Media & Information Literacy For Teachers

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  • Home
  • Introduction
  • Modules
    • Module 1 : Citizenship, Freedom of Expression and Information, Access to Information, Democratic Discourse and Life-long Learning
      • Unit 1: Understanding Media and Information Literacy – An Orientation
      • Unit 2: MIL and Civic Participation
      • Unit 3: Interactive with Media and Other Information Providers such as Libraries, Archives and the Internet
      • Unit 4: MIL, Teaching and Learning
    • Module 2: Understanding the News, Media, and Information Ethics
      • Unit 1: Journalism and Society
      • Unit 2: Freedom, Ethics and Accountability
      • Unit 3: What Makes News – Exploring the Criteria
      • Unit 4: The News Development Process – Going Beyond the 5Ws and 1H
    • Module 3: Representation in Media and Information
      • Unit 1: News Reporting and the Power of the Image
      • Unit 2: Industry Codes on Diversity and Representation
      • Unit 3: Television, Films, Book Publishing
      • Unit 4: Representation and Music Videos
      • Unit 5: Digital Editing and Computer Retouching
    • Module 4: Languages in Media and Information
      • Unit 1: Reading Media and Information Texts
      • Unit 2: The Medium and the Message – Print and Broadcast News
      • Unit 3: Film Genres and Storytelling
      • Unit 4: Camera Shots and Angles – Conveying Meaning
    • Module 5: Advertising
      • Unit 1: Advertising, Revenue and Regulations
      • Unit 2: Public Service Announcements
      • Unit 3: Advertising – the Creative Process
      • Unit 4: Advertising and the Political Arena
      • Unit 5: Transnational Advertising and ‘Superbrands’
    • Module 6: New and Traditional Media
      • Unit 1: From Traditional Media to New Media Technologies
      • Unit 2: Uses of New Media Technologies in Society – Mass and Digital Communications
      • Unit 3: Use of Interactive Multimedia Tools, Including Digital Games in Classrooms
    • Module 7: Internet Opportunities and Challenges
      • Unit 1: Young People in the Virtual World
      • Unit 2: Challenges and Risks in the Virtual World
    • Module 8: Information Literacy and Library Skills
      • Unit 1: Concepts and Applications of Information Literacy
      • Unit 2: Learning Environments and Information Literacy
      • Unit 3: Digital Information Literacy
    • Module 9: Communication, MIL and Learning – a Capstone Module
      • Unit 1: Communication, Teaching and Learning
      • Unit 2: Learning Theories and MIL
      • Unit 3: Managing Change to Foster an Enabling Environment for MIL in Schools
    • Module 10: Audience
    • Module 11: Media, Technology and the Global Village
      • Unit 1: Media Ownership in Today’s Global Village
      • Unit 2: Socio-Cultural and Political Dimensions of Globalized Media
      • Unit 3: Commoditization of Information
      • Unit 4: The Rise of Alternative Media
    • Module 12: Freedom of Expression Toolkit
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Home / Modules / Module 8: Information Literacy and Library Skills / Unit 3: Digital Information Literacy

Module 8: Information Literacy and Library Skills

Unit 3: Digital Information Literacy

Duration: 3 hours

KEY TOPICS

  • The nature of online information
  • Exploring computer hardware and software
  • Copyright laws in the digital information age. Protecting computer software and electronic data
  • Digital services, including machine translation, speech to text and audio transcription;
  • Learning via the Internet (i.e. e-learning)
  • Digital preservation and digital formats

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit, teachers should be able to:

  • Describe digital vs analogue, including the creation, storage, transportation, distribution and preservation phases of digital information
  • Use the basic capabilities of productivity tools for word processing, file storage, access to remote information sources, and interpersonal communication
  • Use information technology to re-define many aspects of academic and personal experience
  • Understand and apply copyright laws including creative commons and copyright licensing
  • Search online using the relevant techniques (search engines, subject directories and gateways)
  • Understand the role of information providers (e.g. as libraries, museums and archives in preserving digital information)

