What is media literacy?

Media literacy is the ability to critically analyze, evaluate, and interpret the vast array of media messages we encounter daily, including news, advertisements, social media content, and entertainment. It’s crucial for students in today’s digital world, as it equips them to critically analyze various media messages. It enables them to identify biases in news articles, comprehend advertiser targeting techniques, and uncover subtexts in informal messaging. By honing these media literacy skills, students can make informed choices, engage in meaningful discussions, and navigate the complex media landscape with discernment.

How do I incorporate media literacy instruction?

Media literacy is a way of teaching. Math, science, history, lunch – the subject list goes on and on! The key is to incorporate it into your existing lessons for any subject. I use Nearpod for tons of subjects, but never have I told my students, “Now, we will have our digital literacy subject time.” It’s important to create opportunities throughout your instruction for students to showcase their knowledge through media literacy resources. We should use digital resources and tools to teach and expose students to various types of news and media. For example, If you’re teaching about asteroids in your science class, have students analyze an article about NASA’s DART Mission or draft a tweet to NASA.

Too often, classrooms are filled with students typing or reading articles. Some teachers consider this digital literacy, but one important element is forgotten. Media literacy is all about analyzing various types of text. Students can cover the essentials of it through videos, blogs, interactive experiences, tweets, and web pages. This is a realistic approach to how they would face news media in their everyday life.

There are 5 key questions for media literacy education students should be able to discern:

• Who created this message?
• What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
• How might different people understand this message differently from me?
• What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message?
• Why is this message being sent?

Media literacy lessons to help students analyze news media

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness K-12 Program

If you’re looking for even more resources, we’ve got you covered! Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness K-12 Program offers resources to embed 21st-century skills like digital citizenship, social emotional learning, and college and career readiness into every classroom. The Digital Citizenship Curriculum collection includes technology applications, coding essentials, and media literacy.

Nearpod’s free media literacy lessons

With Nearpod’s free digital citizenship lessons, teachers can save time searching or creating media literacy resources. In these lessons and activities, students can learn to differentiate and connect clues to fake news sources. They also learn to identify accurate news sources and other sources that do not quite fit the mold. You can use these lessons as they are or modify them. Check out some of these lessons to get started!

If you don’t have access to Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, you can still access some unlocked digital literacy resources and digital citizenship week lessons for free. To access the resources shared in this article, make sure to sign up for Nearpod for free!

Primary vs. Secondary Sources (Grades 3-8)

In the Primary vs. Secondary Sources one-minute video lesson, suitable for Grades 3-8, students gain insight into the distinction between primary and secondary sources, helping them understand how we learn about historical events. This lesson equips them with valuable skills for evaluating and sourcing information accurately.

The Role of Media (Grades 6-8)

In The Role of Media (Grades 6-8) lesson, students learn how media literacy fosters critical thinking, effective communication, and civic engagement, highlighting the media’s role in monitoring and influencing government and public opinions. This lesson equips students with essential skills to navigate the media landscape and become informed and active citizens.

Current event lesson series (Grades 3-12)

Nearpod’s current events lesson series engages students in analyzing real-world news stories, fostering critical thinking and the ability to assess news sources, biases, and information reliability. By exploring current events, students become informed consumers of news, equipping them with essential skills to navigate the complex media landscape effectively.

Trustworthy Resources: Draw It Activity (Grades 6-12)

In this 6-12 technology Draw It activity, students learn how to evaluate search results and distinguish credible links from unreliable sources using a Draw It activity. This lesson equips students with essential skills to critically assess online information, fostering their ability to make informed decisions and navigate the digital landscape effectively.

DCL: Sourcing Your Information (Grades 6-8 and 9-12)

In the DCL: Sourcing Your Information lesson, available for both Grades 6-8 and 9-12, students learn to identify online information creators, evaluate credibility, recognize conflicts of interest, and detect native advertising. This lesson equips students with vital skills for critically assessing digital content, fostering media literacy through interactive activities, and empowering them to make informed choices in the digital landscape.

Top 4 Tips to Spot Bad Science Reporting (Grades 9-12)

The Top 4 Tips to Spot Bad Science Reporting video lesson, designed for Grades 9-12, equips students with practical guidance to discern unreliable science reporting. By following the simple acronym G-L-A-D, students learn to distinguish credible scientific information from questionable sources, empowering them to navigate the media landscape with confidence and critical thinking skills.

Predictive Advertising (Grades 9-12)

In the Predictive Advertising (Grades 9-12) lesson, students are introduced to the concept of predictive advertising, which guides them in exploring its positive and negative impacts on society. Through a real-world example presented in a BBC video, students develop critical thinking skills to navigate personalized advertising effectively, making them more discerning and informed media consumers.

Start teaching media literacy activities with Nearpod

For students to be media literate, they need to have a lot of practice in mixed media lessons. With access to different types of information and various sources, they can build critical thinking skills about the media they see every day. Students will use this knowledge to spot fake news stories and make informed opinions about the world around them.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these media literacy lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Brianna Owens

Brianna Owens is a teacher and technology trainer originally from the USA currently teaching at an International school in Finland.  Brianna strives to help redefine what education looks like through use of technology in the classroom and making connections with her students through technology.  She is a certified special education teacher, general education teacher, and TESOL teacher as well as a technology trainer and awarded educator with Nearpod, Discovery Education, Microsoft and SMART Technologies.

The post Media literacy lessons to help students analyze news media appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Digital wellness for students refers to how media and technology affect their mental, physical, social, and emotional health. Multimedia is an ever-present part of students’ and our own daily lives, whether we are consuming or creating it. In today’s digital landscape, there’s a firehose of information presented via audio, text, images, and videos from different channels, platforms, and technologies. Still, we can be creators and sharers of such sticky content day in and day out. Such engagement can have a toll on our well-being, physically (e.g., eye strain and impacts on sleep) or socially and emotionally (e.g., social comparison).

The many nuances of our always-on world require us to be vigilant about understanding the opportunities as well as the pitfalls of such technology use and digital interactions. This past winter, the CDC released a report that shared startling statistics for teen girls, stating that nearly 3 in 5 teen girls (57%) said they felt “persistently sad or hopeless”‚—double that of boys. For years, many studies have looked at how social media, in particular, has affected the confidence and overall health of our youth.

On March 30, 2023, Common Sense released their research on Teens and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media, which included the following key finding:

“Among all girls surveyed, nearly four in 10 (38%) report symptoms of depression, and among these girls, social media has an outsize impact—for better and for worse.”

Digital wellness requires adults and kids alike to consider how to use technology to support their overall health. Developmentally, many kids are not ready to handle the barrage of information and interactions, so schools and homes need to work together to teach kids digital citizenship and media literacy skills so that they develop healthy habits of mind they can lean on. Woven throughout all disciplines is the need for social and emotional skills in order to succeed not only in school but in life. Digital health and wellness and SEL go hand in hand, so kids learn to use critical thinking skills when interacting online.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free to access these digital citizenship lessons!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Why should we infuse SEL skills with the use of technology?

It might be common for teachers and schools to teach either SEL or digital citizenship. Yet the two complement each other in addressing digital health and wellness. While digital citizenship and SEL aren’t interchangeable, infusing digital citizenship into social emotional learning instruction can help you be more responsive to the demands and opportunities that technology brings into your students’ lives on a daily basis.

Nearpod and Common Sense Education’s SEL in Digital Life collection brings both of these content areas together to highlight the specific SEL skills that students will need to navigate the challenges of digital life while building skills in SEL competencies such as self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, relationship skills, and social awareness. By combining SEL and digital citizenship, young people will have concrete ways to apply the skills to scenarios in their everyday lives.

Nearpod and Common Sense’s SEL in Digital Life lesson collection

SEL in Digital Life is a collection of educational resources developed by Common Sense Education and included in Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program. The lesson collection is designed to address the unique ways in which technology impacts the social and emotional well-being of students. Common Sense Education is the leading nonprofit that helps kids, families, and educators thrive in a digital age. Their trusted name in education speaks to the quality of materials designed for teachers, students, and their families. Common Sense Education is a long-time partner of Nearpod and offers a Digital Citizenship and Social Emotional Learning Curriculum in Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program for elementary, middle school, and high school.

This collaborative collection of 20 lessons in social emotional learning and digital literacy curriculum highlights how to build essential digital and tech habits and skills in a developmentally-appropriate manner to nurture lifelong learning. Such conversations must happen early and often, even before kids are on personal devices participating in our connected world. And then, the examples should reflect real-world, authentic dilemmas. These are quick and short activities and can be embedded into your existing lesson plans or used during homeroom, advisory, etc. The activities are rooted in digital life dilemmas to encourage discussion about and reflection on character strength, including communication, compassion, courage, empathy, gratitude, humility, perseverance, self-control, and teamwork.

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program focuses on non-core academic subjects critical for student success in and beyond the classroom. Get these interactive resources to embed digital citizenship, social-emotional learning, financial literacy, and college and career readiness into any classroom.

Why should a teacher use these lessons?

Regardless of how much or how little media and tech might play a role in your classroom, they do play a prominent role in our children’s lives. From television to streaming to texting to the internet to apps, kids are consuming and creating. And their tech habits outside of the classroom can affect what happens (or doesn’t happen) in your classroom.

