Guest post by Marianne Malmstrom At the Elisabeth Morrow School, we have been on a journey to help our students develop the essential skills of creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and citizenship. We turned to virtual worlds and MOGs because these are the same skills many young gamers practice through immersive play. Initially, we used these spaces largely for curriculum … [Read more...] about Mining Minecraft, Part 2: Brilliance when students drive the learning
media literacy
A suspension of disbelief needed
Sidebar to my post below, "Literacy for a digital age" In talks he gives, media professor Henry Jenkins, often refers to the advice Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, gets from his Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility." But Dr. Jenkins, a professor at the University of Southern California, isn't only creating a parallel between young Spiderman's new-found super-powers and … [Read more...] about A suspension of disbelief needed
Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
Digital literacy educator Diana Graber is crowdsourcing a media literacy curriculum for 8th-graders at Journey School in southern California. It's Year 3 of the school's CyberCivics program that Diana's building, she writes in the CyberWise blog. Reading her resource-rich post got me thinking about all I've learned about digital literacy, media literacy, and social literacy since I first heard … [Read more...] about Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?
Kids & teens not only ok, but smart!: Study
Now for the good news in the youth part of a report from Ottawa-based MediaSmarts's report "Talking to Youth and Parents about Life Online" (yesterday I highlighted the parents piece). Well, mostly good news. It sounds as if "Internet safety education" has made the youngest among the 11-to-17-year-olds MediaSmarts talked with pretty paranoid: "From [11- and 12-year-olds'] perspective, the Internet … [Read more...] about Kids & teens not only ok, but smart!: Study
Personal ‘brand management’ for social literacy
The cynical way to say it might be that we're all our own best spin doctors these days. There are a lot of ways to say it, though – e.g., protecting one's public image, reputation management, maintaining your personal brand, or just online spin control – but there's nothing cynical or unsavory about this skill, and it's a life skill, not just an online one. Though it's an important one for social … [Read more...] about Personal ‘brand management’ for social literacy