Is it true? Gr. 6 Media Literacy in Action

Media Literacy from BrainPOP

The Media Literacy BrainPOP movie states that “most kids spend more than half their waking hours consuming media.”   Hmmm?   That would mean about 7 or 8 hours per day!

This statement led Grade 6 students to ask themselves several questions . . . Where did BrainPOP get their information about this topic?   How did they get this information?  Does BrainPOP want us to believe something specific about time spent engaged with media based on this statement?   Is this a positive message or a negative one?  

Students did a Google Search and found many websites with both corroborating and differing information than that found in BrainPOP.  Many sites contained articles that were based on the same source:  the census conducted by Common Sense Media Media Use by Tweens and Teens 2019  

The infographic based on the census showed that teens spend 7 or 8 hours per day or more with media on their phones, but among TWEENS like them, the number of hours was on average, 4 hours and 44 minutes per day.

What is a census?  How was this information gathered? were some of the new questions that students wondered about.  We decided that Common Sense Media used surveys to get their information, and that we needed to do our own survey to see if this amount of time on media was true for our school’s Gr. 6 students.

First, we had to decide exactly what we meant by the term “media”?  We made a list and created a spreadsheet with the types of media students are engaged with during their week.   Not all students have phones of their own and not all of the media that students are engaged with (video games) are found on phones.   So, how to proceed?   Students agreed to include all media types that they are likely to use in their days, whether they were on phones or not, in their self-surveys:  reading, TV, YouTube, video games, music, social media apps and the internet.

Students then learned how to use the Google sheets app to create a pie chart representing their data.

Students also wondered about the days when they were not engaged with media due to sports commitments, parental controls, homework or other reasons.   Which days should they choose to report?  They ultimately decided to add up the hours per week that they were engaged in media and then divide that number by 7 to find the average time per day.

Lastly, students found the average time spent with media per day for their homeroom class and then they found the Gr. 6 average, which was 3.5 hours per day.

Next up in Media classes, we will be doing a deeper dive into YouTube.

ISTE Standard #3.   Students as knowledge constructors.  Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources; they create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions and they build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues. 

 

 

 

Digital Citizenship Week October 15-19 2018

Digital Citizenship Copyright © 2016 Marie Bou k12 inc.

What is digital citizenship?  

According to TeachThought, digital citizenship is “the self-monitored habits that sustain and improve the digital communities you enjoy or depend on.”

“Digital Citizenship prepares young people and adults alike to use digital media safely, confidently, and wisely”, according to Cyberwise.
 Common Sense Media  defines digital citizenship as way of being, thinking and acting online.

This fall in Library Media classes , students in Gr. 4 -6 participated in various learning activities that emphasized the importance of responsible digital citizenship.  Read on to see examples of digital citizenship in action in Library Media classes . . .

Gr. 4  – Our focus was on the digital citizenship concepts of  “digital footprints” and “media balance”.  Using videos from Common Sense Media as a stepping off point to class discussions, students reflected on their learning and understanding of these concepts with response activities assigned to them in Google Classroom.

The video, Follow the Digital Trail , reminds students to think before they post, to be aware that everything they post online is traceable and permanent, and to consider the effects of their posts on others.

Pixabay.com

The video, My Media Balance  explores the effect that our media choices can have on how we feel each day.  Media balance is “making healthy choices about what media you choose, when you choose it, and  how much you use it”.

Next, we are creating student online user accounts to WebRangers , a the National Park Service’s online site “for kids of all ages” as part of our larger research unit about U.S.  National Parks.  Students are learning how to create safe usernames, passwords and secret questions and answers, as they sign up to be WebRangers.

NPS.gov
ISTE Standard 2a
Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in a digital world.

 

Gr. 5 –  Students learned how to create a Google Drawing that demonstrated the main purposes of Google Drive (access, storage, creativity and sharing) while also demonstrating the importance of giving credit to to the author/owner of creative works, (in this instance, digital images) by linking any image that students use in their work to its public domain file address.

Google Drive for Education apps (G Suite) give students access to image files that have been labeled “fair for reuse”.  Students learned how to find the URL of each image they chose to add to their Google Drawing using the Google Drive image search tool, and then used the Google link tool to link the image to its online address.

If students could not find an image they wanted within Google Drive, they learned how to use the general Google Image search modifier tool, “labeled for reuse.”

