How to Use This Book

Exploring Digital Media Literacy is an online multimedia textbook designed to support the Ontario curriculum for Language 7-8. It is designed to give you flexibility in meeting both the Overall Expectation relating to Digital Media Literacy (A2) but also related Overall and Specific Expectations in the A, C and D strands.

MediaSmarts has also developed a self-directed online tutorial to support this textbook. It contains an overview of the project and of the different parts of the curriculum addressed by it, as well as best practices for teaching digital media literacy. We recommend that you complete the tutorial before you begin implementing this resource.

At the bottom of each page are Next and Previous buttons that let you move between chapters and units. The left and right arrow keys also allow you to move between pages.

At the top left of each page there is also a table of content. Clicking or tapping Contents expands this menu, allowing you to navigate quickly between chapters and lessons.

Lesson Material

This textbook contains 21 lessons. Each lesson includes:

Front matter that gives an overall description of the lesson, options for ways of delivering the lesson in more or fewer sessions, necessary preparation for the lesson, overall learning goals, and a list of Specific Expectations that the lesson addresses. They also provide links to printable versions of the lessons where available.

Teacher chapters, which provide instructions, prompts, links to downloadable content, observation checklists and rubrics, and other material that you need to deliver the lesson;

And Student chapters, which include texts, videos, interactive activities, and other materials that students will view and use during the lesson.

The lessons generally follow this structure:

The textbook also ends with a Glossary. When Glossary terms appear in the text they are blue and underlined, like hyperlinks: clicking or tapping them will make the definition appear in a pop-up window.

Technical Requirements

This textbook is designed to be delivered using a data projector or a digital whiteboard. Students are expected to have laptop computers and internet access. Some lessons also include handouts or other material to be downloaded and printed. In some cases, you will be given the option to use either the digital or printed version of an activity.

In many of the lessons, you also have the opportunity to allow students to use other tools, particularly when making media. Rather than recommending specific tools or products, we generally provide a link to Alternativeto.net, a website that allows you to search and sort online tools by purpose, cost, platform, and other factors.

When considering which tools to use, you may find it useful to consider the factors explore in this video:

Privacy Policy

MediaSmarts abides by all relevant federal and provincial privacy laws and is committed to respecting the privacy of its online users and members.

This policy will tell you what information is collected when you visit our site and how that information is used. It applies to all websites and online applications provided by MediaSmarts and any and all successor entities.

Information We Collect From Online Visitors

Browsing

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous traffic data which helps us analyze how visitors engage with our site. For more information, see the Google Analytics Terms of Service.

MediaSmarts makes no attempt to identify you or track your individual browsing activities.

Information submitted by users

Information submitted by users on mediasmarts.ca is hosted by Pantheon.io. This is stored on a server located in Canada and so is subject to the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and is also compliant with EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679(“GDPR”).
https://pantheon.pactsafe.io/legal.html#contract-r1gwog2ui

All information submitted by users is removed from these servers if the user chooses to delete it. Users are not required to submit any information about students other than what the users themselves need for record-keeping and assessment purposes. Users are encouraged to submit as little identifying information about students as possible.

We do not record any information or material that is entered into the interactive h5p activities.

Use and retention

MediaSmarts does not retain personal information any longer than is needed for the purposes stated in this policy. Information submitted by users will be deleted at their request at any time. To request deletion of any or all stored data, contact info@mediasmarts.ca.

Data submitted by users is never shared with any third parties.

Breach notification

In the event of a breach of MediaSmarts’ records or website, the breach will be reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as per subsection 10.1(2) of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. If you have provided us with an email address, including but not limited to having created an account on our secure site, you will be notified about any data breaches by email within seven days after we become aware of the breach.

Changes to this policy

Any changes or updates to this policy will be immediately published on the site. If you have provided us with an email address, including but not limited to having created an account on our secure site, you will be notified about any changes to this policy by email within seven days.

Privacy questions or concerns

If you have any questions or concerns about MediaSmarts’ privacy policy or wish to access any personal information we may have about you, please contact our Privacy Officer Penny Warne at webmanager@mediasmarts.ca.

