Kate In Context

I'm coming to the end of my graduate school journey, so this week I decided to have some fun. One of the best, most popular basic puzzle games on the internet right now is New York Times' Connections . I enjoy playing this game - I have the archive of all Connections boards on my phone to play anytime. I hadn't thought about making my own board until this week, but I've now done so using some of the topics I've discussed in previous posts.  Before I talk about the topics I used  I've included a screenshot of the board, so complete the puzzle here first if you don't want to be spoiled! Please let me know how you did in the comments! Screenshot by author of their  Social Media Literacy Connections Board , made with Swellgarfo's online tool. Level 1 - Yellow The first topic I pulled from is social media uses. This seems like a simple category (which is why it’s the yellow one), but the uses themselves can be overlooked. Social media is vilified by politici...

Literacy is, and has been, a significant concern in education. For most of the time formal education has existed, literacy has mainly referred to reading and writing. These are obviously still very important (you wouldn't be reading this post without them!), but the concept of literacy has expanded beyond those essential skills. Digital literacy is a relatively new focus for educators, at least partially because the internet itself is relatively new. As I mentioned in last week's post , the 2008 update to CIPA (enforced 2012) mandated implementation of what amounted to digital literacy programs, though without that specific language. Around this time, digital literacy and social media literacy pioneers like Renee Hobbs and Howard Rheingold were discussing what the core competencies and skills of these literacies should be. Social media and the digital landscape as a whole has great potential to empower both young people and adults, but as Rheingold says, "access to many me...