Google Drawing by Suhaila Merhi

We also accessed My BrainPOP’s lesson resources, Copyright in a Digital World, to explore what fair use means (allows people to use copyrighted works without permission) and to learn when it’s necessary to give credit to the rights extended to the author of a creative work like a book, song, or piece of art.   Students used our schools’ subscription to BrainPOP to watch a video, take a review quiz and play an interactive game together (The Meaning of Beep).  Google Suites connection to engaging BrainPOP’s instructional and assessment tools (quizzes and games) provides educators with formative assessments and insight into their students understanding of the concepts they need to know.

Flicker.com

Gr. 6 –  In concurrence with their grade level Social Studies curriculum units for the fall, students learned how to create a Works Cited document in Library Media classes.  A works cited document is a list of citations in MLA format, from reputable information sources, that give credit to the information sources used in doing a research project.  Students accessed our school subscriptions to World Book Online, Research in Context, and Country Reports in order to find relevant articles, facts and media about countries of the world and hunter-gatherer peoples.  These resources provide the actual citation so that students simply need to find the citation and copy and paste it into their works cited documents.

Giving proper credit to information sources is an essential digital citizenship skill.

isu.libguides.com
ISTE Standard 2c
Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Information Literacy

I recently read an article by Elizabeth Mulvahill on the website We Are Teachers  posted on August 28, 2018 and have excerpted it below.

Information Overload from Chanty.com

“There is an infinitely greater amount of information available to our students than we ever had to deal with.

Think about it, you can find the answer to any question you have about practically any topic in the world in seconds via technology. The problem is, there’s SO much information available, it can be overwhelming. How do you discriminate between what’s important and what’s fluff? What’s true and what’s baloney? How do you know what sources to trust and where to look for proof? Learning to evaluate and prioritize information quickly and efficiently is one of the most important life skills we will ever teach our students.

In addition, with the landslide of information available, it may seem to our students like everything’s already been said. Our challenge is to teach them to sort through and use the best information to create original works and solve problems in innovative ways.”

At Spofford Pond School, a significant portion of students’ Library Media classes are dedicated to Information Literacy.    Students will be learning how to use trustworthy sources, apply effective search strategies and to look critically at the information they find in order to create understandings.

“In the complex technological world of today, education is no longer simply the acquisition of a body of knowledge. It is rather the ability to continually access and use a
vast array of information sources. The learner must be able to effectively evaluate these sources, combine them in meaningful patterns and react creatively to the results.
For a successfully educated individual, this mode of learning becomes a lifelong habit, since knowledge acquired today may be inadequate tomorrow, while the process of
searching out answers, once learned, will be a lifetime skill.”
—Rationale for Today’s School Library Media Center, MSLA

 

 

 

Media Kahoots!

“Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!”

Educators around the world have discovered the power of Kahoot in the classroom.  Kahoot engages students in a challenging, often highly competitive experience with their academic content.  All Gr. 5 students played an original Kahoot in their Media classes as an end-of-unit assessment.  Many students responded postively to this alternative way to “show what they know” about using Wikipedia as a source of information.   Click on the link below to view, and play! this Kahoot.

Gr. 5 Wikipedia Kahoot

In Gr. 6 Media, students first created their own class Kahoot questions about the various forms of media, both traditional and modern, based on their Forms of Media research projects.  Click on the link below to view and play Mrs. Sierpina’s class Media Kahoot.

Gr. 6 Mrs. Sierpina’s class Media Kahoot

 

Making Media

 

Media is all around us 24/7.  Every day the creators of media vie for our attention with advertisements,  commercials, videos, billboards, tweets, etc., using techniques that they think will appeal to us.

Grade 6 students researched the history of media, from the first published book to the latest social media platforms, Snapchat and Twitter. Then, they each produced an animated slide to demonstrate and share their learning.

Abiding by the “less is more” theory, students were limited to one image and five or six text boxes in which to present their information, so they learned to choose their images and words carefully for the greatest effect.

They also learned how to use the Google Presentation tools, Animations and Publish, effectively, so that the viewers of their shared media slides would know what to read and when to read it.  Too often, students (and adults!) create and present slides that are well-intentioned but ineffective because the slides are loaded with static text that does not appeal to viewers who are accustomed to more dynamic media.

ISTE Standards for Students 3.  Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

 

 

 

 

SEPAC Grant Awarded to SPS Media Center for Alternative Seating

Exciting news!  The Board of the Tri-town SEPAC has recently granted a request to fund two
Jellyfish Ball Chairs for use by all students in the SPS Media Center.

