Search

This convergent mixed method study investigates learner engagement during a blended, transmedia curriculum called CryptoComics, which is designed to teach 3rd-5th graders about cryptology and cybersecurity. Curriculum design is presented through the lens of four engagement facilitators: (1) anchoring the curriculum with a comic book, (2) blending digital and unplugged media, (3) supporting situational interest via a transmedia narrative, and (4) designing for social-cultural relevance. Latent profile analysis is used to develop profiles of learner engagement using quantitative indicators of cognitive and emotional engagement collected across 204 students at 13 implementation sites in the Eastern U.S. Qualitative indicators of engagement include teacher weekly check-ins submitted by 17 teachers working at the 13 implementation sites, student interviews, and classroom observations of 26 students participating in the curriculum at two local sites. Quantitative and qualitative results converge to suggest the majority of the students participating in the curriculum were highly engaged cognitively and emotionally. Qualitative data (1) suggest some third graders may be less cognitively engaged due to challenging content, (2) provide evidence for how the design of the blended, transmedia curriculum supported, and some cases hindered, engagement, (3) highlight the importance of transitions between blended learning components in facilitating engagement, and (4) uncover questions regarding one of the quantitative measures selected as an indicator of cognitive engagement.

During the summer of 2021, we taught a series of lessons on social media literacy during a 6-week summer bridge program designed to prepare students for their first year of community college. Community college students represent nearly 40% of all U.S. undergraduates (AACC, 2022), with nearly 50% of all first-generation college students attending community college (Cataldi et al., 2018). However, community college students are rarely participants in research studies on media or information literacy (Latham et al., 2022), including in this journal. We also specifically focused on social media literacy, a topic not typically addressed in schools (Higdon, 2022), even though young adults are regularly engaging with social media, including as a source for news and information about the world (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Robb, 2017). This study was designed in part to fill these gaps.

The recent evolution of technology and the Internet has transformed how individuals find and share information. Research shows that citizens of all ages and backgrounds struggle with critical online information evaluation (COIE), which could result in serious societal consequences. Although it is crucial to develop student proficiency within this key information literacy construct beginning in middle school, there is currently no interdisciplinary framework for designing COIE instruction or assessments. To address this gap, we have developed a comprehensive COIE model for curriculum developers, assessment creators, and practitioners to implement at the secondary and post-secondary level. In this paper, we provide cross-disciplinary theoretical context and empirical grounding for our model, offer guidance for its practical application in the 6-16 curriculum, and discuss metacognitive and sociocultural considerations for developing and measuring learners' COIE proficiency.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role skepticism plays among adolescents' online information literacy skills. Design/methodology/approach: The authors provide the conceptual grounding to operationalize and measure the notion of skepticism in an online information literacy context. Inspired by an existing measure known as the Skepticism Scale (Hurtt, 2010), the authors made substantial revisions to the scale to target middle school and high school students' skepticism in six distinct, but related factors: questioning mind; search for knowledge; suspension of judgment; self-esteem; interpersonal understanding; and autonomy. The authors provide preliminary evidence of validity and reliability of the revised Skepticism Scale using Exploratory Factor Analysis and performed multiple linear regression using the Skepticism Scale measures to predict an adolescents' online information literacy skills. Findings: The Skepticism Scale was found to produce internally consistent constructs for all six measures. Three of the six measures were related to online information literacy skills, including the search for knowledge, interpersonal understanding and questioning mind. Originality/value: This paper attempts to examine the potentially positive role of skepticism in information literacy skills among adolescents.

K-12 teachers and students are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and mostly ill-prepared to deal with them. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased these risks because of the reliance on digital technology in education and increased free time young children and adolescents spend online. Simultaneously, the U.S. is facing an extreme shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Given the rise of cyberattacks and the need for cybersecurity professionals, a concerted effort to prepare preservice teachers to integrate cybersecurity education across the K-12 curriculum is needed. In our vision for 2025, all preservice teachers across the country are prepared to integrate age-appropriate cybersecurity concepts, skills and career awareness in the curriculum regardless of their content area or grade level specialization. We propose a repository of stand-alone activities and full curricula developed through collaboration among K-12 educators, teacher educators, and cybersecurity experts that could be adopted across teacher education programs. We use the elementary grades as a context for providing examples of some activities that might be included in the repository. We also provide recommendations for developing such a repository and for individual teacher educators who want integrate cybersecurity education in preservice teacher education right now.

The information literacy practices of adolescents on social media outside of school are worth considering, since adolescents use social media near ubiquitously and must grapple with all types of content they encounter incidentally or intentionally. This scoping review followed the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) to examine the extent and nature of scholarship on this topic from the perspective of educational technology and literacy scholarship, as both fields are uniquely poised to collaborate on this interdisciplinary topic. Surprisingly, only four articles fit the scope of our review. The literature found, and not found, revealed several themes. These themes were the imprecise use of keywords across scholarship, use of social media for community support, exposure to incidental information, evidence for different literacy practices on social media, and the need for addressing social media information literacy in school. Opportunities for future work and collaborative research between both fields is also discussed.