Developing Digital Literacy at Your Library

www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/jocool_jofool/index.cfm

Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a Canadian not-for-profit centre for media and digital literacy.

Vision:To ensure children and youth possess the necessary critical thinking skills and tools to understand and

actively engage with media.

Three Core Program Areas

ResearchEducation

Public Awareness

Vision: To ensure children and youth possess

the necessary critical thinking skills and tools

to understand and actively engage with media

Schools = 10,000 (two thirds of schools, 80% of student enrolment)Libraries = population of 5 million

Young Canadians in a Wired World (YCWW) Research

(2000, 2005, and 2010)MNet’s digital literacy resources are informed by its long-term Young Canadians research project -- the largest study of children’s Internet use in Canada

Findings informed policy setting in schools, government and libraries (CLA policy document on managing the Internet in libraries)

Young Canadians in a Wired World Research

Approximately 6,000 students

Grades 4-11

French and English schools, rural and urban

All provinces and territories

Funded by Government of Canada

Young Canadians Research2000 (Web 1.0)

• 79% have access at home• focus groups showed a deep disconnect

between parents’ perceptions and kids’ activities

• survey focused on online risk • youth have little supervision;

learning on their own or from friends

Young Canadians Research2005 (Web2.0)

• 94% have access at home• parents much more involved, but kids were

making decisions on their own • a deeper understanding of what kids are

doing:– normal developmental activities– relationships primarily with peers

• pervasive risks;– privacy on commercial sites– peer bullying and harrassment– exposure to inappropriate content

Young Canadians Research2010 (Web 3.0)

• social Web• mobile media• ethical decision making • content creation and innovation• civic/political online

engagement • 3d virtual worlds• gender issues

International research

• Most online sexual soliciations come from peers

• Online predators rarely misrepresent themselves or their motives

• Those most at risk are girls, aged 13-15, who are also involved in other risk-taking behaviours

• Revealing personal information online is not a risk factor on its own

• Creating good quality online destinations can mitigate certain risks for children

Safety issues dominate public discourse

Children need to be taught critical thinking and ethical decision making skills for their online activities (digital literacy skills).

We need to create places for children to go online to learn these skills.

Moral panic around safety has lead to heavy-handedResponses, including criminalizing young people.

Digital literacy: Education sector

• many education ministries, including Ontario, are focused on safety issues: online sexual exploitation and cyber bullying

• few provinces have made a commitment to digital literacy in the curriculum (exception is Manitoba)

• technological tools are not being integrated into classrooms (social networking, Twitter, blogging, video streaming sites, etc.)

Digital Participation in Canada

Digital Literacy

Digital Life Skills

Digital Inclusion

Consumer Confidence

Access

Infrastructure

Innovation

Engaged Citizens

Creative Producers of IT, Media and Content

Critical ThinkersCitizen & Community

Empowerment

User Proficiency

Cultural Empowerment

TechnologicalR&D

Distribution

Life-long Learning

Informed Citizens

Opportunity

Capacity

Digital Life Skills

Digital Inclusion

Life-long Learning

(ICT Literacy)

Navigation skills

Judgement

Accessing skills

Synthesizing AppropriationSimulation

Distributed Cognition

Multi-tasking

Collective Intelligence

Networking

Input / Output skills

Tools & Text Skills

Critical Thinking

Citizenship

Digital Participation in Canada

Distribution

Access

Digital Literacy

Infrastructure

TechnologicalR&D

Public libraries have a longstanding and growing role in literacy, including digital literacy.

User-created content will require enhanced authentication skills.

Libraries will provide digital information and create new tools for understanding how to select and use information.

Wendy Newman, Third Generation Public Libraries, 2008

Media literacy school programs

PD summer institutes for teachers

Other programs and speakers include:

Internet SafetyIntro to Media Literacy at your LibraryPaul Nesbitt-Larking - Politics of the NewsSam Trosow - Copyright and Information PolicyHal Niedzviecki - Social MediaShari Graydon - Media Marketing

Contact Heather Macdonald:Media and Health Librarian

Media Literacy Week

www.medialiteracyweek.ca

http://media.atwaterlibrary.ca

Promoting Digital Literacy at Ottawa Public Library

• Staff training• Promoting databases… homework

help• Internet safety • Parent workshops• New Canadians• Brownies and guides

Staff training• Formal

• Vendor training• In-service training sessions

• Informal• Database Stewards• Staff newsletter

Unlocking OPL’s Electronic Resources

CATS In-Service

February 2010

Database: Read today’s

newspaper through

Library Press Display! This

database includes the Ottawa

Citizen, the Ottawa Sun, the

Globe and Mail, le Journal de

Montréal and the Toronto Sun.

