The first part of the session was a sharing session. Each member of the group shared something they had done in the last month related to digital literacy.
Scratch for kids: This program can be downloaded onto a computer and is a great place to create and share music, art and stories. This website provides a programming language for kids.
Pic-Lits: This website is a great place to go for pictures that inspire poetry. There are word choices under the picture that can be dragged and dropped right onto the picture to create a poem or description.
Students can also create their own piece of writing using embedded word bank and can also use the images as writing prompts or as discussion starters.
Audio Boo: This is a mobile or web platform that allows you to record and share audio.
Book Creator: A great app for making ebooks, such as 'Looking Very Closely' books whereby students take close-up photos of objects and describe them.
imovie: One class used imovie to sum up their understanding of an independent novel study by creating book trailers using video footage and images from the novel.
iPad Camera- Take videos of students performing gymnastic routines and have them watch themselves as a way of giving feedback. Students can also assess their own routines when focussing on assessment as learning.
Skitch: Skitch is a program that provides a place for photos to be shared and annotated. These photos can be put into skitch where the gymnastics routines can be annotated.
Wall Wisher: Wall Wisher gives blank pages or walls that can be filled with bookmarks, a place to organize or to teach. Create boards of post-it notes. The notes can be saved an organized.
Just like when we were in school. students need to to have the skills to search for information. But the tools that they use have changed dramatically.
Locating the information is only the first step in the process of finding information. Students must be taught to evaluate the information that they find. The second part of the session was how to find information and the many tools that are available when searching.
Good place to start is an encyclopedia as students don't know the outer limits of their topics.
- using an encyclopedia focussed the students on their topic and helps them narrow their ideas to something specific (if needed).
- starting a search online can provide too many distractions for students as it is very easy to goo off on a tangent and end up at websites that have nothing to do with their original topic.
- using books or encyclopedias also provides prior knowledge as background information before delving into online information.
Magazines on EBSCO: This is a great place to find differentiate texts (e.g. scholastic news magazines have the same magazine articles at grade 1-6 reading level).
Wikipedia: Wikipedia is written by anyone who wants to contribute and has become the most frequently used encyclopedia resource in the world (source: Literacy 2.0). The good thing about Wikipedia is that it updates in real time and this trumps encyclopedias that sit on shelves. Wikipedia can be a good place to start because it gives you a reasonably accurate overview of the topic. Using the gradual release of responsibility and taking time to explore and discuss Wikipedia is important. Don't forget about Simple Wikipedia which is great English Language Learners and elementary students. Simple Wikipedia provides less details at a less complicated reading level using more basic vocabulary.
Search Engines for Elementary Students (thanks to Janice N. for providing information about search engines):
Boolify www.boolify.org
A search engine that shows students how to conduct an effective search by dragging and dropping search keywords and Boolean operators. Search results are continually modified as new search terms are added. This site really helps students to see the process of effective searching.
Kids are able to use and/or to limit and extend searches
KidRex (www.kidrex.org) It is a google custom search engine using Google Safe Search technology. This is a basic search engine suitable for primary students and the linked websites are educationally relevant and “safe.”
Ask Kids (www.askkids.com) is a popular student-friendly search engine. It has a specialized search tools to help students refine their searches.
World Book Online (www.worldbookonline.com) is an online encyclopedia with multi-media entries. Can translate text to different languages.
A great Google game- Do a search that gives 50 hits (teach the students how to machete down their results to the specific number of good hits). This game speaks to the power of pre-reading information before doing an online search.
Diigo: Diigo is a social bookmarking website. Members of Diigo are able to to book mark and tag webpages of interest. This research tool that encourages its community to share knowledge, ideas and websites. When you go to a website, add it to your list of bookmarks on diigo by clicking on the diigolet button that can be placed in your browser bar.
Any tips to share about the eternal search? Please share in the comment section.
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