Scope and Sequence

It is recommended that you deliver the lessons Video Game Verbs, Game Design and First Person early in the semester. These introduce the key media making and criticism components that will be revisited in other lessons over the course. Delivering these early will save time later on as students will already know these basic concepts and be familiar with game design. These lessons also contain the Instant Expert video that will teach you everything you need to know about teaching and making tabletop games.

You can then choose from the remaining lessons based on your or your students’ interest, on gaps in your current resources, or on which Specific Expectations you need to cover. The lessons cover a wide range of digital media literacy topics ranging from media representation, verifying online information, cyberbullying , managing screen time and media use, advertising, news, privacy, and body image among other topics. In most cases there are at least two different lessons that address each topic and Specific Expectation, so you should have considerable flexibility in choosing which lessons to deliver.

However, we do recommend that you make sure to deliver at least a few more of the lessons that include game design as a media making activity:

• A Day in the Life of the Jos: Game Analysis and Design
• Body Image and Social Media
• Game Design
• Just Joking
• Playing With Privacy
• Recognizing Emotional Appeals
• Verifying Information Online

This is to allow you to deliver the Second Draft lesson towards the end of the semester. The purpose of this lesson is to return to one of the game design projects completed over the course of the semester, to give and receive detailed feedback on it, and to create a more polished second draft.

Assessment

Each lesson includes either an Observation Checklist or a Rubric so you can assess student learning. These reflect the categories of knowledge and skills found in the Language 7 to 8 Achievement Chart. (In the Observation Checklists, each item describes a Level 3 achievement.)

You are welcome to use these assessment tools or to develop your own if you prefer. If you choose to develop your own assessment tools, consider the points raised in this video:

Accessibility and Accommodation

Both the Pressbooks format and h5p are designed to be fully accessible and to support Universal Design for Learning principles. Text in Pressbooks is designed to be read by all major screen readers. All images are accompanied by alt text and all of the videos have captions available. Screen readers will read Glossary term and then the definition automatically.

The Office of Communications of the United Kingdom has the following advice on adapting digital media literacy instruction for students with disabilities:

• Take time to understand the individual digital and media literacy and individual needs of participants to ensure person-centred support.
• Keep media literacy sessions under an hour and avoid trying to cover too much content within a single session.
• Scope and provide practical support as part of delivery focused on parents and supporters.

This textbook also supports the core Universal Design for Learning principles:

Multiple means of representation: Outside of the Digital Media Literacy SE, integrating interactive and media-based instructions provides additional means of representation that may be more accessible to students. Many of the individual lessons deliver content through multiple different media.

Multiple means of action and expression: Media-making and interactive activities give students more ways of demonstrating their learning. In each case, options have been provided to make the activities as broadly effective as possible. The individual lessons also provide a wide range of different means of action and expression.

Multiple means of engagement: The topics and content of the lessons are informed by MediaSmarts’ Young Canadians in a Wireless World project and our other research. As a result, they reflect the media and technology that students are using, the ways that they are using them and the concerns they have about them.

Integrating the interactive activities into your learning management system

The interactive activities in the textbook were made with h5p, an open-source tool based on Javascript. h5p activities should work on all desktop and mobile browsers, though some settings, plugins and extensions may limit their functionality. You can learn more about h5p here.

Many of the h5p content types, such as Structure Strip and Documentation Tool, let students save or export their work. In general, we recommend that students use the Copy or Save functions in these to either copy their work over to a document (such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word document) or save it to their computer or server.

However, if you use a learning management system such as Google Classroom, Moodle, or Desire to Learn, you also have the option of integrating these tools directly into your LMS. This will let students send or save work directly to your learning environment without the step of copying it to a new document or saving it locally.

Desire to Learn

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to D2L and make sure the h5p plugin has been installed in your system.
2. Use the Reuse tool at the bottom left and download the h5p activity. Navigate to your course, go to “Content” and select the module where you want to add the h5p activity.
3. Click “Upload/Create” and choose “Upload Files”
4. Select your .h5p file and upload it.
5. In D2L, configure the assignment to accept file submissions or text entries. From this point you can also access h5p analytics within D2L for detailed learner insights.

