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“Many professional books talk about digital and media literacy, but this text addresses the complete continuum—from television to technology—and guides teachers to think deeply about their own preferences and beliefs, as well as those of their students to develop knowledgeable, informed media users and consumers for the 21st Century.”—Kristin Ziemke Fastabend, First Grade TeacherChicago Public SchoolsGive digital kids a voice!Today's kids are digital natives, but what's the best way to help them become empowered, creative and responsible communicators across different media? Discover insights and strategies specific to children ages 5-12 in this guide from an acclaimed media literacy program: Powerful Voices for Kids. Readers will findThought-provoking lesson plans that reach students of all backgrounds and abilitiesUse of a wide range of technology tools, including the Internet, video, and mobile apps, combined with an emphasis on online safety and development of essential critical thinking skillsMaterials for teacher professional developmentThis innovative book is equally valuable as a resource for lesson planning or for developing a full media literacy program.

Digital media literacy education has become shared responsibility of all educators, school-based initiatives are considered to be a crucial component of digital media literacy education. This 10-week intervention study explores the effects of digital media literacy (DML) course on students’ digital media literacy. The participants were 58 fifth graders (M = 11.5 years) from two classes in Beijing. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were performed to examine the effects of the DML course on the digital media literacy of primary school students. The results provided evidence that the DML course positively impacts students’ citizenship participation, but has no significant influence on students’ technical skills, critical understanding, or creation and communication. The findings also explained a positive relationship between teacher’s scaffolding support and students’ digital media literacy.

The goal of this investigation was to explore how a fourth grade teacher could integrate iPads into her literacy instruction to simultaneously teach print‐based and digital literacy goals. The teacher used iPads for a three‐week period during her literacy instruction and selected apps that provided unique approaches to helping the students meet their literacy learning goals. An explanation of how to develop lessons that meaningfully integrate iPads is presented, as well as lessons learned from the project. Considerations for integrating tablets, such as the iPad, into literacy instruction are provided. Because iPads and similar tablets are relatively unexplored as tools for literacy learning, this work may provide a foundation for teachers and leaders making decisions about whether mobile devices such as these can be useful in literacy classrooms.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America forced a transition from a face-to-face educational model to a distance model affected by emergencies, technological precariousness, and lack of planning. This has heightened the need for media literacy in the region. In this context, the changes that have occurred were analyzed in order to propose a critical agenda from the perspective of teachers. First, a desk research of official sources was carried out to learn about the strategies of the four countries under study: Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru. Secondly, eight focus groups were conducted with primary school teachers from public and private institutions to learn about their perception of their own and their students' media competencies, the impact of the pandemic on their practices and needs, and the emerging challenges in this crisis. The results shed light on the need for relevant ICT training from a media literacy perspective, and strategies to address connectivity gaps, lack of adequate environments and work overload. The specific results per country and the differences and demands of each context are discussed in this work as contributions to the development of a critical agenda in media education. La pandemia causada por la COVID-19 en América Latina obligó a transitar de un modelo educativo presencial a uno a distancia atravesado por la emergencia, las precariedades tecnológicas y la falta de planificación. Esto ha agudizado las necesidades de educación mediática en la región. En ese contexto, se analizó los cambios ocurridos para proponer una agenda crítica desde la perspectiva de los docentes. En primer lugar, se realizó una revisión documental de fuentes oficiales para conocer las estrategias de los cuatro países de estudio: Argentina, Ecuador, Chile y Perú. En segundo lugar, se llevaron a cabo ocho grupos focales con docentes de primaria de instituciones públicas y privadas para conocer su percepción sobre sus competencias mediáticas y las de sus estudiantes, el impacto de la pandemia en sus prácticas y necesidades, y los retos emergentes en esta crisis. Los resultados apuntan a la necesidad de capacitaciones pertinentes en el manejo de las TIC, así como estrategias que atiendan las brechas de conectividad, la falta de ambientes adecuados y la sobrecarga laboral. Los resultados específicos por país, las diferencias y demandas propias de cada contexto, se discuten en este trabajo como aportes al desarrollo de una agenda crítica en educación mediática.