We understand teachers are strapped for time and are constantly tasked with “one more thing” to do in the classroom. These lessons are quick and easy to implement and will help build student engagement and create a stronger classroom culture. The SEL in Digital Life activities will help establish a positive learning environment that supports students academically, socially, and emotionally.

We know technology enhances student learning. Still, if students are not prepared to use it safely and responsibly through digital citizenship behaviors, it could negatively impact their learning environment. Our lessons help you proactively address some of the factors that contribute negatively to your classroom, which include digital distractions, responsible use, and digital drama.

View all of Common Sense Education’s SEL in Digital Life materials below!

What is covered in these lessons?

CASEL framework

The SEL in Digital Life collection follows the CASEL framework for social-emotional learning. Each SEL in Digital Life lesson was designed to focus on one of the five competencies outlined in this framework:

• Self-Awareness: Focus on helping students reflect on their relationship with media and technology
• Self-Management: Focus on developing students’ executive functioning skills to manage their use of technology
• Responsible Decision-Making: Focus on how students should evaluate the opportunities and potential risks of using technology
• Relationship Skills: Focus on helping students develop prosocial behaviors that are conducive to positive online experiences
• Social Awareness: Focus on helping students identify varying degrees of online meanness and strategies to de-escalate online conflicts

Lessons organized by grade levels

The collection is organized by grade bands, so each lesson addresses an SEL competency at a developmentally appropriate level. The activities range from whole group, small group, and individual, all through a real-world lens.

Here are some examples of lessons we recommend exploring:

• Use Your Heart When You’re Online for grades K-2 focuses on relationship skills. Students relate to one of the animated characters in the song Pause & Think Online to explore further the ways in which they can be kind and respectful when communicating online.

• My Feeling When Using Technology for grades K-2 ties to self-awareness and digital wellbeing. Students learn to define their feelings and emotions as a way to illustrate the many ups and downs of technology use.

• How Can You Be an Online Superhero for grades 3-5 ties to responsible decision-making. Students evaluate a series of scenarios to determine which are ways to be a super digital citizen. Such concrete examples support students when they face their own quandaries.

• My Media Balance for grades 3-5 has students practice self-management when it comes to the many choices they make daily around the media they watch and use.

• Dealing with Digital Drama for grades 6-8 is timely and highlights social awareness. Students react to digital drama scenarios by trying to empathize with the various players and their perspectives.

• Who Are You on Social Media? for grades 9-12 also ties self-awareness. This lesson explores how we present different sides of ourselves online through our curated posts. Students reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of such curation and how they can share the most positive online presence.

Start using the SEL in Digital Life lesson collection

Like salt and pepper, SEL and digital citizenship — affectionately known as #digcit — work together to make sure that kids are prepared to handle the challenges they will face in the digital world. These healthy habits of mind will serve students well in school, in future jobs, and in life. Such digital well-being is a cornerstone to successfully navigating our digital world in a proactive and positive manner. We all want our kids to be balanced, happy, and confident, so do dive into Nearpod’s SEL in Digital Life collection to find more quality and engaging resources for your classroom.

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post Social emotional learning lessons for students’ digital wellness appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is bullying that leverages digital technology such as messaging, social media, gaming, and mobile devices to spread mean messages designed to anger, threaten, shame, embarrass, or scare a target. CommonSense.org defines cyberbullying as “repeated and unwanted hurtful words or behavior that occur online. It includes sharing negative or harmful content about someone on purpose. Often, this type of bullying happens over text messages, online chat, or social media.” 

When it comes to cyberbullying on social media and online in general, the intent is malicious, the frequency is repetitive, and the effects can be devastating. But how does bullying online differ from “typical” bullying? Consider it bullying wrapped in persistence, permanence, and subtleness. Some may say that “kids will be kids” and that teasing and joking are common aspects of child’s play – but whether it’s name-calling, rumors, hate speech, bullying, or online harassment, none is acceptable in any format.

Examples of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying takes multiple forms and thus can be hard to detect, monitor, or track. From trash-talking to griefing to ghosting to cyberflashing to catfishing, the terminology grows, as do the nuances of digital drama. It is pervasive. Due to its digital nature, online bullying can happen at all hours instead of “just” on the playground. It can be hard to escape, as the offender and the victim don’t have to be face to face. It can happen behind closed doors in 1-to-1 messaging. Conversely, cyberbullying can also occur in a more public space, like social media, where others can see it happening. And it can be seemingly permanent and hard for victims to erase from such public forums. It can be quite subtle, too. Imagine someone who engages in “aggressive liking” a victim’s posts as a way to show that they’re “watching” them at all times. Such debilitating interactions are hard to monitor.

More often than not, victims of cyberbullying know their bullies. However, aggressors can be wrapped in a cloak of anonymity, pretending to be someone else. Such deception can make it difficult to identify the true culprit at first and stop the bullying. It can also be seemingly baseless or unprovoked, yet for a child still developing their own sense of identity, such undermining tactics can be detrimental.

Not helping the situation is the fact that cyberbullying is sticky, meaning that it can be hard for the victim not to look at that most recent email, message, or post. It is human nature that we seek others’ opinions and approval, so this sense of belonging can be counterproductive in online bullying situations. Such cyclical abuse can be catastrophic.

The effects of cyberbullying on students

Cyberbullying can affect kids’ (and adults’) physical, emotional, and mental health. Kids’ sense of self-worth and self-esteem can suffer, and they can become overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness.

Targets of online bullying can display signs such as decreased or increased use of devices, high stress levels, changes in eating and sleeping patterns, social withdrawal, a drop in grades, abstaining from school or activities, or signs of depression (just to name a few).

In a 2022 Pew Research Center’s Report Center survey, 46% of teens ages 13 to 17 reported experiencing at least one of six cyberbullying behaviors, while 28% say that they experienced multiple types; those stats become more dire when you look at the data by sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Cyberbullying is related to low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, anger, frustration, and a variety of other emotional and psychological problems (Brighi et al., 2012; Hinduja & Patchin, 2010; Hinduja & Patchin, 2019; Kowalski & Limber, 2013; Patchin & Hinduja, 2010; Wang, Nansel, & Iannotti, 2011)

Cyberbullying.org

The role of school administrators in preventing and dealing with cyberbullying incidents

As an administrator, addressing bullying as part of your overall school ethos, whether articulated in a mission statement or a code of conduct, is key. Cyberbullying and digital drama, in general, can negatively impact a school’s culture and climate. Therefore, to be proactive versus reactive, many schools have developed explicit anti-cyberbullying policies around responsible device use. In addition to sharing policies, it is important to adopt a program to teach digital citizenship. Also, partner with parents to help them stay informed about cyberbullying and understand the warning signs. Lastly, ensure that bullying is being addressed appropriately and efficiently by establishing a shared language and process across the school. Keep reading to explore these tips in depth with actionable examples administrators and educators can use.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

8 Effective ways to prevent cyberbullying in schools

1. Establish clear policies

Developing anti-cyberbullying policies helps schools prevent it by setting clear expectations and consequences for acceptable and responsible device usage on and off campus, during and outside of school hours, and between students at different locations. These policies proactively establish a school culture of respect and responsible digital behavior.

When creating policies, here are some questions to consider:

• What does/doesn’t happen if incidents occur on school devices versus personal devices?
• What does/doesn’t happen if incidents take place on or off of the school’s campus?
• What does/doesn’t happen if incidents occur during or outside of the school day hours?
• What does/doesn’t happen if incidents occur between students at the same or different campuses or districts?

Implement Responsible Use Agreements (RUA) along with Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA), which students and their guardians sign at the beginning of the school year. One best practice is to involve students and parents in the drafting of such policies so that all stakeholders have a voice, ownership, and onus. Clearly outline the expectations and consequences around device handling, maintenance, and respectful use.

2. Adopt a digital citizenship program

Awareness and education are key. No one is immune to the threat of cyberbullying, so awareness begets prevention.

First, some norms need to be taught about the implementation and importance of digital citizenship. There are safety and security measures that all who use digital devices need to recognize. From resetting passwords to turning off location sharing, each student needs to understand the “why” behind the “what” when it comes to maintaining their account settings and protecting their privacy and personal information.

Plus, online communication can be more complex and dynamic than what we are used to in person. There are nuances, innuendos, and non-verbal communication that can be lost. Many feel a disassociation effect when they are behind a screen and not seeing the person on the other side. We need to set expectations for what kinds of online interactions are not only safe but also respectful and responsible. From the words they use to the images they share, users need to pause before they post. 

This is why it’s crucial to ensure digital citizenship is a core mindset by teaching lessons early and often. Adopting a digital citizenship program will help educators prepare and make time for teaching this type of material. The Nearpod Library and 21st Century Readiness Program include interactive digital citizenship lessons, activities, and videos about digital literacy topics such as cyberbullying, media balance, news and media literacy, communication, digital footprints, and online privacy.

We’ve unlocked some lessons for you to preview the program! Preview the unlocked program resources and digital citizenship lessons from the Nearpod Library for free.

3. Name the roles

When it comes to cyberbullying, educate everyone on the roles we play, from offender to victim to upstander. We want to empower all ages not to be bystanders who simply watch the digital drama unfold; instead, we want to encourage all to say something when they see something.

