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International education advocate Alan November will be holding a webinar titled “Teaching Critical Thinking and Web Literacy: Why Teachers are More Important Than Ever” on May 22. Alan has been saying for years that for years that these are areas that need attention, so I'm inviting everyone to attend! Webinar attendees will learn about the role critical thinking plays in web literacy and methods for teaching students to become astute consumers of media. Various aspects of media literacy will be discussed along with strategies for developing skills and competencies in those areas. Alan will also share strategies and resources for weaving critical thinking and web literacy skills into everyday instruction and guiding students toward becoming responsible consumers and creators of web and social media content. Alan November is an international leader in education technology and was named one of the USA's fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Tech and Learning magazine...

As schools go more and more digital with systems, curriculum, assignments and more, they face the need to provide equity in digital access for their students. Student devices are part of it, but so is internet access at home. This year has seen a huge increase in attention to "Digital Equity" or the "Digital Divide". Here are some great free resources from CoSN ( Consortium for School Networking ) that can help you understand the issue, and address it. Digital Equity Action Toolkit Students without home access to high quality broadband connectivity are at a disadvantage, unable to realize the full power of digital learning. Only 3 percent of teachers in high-poverty schools said that their students had the digital tools necessary to complete homework assignments, compared to 52 percent of teachers in more affluent schools, a discrepancy sometimes labeled the "homework gap." To address this key challenge, CoSN launched the  Digital Equity Action Agenda...

The Mozilla Foundation is a global nonprofit that promotes openness, innovation and participation on the Internet. Their mission is to improve universal web literacy , or the ability to read, write and participate on the Web. This summer, Mozilla is rolling out new, free tools and curriculum to help learners of all ages achieve web literacy. Webmaker Beta  is a free, open source Android app that allows smartphone users of any skill level to create original content online. Here is a  blog post on Webmaker  and you can download it  here .  Maker Party is Mozilla's annual global campaign to teach web literacy through hands-on learning. This year, from July 15 - 31, educators and students can use their  curriculum and teach others how to read, write and participate online. Activities touch on privacy, HTML, collaboration and more. You can read more about it  here . It's very much a networked initiative: individuals and organizat...

Technology is a wonderful thing. It lets us connect, explore, learn and create. However, there are some drawbacks and everyone is concerned about their data and what the big tech companies collect about them. I'm a huge user and proponent of Google Apps, but I'm also careful with what I put online anywhere. This infographic shows some of the data and information that Google, Facebook and Apple have and collect about their users. It is a good resource to use when teaching digital literacy and internet safety. The Loss of Privacy from Google Apple and Facebook Compliments of BackgroundChecks.org More resources: 10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have How to Evaluate Web Resources Internet Safety Resources: Internet Safety Resources - help students stay safe online Discovery Education Web 20.11  - great internet safety resources. Google Good to Know - online safety and data info Google Family Safety Center - help promote safety online. Web safety resource Google Plus now open to ...