Moodle

1. Log in to Moodle as a teacher or administrator.
2. Use the Reuse tool at the bottom left and download the h5p activity. Navigate to your course, go to “Content” and select the module where you want to add the h5p activity.
3. Navigate to your course and turn editing on.
4. Click “Add an activity or resource” and choose “H5P” from the list.
5. Configure the h5p activity:
   1. Give the activity a name and description
   2. In the “H5P Package” section, upload your downloaded .h5p file
   3. Adjust settings as needed and save.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom does not have native h5p integration, but you can use this workaround:

1. In Google Classroom, create a new assignment or material. Include the h5p activity link in the instructions
2. Have students submit their work through the assignment’s “Add or create” feature.

Encouraging open discussion

Difficult discussions are needed for deep learning. Be prepared for students to say things you weren’t expecting or share things you didn’t know about, and remember that you don’t necessarily know what experiences or aspects of their identities they’re bringing to the discussion.

Help students understand that no position is “neutral.” Different people and groups are advantaged and disadvantaged by the way things are, and taking the “neutral” position just means supporting the status quo.

Draw the line between classroom discussion and political discourse. Just like you don’t want to be seen as pressuring students to share your opinions, students shouldn’t just be repeating political arguments they’ve heard at home or seen in social media either. Make sure that they’re listening to other students and are open to other people’s perspectives.

Encourage students to ask questions as well as offering opinions. Remind them that the point of discussion is not to convince other people but to learn from them. Focusing on questions can lead us to examine assumptions we didn’t even know we had.

Make sure students know that you struggle with these questions as well. Be honest about what you do and don’t know and position yourself as a co-learner.

While you do want to give up some of your authority as an expert, you still have a responsibility to make sure the discussion stays on track and that everyone is treated with respect.

Set clear and consistent rules

Key to having an open conversation is to have the class agree on ground rules before you start. Knowing that everyone has agreed on what is “off limits” will make students feel freer to speak because they won’t worry about crossing a line without meaning to.

Identify which issues you consider “settled” before the discussion

While you want to encourage an open conversation, spending class time on topics that are not open to debate, or that marginalize or dehumanize people, has the potential to close down the discussion and leave students hurt or more entrenched in their positions. Rather than pretending to be apolitical or trying to “teach both sides,” what is most effective is to approach each topic with open-mindedness and even-handedness, but not neutrality. A key to this – and to avoiding the impression that you’re telling your students what to think – is to distinguish between fact and opinion questions and between active and settled questions.

• Fact questions are those that can be conclusively answered, proven or disproven: What nutrients does a bag of potato chips contain? Does fluoridated water reduce cavities?

• Opinion questions are ones that cannot be conclusively answered but can be supported by argument or evidence: Should food companies be allowed to advertise potato chips to children? Should fluoride be added to the water supply to reduce cavities?

• Settled questions are those that either have been conclusively proven or are accepted by society as settled. A settled fact question would be “Why are objects drawn towards the Earth?” A settled opinion question would be “Should all people receive equal rights under the law?”

• Active questions are those that are still being discussed. An active fact question would be “Does gravity act through particles in the way other forces do?” An active opinion question would be “How should we resolve the conflicts between the rights of different groups and people?”

Complicated conversations focus on active opinion questions, and they work best when you are clear beforehand that class time won’t be used to discuss questions that have already been settled

For fact questions, one can teach students to identify the present consensus – not necessarily “the truth,” but what most authorities on the topic think is true, given the current evidence – while helping them understand the process by which consensus is developed in different disciplines.

As well as being open about one’s own views, it is important to explicitly model a critical attitude towards them by asking:

• What do I already think or believe about this?
• Why do I want to believe or disprove this?
• What would make me change my mind?

As digital investigator Jordan Wildon put it, “To investigate properly, you have to allow yourself to be wrong.” This intellectual humility is the key difference between genuine digital media literacy and the circular-logic versions of it described above. The goal should not be to lead students to particular perspectives, but to develop their critical loyalty: “Those with critical loyalty still hold strong values and beliefs, but they adopt a critical stance when evaluating an argument—even when it aligns with their beliefs.”

Dealing with issues that arise

As noted above, during complicated conversations students will often say surprising and unexpected things. If you’ve established clear rules for discussion this usually will not be a problem, but there will be times when you have to pause the conversation and deal with something a student has said.

