Tag Archives: New Media Literacies

Distracted by Everything: Being Wired At All Times

August 18, 2011, 11:08 am • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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In today’s world, we are immersed in technology. Students are wired at all times, convinced they can multitask – text, email, follow a lecture, listen to music and answer a call, all at the same time. Researchers and professors at MIT say they cannot multitask successfully, that it is not possible to absorb and learn while doing many different things. Are students right? Would it be unfair for educators to restrict their multitasking options?

Check out our New Media Literacies curriculum for ESL instructors where we address this important issue for educators in the 21stcentury. Drawing on this video clip, Distracted by Everything - Frontline: Digital Nation we explore multitasking in our lesson plan Distracted by Everything: Wired at All Times.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Have we got it right? How do educators use technology effectively with students to promote active engagement rather than distraction?

Try this quiz with your students to find out how balanced your technology use is with other areas of your life. Click on this link Be Honest: Do You Have a Balanced Relationship with the Technology in Your Life? and look for Technology in Your Life quiz.

For lesson plans activities and online resources check out KQED Education New Media Literacies web page.

Filed under: Post-Secondary ESL
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What Does the Public Know About You?

August 9, 2011, 12:12 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Very little remains private in the digital age. Social media present us all with questions about privacy and safe practices online. In our New Media Literacies curriculum for ESL instructors we address the implications of the new media landscape as it impacts students’ lives, looking at what is known about them through their online social media presence as well as what students can know to be true, important or trivial as they wade through the constant stream of information.

In our first lesson What Does the Public Know About You? --Does it Matter?, one of the questions we ask is: what are the risks of creating an online social presence? To explore this we suggest students work in pairs to conduct an online search of each other (or their instructor) assuming the role of an employer – a social networking company that wants to hire someone who is passionate about social networking. Reviewing examples of what they find – that they are willing to share! – we discuss their overall impression of their partner’s web presence?

For lesson plans, activities and online resources check out KQED Education New Media Literacies web page.

Filed under: Post-Secondary ESL
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