directed tutorial or as a downloadable PowerPoint presentation ideal for presenting to a group. The workshop is timed to take three hours if all of the activities are included. If the activities are abridged or conducted by the facilitator it can be reduced to roughly two hours.

Implementing Digital Literacy in the Classroom Guide

This Classroom Guide provides practical toolsto help K-12 teachers make digital literacy a part of their classroom practice. While the training workshops focus on the five key concepts of digital literacy, this implementation guide looks at the specific skill areas that MediaSmarts has identified as being essential for students to learn by the end of their secondary education: ethics and empathy, privacy and security, community engagement, digital health, consumer awareness, finding and verifying and making and remixing. The guide also addresses common challenges to integrating digital literacy into the classroom, such as limitations on available technology and classroom management concerns, and includes links to relevant MediaSmarts' and other resources, and apps and tools for creating digital media in your classroom.

Digital Literacy Key Concept Videos
These resources were developed with financial support from CIRA's Community Investment Program and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's CanCode Program. The funding also supported a series of free digital literacy training workshops conducted by MediaSmarts in faculties of education across Canada.

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While MediaSmarts' research shows that teachers place considerable importance on teaching their students digital literacy skills such as authenticating information, managing privacy, addressing cyberbullying, and being safe online, evidence suggests this is not reflected in Canadian classrooms. The intent of these resources is to support teachers in implementing digital literacy into their teaching practice and to help them to develop digital literacy lessons and activities that suit their students' needs.