There are key roles for everyone to understand:

• A bully (offender or perpetrator): the person responsible for the attacks
• A victim: the person who is targeted in such attacks
• A bystander: a person who sees what’s happening but does not partake
• An upstander: a person who reports the incident(s) or addresses the bully

4. Form partnerships with parents

Consider hosting information sessions for parents and caregivers so that they are informed about the threat of online bullying and know the warning signs to watch for. Remember, not all caregivers grew up in a digital world, so they may not have prior experiences to lean on. Arm them with common language and proactive tips so that they are echoing the same valuable life lessons. Find tips, articles, and resources for every age and stage to share throughout the year. Explain school-based politics, encourage them to set family-based guidelines when at home, and underscore the shared responsibility in preventing cyberbullying.

Check out Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program to equip students with the skills they need for success in today’s schools and in tomorrow’s society.

in the honor of the #onlinesafety and #cyberbullying #BullyingPreventionMonth @nearpod has a great great interactive lesson, our ss took it to a whole different level @mrsjeagon @mjvitaleqp @DeborahRLucas2 @lindsayrothfeld pic.twitter.com/BwG3xxoNpS

— Aggie Salter (@AggieSalterITS) October 19, 2022

5. Emphasize the first step to dealing with bullying: Shut it down

We also want to emphasize to all, before they are victims, what to do if they feel targeted. These are crucial ways to prevent cyberbullying. To start, as sticky as the messages can be, tell young people that when they get that “ick” feeling in their stomachs, to shut down all technology: Close the laptop, log out of the social media platform, and turn off the phone. Developmentally, this decision can actually be quite hard for kids, so underscore that this is the first step to dealing with cyberbullying. While shutting down technology or blocking a harasser doesn’t stop the hurt or prevent further harm, it is an action-oriented step the victim can take to hold onto a bit of power. Shutting down the tech can thwart any impulses to respond or react, and sometimes (albeit not always), ignoring a bully can stop the abuse.

The rest of the tips are steps that schools can take to address and respond to cyberbullying properly.

6. Encourage students to tell an adult

Next, always tell a trusted adult. This tip is probably the most important. Many young poeple don’t want to “tattle,” yet the effects of cyberbullying are too great to shoulder on one’s own (no matter the age!). Encourage kids to think of at least two trusted adults – parents, caregivers, teachers, or coaches – whom they can turn to in tough times. Let them know that no one should ever carry the burden of cyberbullying alone, and a trustworthy adult can listen and help them problem-solve the situation.

7. Gather evidence

There is no eraser button online. Therefore, it’s important to teach students and staff how to leverage functions like print, copy, and screenshot to gather evidence of hurtful words and statements. Lean on timestamps to show the repetitive nature of cyberbullying. And reassure kids that there is always a digital footprint left when it comes to digital communication; most cyberbullies don’t realize that it is a matter of time before their actions are revealed.

8. Underscore the permanence of digital footprints

There is no eraser button online. Therefore, it’s important to teach students and staff how to leverage functions like print, copy, and screenshot to gather evidence of hurtful words and statements. Lean on timestamps to show the repetitive nature of cyberbullying. And reassure students that there is always a digital footprint left when it comes to digital communication; most cyberbullies don’t realize that it is a matter of time before their actions are revealed.

Part of your digital citizenship program should address how all of our online interactions leave a digital footprint, no matter what we share or where we post it. By highlighting the permanence of our digital footprints, you may deter would-be bullies and educate victims about the breadcrumbs bullies leave behind. Most children grow wide-eyed when they hear that although disappearing messages on Snapchat may be inaccessible after a time, they still reside on the company’s servers somewhere in the world.

Here are some lessons to teach about digital footprints:

• DCL: Who’s Looking at Your Digital Footprint?: This Common Sense Education lesson on digital footprints and responsible online behavior can impact students because it equips them with essential knowledge about the long-term consequences of their online actions. It promotes responsible and ethical technology use and encourages students to take ownership of their digital footprints, enabling them to navigate the digital world more thoughtfully and safely. (Free on Nearpod’s Library)
• Digital Trails: This Common Sense Education lesson teaches students what a digital footprint is, instilling a critical awareness of their online actions and how they contribute to their own digital footprint, and emphasizing the lasting implications it can have on their lives. (Only available on The 21st Century Readiness Program)
• The Power of Digital Footprints: This Common Sense Education lesson provides students with a foundational understanding of the concept of a digital footprint, helping them recognize how their online actions can have a lasting impact. It helps encourage students to make responsible choices online and contribute positively to their digital communities. (Only available on The 21st Century Readiness Program)

Help prevent and address cyberbullying with Nearpod’s support

The issues around online bullying change as quickly as the digital landscape itself. It affects the online reputation and digital footprints of everyone involved while also crushing school culture. All educators, administrators, and classroom teachers need to stay on top of the ways to stop bullying online and share out to make sure the rest of the stakeholders – such as parents, caregivers, and students themselves – are similarly educated. Children will misstep, so staying proactive versus reactive is essential to mitigating the impact. Community-wide, schools can weave tips and resources for preventing cyberbullying into their instruction, training, and regular communications. Staying alert and avoiding the assumption that “it won’t happen here” will be an important step in keeping your community free from bullying.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!
Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore the 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 8 Effective ways to prevent cyberbullying in schools appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Digital Learning Day is the last Thursday of every February. This year, it will be on Thursday, February 15, 2024.

Digital learning is the practice of using technology to enhance learning experiences. Teachers regularly employ technology to transform learning in their classrooms. Digital Learning Day is an excellent opportunity to share how you utilize tech in your classroom, encourage colleagues to explore your favorite educational technology tools, or even try something new!

We want to acknowledge the incredible dedication of teachers who continually strive to master digital instruction, empowering their students across various settings. Digital instruction has evolved significantly in the past three years. Our mindsets and tools have undergone substantial changes. Teachers swiftly adapted to virtual instruction, engaging with students in new and meaningful ways despite numerous challenges. This year and beyond, let’s celebrate our teachers above all else!

Keep reading to explore digital learning materials and educational resources teachers and students can access.

Digital Learning Day free resources and activities

Nearpod is the perfect edtech platform to use with your students. Get real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons and formative assessment activities.

We’ve compiled a list of Digital Learning Day activities and ideas you can use in your classroom with Nearpod to celebrate. Click here to download our one-pager to explore tech tools such as interactive activities, formative assessments, digital citizenship lessons, and more.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access the resources and activities shared in this article! Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Engaging Digital Learning Day activities and resources

1. Start simple with a digital interactive activity

Even one activity can bring excitement. Nearpod’s tools and resources help teachers access and create high-quality lessons. If you’re looking for a simple way to participate in Digital Learning Day, here are some ideas:

• Place a Matching Pairs activity at the very beginning of your lesson. It’ll be the first thing your students see when they join the lesson, giving them something to work on immediately. This way, you can focus on getting all your students where they need to be, and the rest of the class gets a little game-based reward for punctuality.
• Create a classroom discussion with a Collaborate Board activity. Students can share ideas with a larger audience as they discover selected topics.
• Have students show their creativity with Draw It. Let them express their thoughts using text, images, annotation, and highlighting.

2. Share your digital learning experience!

We want to hear about how digital learning has impacted you! Use one of our social media templates to share with your community and empower other teachers by sharing what you wish you had known before, what you know now, and a tip to help a fellow teacher related to digital instruction. Whether you teach in-person, hybrid, or online learning, this template is for you.

Tag @nearpod and use the hashtag #DLDay to share your experience with other educators and us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

3. Practice good digital citizenship

Nearpod opens the door for digital instruction beyond the walls of the classroom. Nearpod allows students to practice future-ready 21st-century skills. Teachers can empower students to reflect on their digital learning environment using our digital citizenship lessons. Teaching digital citizenship and literacy enables students to think critically and participate safely, appropriately, and responsibly in the digital world.

4. Try Nearpod’s Whiteboard during a live lesson

Nearpod’s Whiteboard can be used during a live lesson to launch a virtual whiteboard at any time in a lesson. This is one simple way to make your digital lessons and activities more interactive! Teachers can model for students or address a misconception on-the-fly, while students follow along. Anything you draw, write, or type on the whiteboard will show up on a student’s device in real-time. For Digital Learning Day activities, consider using the Whiteboard to model math problems or create a Venn Diagram live during a lesson.

5. Try a gamified quiz with Time to Climb

Ready to get your game on? Time to Climb is Nearpod’s gamified quiz that takes student engagement to the next level. With Time to Climb, students’ characters race to the top of a mountain, and teachers surface formative assessment data at the same time. You can up the competition and engagement while you access and measure student understanding. Try a premade Time to Climb quiz from our standards-aligned content library, or create one of your own within minutes! Use Nearpod’s digital tools to create engaging lessons to help students reach their learning goals.

Continue to use Nearpod in your classroom

Technology is becoming an essential resource for classroom learning. There are many benefits to using digital technology in the classroom, such as streamlining workflows, elevating student engagement and participation, and more. With Nearpod, the possibilities are endless. You can create your own interactive lessons and activities while getting insight into student learning in real-time. To continue to use Nearpod beyond Digital Learning Day, sign up below for a free account.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access the resources and activities shared in this article! Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Celebrate Digital Learning Day with edtech activities and ideas appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Every year, the third week of October is coined Digital Citizenship Week. Teachers use this time to teach about digital citizenship and support students in developing the skills they need to use devices safely, ethically, and effectively. Now more than ever, it’s important to empower students to think critically and participate responsibly in the digital world through media literacy and social and emotional learning skills.

