Internet Literacy

Approaching the unavoidable: Literacy instruction and the Internet 

by Jacquelynn A. Malloy  & Linda B. Gambrell (probably the BEST researcher ever!!)

We talked a lot this semester, especially in Dr. Berta's class, about media literacy and technology literacy. Even since I was in elementary school, the internet has become more prevalent in instruction. Outside of school, kids spend hours online on facebook, instant messaging, and google searching any topic that interests them. I find it funny how many students claim that they don't read at all outside of school, but spend hours on the internet. Kids often don't think of using the internet as reading even though it is. This article brings up some great ideas for teaching students different aspects of internet literacy. It is also important to teach students how to figure out if a website is valid. I think that a lot of older teachers view internet literacy as something that needs to be kept out of the classroom and doesn't have as much importance as "educational literacy". I think that there is no way to stop technology from advancing and students now have grown up without knowing what life was like without the internet and computers, so teachers should embrace it and use it to create new ways to teach!