Digital & Media Literacy
In our media-saturated world, students need to develop a critical eye for the information bombarding them from all sides. Being able to tell fact from fiction, identify opinion and spot biases will go a long way to making sure our students grow up to be productive citizens in a just society.
The tools below will help you teach them the skills they need to thrive online.
The tools below will help you teach them the skills they need to thrive online.
commonsensemedia.org is my go-to place on the internet for movie, book, app and website reviews. They also have a wealth of digital citizenship lesson plans (my daughter came home talking about the "digital citizens") & even a pro-d course about digital citizenship. Be sure to click on For Educators at the top of the page to get info tailored to teachers.
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EasyBib has a host of resources for helping students spot fake news. From this great infographic to a website evaluation guide to a list of intentionally fake news articles (ever heard to the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus?), EasyBib can help you and your students learn to spot credible articles and websites. Check out all their guides here.

Educator and speaker Vicki Davis (aka Cool Cat Teacher) shares this list of things students really need to know about digital citizenship, including the "9 Key Ps". A great jumping off point to help you get started.

MediaSmarts is a great website for all things digital and media literacy for parents, teachers and kids. My personal favourites - the Break the Fake quizzes for kids (doesn't everyone want a house hippo?), games and, for teachers, outcomes listed by province & territory. There are teacher resources and lesson plans for subjects ranging from body image and gender representation to understanding algorithms and cybersecurity. No matter what you're trying to teach, you will find a lesson for it here,
Formerly Teaching Tolerance, Learning For Justice is a website dedicated to supporting teachers as they discuss, model and teach about race, class, ability, gender and more. Their digital literacy tools teach kids essential online skills through a social justice lens, with lessons such as "Participating in Digital Communities" and "Digital Activism Remixed". There are lessons and tools available for kids from K-12).
The News Literacy Project is a non-profit organization that aims to teach the skills needed to be "smart, active consumers of news and information". Their Checkology lessons, hosted by journalists, provide rich, engaging lessons for students in Gr 6-12 on a wide variety of media literacy topics. There is also the opportunity to connect your classroom with vetted journalists, a game-based media literacy app, a resource library, PD and more.