Teach1-1: digital literacy

Showing posts with label digital literacy. Show all posts

Thursday, 22 September 2016

Internet Security and Safety

At a recent staff PD session we discussed Internet security and safety. The below videos give some insight to the dangers we face should we not take the necessary electronic precautions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk2RPOBpZvc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1F8sHjCBx0

Stay safe on public Wi-Fi

1) Only join trusted networks and then be sensible about what you do while away and online

2)

Make sure your Firewall is on

3) Turn off file sharing

4) Avoid using specific websites on public Wi-Fi ( Banking and personal (Facebook, Twitter, webmail) sites are most at risk since these are the type of websites hackers want access to )

5) Turn off Wi-Fi when you are not using it.

Some other things to remember

Have a proper password - at least 8 Characters long; includes numbers, capitals and symbols e.g. eX@mpl3! How safe is your password? https://howsecureismypassword.net/
Keep your operating software and programmes up to date. These updates patch vulnerabilities within the operating system and guard your machine against exploits.
Make sure your machine is adequately protected against viruses. We use FSecure at the school and can highly recommend it.

Be aware of...

Saving Credentials: You should perhaps only use auto-complete and save your credentials on your own device i.e. don’t do this on any machine that is not your own

Pros

Remembering login credentials for you is convenient
Absolutely safe to do for non-critical sites e.g. No banking sites

Cons

Credit card numbers, email addresses, passwords and usernames can become vulnerable to attacks
You're likely to forget your passwords if you never have to type them in If you leave your laptop unattended and unlocked, then anyone can retrieve your saved passwords
Fake websites can fool your browser into providing stored login and form data

Ad blocking to prevent click-bait
Install Ad Block Plus plugin for your browsers – Ad block Plus blocks those annoying and maliciously deceptive advertisements found on many of the most popular websites today making browsing faster and safer.

- Adblockplus is available on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Common ways a PC or laptop get infected (virus/Malware/Spyware)

Accepting installation prompts without reading (An Internet advert or window pops-up that says your computer is infected with a virus and needs to scan or that software is required for you to install in order to download something. Or you agree to ‘free software’ that has check-boxes already checked to install additional applications bundled with your download. DON'T accept such prompts. )
Visiting / Downloading software/movies/music/pictures from unreliable or illegal sources (Many modern viruses can be hard-coded into the website data which is downloaded into your temporary internet files automatically just by loading the webpage.)
Opening email attachments without knowing who they are from and why you have been sent them. Always double check the sender’s email address and confirm that the mail is relevant.
Plugging infected USB sticks and external hard drives into your laptop without scanning them first.

Friday, 17 October 2014

33 Digital Tools that all teachers should know

Sourced from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

Every single teacher is concerned about his/ her teaching practices and the skills involved in this process. How many times have you wondered about a better way to teach the same lesson you have delivered to an earlier class? How often have you used technology to engage your students and improve their learning ? These are some recurring questions we keep regurgitating each time our teaching skills are put to the test.

It is amazing how technology has changed the whole world giving rise to new forms of education we never thought of. Our students are more digitally focused than any time before. They spend more time interacting with their mobile devices than they do with their parents or close relatives. Admittedly, this digital boom has both positive and negative impact on our students. Lack of concentration, short attention span, distraction, visual stimulus overload, identity theft, lack of real world socializing, privacy issues, depression, and many more are but a direct result of the growing exposure to this technology. Studies have even proved that multitasking, which some educational technology experts brag about in relation to the use of today's technology, reduces the power of our concentration to the half. We should not, However, only look at the empty side of the cup, the other side is way bigger.

There are actually several pluses for the use of technology in education and to try and list them all here is way beyond the scope of this short post. Generally speaking, no two argue over the fact that technology advantages in education ( and in our life at large ) way outnumber its downsides. It is thanks to technology that you are now reading this post and will probably share it with your colleagues.

There is no blinking the fact that the type of students we teach today are completely different from last century's. We , definitely, need to look at some of the skills we, as teachers, need to equip ourselves with to better live up to the challenge. Among all the challenges we would have in education, there is not as daunting a challenge as catching students focus and getting them engaged in the learning process. For this particular reason, and in addition to the skills I initially mentioned in 21st Century Teaching Skills article, I would like to provide you with another list of some equally important digital skills that you, as a teacher, need to seriously consider if you want to pave the way for the 21st century teaching. I have added a list of web tools under each skill for teachers to better exploit it.

Please, remember that I have spent many laborious hours working on this post and all I ask is a credit back to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning when re-using this content somewhere else.

The 21st century teacher should be able to :

1- Create and edit digital audio

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Audio Tools for Teachers

2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers

3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class

4- Exploit digital images for classroom use

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

5- Use video content to engage students
Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

6- Use infographics to visually stimulate students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

7- Use Social networking sites to connect with colleagues and grow professionally

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

8- Create and deliver asynchronous presentations and training sessions

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of The Best Presentation Tools for Teachers

9- Compile a digital e-portfolio for their own development

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Tools to Create Digital Portfolios

10- Have a knowledge about online security

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

11- be able to detect plagiarized works in students assignments

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Plagiarism Detector Tools fr Teachers and Educators

12- Create screen capture videos and tutorials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Five Great Screen Capture Tools for Teachers

13- Curate web content for classroom learning

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
10 Must have Bookmarklets for Teachers

14- Use and provide students with task management tools to organize their work and plan their learning

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Great Task Management Tools for Educators

15- Use polling software to create a real-time survey in class

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
15 Free and Easy Poll/ Survey Tools for Teachers

16- Understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

17- Exploit computer games for pedagogical purposes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

18- Use digital assessment tools to create quizzes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes

19- Use of collaborative tools for text construction and editing

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Great Free Collaborative Tools for Educators

