Digital Literacies in the classroom

Since our main purpose is to share information related to the use of technology in the classroom, it is convenient to talk about Digital Literacies, a  not so long standing concept present in the field of education. In the article Digital literacies: What are they and why should we care?, Nicky Hockly (2013) refers to them as "our ability to effectively make use of the technologies at our disposal". In saying this, she does not only mean to be competent in the use of the new media tools , but also teaching and helping students make a good and well informed use of all the media resources at hand.

So as to raise students' awareness in this subject matter, it is of paramount importance to aid them to evaluate and analyse how trustworthy the information available on the internet is. For this reason, we have chosen and analysed two educational websites, being one of them www.discoveryeducation.com. Considering Lesley's criteria (2007), we have arrived to some conclusions regarding the usefulness of this site in allowing teaching material design. Among the tools offered by the website, the puzzle maker is easy and quick to use since it  allows teachers to create their own puzzles online and free. In the field of English Language Teaching, we have used this resource to create material for the teaching of modal verbs to express probability on the topic "Crime".

The Pre-Task

You can start the lesson with a brief brainstorming asking students to share the words/ideas they think of concerning crime (what a crime is, who can solve one, what objects/materials are necessary to solve it, etc.).

The Task

You can show the students a video about a murder mystery/crime scene together with a worksheet to identify and circle the objects they see in the video (these could be the ones to solve the crime or clues).

After Task

Later on, you can select an extract for linguistic reflection/ analysis and for the students to complete with the linguistic items already dealt with, in this case, modal verbs.

Finally, you can create a puzzle for the students to discover a secret message associated to the topic you have worked on.

http://www.discoveryeducation.com//free-puzzlemaker/index.cfm?campaign=flyout_teachers_puzzle