Digital Citizenship Week free lessons and activities

Nearpod has curated free lessons for Digital Citizenship Week you can use to teach about online safety, cyberbullying, digital literacy, and more. We compiled our most popular and recommended lessons to help you plan your Digital Citizenship Month or Week.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these digital citizenship activities and lessons!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The Nearpod Library and 21st Century Readiness Program include interactive digital citizenship activities, lessons, assessments, and videos covering topics like digital literacy, cyberbullying, media balance, news, and media literacy, communication, digital footprint identity, and online privacy. Check out our curated list of the most popular and staff favorite lessons from each library!

How Adirondack Central School District uses Nearpod for teaching digital literacy

Discover how the Adirondack Central School District, a rural public school district in upstate New York, embraced the challenge of aligning with New York State’s Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards. Leveraging Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, educators navigated these standards with purpose, empowering both teachers and students for a digitally fluent future.

Digital Citizenship lessons for Grades K-5

• Safe Online Behavior (Grades K-5) Most Used
  • In this Nearpod Time to Climb, students demonstrate their understanding of safe online behavior and examples of digital citizenship.

• Digital Trails (Grade 2) Staff Favorite
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn what their digital footprint is and how it is created.

• We the Digital Citizens (Grade 2) Most Used
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn how to be a good digital citizen.

• Computer Vocabulary (Grades 3-5) Most Used 
  • In this Nearpod digital literacy lesson, students investigate how technology can be used to make their lives simpler, more productive, and more expansive.

• Rings of Responsibility (Grade 3) Most Used
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students examine their in-person and online responsibilities.

• The Power of Words (Grade 3) Most Used
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students decide what kinds of statements are OK to say online and which are not.

• My Media Choices (Grade 4) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn the “What? When? How Much?” framework for describing their media choices.

• Private and Personal Information (Grade 4) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students identify why people share information about themselves online and investigate the difference between private and personal information.

• Super Digital Citizen (Grade 4) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students will be able to reflect on the characteristics that make someone an upstanding digital citizen, recognize what cyberbullying is, and show ways to be an upstander.

• Finding My Media Balance (Grade 5) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students reflect on how balanced they are in their daily lives.

• What’s Cyberbullying? (Grade 5) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn how to recognize similarities and differences between in-person bullying, cyberbullying, and being mean.

Digital Citizenship activities for Grades 6-8

• Digital Life 101 (Grade 6) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students are introduced to the 24/7, socially progressive nature of digital media and technologies.

• Digital Citizenship & Responsibility (Grade 6-8) Staff Favorite 
  • In this 6-8 activity, students will review what it means to be a good digital citizen and how to take responsibility on social media with Nearpod’s interactive quiz game, Time to Climb.

• Don’t Feed the Phish (Grade 6) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn about how they can protect themselves from identity theft using examples of digital citizenship.

• Finding Balance in a Digital World (Grade 6-8) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn about the benefits of balancing digital media use in their lives.

• Sourcing Your Information (Grades 6-8) Staff Favorite 
  • In this Nearpod digital literacy lesson, students identify strategies for determining who creates information online. Students learn about credibility, conflict of interest, and native advertising.

• Tik Tok (Grades 6-12) Staff Favorite 
  • In this Nearpod lesson, students investigate Tik Tok and its user base. Students consider how certain aspects can affect users’ behavior.

• Tik Tok Bans (Grade 6-12) Staff Favorite  
  • In this Current Events lesson, students learn about the recent wave of restrictions on TikTok in the US. They learn about the platform in general and analyze the arguments for banning or restricting TikTok.

• Tik Tok Challenges (Grade 6-12) Most Used  
  • In this Nearpod Current Events lesson, students will explore the potential impact of Tik Tok challenges in schools and communities.

• How Retailers Stalk You Online (Grade 6-12) Staff Favorite  
  • In this Two Cents video, students learn about how retailers track their activity online to personalize ads and convince them to make purchases. They also receive some tips about how to be more mindful and deliberate with online shopping.

• Upstanders and Allies: Taking Action Against Cyberbullying (Grade 7) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn about cyberbullying and how they should respond to it. Students reflect on the importance of showing empathy before commenting online.

• The Power of Digital Footprints (Grade 7) Staff Favorite 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn what a digital footprint is and what it conveys.

• Digital Media and Your Brain (Grade 8) Most Used  
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn how digital media is designed to hook users and what can be done about it.

• Social Media Behaviors and Cyberbullying (Grade 8) Most Used 
  •  In this Classroom Complete Press lesson, students learn the importance of responsible use of online platforms and how to spot and stop cyberbullying.

Digital Citizenship lessons for Grades 9-12

• Challenging Confirmation Bias (Grades 9-12) Staff Favorite 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn to change their own confirmation bias to help them leverage technology safely, responsibly, and ethically.

• Sourcing Your Information (Grades 9-12) Staff Favorite 
  • In this Nearpod lesson, students explore why it is important to know where information online comes from by analyzing websites and articles using examples of digital citizenship.

• Teen Voces: Hate Speech Online (Grades 9-12) Staff Favorite 
  • In this interactive video from Common Sense Education, students listen to other teens’ thoughts about online hate speech.

• Teen Voices: Who Are You on Social Media? (Grade 9-12) Staff Favorite 
  • In this interactive video from Common Sense Education, students listen to teens reflect on how they curate their social media lives.

• Who’s Looking at Your Digital Footprint? (Grade 11) Most Used 
  • In this Common Sense Education lesson, students learn how any information they post online can help or hurt their future opportunities.

What to do when the week is over:

Digital Citizenship is becoming a fundamental literacy that shouldn’t be confined to exploring for just one week. Continue the conversation about digital citizenship throughout the entire year Nearpod has a Digital Citizenship and Literacy supplemental curriculum available in the 21st Century Readiness Program. Our lessons support instruction in digital citizenship, computer science,  coding, applications of technology, and media literacy.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Explore Nearpod’s free digital citizenship week activities and lessons here!

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Digital Citizenship Week: Free lessons and activities for K-12 appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

A significant step for students is a giant leap for educators. Determined to support and not swamp teachers, the Adirondack Central School District in upstate New York is leveraging its long-term partnership with Nearpod to prepare its staff for the standards—and the assessments that will inevitably follow. Together, the district, educators, and Nearpod specialists devised a pioneering plan to align ready-to-teach lessons from Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program with these standards so that by the time they come into force, everyone knows what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

Main challenge: Navigating digital literacy standards with purpose

How could an ambitious rural public school district prepare all its teachers and students for incoming digital literacy standards without ramping up the pressure and workloads? 

Determined teachers across the Adirondack Central School District were aware of the criteria set out by the New York State Education Department. For Michael Faustino, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction, and technology, the only way to successfully implement the standards was to transform educators’ apprehension into intention and purpose. 

“The easy way out would be to explain the standards and ask teachers to just do their best. That’s not our philosophy. When you have new standards, there’s going to be an assessment of some sort and there must be an accountability measure,” he explains.

Michael knew the district needed to support all teachers with a solid, structured plan so they didn’t feel overwhelmed or underequipped.

“Anytime you have mandates come down, the tendency is to put more on teachers’ plates without taking anything away. We realized that we can’t put students first if we put teachers last,” he adds.

For Nick Palczak, the district’s STEAM coordinator, it would be crucial to support teachers in leveraging the existing lessons and resources their students enjoyed and engaged with.

“Our educators are already meeting many of the standards—sometimes without even knowing it. So, the question was simple: How do we incorporate these lessons into their classes?” he asks.

The answer was Nearpod. The Adirondack Central School District has been an active Nearpod partner since January 2019. The incoming standards present a prime opportunity to take the partnership to the next level and use Nearpod to align what is being done with what needs to be done. As Michael asserts:

“Our goal for this academic year is to familiarize all our teachers with the alignment documents we are creating. If we roll out the alignment by September 2024, we won’t need implementation. We will just be fine-tuning.”

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program sets path to meet NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program is a powerful tool that equips teachers with a singular solution to infuse 21st-century learning into their daily lessons. This program is designed to bridge the gap, ensuring that students not only excel academically but also develop vital life skills.

Adirondack recognized the transformative potential of this program for educators who aspire to ready their students for the complexities of the 21st century while meeting the stringent requirements of the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards.

To support the district in the demanding task of aligning its curriculum with the new standards, the Nearpod team helped build alignment documents using lessons from the 21st Century Readiness Program, specifically customized for these incoming standards. These documents encompass comprehensive, user-friendly, and adaptable resources.

The district’s forward-thinking approach to education is evident in creating curriculum maps that meticulously identify Nearpod lessons aligning with the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards across various grade levels. Significantly, most of these curriculum resources are sourced from the 21st Century Readiness Program. This strategic integration ensures that students are exposed to high-quality, standards-aligned content and underscores the district’s commitment to nurturing digital fluency and 21st-century skills among its learners. By leveraging these curriculum maps, educators can effectively use them to pinpoint which of their lessons fulfill the criteria of any given standard and track their progress toward ticking all the boxes.