This grant is a part of a longer-range plan to provide students with more flexible seating and learning options than are presently available in the Media Center .  (For some formulating ideas about this initiative, see Converting the Library to a Learning Center) by Jennifer Gonzalez .

Jellyfish Ball Chairs are ergonomic seats that can reduce squirming and fidgeting.   They are designed to stimulate thinking and allow continuous, non-distracting movement.  Stability ball chairs, like the Jellyfish Ball Chairs, allow purposeful movement to strengthen students’ core muscles while increasing focus on school work.

Each classroom of students who have entered the Media Center this past week immediately noticed the chairs and have asked to try them.

After explaining the purpose of the chairs to students, a plan to allow each student time to experience learning while using the chair was implemented.

Feedback as to how this new seating option impacts students and their learning in the Media Center will be gathered  to determine whether additional seating of this type for the Media Center might be funded in the future.

 

Infographics

Grade 5 Google Drive

“Infographics are visually stimulating and force us to summarize well.”

from Matt Miller, Ditch That Textbook

Last year in Gr. 4 Media classes, students practiced their word processing skills using Google Docs.  In these docs, they shared their ideas about what Google Drive is and what it does. Classes then came up with a group-generated definition of Google Drive.

This year, in Gr. 5, as an introduction to the Google tool, Google Drawing, students took that definition and summarized it in an infographic.

The slideshow above is a compilation of one student-created infographic from each Gr. 5 classroom.

Students also created a slide that listed the URLs of each of the images they used in their infographics to demonstrate their understanding of attribution.

AASL Standard 2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.

 

September in Media

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The “New” Media Classroom

Due to changes in staffing and new space needs, we spent some time this summer moving the computer lab into the library.  Now, rather than having Media classes being held in two spaces, the lab and the library as it has been in years past, we have successfully combined two into one!

The students are excited about this change.  It will facilitate checking out books, while also allowing for  continued instruction in information and media literacies using both digital devices and print books.

Grade 3 students know how to log onto a Media classroom computer using their grade level username and password.  They are getting to know the keyboard using a fun, online typing program called Dance Mat Typing.  The game “4 Corners” has been an active way to learn and remember the types of books in our library and where they are located:  the fiction corner, the non-fiction corner, and the biography corner, as well as where to check out and return their library books (the circulation corner).

Grade 4 students have accessed their Google Drive accounts and created a word processing document in Google Docs.  The document is entitled, “What is Google Drive?”  We explored the three basic features of Google Drive; Access, Storage and Creation, and wrote about what these features mean for us as digital students using Google for Education applications.   Students have also joined my Grade 4 Media Google classrooms.

Grade 5 students have successfully uploaded a shared illustrated document to their Google Drive accounts by using a Media Google Classroom tool.  I created a document, Digital Citizenship/Using a Shared Device, as a visual reminder of how we should use shared devices in Media class and why it is important to be good digital citizens when using a shared device.

 We have also discussed using the Chrome web browser application on a shared device.  Students are not allowed to personalize the Chrome settings.   They can, however, temporarily create browser bookmarks  (shortcuts to websites) while working on a particular project, as long as they delete these bookmarks using the Bookmark Manager tool once the project is complete.

Grade 6 students were introduced to a new-to-our-school subscription resource, Country Reports, World.  This resource is a low cost, easy-to-navigate resource for students to use throughout the year while doing their their classroom assignments in Social Studies.  Students were given our school’s login and password information.   Among the features that Country Reports provides is a daily current events list of news reports culled from a variety of news sources from the United States and around the world, both traditional (e.g. Reuters, Fox, and New York Times) as well as many blogs and digitally-based news sources.

 All Students began checking out library books this week!

 

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Grade 6 Happenings

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Google Sites

By the end of Semester 2, all Gr. 6 students have worked with the following Google for Education apps in their Media classes:  Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google Slides and Google Drawings.

As an extension of our last unit, Evaluating Web Sites, students were encouraged to explore Google Sites, once they had completed their Google Classroom assignment.

To see an example of student work evaluating their favorite websites, click on the link above.

Tri-Town School Union Technology Learning Standards for Grades K-6 Standard 3. Demonstrate the ability to use technology for research, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
This standard:

  • focuses on applying a wide range of technology tools to student learning and everyday life;
  • aims to ensure that students will be able to use technology to process and analyze information;
  • is to help students develop skills for effective technology-based communication;
  • includes the use of technology to explore and create new ideas, identify trends, and forecast possibilities; and
  • aims to provide students with an awareness of how technology is used in the real world.