The biggest area that I can immediately apply to my students is the first step in learning how to find reliable information from a Google search. This is something that I know I learned in high school how to do and I still have to practice it in my daily life. I often see students doing Google searches for a project in school and are often times clicking on the first available link or even just scrolling down to the section where Google answers the question for you and you don't even have to read any further. It is truly a life skill to know how to search on Google to find reliable and true information and to be able to sort through "fake news" or even pages that have entirely fake information. This would be a highly important step to teach on and make sure students know how to comb through results appropriately.
Another important step to integrate in my instruction is the ability to think of critical thinking in terms of online search results. Again, in looking at search results, students may start to read pages that they come across and start to think that these results are true and the opinion of this article must be correct, but we have to teach students to sometimes think a little more critically about the information that the internet can give us. It's important to recognize that the information on the internet might be someone's opinion and while we can always take that into account, if we need facts or details about a research topic then we might need to continue researching. If we are looking for opinion statements then we can utilize that area of the internet. I think the overall lesson is to teach our students how to be critical thinkers of all information that they come into account with!
In looking at the Grades 4-6 standards, I can easily see myself implementing DL.2 ("Select appropriate digital tools to communicate and collaborate while learning with others"), DL.3 ("Conduct and refine advanced multi-criteria digital searches to locate content relevant to varied learning goals), and DL.4 ("Use a variety of digital tools and resources to create and revise digital artifacts"). In the elementary classroom where we primarily use Lucy Units of Study, we have become creative with how we sometimes do final project, often putting them on technology platforms where all students can collaborate and share each other's final pieces. In my stand-alone ENL time I need to do a better job in integrating some of these digital literacy standards and just making it a more natural part of my curriculum. This would also give students a portfolio to build upon so that in their Google Drives by the time they are in middle or high school, they can look back on all the work that they have done and see the growth themselves in their learning.
Another important step to integrate in my instruction is the ability to think of critical thinking in terms of online search results. Again, in looking at search results, students may start to read pages that they come across and start to think that these results are true and the opinion of this article must be correct, but we have to teach students to sometimes think a little more critically about the information that the internet can give us. It's important to recognize that the information on the internet might be someone's opinion and while we can always take that into account, if we need facts or details about a research topic then we might need to continue researching. If we are looking for opinion statements then we can utilize that area of the internet. I think the overall lesson is to teach our students how to be critical thinkers of all information that they come into account with!
In looking at the Grades 4-6 standards, I can easily see myself implementing DL.2 ("Select appropriate digital tools to communicate and collaborate while learning with others"), DL.3 ("Conduct and refine advanced multi-criteria digital searches to locate content relevant to varied learning goals), and DL.4 ("Use a variety of digital tools and resources to create and revise digital artifacts"). In the elementary classroom where we primarily use Lucy Units of Study, we have become creative with how we sometimes do final project, often putting them on technology platforms where all students can collaborate and share each other's final pieces. In my stand-alone ENL time I need to do a better job in integrating some of these digital literacy standards and just making it a more natural part of my curriculum. This would also give students a portfolio to build upon so that in their Google Drives by the time they are in middle or high school, they can look back on all the work that they have done and see the growth themselves in their learning.