So that’s what Adirondack did, and the results were rewarding—and relieving—as Michael explains: 

“We knew we didn’t want a system that provided standard-aligned lessons but was complex to navigate. Nearpod is so easy to use and works so well. Kids love it. Our students’ mental health is one of our primary concerns, so the platform was a win-win.” 

Nick concurs: “It’s not hard to introduce Nearpod to a set of students by day two. They can run lessons at their own pace. Teachers, even those who are tech-wary, lose their fear because they still use tools they’re familiar with, like Google Docs, with Nearpod.”

Teaching with, not at

In anticipation of the 2024 deadline, Michael and Nick are collaborating closely with Nearpod to plan and execute a comprehensive districtwide rollout meticulously. The first step will be training administrators to become instructional leaders who build capacity through workshops and ongoing support from turnkey trainers. They aim to help teachers explore the standards and connect the dots to what they’re already teaching.

“We’re not going to teach at them,” Michael insists. “The beauty of the Nearpod alignment documents is that teachers can see the standards broken down into subjects and the timeline and then link to the lessons they can use in the classroom.”

New York State’s learning standards work by bands. Nick has taken each band and broken it down by grade for K-12. He is progressively feeding the alignment documents in which the standards are listed, with an explanation of the standard, examples of the standard that the state provided, and lessons that align with that standard to give to teachers, encouraging them to add their own lessons to the document.

The aim is for teachers to recognize what they’re doing in class and understand how the district and Nearpod can help them fill in the gaps or try something new. Nick gives an example:

“Part of the digital fluency standards is creating a digital artifact. Every teacher who creates a slide in Google Slides is creating digital artifacts. How can we make that more intentional? Why did you pick Google instead of something else? What are the features of it? How do you save it? Do you have folders? Is it stored in the Cloud? What does that mean? Great. Now you can deliver a lesson on digital citizenship.” 

Here are some examples of the lessons* Adirondack used for instruction: 

• Computer Vocabulary (Grades 2-3): In this 3-5 Nearpod Digital Citizenship and Literacy lesson, students investigate how technology can be used to make their lives simpler, more productive, and more expansive. Students learn the uses of different computer hardware devices.
• Visualizing Data (Grades 4-6): In this 3-5 Digital Citizenship and Technology Drag & Drop activity, students will demonstrate an understanding of how to read various simple data sets.

• Lesson 5: In the Loop (Grades 7-8): In this 3-8 Coding lesson, students will be able to define what a loop is and explain its importance as it relates to writing code. Students will practice their new skills by completing a selection of CodeMonkey challenges.
• Who’s Looking at Your Digital Footprint? (Grades 9-12): In this Common Sense Education lesson on Digital Citizenship, students learn how any information they post online can affect their future. They create a vignette that shows how a positive digital footprint can help take advantage of opportunities.

*These lessons are only available on Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program.

From vision to action

For Adirondack, the key to successfully implementing the standards is to know which skills to teach and how. Even if students nor teachers know what the future holds in store, as Nick concludes: 

“We want our kids to leave Adirondack ready for high tech colleges and high tech jobs. I had a student who graduated last year. He’s now at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He’s trying to decide which robotics club he is going to join so he can compete in robotics programs. He’s so excited to go to a technical college when he grew up in a town of 100 people. I want more and more students to be able to leave our school to do those kinds of things.”  

Michael believes that educators must understand what is being measured and the outcomes:

“It’s not enough for us to have a vision statement that says we want our students to be college and career ready. We’re preparing them for jobs that don’t even exist right now. We can’t just give them taglines; we need to give them avenues, and the only way is by building professional learning without overwhelming teachers. That’s where Nearpod makes all the difference.”

It seems like the difference is already being made in the district. Far from dreading the incoming standards, Nick is confident they will help Adirondack achieve its goals: 

“In 2024, we want to intentionally meet these standards because we know why they are in place. We want to ensure our staff knows why these standards are in place. What jobs are available in 20 years? I have no idea. What skills do you need to be ready for those jobs? Adirondack’s goal is to have kids college and career ready. These standards are really going to help us to meet that goal.”

To learn about the Adirondack Central School district’s actions, watch the webinar “Preparing for Digital Fluency with Nearpod” where they explain how they’ve been using Nearpod resources!

Take the digital fluency leap with Nearpod

Nearpod created New York State-centric alignment documents to demonstrate to teachers how their existing lessons correspond with incoming standards and help the district implement a strategic plan to meet them well before the 2024 deadline. Adirondack squared up to the challenge and developed curriculum maps, which clearly outlined the standards for each grade level and identified relevant Nearpod lessons that taught the necessary skills for students in each grade band.

By offering comprehensive, standards-aligned lesson plans, interactive activities, and assessment tools, the program simplified the process for educators and ensured that students receive a dynamic and engaging learning experience. It sets a blueprint to help schools across and beyond the state take bold strides and implement new educational standards with confidence, calm, and care.

Ready to learn more about how to prepare every student for success with Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program? Schedule a call with one of our experts and learn how you can empower educators with unlimited access to everything they need to engage learners.

About the district

The Adirondack Central School District in Boonville, NY, is a rural public school district encompassing four schools—two elementary, a middle school, and a high school. The district strives to create a safe, respectful, and accepting environment, and to provide students with the mental and emotional support to thrive and excel. By prioritizing open and transparent communication, and fostering a positive school spirit, Adirondack is committed to uniting the community while nurturing academic growth and achievement. Firmly focused on developing STEAM capacity, the district has invested greatly in building facilities and capacity to prepare students for whatever might await them. Its administrators and educators work for and with students to raise graduation rates, enhance state exam performance, minimize the need for academic intervention services, and increase enrollment in advanced courses to prepare students for their chosen—and changing—life endeavors.

About the educators

Michael Faustino, with three decades of experience in education, including 17 years as a kindergarten teacher before becoming a principal, now serves as the director of curriculum, instruction, and technology for the Adirondack Central School District. He leads the district’s mission to prepare all students for college and career success by emphasizing the importance of curricula and data. Michael collaborates closely with educators throughout the district to ensure they are well prepared to implement the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards in 2024, guiding teachers and students through every step of the transition, aligning with and even surpassing the timeline.

Nick Palczak, a seasoned physics teacher at Adirondack Central School since 1996, also serves as the district’s STEAM coordinator. He collaborates closely with the tech director to oversee K-12 STEAM programs, while also teaching STEAM courses at middle and high schools. In 2021, Nick played a pivotal role in establishing the Adirondack STEAM program, including setting up a new laboratory post COVID-19. In the past two-plus years, the Adirondack STEAM program has won several robotics competitions and has received numerous recognitions for its work with students. Alongside district coordinator Michael Faustino, Nick readies students and educators for upcoming standards while integrating STEAM into the curriculum. With a family legacy in education, Nick is passionate about preparing students and their teachers for 21st-century careers.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Taking the digital fluency leap with Nearpod: Adirondack Central School District’s story appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

How has COVID impacted technology in the classroom?

While a March survey by the EdWeek Research Center reported that almost half of the 386 teacher respondents felt that their ability to use technology during the 2020-2021 school year had “improved a lot,” many laments noted that it was a bit of a firehose of “new” due to the dire situation. Teachers reported being tech-fatigued between personal and professional use. Whether referred to as screen fatigue, digital fatigue, or technostress, the burnout was real as teachers faced exhausting and stressful hours adjusting to the parameters of hybrid and remote learning. As a result, it’s important to prioritize supporting teachers’ well-being.

For too long, tech companies have focused on what was defined as “early adopters,” educators who traditionally were more likely to jump into “the new.” Now, ed-tech providers are becoming more cognizant of reaching all educators to provide a deeper, more meaningful experience with said tools and platforms as they look toward the future of technology in the classroom.

Peter LaCasse of Carnegie Learning recommends, “Teachers’ familiarity with technology has opened the door for better integration of these tools into their daily lesson-planning and instructional strategies. However, we, the tech developers, don’t want to make the mistake of immediately developing super-sophisticated tools because we will once again leap ahead of what our teachers truly want.” In addition, 78% of K-12 administrators are considering increasing their investments over the next five years to sustain existing technologies versus 55% investing in new ones, according to a survey by the EdWeek Research Center. With the rapid evolution, the learning curve will continue to be steep, so now is the time to consider how best to go deeper, not broader, in adopting technology in the classroom while also preventing tech fatigue.

Does technology get in the way of learning?

Sure, digital technologies can make a lot of “noise,” literally and figuratively, with the pings and beeps and ever-steady input of multimedia. However, like any diet, screen time is most impactful when quality is considered over quantity. As digital technologies are introduced, educators and families alike need to reiterate the skill sets around digital citizenship; how to be responsible, respectful, and safe when online. Too often, kids aren’t developmentally ready for the access that the Internet provides, so kids need “rules of the road” so that they are thoughtful and intentional when using technology for learning (and fun!) While no longer remote, classrooms can still embrace technology to complement the teacher, not substitute. Educators need continual training to ensure that technology is being used to make their pedagogy more efficient, more engaging, and more effective.

In this digital age, the benefits of technology in education are evident. Technological tools empower educators to personalize lessons and adapt to individual learning styles, creating a dynamic and effective learning environment. Therefore, the use of technology in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms continues to play a pivotal role in enhancing the educational experience.