It gives you access to all

images, classifieds and

advertisements. It includes

RSS feeds and has an audio

function that allows you to

listen to the newspaper content

Reference: Check out the Visual Dictionary Online. This includes over

6,000 images and 20,000 terms with

contextual definitions.  Database: Eureka provides us with full text

articles from La Presse, Le Droit, Protégez-

vous and L'Actualité. It also offers access to

smaller English newspapers such as the

Cornwall Standard-Freeholder and the

Pembroke Daily Observer.

Database: Our Gale databases have a new interface!

Some of the features include a machine

translation tool, a citation tool to help with the

creation of bibliographies and even the ability to

listen to articles in mp3 format. The affected

databases include: Academic Onefile, General

Reference Center Gold and InfoTrac Collection.

Databases… great tools that need promotion

• School outreach- Elementary schools- High schools

• Teacher outreach• Mini-sessions for principals

Your Library @ Home

For Research and Homework Help

School Outreach

Ottawa Public LibraryYour Library @ Home

Ottawa Public Library websiteElectronic Databases

Library Catalogue

Mini-sessions for principals

• Ottawa Public Library services

• Why teachers and students need to learn about databases

• Quick intro to databases

• How to book school sessions and class visits to library branches

Internet Safety

• Staff training• Parent

workshops• Working with

newcomer agencies

• Safety on our website

Web Safety Module

http://club.kids.biblioottawalibrary.ca/book_club/websafety

Parenting the Net Generation

The workshops touch briefly on many key Internet issues:

• Safety • Privacy • Marketing • Ethics and

cyberbullying • Evaluation of

online information

Newcomer Agencies

• Parent workshops• Student workshops in homework

clubs• Staff training

Cybercitizen Badge

• Pilot project with Girl Guides Canada.

Brownies• Cybersense

Poem• Privacy

playground• Doing a project

Cyber Sense

\\   I have a special secret,Whenever I'm online -I don't share with othersThe things that are just mine.

\\   My e-mail and my home address,My phone number and name -These are just for me to know,In chat rooms or in games.

\\   Instead, I use my nonsense name -It's my online identity!When people ask me who I am,I introduce my "cyber-me."

\\   And when I want to surf the Web,for places that are cool,I get some help from mom or dad,or teachers from my school.

DOING A PROJECT?Don’t forget the library databases.Easily accessible from home with your library cardAnd your pin # (last four digits of your phone #)Go to the library website (address on the bottom of your library card) and go to “Find Articles and Research Guides” – click on itScroll down to sort by subject and select “KIDS” and “go”Find a list of encyclopaedias, articles, databases and more, all designed to help you with your school project.

Databases vs. Websites: What's the Difference?•Databases have information you can't find using search engines - like the latest magazine and newspaper articles. •The information in databases is written by experts and checked before it gets published; that's not necessarily true for websites. •With databases you can create a bibliography automatically. •Anyone can search the web but only people with an Ottawa Public Library card can use our databases. Membership has its privileges!

Guides

The challenge addresses five main issues girls and young women may encounter online:

• Safety• Privacy• Marketing• Authentication of online information• Ethics

Jo Cool or Jo Fool: Interactive Module and Quiz on Critical Thinking for the

Internet

Web-based resourcesFor Librarians

– London Public Library: Media Literacy Nodehttp://www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/node/185

– Atwater Digital Literacy Projecthttp://media.atwaterlibrary.ca/

– Media Awareness Networkhttp://www.media-awareness.ca/

– Media Literacy Weekhttp://www.medialiteracyweek.ca/

– CyberCitizen Badge (Girl Guides of Canada)http://www.girlguides.ca/challenges_and_activities?news_id=85&uniqid=1594

For Parents and Caregivers– Be Web Aware (Media Awareness Network)

http://www.bewebaware.ca/– Devenir e-Parent : un tutoriel pour suivre vos enfants en ligne

(Réseau Éducation-Médias)http://www.education-medias.ca/eparent/francais/

– Commonsense Mediahttp://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Web-based resourcesFor Children and Youth

– Co-Co's AdverSmarts: Food Marketing on the Web (Media Awareness Network)http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/coco/index.cfm

– Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (Media Awareness Network)http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/privacy_playground/index.cfm

– CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of The Three CyberPigs (Media Awareness Network)http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/cybersense_nonsense/index.cfm

– Jo Cool or Jo Fool (Media Awareness Network)http://www.education-medias.ca/english/games/jocool_jofool/index.cfm

– TextEd (Canadian Centre for Child Protection)http://www.texted.ca/

– League of Super Citizens: Firewall Game (TVO)http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/privacy_playground/index.cfm

– Media Monkey (Concerned Children’s Advertisers) http://play.longlivekids.ca/