Teachers have been given a new tool to educate students about current events now that they can read the pages of the Prince George Citizen's digital editions free of charge.
The Citizen's Newspapers in Education project was launched this week and Kelly Road secondary school was the first school to get on board the digital express.
Teachers and students can access the daily Citizen, published six times per week, as well as our newspaper archives, which will help students develop reading, writing and analytical literacy skills. By typing in key words, students will be able to use the Citizen search engine to find stories Citizen reporters have written about health, education, business, municipal affairs, crime and courts, history, lifestyles, sports and entertainment, and can use that information to research essays and term papers.
The searchable library of photographs documenting local events and featured topics over the years is also available.
"Newspapers in Education is the living textbook, it's here and now, it's not dated," said Alan Ramsay, the Citizen's reader sales manager.
"I think it will engage kids in what's happening, not only locally but provincially and nationally. Students can take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it to real-life events. It's something that's fresh in their minds that they've seen or heard about, something that's happening here, that can stimulate conversations."
Students can pick up on business developments, career opportunities, stock market trends and learn how to handle their own finances and investment options. Citizen stories will encourage students to apply math skills and social studies concepts learned in the classroom to real-world practical situations.
Opinion pieces, letters to the editor and editorials can be used to stimulate class debates. Students can pick stories that interest them, add comments to Citizen articles, and share those thoughts over social media.
The Citizen website will also provide a digitized voice that will read back those stories in a choice of 13 different languages, a valuable tool for students or their families learning English as a second language. Students can use the translation feature to learn foreign languages or tutor fellow students trying to learn English.
The Newspapers In Education project will help students wanting to produce their own school newspapers and will reveal some of the marketing strategies the Citizen's advertising department has developed.
The digital edition is available to all students in the classroom through their desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smart phones, without the logistics involved in distributing hard copies of the paper to the schools each day. It's a 100 per cent green initiative, with no need for recycling newsprint.
"Every class can sign up for this," said Ramsay.
"It's a great opportunity to get our newspaper into kids' hands and you can't beat the price. We're sewing the seeds to have kids read the newspaper and it's a natural fit."
For more information on setting up a digital account, teachers can call the Citizen's circulation department at 250-562-3301 or email [email protected].
