I believe in digital citizenship. I believe we need to explicitly teach how to be safe, responsible and respectful in the digital world. It is clear, that many adults and/or world leaders have not had these crucial lessons. I also know that teachers have NO time...I mean none. So what can we do?
I think my plan is to start with a group of tech savvy or tech interested teachers on my site and possibly across other sites. this group could look at the common core tech & digital citizenship skills and see where they match current curriculum and pacing calendars. Teaching respect in the classroom and respect online makes sense. Teaching kids to research and site sources can go hand-in-hand with teaching kids to use Google docs and the correct way to site online sources. As an academic specialist, this is an issue that all schools face. We might be able to work on this as a district team, for all schools. Digital skills are increasingly becoming a more central part of our world, it makes sense that it will become a more central part of our curriculum.
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I think I went a bit wayward on this assignment. Instead of sharing a tool I use (that hasn't been discussed in class), I explored a brand new tool. Canva, a design and publication tool, was recommended by the author of the shakeuplearning.com author. I thought I would check it out. It did not take me long to figure out how to use Canva. To see my full review, check out the slideshow created in Canva below.
Digital citizenship is an important new curricular area that can not be ignored. It will need to become part of our everyday classroom curriculum. Teaching students to be safe, respectful and responsible online is an integral part of the digital education that they will need to be successful in today's modern world. Not only is it is it crucial for academic success, in cases of cyberbullying, it is often a matter of life and death.
Many teachers don't feel they themselves have enough tech savvy to teach these lessons. Luckily, there is a plethora of great resources at our fingertips. Teachers can search through a variety of sites to find great lessons that pertain to their students, and/or use Common Sense Media which provides a comprehensive scope and sequence with age appropriate lessons. I am currently not working in a classroom, when I left the classroom I was a 2nd grade teacher. I also have a 1st grade daughter at home. When looking at how I would teach digital citizenship I use the 2nd grade classroom as my focus. First and foremost, I would teach the first lesson in Unit 1, "Going Places Safely". I have used this lesson with my daughter at home, and my school has started the year with this lesson in their classroom. I think relating the internet to their own neighborhood makes sense to them. Children know to not talk to strangers in real life. This lesson applies this rule to the internet as well. At our school, we have to extend this lesson to talking about not clicking on links or icons that they are unfamiliar with. 700 kids share the same generic web address when logging onto school computers. Kids move icons, create icons, change bookmarks, remove bookmarks, rename bookmarks and most problematic...bookmark inappropriate sites. While we are working on this issue in a myriad of ways, the message to the younger kids is, "Don't click a link or icon that you don't know". Similar to, "don't go into strange houses in your neighborhood". The second way I would bring digital citizenship into a 2nd grade classroom is to tie the lessons to our BEST/2nd Step lessons. Our school uses 2nd step lessons to discuss empathy, bullying, kindness, respect and responsibility. Adding digital citizenship lessons is a natural fit. When you talk about bullying, we can also talk about cyber bullying. When we talk about using kind words, we can also talk about language in texts and emails. In a 2nd grade classroom, they don't normally have serious bullying issues yet, but they need basic lessons on reporting playground bullying and knowing the difference from bullying and teasing. This is where I would bring use Unit 2, lesson 3 "Screen out the Mean" from Common Sense Media. Which teaches kids what to do when someone is mean to them online. I like the use of real life scenarios to help them deal with issues, hopefully before they start. 2nd graders are just starting to be able to do actual research. Their reading and writing skills are progressing enough that they can search out information on their own. Teachers often struggle with finding appropriate sites for children when doing PBL projects. This would be a great way to introduce "Sites I like" Unit 2, lesson 4 from Common Sense Media. This lessons teaches students to evaluate websites and find sites that are right for them. This is an invaluable tool when teaching PBL. A teacher could provide a list of sites and the students could explore them before starting their PBL project. Which sites reading level is too high? Which sites have videos? Students could explore the sites and then be able to do their own online research. As educators, Digital Citizenship lessons are becoming more and more important. With politicians, employers and individuals using social media and online tools daily, it is important for our students to know how to use these tools appropriately. |
Becky AlbertazziAcademic Specialist Archives |