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES

  • Storing information in a digital format, enable is to be accessed using a wide range of devices, unlike other forms of analogue information. This flexible access makes digitalization important and also underlines the need for digital skills to be learnt with information skills. Essentially, digital literacy includes analyzing, locating, organizing, evaluating, creating and using information using digital technology. Discuss the advantages of having information in a digital format (effective transmission, storage, search, manipulation, cross compatibility, etc.)
  • If teachers have limited or no knowledge of computers and software, plan a series of computer lab sessions (physical or virtual). Guide the teacher to become familiar with the basics of hardware, software, networks and servers. This could also include basic keyboard and mouse skills, file types and filing. Teachers should also be exposed to the basics of open-source software and low-cost technology. Provide teachers with a list of proprietary software and popular computer hardware devices. Ask teachers to search the Internet and list at least two examples of free open-source software and low-cost computer hardware devices with similar functionalities to each of the proprietary tools selected. Critically assess the possible advantages and disadvantages of each
ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

  • Search the Internet and other online resources, such as databases and e-libraries to gather information on a specific research topic. Reduce the information sources to fit the purpose of your search. Look for key words, logical operations (e.g. ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘and’) and determine which work best and why
  • Produce an activity plan or a set of activities to get students to use various digital media resources to prepare a project, assessment or homework. Discuss features provided by new technologies for people with disabilities to access digital information (e.g. web accessibility and the creation of digital documents in accessible formats)
  • Study an Internet site used to deliver a course on teacher education or any other educational programme. Review how this information is organized and accessed on the site. What online digital information resources are being used? How are digital resources integrated with course materials? Practice using this site and discuss how useful it could be to learning and what the limitations are. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages
  • Visit various ‘blogs’ and ‘wikis’, which are put together by individuals or a collaboration of individuals. What kind of information exchange is happening on these online media? What purpose does the information serve? Who provides the information? What do you think their motivations and motives are?
  • Visit an educational wiki site and analyze how it delivers its course or curriculum. Set up a wiki site on a topical issue in education (e.g. improving reading and basic numeracy skills in early primary school). Organize a discussion forum for a teacher training assignment on the wiki, and review the benefits and limits of sharing information using this platform
  • Experiment writing a blog on a topic related to education in your country. This should be a topical issue that will attract interest and response (e.g. improving educational access at primary or secondary level for the poorest in society, diversifying access to information for secondary school students to improve quality of learning, why the poor are getting poorer in an age of increasing knowledge and information, etc.)
  • Discuss which digital information, from students’ point of view, should be preserved? What are the major selection criteria and available technical solutions, and how can sustainability be ensured? What are other aspects of this preservation issue?
  • Identify international instruments available for the preservation of digital information (e.g. UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage, digital archiving and preservation guidelines)
    • Visit the World Heritage Library website.
    • Discuss the importance of preservation and promotion of documentary heritage within the context of a natural disaster, such as the Haiti earthquake, and discuss the work to be done by archivists from the National Archive of Haiti. Find an article that illustrates a situation in Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010
    • Ask students why web archiving is needed and how it is done
  • Unit 1: Concepts and Applications of Information Literacy
  • Unit 2: Learning Environments and Information Literacy
  • Unit 3: Digital Information Literacy

Modules

  • Module 1 : Citizenship, Freedom of Expression and Information, Access to Information, Democratic Discourse and Life-long Learning
  • Module 2: Understanding the News, Media, and Information Ethics
  • Module 3: Representation in Media and Information
  • Module 4: Languages in Media and Information
  • Module 5: Advertising
  • Module 6: New and Traditional Media
  • Module 7: Internet Opportunities and Challenges
  • Module 8: Information Literacy and Library Skills
  • Module 10: Audience
  • Module 11: Media, Technology and the Global Village
  • Module 12: Freedom of Expression Toolkit

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