Respond right away to problematic comments

If students use a slur, express a stereotype, or want to debate a question you’ve identified as being settled, it’s important to respond right away. However, it’s not helpful to punish or criticize students unless they are clearly being intentionally disruptive or disrespectful towards you or others. Instead, use this as a learning opportunity.

“When an offense occurs, a teacher may be tempted to punish students for violating the discussion norms — and in extreme cases that is appropriate. But, in my experience, these are most often the comments of emerging political thinkers. High school students are at the very beginning of a long journey toward figuring out how society works. As a result, responding to them as novices, and not experts, is often the best approach.” Paula McAvoy, Political Discussion in the Classroom: What Should Educators be Trying to Do?

Press pause.

Don’t let a problematic word or statement derail the conversation. Tell the student who said it to pause, address it as quickly as possible, and then either use it as a springboard to more discussion or return to the previous conversation. This helps you model for students the idea that it’s important to always address prejudiced speech or actions, but we don’t have to let people use them to hijack a discussion.

Try saying:

• I know a lot of people think that, but it isn’t true.
• I hear that word a lot in song lyrics, but it’s not okay to use it in class.
• It’s not fair to talk about a whole group of people like that.

Ask for clarification.

Sometimes young people may not realize that their language is inappropriate. It is important to give them a chance to explain what they meant. Avoid calling out specific students – nobody should get ‘in trouble,’ but rather everyone should be educated.

Try saying:

• I don’t understand. What do you mean?
• What ‘people’ are you talking about?
• What point are you trying to make?
• Can you give me an example?

Don’t shame or label.

Focus on what the student said, rather than what the student may think or believe. Keep in mind that students may be repeating things they have heard at home, from peers, or online, or may be consciously playing “devil’s advocate”. It’s also useful to distinguish between intent and impact: while hurting someone’s feelings on purpose is undoubtedly worse than doing it accidentally, the person’s feelings are hurt either way. Make sure your students know that prejudiced comments against anyone hurt your feelings – and that almost three-quarters of Canadian youth feel the same way.

Try saying:

• I find it offensive to hear anyone being put down like that.
• You’ve probably seen that word in old books or movies, but people prefer [correct name].
• I know you didn’t mean that to be offensive, but it was over the line.
• I’m not sure you realize how that sounded. I’m sure you didn’t mean to insult anybody.
• I don’t want to put you on the spot, but words like that can really hurt people’s feelings.

Redirect to an active question and keep it on topic.

A lot of the time, when students say something that sounds like it’s addressing a settled question they’re actually trying to articulate an active question. For instance, a student who says “There’s no racism online, everyone is equal” may actually be saying “I am uncomfortable with the ways that people are trying to address racism online.” You can affirm the settled question while redirecting them to something more useful by saying something like “There is definitely still racism online, but not everyone agrees about the best ways to address it. What might help us decide that?”

If it’s clear that a student is trying to debate a settled question, or is arguing in bad faith, simply tell them that the issue is not open for discussion and move on.

Respond to emotional reactions

Sometimes complicated conversations will lead students to feel emotions like shame or guilt or to feel as though they are being blamed for prejudice or hatred. It’s important to keep the conversation from being personal and to help students understand that the purpose of the lessons isn’t to lay blame on anyone or to make them feel guilty, but to help them to improve their online spaces by taking action when they witness prejudice.

Additional resources

The following chapters include an overview of digital media literacy and media education.

To explore these topics in more detail, we recommend the following MediaSmarts resources:

Digital Media Literacy 101

The Digital Media Literacy 101 educator workshop provides an overview of the key concepts, essential knowledge and core competencies of digital media literacy, as well as concrete steps for bringing

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

The Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum workshop provides teachers with a comprehensive approach to fostering critical thinking skills at all grade levels, with particular attention to addressing

Facing Online Hate

The Facing Online Hate tutorial examines how the Internet is used to spread and incite hate – and how parents, community leaders and educators can respond. The first part of the tutorial provides an

That’s Not Me: Diversity and Media

The That’s Not Me tutorial focuses on the role that mainstream media play in shaping our perceptions about diversity. The tutorial explores what we see – and what we don’t see – on TV and in newspapers, video games, movies, the internet and other media.