5 Benefits of technology in education

What is less of a debate is the many benefits of technology in the classroom when used well — from increasing student engagement to adapting to multiple learning styles and needs to individualizing and personalizing learning, to developing future career and life skills, technology has found a permanent place in our learning infrastructure.

“Integration of technology in education simply refers to the use of technology to enhance the student learning experience. Utilizing different types of technology in the classroom, including a virtual classroom, creates learners who are actively engaged with learning objectives. The implementation of technology also creates pathways for differentiated instruction to meet the unique needs of students as individual learners within a broader classroom climate.”

Drexel University School of Education

1. Streamline workflows by keeping resources all in one place

Let’s start with the logistics. Technology in the classroom provides ample opportunity to streamline workflows for both you and your students. Nearpod offers multiple solutions in one streamlined platform. You can create slide-based lessons or videos with embedded interactive activities and assessments. Students can follow along on their own devices while the teacher has access to their responses in real-time.

Additionally, Nearpod has 22,000+ premade standards-aligned lessons, videos, and activities for all K-12 subjects, featuring trusted publishers. By digitizing worksheets, lessons, and assignments, you no longer have to depend on loose sheets of paper, grade everything manually, and use multiple websites at once. Teachers can organize and categorize content so that you and your students have quality connections “just in time” and “on the go.” Being such an inclusive platform means that you can house and manage activities, content, and resources with just a few clicks, all from your single account.

Bringing back an old favorite from virtual learning…@nearpod!! We got back into the groove during our math practice with Draw It, a “quiz,” and Time to Climb. You may have heard these mathematicians cheering from down the hall!! @lisa_minutoli @cveschargers #cvesbettertogether pic.twitter.com/Ri0EJkuC4p

— Jen Roney (Kreis) (@MrsRoneysRoom) March 16, 2022

2. Increase student engagement and participation

Then there is the teachers’ main goal – student engagement. Through the benefits of technology in the classroom, including those in the back of the classroom and the quieter students. With Nearpod, you can ensure all students are on task and participating. Students can feel comfortable responding to questions by answering digitally while the teacher encourages class discussion. Students have the option to submit responses by typing, selecting images, or submitting voice recordings. This helps promote inclusion and accessibility in your classroom. Using Nearpod’s interactive activities, formative assessments, and dynamic media, such as Draw It, Matching Pairs, Drag & Drop, VR, and more, students will be engaged and responsive throughout the instruction.

3. Access student feedback in real-time

As a teacher, Nearpod provides the benefit of real-time data so that you can swoop in and help redirect or support a student in the moment, which also means added opportunities for student-teacher connection. Many of Nearpod’s interactive learning activities can be used as formative assessments during a lesson or at the end of a lesson, allowing you to modify your instruction mid-lesson or for the next day, Plus, Nearpod’s individual and small-group data reporting saves you time and helps direct where more instruction time might be most needed. This ongoing differentiation again bolsters the idea that every child has their own learning journey. The benefits of technology in education allow teachers to understand which students need support and what topics to spend more time teaching.

4. Create fun learning moments with gamification

Similarly, when it comes to incentives, gamification has found an interesting niche in education. Gamification can aid in learning, whether it be in aiding physical and/or cognitive development or increasing engagement and accessibility. Based on video games, learners can engage in active learning by competing with one’s self or classmates with Nearpod’s Time to Climb, which provides a bit of friendly competition. Educational games help build community in the classroom, boost students’ social and emotional skills, and increase motivation.

In Time to Climb, students choose a character and race together to the top of the mountain depending on how correctly and fast they respond to the questions. Teachers can create their own gamified quiz within just a few clicks, or use premade Time to Climb activities. If you haven’t watched already, take 8 minutes and watch James Paul Gee on Learning with Video Games or download his Principles of Good Learning for a cheat sheet on how gamification can play a role in your classroom.

5. Prepare students for future careers

Lastly, all of this digital literacy means that students are better prepared for future careers. They are building a growth mindset toward failing fast and forward, as tech is not always turnkey (“pleasantly frustrating” learning, as James Paul Gee puts it). While a balance is needed, we are preparing our children to be forward-thinking innovators. This can be done with 21st-century skills like P21’s 4Cs: critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. The endless options in Nearpod and its interaction, like the VR field trips, help illustrate the possibilities of our rich, multimedia world.

So, can technology enhance learning?

Technology can enhance student learning through streamlining workflows, student engagement and participation, real-time feedback, gamification, and digital literacy skills. Teachers’ tool belts have always been impressive, stocked with manipulatives, supplies, prizes, and tools to help them pivot at the moment to reach a child through the benefits of technology in education. Although the learning curve can be steep at times, teachers are recognizing the short and long-term effects of having technology in the classroom. With the landscape evolving rapidly, it is a shift for teachers to stay up to date. By encouraging students to be part of the solution to troubleshoot or find new resources through initiatives like MOUSE Squads or pineapple charts, the effort can be a collective learning venture.

Start today with Nearpod today by creating a free account in just three steps:

• Start by signing up for a free account.
• Check out the many on-demand training resources available.
• And join a global educator community to learn more about best practices with tech alongside a supportive community.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 5 Benefits of technology in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Ray Kurzweil’s theory, the Law of Accelerating Returns, illustrates how and why progress seems to be escalating exponentially. Kurzweil claims that the rate of change is such that in the next 100 years, we won’t progress 100 years, but we will progress 20,000 years. The tension comes in that he believes humans to be linear by nature, while technology is exponential.

According to the 2021 Common Sense Census, media use in tweens and teens has grown faster since the start of the pandemic than it has over the four years prior to the pandemic. Additionally, teens 13- to 18-year-olds spend nearly an hour and a half a day using social media but have conflicted feelings about the medium.

No longer are students referred to as digital natives — those who were brought up with digital technology, never not knowing a world without the Internet. Post GenZ is Generation Alpha (born 2010-2025), born completely in the 21st century. This generation does not differentiate between what is online versus offline. Their world is digital. It is a world full of media consumption, rich with multimedia, and full of pings, dings, and buzzes. In this Age of Information, many use the analogy that we are bombarded with a firehose of content. So how can we teach what is a digital citizen and model it while encouraging our students to develop such foundational skills?

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod and the 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

What is digital citizenship?

Common Sense Education, leaders in digital citizenship, define the field as empowering students to take control of their digital lives. What are the appropriate behaviors and accepted norms for using digital devices and participating in digital spaces? In short, how can we all be safe, responsible, and respectful online?

Many of these ideals are fundamental to being a good citizen in general. However, the digital landscape is riddled with more opportunities to misstep, and the fall is much greater since our digital footprint is public, pervasive, and often permanent. So while kids may not be online at an early age, these conversations must start as early as kindergarten (or even earlier) to form good habits of mind, including a clear understanding of the digital citizenship definition for students, that they can lean on when they do encounter devices and the Internet, whether at home, at school, or at a friend’s house.

Elements of digital citizenship

While the field of digital citizenship is evolving as rapidly as the tech landscape itself, we know that we want students (and adults) to be fluent in the opportunities and pitfalls around:

• Privacy & Security
• Cyberbullying, Digital Drama, & Hate Speech
• Digital Footprint & Identity
• Relationships & Communication
• News & Media Literacy
• Media Balance & Well-Being

These topics can all be bucketed in the overlapping notions of safety, respect, and responsibility.

Why is digital citizenship important for 21st-century students?

Digital citizenship is important for 21st-century students because it ensures their safety online, promotes respect in digital interactions, and teaches responsibility in managing personal information and media consumption.

Safety

Digital is all about data, so it can be difficult to know where to draw the line on how, where, and when to share information. When it comes to safety, posting a photo of one’s first day of school in front of a school sign is one of those innocent missteps — now anyone can find where you go to school. We all need to be diligent about not oversharing the personal ins and outs of our daily lives as well as safeguarding our personally identifying information (PII) to avoid identity theft. Today’s digital systems are designed to track and target, so we need to teach students how to be savvy consumers. Especially when it comes to app settings. Knowing what apps are capable of makes it easier to understand how to use settings on apps to limit their reach.

Respect

Respect is one of those ideals that deserves some extra TLC and effort when it comes to any actions online. While hopefully, the students you know won’t be the targets of cyberbullying and hate speech, we all need to be aware of the subtle signs. The worst is when a young child tries to shoulder the devastating effects on their own. Likewise, we need to encourage our students to stand up and help others who they think are being cyberbullied. And don’t forget about all the nuanced shades of gray when it comes to digital drama. While bullying and drama are not new, the 24/7 access perpetrators have to subversively taunt others takes the devastating effects to a whole new level.

Responsibility

This sense of respect segues into responsibility as students learn how to form open and trusting relationships with one another. One of the upsides of the Internet is how students can explore and pursue diverse interests. They can meet others who share these passions and begin to form an independent sense of self. Yet they need to understand how anyone can curate an unrealistic or even fake identity online. Students need to understand the perils of oversharing and that there is no erase button online, so it is best to pause and think before hitting a send or share button.

Spiderman’s uncle said it best when he said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Students need to hone their critical eye when it comes to media literacy and cross-reference what they are reading or watching before believing it is true. And all of this use culminates in taking a balanced approach to media consumption. As with any diet, one wants to consume quality media in a balanced manner to stay on top of their overall well-being.