Digital media have become integral to schoolchildren's lives, both within educational and non-educational settings. Educators emphasize the importance of bridging the gap between school learning and children's out-of-school activities. To identify potential variations and commonalities, we investigated key situations with digital media among lower secondary schoolchildren in Germany, aiming to determine which themes are especially relevant in different settings. We analyzed the media usage of German schoolchildren (ages 10 to 17) in class and outside of school using a mixed-method approach with a focus on the qualitative facets of key situations. For this purpose, 49 schoolchildren from seven schools were asked to complete media diaries. Over a six-week period, they documented key situations with details on setting, emotional experiences, post-communication, social support, and self-reflection. We analyzed the key situations using content and frequency analyses. The schoolchildren reported 145 key situations, from which we developed a categorization system comprising 15 distinct categories. The most reported key situations involved \"playing video games\", \"digital learning or homework\", and \"online communication or content sharing\". Most key situations (115) took place outside of school, while 30 occurring in class. Schoolchildren mostly reported key situations that involved feelings of happiness and low levels of arousal. They discussed key situations more often and in greater depth with family members and school friends, and less often with school staff or non-school friends. Key situations were discussed more often face-to-face than online. Notably, schoolchildren engaged in self-reflection on their key situations, including concerns about excessive media use. Overall, the study provides comprehensive insights into the digital media behaviors of schoolchildren, highlighting individual differences and preferences. The discussion offers valuable implications for both educational practice and future research, particularly regarding the integration of digital media into formal educational settings.

This paper describes teachers' perceptions of their ICT and media competencies, and the importance they assign to these competencies in teacher training. A questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument based on UNESCO's proposals on iCt (Information and Communication Technologies) and MIL (Media and Information Literacy). A total of 402 teachers and pre-service teachers took part in the questionnaire. This is an exploratory cross-sectional study where quantitative descriptive and correlational methodology is used. Findings reveal that the self-perceived competence of teachers is low and that the self-perceived level is always lower than the importance given to the corresponding competence. Greater importance is assigned to MIL competencies than to ICT competencies of teachers; this questions the tendency to prioritize technological and didactic training over media education training. It concludes with the need for a paradigm shift towards convergence in teacher training policies for the digital age, and a global model of teacher competencies in media and ICT (COMPROMETIC) is proposed that integrates MIL competencies with those of ICT teachers. The model is based on a double convergence: that of different literacies, and that of the resulting multi-literacy with the specific training of education professionals in ICT and media.

Despite known inequalities of digital access in rural Canada, we know little about the foundational digital literacies learning needs of students attending rural elementary schools. This exploratory case study, conducted in Ontario, presents 13 rural-serving Grade 4–6 teachers’ insights on the access needs and digital literacies learning needs of their students. Results point to a set of mixed digital materialities and opportunities across home and school that raise concerns of digital marginalization for children who are least connected. Teachers named 14 unique digital literacies learning needs in relation to online reading, digital writing, and participation. Their insights also reflect an understanding of digital literacies learning as situated in a complex assemblage of structural, social, emotional, cultural, cognitive, developmental, technological, and material considerations. Implications for policy and the design of uniquely rural solutions to digital literacies instruction are discussed.

In response to widespread interest in 21st-century learning across the educational landscape, the authors explored the extent to which the concept possesses clear definition and coherent meaning within both research discourse and K–12 classroom practice in the United States, particularly with regard to conceptualizations and enactments of literacy. This research review offers descriptive data about the subject areas and grade levels in which 21st-century learning efforts are concentrated, analyzes the literacy frameworks employed to guide pedagogy, and describes instructional practices most frequently associated with the concept. Further, this research review explores the role of digital tools in the enactment of 21st-century learning, including how often teachers are leveraging the collaborative and interactive affordances of those tools. By leveraging a critical analytic framework, findings indicate a dearth of classroom-based research emphasizing democratic engagement and equity within 21st-century learning, as well as a hesitancy to use digital literacies to connect with wider publics. Analysis suggests a weakly defined understanding of what literacy learning in the 21st century means in classrooms today, which speaks to the need for a stronger focus on social futures.

Walk a Day in My Shoes is a curricular project designed to provide a starting point for teachers to cultivate cross‐cultural understanding among elementary‐age students. In this curricular project, students created their own digital stories about a day spent in their shoes. Through photography, writing, and digital storytelling, each student re‐created a typical day in their life. Then, these stories were shared and exchanged among six global classrooms in the United States, Morocco, France, Romania, Malaysia, and Ireland. The goal of this project was to support students in learning about others and, at the same time, learn about themselves as part of a global community. The author describes this project and presents other ways that teachers can use literacy to create cross‐cultural experiences for their students.