20- Find and evaluate authentic web based content

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
The Three Effective Ways Teachers Should Know about

21- Use of mobile devices like tablets

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

22- Identify online resources that are safe for students browsing

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Awesome Kids-safe Websites

23- Use digital tools for time management purposes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

24- Learn about the different ways to use YouTube in your classroom

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

25- Use note taking tools to share interesting content with your students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

26- Annotate web pages and highlight parts of text to share with your class

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
13 Free Web Annotation Tools for Teachers to Draw, Add notes, and highlight interesting parts in webpages

27- Use of online graphic organizers and printables

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Free Graphic Organizers for Educators

28- Use of online sticky notes to capture interesting ideas

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
13 Free Sticky Notes Tools for Teachers and Students

29- Use of screen casting tools to create and share tutorials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of The Best Free Screen Casting Tools for Teachers to Record and Share Tutorials

30- Exploit group text messaging tools for collaborative project work

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
9 Free Group Text Messaging for Educators

31- Conduct an effective search query with the minimum time possible

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
The Entire Google Search Guide for Teachers

32- Conduct A Research Paper Using Digital Tools

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

33- Use file sharing tools to share docs and files with students online

A List of The Best File Sharing Tools for Teachers

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Terms, Laws and Ethics For Using Copyrighted Images

We all like to use images in our presentations and projects to make them more visually appealing. We need to make sure that we correctly reference any images belonging to someone else and that we use the images according to legal and ethical standards. Follow these links to find out more about what you can and can't do with images: copyright, fair use, creative commons, and public domain.

Curtis Newbold created a useful guide and infographic to help explain the do's and don'ts.

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Cyber Savvy - things Parents, Pupils and Teachers should be aware of

Digital Citizenship is the combination of technical and social skills that equip people to live and work in our highly technical, modern world. Digital literacy is an essential component in raising confident, connected, and actively involved life long learners.

The below site provides some useful links to things we may already understand but may need more information about http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/a-must-have-list-of-resources-on.html

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Internet and technology concerns

Last night many of us attended the presentation on cyber safety at the Prep. There are many perspectives on how to deal with technology access and loads of wonderful tools to help younger children from accidentally stumbling upon unsuitable and harmful material.

One example is Youtube Safety. Another example is K9 Browser, a safe way for your sons to browse the Internet. Mobiflock is another tool that parents may want to use. We have put together a site that addresses some of the issues around online safety and offers tips on digital citizenship.

Parents often share with me their concerns regarding their son’s technology usage at home. My advice is always that you talk to your sons and build a trust relationship. Set the parameters - up front - about what reasonable and appropriate technology usage means in your home. One parent told me that before he gave his son his phone they had agreed that he, as the parent and technology sponsor, had the right to ask his son to make his phone / iPad / laptop available for a spot check that they would do together. It worked both for the parent who was comfortable that he had retained some control and for the son, whose privacy was respected and sense of responsibility and independence acknowledged. Do not forget that you control the Internet connection in your home! I came across the image above. Perhaps give that a try?

Facebook

This site offers recommendations for Facebook setting for teenagers. Talk about what it means to have a digital profile and to think before you post.

Thursday, 23 May 2013

5 Great Tools for Creating your own Educational Infographics

Infographics is a way of communicating visually with your students. Many students tend to be more visual learners and this is an effective way to explain and communicate complex concepts in a graphical way.

Here are 5 useful on-line tools that teachers can use to create their own infographic and transform the learning process for their students.
Emerging Edtech Article on Inforgraphics Tools

Friday, 23 November 2012

How to do research using the Internet?

Information overload is the challenge our users face when using the Internet for research purposes.

Which sites will provide you with accurate, non-biased, up to date and relevant information for a project you have been set? Effective internet research skills forms part of our digital literacy programme and we have a responsibility to guide our students to become internet-savvy users.

There are many websites, on-line journals etc, that we can recommend to our students as being useful for academic research purposes. Various on-line encyclopedias are also available and some of which we subscribe to. These are often recommended as your first 'port-of-call'.

Teaching our students to critically evaluate the website content to establish the authenticity of the information therein, using various techniques, is another way in which to develop research skills.

Once information from a website has been used, it is important for the students to reference or cite their resource accurately to avoid plagiarism. Simply copying text and pasting it into a project is just not good enough and the student must face the consequences of plagiarizing other people's work. The format for referencing sources varies according to the type of resource. The students must be made aware of different referencing systems, such as the Harvard referencing system, which is most often used in our tertiary institutions.

Avoiding plagiarism, copyright issues etc are just some of many other aspects of becoming digitally savvy and must form part of our digital literacy programme. It is important that our students leave the school well-prepared for the requirements of tertiary institutions. This topic will be expanded upon in future posts.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Cyberbullying and On-line Relationships - Advice for Parents

The information for this post has been sourced from www.commonsense.org, a website that provides resources for teaching Digital Literacy and responsible online citizenship to students.
It also contains useful information to parents about online safety for their children and advice on how to engage your children in conversations about their online image and cybersafety.

I recommend that you take a look at the content of this site to help you as parents become more informed on this often sensitive topic.

Turn wired students into great Digital Citizens

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators

Get all the tools you need with our FREE Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum and Parent Media Education Program. The relevant, ready-to-use instruction helps you guide students to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world where they live, study and play. ...

Common sense Media - Digital Literacy Programme

Use our new Scope & Sequence tool to find the lessons that are just right for your classroom. These cross-curriculular units spiral to address digital literacy and citizenship topics in an age appropriate way. Browse by grade band or click a category to highlight the lessons that address that topic. You can download a PDF of the new Scope & Sequence here. Read more about the recent updates to the curriculum in our blog.

Online Resources for Educators

www.commonsense.org/educators