How can schools teach digital citizenship?

School communities need to commit to weaving digital citizenship throughout the curriculum to build a strong school culture. School leaders can begin by outlining clear policies around acceptable policy use, which may address device handling, student accounts, cyberbullying, social media, and cheating. Many schools have parents, and the students themselves sign contracts or agreements at the beginning of the school year to make sure that all parties understand the expectations (and repercussions). Schools and districts play a pivotal role in equipping today’s students with vital 21st-century skills they need, such as technology literacy, to foster responsible behavior in the digital community and emphasize the importance of digital citizenship.

Digital Citizenship Week Exclusive Webinar

October 16-20 is Digital Citizenship Week. Watch this webinar recording to explore K-12 lessons and activities that help students use technology responsibly and cultivate a balanced digital life. Walk away with resources and a solid plan for incorporating Digital Citizenship Week into your classroom, school, and community.

Receive a recording to watch the webinar by clicking below!

Fostering proactive digital citizenship across the curriculum

Then the educators can focus on being proactive with digital citizenship lessons. With many cross-curricular ties, the learning objectives can be hit upon in core disciplines like ELA or Social Studies. This proactive approach again emphasizes habits of mind versus a reactive, one-time plug. Remember, with many of the obstacles students face online, they are not developmentally ready to tackle them. In this modern age, the importance of digital citizenship cannot be overstated. Children’s prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls impulsivity, decision-making, and compulsivity, isn’t fully developed until one turns 25. So it is completely natural that students will misstep, experiment, and explore as they form their own identities and relationships — but the repercussions of posting an inappropriate photo, making a crass comment, or sharing private information can haunt one for decades to come.

Cultivating digital citizenship skills through engagement

As with any muscle, students need to exercise these skill sets to develop such habits of mind. Adults and students alike need repeated and consistent instances of practice in learning about digital citizenship. Schools can be that needed safe environment to explore the concepts under the guidance of an adult who may have more foresight (developmentally at least!). Teachers can share the challenges and opportunities they have experienced to better personalize the twists and turns within our digital world. Students can engage in rich discussions and role-playing to share their experiences, which will vary greatly depending on their access to devices and the Internet.

In this modern age, the importance of digital citizenship should not be overstated. These skills ought to be woven school-wide throughout the curriculum, spiraling in a developmentally appropriate way in order to take a dedicated year-long approach to digital citizenship.

Resources to build digital citizenship skills year-round

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program

Most agree that digital citizenship is a vital set of skills we need to develop. However, it is becoming harder and harder to dedicate time during the school day to these skills. Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program makes it easy to find a year’s worth of digital citizenship content that any educator can embed into their class as the content is aligned to cross-curricular standards. The 21st Century Readiness Program contains engaging learning experiences by leveraging Nearpod’s features making lessons interactive and collaborative. The digital citizenship portion of the program is broken down into topics with assessments and activities such as:

• Digital Citizenship Curriculum from Common Sense Education
• Evaluating Media
• Social Media
• Technology Applications
• Keyboarding featuring content from Typesy
• Coding featuring content from CodeMonkey

Free Nearpod digital citizenship lessons

Digital Citizenship Week is the most popular time for schools and educators to focus on developing these skills. We’ve curated a list of our most popular digital citizenship lessons to help teachers celebrate the week and be inspired to keep the conversation going.

Leverage the upsides of our digital world

And while we hear the scary and disturbing stories around cyberbullying, phishing, cheating, and screen time, the opportunities are so great for our 21st-century learners. Students today have access to literally a worldwide web of information. This is why teaching young people why digital citizenship is important for their present and future is vital. How can they apply, analyze, evaluate, and create with this newfound information? Students can become published writers, musicians, designers, and makers in an hour’s time while having the flexibility to iterate, redesign, and republish immediately afterward. This cyclical process illustrates the Hero’s Journey, but nowadays, students can be the heroes of their own learning journeys. 

Start cultivating good digital citizens today

Schools can proactively work in tandem with families to establish clear expectations and provide instances of practice to help establish these habits of mind from a young age. From protecting their private information to exploring age-appropriate sites to curating a positive digital footprint for participating thoughtfully online, these digital citizenship skills set a foundation to continue to grow and thrive. Digital citizenship is no longer a nice to have but an essential part of education to ensure their success today and in their future.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod and the 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

Explore Nearpod’s free digital citizenship week lessons here!

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

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Building digital literacy skills for students is important because it empowers them to thrive in an era of rapid technological advancement by safely and effectively utilizing technology. Digital literacy fosters global connectivity, enabling students to connect and collaborate responsibly online. Teaching these topics enhances their information literacy by equipping them to navigate the digital landscape, evaluate sources, and conduct effective online research. Proficiency in digital tools and platforms also opens up diverse career opportunities, which will prepare students for their future.

We’ve given kids across the country access to devices and digital technology without teaching them how to use them safely, responsibly, and effectively. The same incredible capacity of devices to make our lives easier and amplify our voices can also have pitfalls. With the click of a button, one mistake can be accidentally broadcast to your entire social circle and strangers all over the world in a matter of seconds. Your inability to create or understand a spreadsheet can be the difference between a job offer and a denial. We often get our news online, but one Stanford study demonstrated young people dramatically overestimated their ability to evaluate the credibility of information online.

What is digital literacy in education?

The American Library Association (ALA) defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

Teenage hubris is nothing new, but in the digital age, teenage mistakes stay with you. Digital literacy topics instill the principles of digital citizenship, ensuring that students practice ethical online behavior and navigate the internet safely and respectfully. It is our shared responsibility to develop a digital literacy curriculum that can teach them these skills. While digital citizenship skills are typically emphasized during Digital Citizenship Week, they are essential year-round. We recognize the challenges educators face in finding time to incorporate digital citizenship into their busy schedules. Fortunately, Nearpod offers a solution with ready-made, impactful lessons that you can easily integrate into your curriculum today to teach these important topics.

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program provides educators with the essential tools and curriculum needed to confidently teach their students across all grade levels to use technology safely, ethically, and effectively. Teachers don’t need to be experts in digital citizenship, social and emotional learning, or college and career readiness to facilitate them. Partnered with Common Sense Education, the program contains engaging learning experiences by leveraging Nearpod’s features to make lessons engaging, interactive, collaborative, and easy for teachers to facilitate.

Digital literacy examples

• Digital Citizenship: How to safely, ethically, and effectively navigate the internet/devices
• Media literacy: How to read the news/social media with a critical lens, decipher fake news, manage your media diet, and evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of informational sources.
• Social Media: Encourage awareness and reflectiveness of the impact that students’ interaction with social media has and create a deeper understanding of how these platforms work.
• Technology Applications: How to navigate computers, learn tech skills applied to schools, and speak the language of technology
• Coding: Teach students of any age how to code and understand algorithms

The digital citizenship portion of the program is broken down into four series that address unique aspects and the importance of digital citizenship: Digital Citizenship, Media Literacy, Technology Applications, and Coding. Each series includes pre and post-assessments, behaviorally-driven objectives with respective activities to match, PBL Design challenges, social emotional learning, and digital skills that are connected to each topic.

If you don’t have access to Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, you can still access some unlocked digital literacy resources and digital citizenship week lessons for free. To access the resources shared in this article, make sure to sign up for Nearpod for free!

Essential lessons and examples to build students’ digital literacy skills

Digital citizenship

• In this K-5 technology Draw It activity, students will explore what a digital citizen is using a Frayer model.
• In this Common Sense Education lesson on Digital Citizenship and Literacy for grade 4, students reflect on the characteristics that make someone an upstanding digital citizen. They also learn how to recognize what cyberbullying is.
• In this Common Sense Education lesson on Digital Citizenship for grade 11, students learn how any information they post online can help or hurt their future opportunities; in order to help them leverage technology safely, responsibly, and ethically.

Media literacy

• In these Nearpod Digital Citizenship and Literacy lessons for grades 6-8 and grades 9-12, students identify strategies for determining who creates information online. Students learn about credibility, conflict of interest, and native advertising.
• In this 6-12 technology Draw It activity, students review search results to identify a trustworthy link.

Social media

• In this video lesson from Common Sense Education for grades 9-12, students listen to teens reflect on how they curate their social media lives and think about the self they’re presenting on social media.
• In this current events Tik Tok Challenge lesson for grades 6-12, students will explore the potential impact of TikTok challenges in schools and communities.

Technology applications

• In this Nearpod Digital Citizenship and Literacy lesson, students identify healthy habits when using a computer. Students learn to model and apply good posture when using a computer. (Only available on The 21st Century Readiness Program)
• In this K-5 Technology Time to Climb activity, students practice their internet terminology using Nearpod’s interactive game quiz.

Coding

• In this STEM lesson partnered with Code Monkey, students will start to learn a programming language. Your students will define coding and computer programming.
• In this 25-30 minute Nearpod featuring Flocabulary topic spark, students are introduced to coding through a hip-hop video and Nearpod’s signature interactive features. This lesson features the Flocabulary video Coding.

