In a world where anyone with an internet connection can access, create and share information, opinions and beliefs, it has become increasingly important that students are not only able to assess the credibility of sources but also to look more deeply at the underlying motivations, beliefs and bias of the creator. Thinking Critically through Digital Media enables teachers to use authentic materials and digital tools combined with motivating communicative tasks to develop students’ abilities to function as critical and well informed digital citizens. The book contains a wide range of tasks, activities and 10 complete lesson/project plans that teachers can use to help students understand visually presented information, how and why the information was collected, research and check the validity of the sources on which the information was based and think about and share how the materials relate to their own lives.

This lesson is based on an infographic about weddings, their history and some related customs and practices. Source: http://www.moissanite.com/a-brief-history-of-weddings In the lesson students will explore their opinions of weddings and marriage and discover some new information about the origins of various customs. There are also four online research tasks which encourage students to develop a range of digital literacies including checking sources, checking the validity of information and researching new information and building infographics around it. You can choose one for your students to do or if you prefer get them to do all four. You could also split your class into four and get one group to do each task and then share their findings. The final task is a social research task that encourages students to create their own questionnaire to explore the attitudes of their social media contacts after which they produce an infographic from the results. The files include a complete step by step lesson plan with printable worksheet and a presentation.

This ebook is 53 pages long and was originally published in 2009 so some of thetools are a bit out of date, but the ideas can still be used. This document is intended as simple introduction to some free Web 2.0 type tools that can be used by teachers who are interested in using technology in language teaching. The tools presented here are just the tip of the iceberg and this should not be considered in anyway conclusive or even the ʻbest ofʼ Web 2.0 tools. New tools are emerging all the time, many not originally intended for education, but which can be put to good use by students and teachers alike to extent opportunities, enhance learning potential and develop the level of digital literacy that students will need for the 21st century.