Category Archives: Digital Tools

Search Savvy: What to Trust and What to Dismiss

February 29, 2012, 4:51 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Caitlin Barry poses an important question about using media and technology in the classroom in her article in the Huffington Post, Defining 'Media Literacy’ (2/7/12). Her question hinges on the skill-set we seek to offer students through the integration of media and media making in the curriculum.

“Most teachers want to do cool activities with their students, and many schools are getting the funding to deck classrooms out with everything a teacher could need. The problem is not with the teachers, but with the very definition of 'media literacy' itself. What is it, really?”

In addition to the practical skills of digital competency, a key component of media literacy is about managing the digital world, making sense of the deluge of information available online. How do educators help students to develop the critical thinking skills needed to negotiate this constant stream of information coming from everywhere and nowhere? What is important and what is trivial? Who should they trust? What should they dismiss?

Thinking about the type of media message can offer a useful starting point for students. Are they viewing factual information, news, personal opinion, a blog post, gossip, advertising or some combination of any of these? Is the distinction clear? Secondly mining the source of the message offers context and frames a “search savvy” mindset. Where/who does it come from and what does that tell us? KQED MindShift offers good advice in 12 Ways to Be More Search Savvy which outlines strategies for examining sources.

For example, “On the site Who.is, searchers can find details about the source: where it’s located, when it was established, and the IP address.” (MindShift, 12/27/11). But then there are open source sites like Wikipedia - can students trust Wikipedia as a reliable source? “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.”(Wikipedia’s vision) Information can be accessed and re-written by anyone at any time, and not necessarily checked for accuracy.

The golden rule is not to rely on a single source, but to compare and contrast different sites and sources to determine credibility and the factual basis of information. This is especially important when doing research.

In addition there is value in thinking about the source in terms of intention. All information, including factual information is presented through the lens of interpretation. No thinking person is without bias or purpose in organizing information or framing an argument. How are the so called “facts” colored by the bias of the author? Training students to identify sources, personal agendas and differing perspectives is important. Edutopia's News Literacy: How to Teach Students to Search Smart offers useful tips for evaluating news, although many of the strategies listed apply to navigating the online world more broadly.

Media literacy builds this questioning skill-set, challenging us to go beyond the simple search, the string of factoids and hyperlinks, to critically engage with information at a deeper level. As Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University explains: We are not only what we read,” …“We are how we read.”

Filed under: New Ideas with Digital Tools, Post-Secondary ESL
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Get Ready…Digital Learning Day is Coming!

January 30, 2012, 5:43 pm • Posted by Robin Mencher
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The first ever Digital Learning Day kicks of on February 1. Billed as “a nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology,” the day will call attention to the value of integrating new tools into teaching and learning.

What is the value of integrating digital media and technology?

Well, that’s a trick question. We all know that technology for the sake of technology may be fun or may be a hassle, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee great teaching and learning. Digital media and technology, when integrated into a thoughtful curricular plan can:

  • engage learners
  • illustrate concepts
  • provide real-world connections
  • strengthen understanding for a diversity of learning modalities
  • teach valuable tech skills
  • promote authentic assessment through the authoring and publishing process and so much more.

How can you join the Digital Learning Day celebration?

  • Check out the Digital Learning Day site to get access to resources and participate in the town hall meeting.
  • Challenge yourself to integrate digital media and technology into your classroom today. Or if you are already a seasoned tech integrator, try something new like microblogging with KQED’s Do Now or to help a colleague across the hall.
  • Seek out new media-rich resources from PBS LearningMedia, public media’s robust digital library filled with little bits of everything you might want or need to engage your learners and make real world connections. Search through the collection, save your favorites and share with your colleagues.
  • Join the conversation about innovative uses of technology in education at MindShift, KQED’s blog about the future of learning.
  • Get pointers on integrating media production into your instruction from KQED Education.
Filed under: New Ideas with Digital Tools
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Can I Use This in My Media Project?

January 25, 2012, 3:56 pm • Posted by Matthew Williams
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One of the most common questions that I encounter during media production trainings with educators is, "Am I allowed to use copyrighted material in my project?" From using John Williams' classic "dark side" theme music in Star Wars for the opening credits of a digital story about the Hayward Fault to bringing in an excerpt from Ken Burns' Jazz… to even using random images found in a Google search, the kinds of uses I hear range in a variety of ways… but the question is consistent: Can I use this?