Start teaching digital literacy curriculum with Nearpod

Start using these resources to teach your students digital literacy skills! The 21st Century Readiness Program takes abstract concepts and grounds them in real-world applications, making concepts less foreign and pushing students to see themselves in all topics. As we prepare young people for the future, it is our shared responsibility to make sure we are teaching students to be authentically digital and media literate. Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program does just that!

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

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Why is it so important to have students as content creators, not consumers? 

It helps learning become more engaging, relevant, and authentic. Students at any age can begin to experience what it is like to put their work out to a wider audience than just their teacher. How many students, regardless of their age, follow or even want to become YouTubers, Tik Tokers, or other influencers? A report by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and published by the World Economic Forum website called Transforming through Trust: How social innovators are transforming the lives of millions, discussed how social innovators play a vital role in systemic economic change. Finding ways to have students as content creators in schools does not simply satisfy that dream. It builds valuable life and career skills that will likely serve them well in the future.

The benefits of content creation opportunities for students in the classroom

In another article by the World Economic Forum called These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them (Whiting, 2020), critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years. Additionally, the second most important skill is active learning and learning strategies. These increasingly important skills for students align with what many educators consider “The Four C’s” – critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication, not to mention how they contribute to the age-old notion that the best way to learn something is to teach it to others. Furthermore, as any good educator should know, the top-most level of higher-order thinking in Bloom’s Taxonomy is creating. Having students as content creators allows the students to demonstrate their learning in ways that contribute to better mastery of content and standards.

How educators can get started

The good news for educators like me who are constantly looking to find and promote more opportunities to have students as creators, not consumers, is that there are plenty of creativity tools for students that will work great in order to achieve this goal. These student creation tools can promote building valuable skills as well as increasing opportunities for students to learn digital citizenship along the way. Students can gain experience producing work for a wider audience than just their teacher while also learning to be cognizant of their responsibilities to a more authentic audience.

5 Ways to empower students as content creators

In the following sections, I will go through five ideas to empower students as content creators as well as some of the powerful student creation tools that can be used to do so.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons and activities mentioned in this article. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

1. Creation and collaboration through presentations

One of the ways that educators have been embracing student content creation and collaboration for a long time is through the use of student presentations. More traditional presentation tools such as PowerPoint and Google Slides have allowed students to demonstrate their learning and to truly experience how “the best way to learn something is to teach it to others.”

In my experience, the more interactive presentation tools like Nearpod are mostly used by teachers to present information. Educators can use Nearpod to create interactive lessons using formative assessment activities and dynamic media. However, if the goal is to have students as creators, not consumers, teachers can look for more ways to get the students themselves to create interactive presentations, rather than the stagnant ones that the more traditional tools can create.

With Nearpod’s Student Accounts, available as part of the Premium Plus license, students can share their knowledge by creating and delivering their own content and enjoy seamless access to lessons using their accounts. Students can log into Nearpod to create lessons that feature all the interactivity teachers and students love. The student experience is limited to lesson creation and does not include the lesson library, so you don’t need to worry about students accessing their teacher’s lessons or any included answers.

Teachers and schools who incorporate genius hour or provide time for students to explore passion projects can especially benefit from having students present original content about concepts they are learning outside of the subject-area curriculum. The 4 C’s and other future-focused skills are embedded in presentations as an avenue for content creation. Presentations allow students to create their presentation slides, potentially collaborate with one another, and of course, communicate their ideas through their presentation content and spoken narration or other content delivery.

2. Written communications through blogging

While writing is not for everyone, and many students would prefer to demonstrate their learning in other ways, written communication still remains one of the most popular forms of communication. Whether through simple written communication such as letter writing, emailing, or even texting, students should know how important it is. One way to empower students as content creators not consumers is for teachers to provide opportunities for students to blog.

Common Sense Education recommends several student creation tools for traditional blogging. Teachers can choose how “professional” they want student blog sites and posts to be. Simple blogs can even be created with standard tools that come with districtwide Google or Microsoft subscriptions using Google Docs, Slides, or Sites or using Microsoft Word, Sway, or Sharepoint.

Utilizing blogging as a type of content creation can obviously be easily introduced when working on reading and writing in the lower grades or in an English or language arts course in the upper grades. However, it can be useful for having students demonstrate mastery in other content areas as well.

Here are some ideas you can use across various subjects:

• Math: Students can blog about which technique they used to solve a problem, why they used it, and show their thought process and their work.
• Science: Students can blog about a famous scientist and their contributions, or they can create a how-to post about steps taken during a lab experiment.
• Social studies: Students can blog about historical events or compare aspects of ancient history to those from modern times. The possibilities are endless.

3. The power of podcasting

As a podcaster myself, I am partial to this style of educational podcasting for student content creation. The first opportunity I had to get students to create a podcast to demonstrate their learning came several years ago when three middle school students used Soundcloud to create the “Brains, Braun, and Bulk” show to discuss what they had learned in their health class about physical and mental health and wellness. Podcasting can be a clever way of presenting information through audio that can typically be done quicker than writing. Many students may also find it easier to verbally convey concepts than to get bogged down by writing or typing or by the design elements that a slide presentation may require. What’s also great about podcasting is that similar to presenting and blogging that I have already mentioned, believe it or not, it does not require fancy equipment to create good ones.

Some popular creativity tools for students for podcasting include embedding audio in Google Slides or Sites, Flipgrid’s mic-only mode, Soundtrap, or even Nearpod’s open-ended question activity where students can record audio. As far as hardware goes, many people can get hung up on which microphones to use. The important thing to remember is that students will likely be recording while in a crowded room and with plenty of ambient noise. Therefore, it is best to use a dynamic microphone which is designed to only pick up the sound that is right in front of it, drowning out most of the room noise. Even earbuds with a built-in microphone, like the ones that often come with a cell phone, work really well. Of course, in a pinch, students can still use the internal microphone that is built into a laptop, Chromebook, iPad, or whichever device the school can provide.

4. Storytelling through photo/video creation

Storytelling is such an important aspect of content creation as well as teaching and learning. Many of today’s students consume a great deal of content from YouTube. This is due in large part to the fact that YouTube has become the second most popular search engine, only behind Google, and is a digital curation of some amazingly entertaining and, yes, educational content.

Students love the opportunity to create video content that can emulate their favorite YouTubers. Students in English classes can create how-to videos. In math classes, students can “unbox” a new concept or solution. In social studies or science, students can create review-style videos where they analyze (also pretty high on Bloom’s Taxonomy) popular events, locations, and cultures, or famous figures, inventions, and ideals.

For editing photos and videos, I love WeVideo for schools and districts with licenses. However, many district-issued devices will have access to simple editors and web-based platforms such as Adobe Creative Cloud apps or Canva. These tools can allow students to create slideshows, presentations, and videos to capture photo content and become photojournalists and storytellers.

When it comes to creating video and photo content, once again, hardware can vary from basic and inexpensive to complex and costly. To get started, students can easily use the built-in cameras or webcams on their devices. Students can also use Nearpod’s Interactive Video feature to share their creations.

5. Instructional design through online courses

A content creation avenue that has become more popular and is increasing in popularity among millennial entrepreneurs and online businesses is instructional design through online courses. As someone who has taken several online courses and has even completed two online degrees, I can attest to the value of online course content. Plus, I think we all saw how valuable learn-from-home experiences became as learning and working during the pandemic quickly shifted to remote settings. Online learning platforms such as Coursera, FutureLearn, Udemy, Udacity, and Skillshare have become some of the most popular for people looking for courses, certificates, and even degrees in a wide array of subjects.

In keeping with the theme of “the best way to learn something is to teach it to others,” students can create online course content to demonstrate their learning and to teach others a skill that they have mastered. If schools use a learning management system, Google Classroom, or Microsoft Teams, students may be able to post lessons and potentially engage and collaborate with others. Otherwise, Google Sites or Microsoft Sharepoint would work well as digital learning hubs. Students can teach and learn concepts online, as basic as how to do simple math to more difficult ones. What is great about this type of content creation is that students can even use any or all of the other creation types. Videos, presentations, and even audio content are very useful methods of delivering content in online courses.

Empower students to create content with Nearpod’s support

To truly move teaching and learning toward future-readiness, providing opportunities to have students as content creators must become the norm rather than the exception in classrooms. With the world’s economy changing and adapting to new careers and industries, educators can no longer treat students as content consumers, simply absorbing information from their teachers who act as a sage on the stage. Instead, empowering students of all ages to become content creators emphasizes digital citizenship and provides authentic, more innovative, and immersive learning experiences that will engage students and get them to better retain information and for longer. Empower your students to start creating the kinds of learning activities and outcomes that will not just help them learn their subject area curricula but will prepare them with the essential skills they will need for their future.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons and activities mentioned in this article. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

References

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. (2022, January). Transforming through trust: How social innovators are transforming the lives of millions. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Transforming_through_Trust_2022.pdf

Whiting, K. (2020, October 21). These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/top-10-work-skills-of-tomorrow-how-long-it-takes-to-learn-them/

Dr. Dan Kreiness

Dr. Dan Kreiness is an educator, author, speaker, and host of the Leader of Learning Podcast. He works as an Instructional Coach for Digital Learning in Norwalk, CT. He is a Google Certified Educator, Microsoft Certified Educator, Nearpod PioNear, Flipgrid Ambassador, and WeVideo Certified Educator.

leaderoflearning.com

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