21st Century teaching – Page 2 – Media! Tech! Parenting!

21st Century life, 21st Century teaching, choosing reliable resources, credibility, democracy and digital life, digital kids, digital life, evaluating news, fake news, parents and technology, raising digital kids, teaching digital kids

How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?

Posted on April 10, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Screen Shot 2017-04-09 at 9.30.15 PM — Check out Google’s new fact check feature.

Teachers all over the country are sharing ideas about how to help their students identify news that is made-up, unsubstantiated, or just plain false. Now Google has added a feature that identifies false information that comes up on user searches. An April 7, 2017 article at the Pointer Journalism site describes Google’s new fact check in detail and explains how the company went about developing its new feature. You can also read the CNET article about Google.

I’ve been delighted by the articles, such as Five Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News, an NPR education article that describe how three teachers are incorporating media literacy activities into their curriculum. Plenty of other similar reports have appeared in various media. I hope that, somewhere, there is an organization that is archiving as many teacher ideas as possible. Continue reading “How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?” →

21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, American history, citizenship, connected learning, digital learning, frightening events, Japanese internment, Library of Congress

Japanese Internment in the U.S. — Information to Share With Today’s Students

Posted on February 3, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

dr3a35053 — https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a35053/

I have known six people whose families were forced to move into United States government Japanese internment camps. It’s been an honor for me and my family to listen to their stories — though not always easy to hear about or imagine the cruelty they experienced. The internment, a reaction to the war with Japan and called an evacuation by the United States government, began in 1942 and essentially imprisoned more than 117,000 people. Two-thirds of them were born as American citizens and over half were children,

February 19th, the day in 1942 that President Roosevelt signed an executive order known as the internment order, is a Day of Remembrance in many states. Educators and parents can use the day to understand more — and help 21st Century children learn more — about the internment of Japanese families during World War II. Today, as we deal with the challenges of increasing diversity in the United States and recognize our immigrant history, it’s more important than ever to understand what happened and why the United States now recognizes the internment policy as a mistake.

As U. S. President Gerald Ford said, “Not only was the evacuation wrong, but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans.” Continue reading “Japanese Internment in the U.S. — Information to Share With Today’s Students” →

21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital learning, fake news, media literacy, parents and technology

Video Visually Demonstrates Sharing Fake News vs. Checking It First

Posted on December 13, 2016December 13, 2016 by Marti Weston

A media company in Sweden, MetroSverige, shared this excellent video visualization that depicts the differences between checking on the validity of a piece of news and just sharing it without pausing to consider whether it or not it is fake news.

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, children and civility, citizenship, civility, democracy and civility, democracy and digital life, digital life, parents and technology, teaching civility

Teaching Civility to Kids? Excellent Resource @ WikiHow

Posted on December 10, 2016March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Civil behavior is a fundamental building block of our democracy, and throughout our history, both children and adults have strived — and occasionally struggled — to demonstrate it through their behavior. In our 21st Century connected world, civility has become even more difficult for many people to understand and attain because certain aspects of digital life can thwart many individual’s good intentions.

unnamed If you are seeking useful information about civility to share in your school or community, check out How to Teach Civility to Kids, over at wikiHow. The article is, in essence, a tutorial, explaining what adults should do to encourage young people to grow into civil and kind individuals, and it offers specific ideas for conversations and activities.

Parents and teachers spend an enormous amount of their time and energy focusing with children on why it’s important to become civil individuals and emphasizing that these principles are the same either online or off. Yet educators and adults need continuing support and guidance as they go about the work of promoting and upholding civility. Their challenges are encouraging kids to learn how to be respectful and how to disagree respectfully and demonstrating to children the importance of being polite, even when they don’t feel like it. Encouraging children to assist others and be kind anytime ensures that children understand much more about what it means to be civil. The wikiHow article offers information and help. Continue reading “Teaching Civility to Kids? Excellent Resource @ WikiHow” →

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, parents and technology, personal data, privacy

Are You Thinking Enough About Phone Apps & Personal Privacy?

Posted on November 23, 2016March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

It seems so simple when we install apps. Download, click agree and OK a few times, and use. But it’s not as simple as it seems because we may be unintentionally giving free access to lots of our data. When is the last time you read the user agreement before clicking “agree?” When was the last tune you made sure your 21st Century digital kid to read the agreement? The app install process is not that simple a process after all, because your data is valuable, and not just for you.

To learn more about what apps are inclined to do when you install them, check out a terrific privacy video (below) produced by Silentcircle.com, a company that makes secure communication products. Continue reading “Are You Thinking Enough About Phone Apps & Personal Privacy?” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century life, 21st Century teaching, citizenship, civics, civility, parents and technology

Post-Election Resources that Support Learning, Dialogue, and Understanding

Posted on November 15, 2016November 20, 2016 by Marti Weston

unnamed As an educator, parent, and grandparent, I’m heartbroken about the increase in hateful and offensive activities that so many children have witnessed, front and center, during the long months of the 2016 presidential campaign. Just how do we talk to kids when they’ve observed and heard so much?

I ask this question because we parents and educators know the actions to take (where to help and support others, places to volunteer, etc.), the values we want to model (kindness, respect, honoring differences, integrity), and the civics concepts that we need to be certain our students understand — but our task will far more difficult in the 2016 post-election world.

Below is a list or election response and media literacy resources that I’ve found especially useful this past week, materials that I selected because they offer ideas that we can use long-term, not just in the days following the election. Please be in touch if you find other resources that might be added to this list. Continue reading “Post-Election Resources that Support Learning, Dialogue, and Understanding” →

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital citizenship, digital devices, digital parenting, parents and technology, teaching digital kids

Starting Out With Digital Devices Is Just Like Learning to Swim

Posted on November 10, 2016March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

swim-meet The minute a child gets that first web-connected mobile device, the adults in the family commit themselves to extended digital life “swimming lessons.”

Young swimmers become increasingly competent and skilled while at the same time needing adult support, supervision, and occasional intervention. Twenty-first Century digital natives require the same parental attention and guidance as they learn to operate safely and adroitly in the connected world waters. Swimming and connected-world activities, though they require long-term adult oversight, help children explore the world around them and gain confidence, learn new things and grow their abilities, learn to make good decisions and yes, avoid making bad ones. The key to their success is adult support.

Continue reading “Starting Out With Digital Devices Is Just Like Learning to Swim” →