The concern is serious for educators who do not want to get in trouble with their school administrators or perhaps the district office. They also want to be able to tell their students clearly what the rules are and prepare them for a future of media authoring with ethical practices.

Well, to all of you educators, the answer is yes, but it's not so simple. According to The Center for Social Media's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, there are ways that educators and students can use copyrighted material without getting permission from the copyright owner. However, the way to determine whether a certain piece of copyrighted media can be used is a bit interpretive.

Copyright law has several features that permit quotations from copyrighted works without permission or payment, under certain conditions. Fair use is the most important of these features.

So what is considered Fair Use?
Copyright law does not exactly specify how to apply fair use, and that gives the fair use doctrine a flexibility that works to the advantage of users. Creative needs and practices differ with the field, with technology, and with time. Rather than following a specific formula, lawyers and judges decide whether an unlicensed use of copyrighted material is "fair" according to a "rule of reason."

Here's a great video from the Center for Social Media's website that explains fair use for media literacy educators --

In review, The Center of Social Media explains the importance of examining the use of each piece of copyrighted material by asking two key questions:

• Did the unlicensed use "transform" the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?

• Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

If the answers to these two questions are "yes," a court is likely to find a use fair. Because that is true, such a use is unlikely to be challenged in the first place.

To understand the guidelines directly, please view The Center for Social Media's Code of Best Practices for Media Literacy Education. KQED has also aggregated some great resources on our Copyright and Media Education page. Also, The Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island has created a set of curriculum materials for teaching and understanding copyright and fair use.

Filed under: Digital Tools, New Ideas with Digital Tools, Teacher Trainings
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Using FlipShare

December 17, 2011, 4:10 pm • Posted by Matthew Williams
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Here is a four part video educast series on how to use FlipShare, the video editing program that comes with the Flip Camera. Each section will take you through a particular part of the process.

Part 1 is a general overview of the application's interface along with an explanation of how to download the software from the camera to your computer.

Part 2 covers how to save a video from the camera to your computer.

Part 3 explains how to make simple trims or edits to a single video.

Part 4 overviews how to compile more than one video to create a movie with text and music.

To navigate through the four videos, you have to click on the icon on the bottom of the frame that looks like a TV monitor -- it is located to the left of the plus sign (+).

Filed under: Video Educasts
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Audacity Educast Series

November 3, 2011, 3:14 pm • Posted by Matthew Williams
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The following videos are a 5 part series on how to use Audacity. Audacity is a free sound recording and sequencing program that can be downloaded on-line for either Mac or PC. It is great for recording audio for a podcast or creating a more complex soundtrack for a digital story -- that includes voice-over, effects, and music, as you can create as many tracks as you like. The program goes hand in hand with Windows Movie Maker or iMovie which are both free video editing programs with limited number of audio tracks.

There are five videos in this series although you can only see one player. The single player hosts all five videos (thank you YouTube playlist). The series starts with part 1: Downloading Audacity. To access the other four videos, you must click pause and then click on the monitor icon at the bottom of the player (it's located next to cc button).

Filed under: Video Educasts
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Best Practices for Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

September 14, 2011, 11:21 am • Posted by Matthew Williams
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As an educator, it can seem quite overwhelming to assign your students a digital storytelling project. There can be many external as well as internal challenges that range from school resources to personal comfort level with technology. However, these challenges should not deter you from assigning a project to your students. The potential benefits can really add value to learning on many levels where students can demonstrate a mastery of content as well as advance their development of 21st Century literacies.

There are many variables to consider so that the assignment promotes strong engagement, learning, creativity, collaboration, and ultimately successful projects. Below is a useful guide to best practices for assigning digital stories in the classroom. It focuses on 5 different variables: identifying your resources, developing the assignment, teaching the technical tools, managing student projects, and managing equipment. Please consider these items before beginning a project in your classroom.

Note: If you are having trouble viewing this slideshow, please cross-check your web browser with this Google Presentation troubleshoot page. Some web browsers are not compatible with this slideshow format.

Filed under: 6 -12 Science, Digital Tools, New Ideas with Digital Tools, Teacher Trainings
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