Thing 8 Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is so important in the time that we live in.  Often I hear people from my generation say, “I’m so glad that we didn’t have social media when we were in school!”  On the positive, students have easy access to so many resources, but with this access comes responsibility and risks.  Looking at the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship nearly all of them apply to my students on a daily basis.  However, the one aspect that most resonated with me was Digital Etiquette.  Since our students all have IPADs, it is so important to know how to use them responsibly.  There have been numerous instances of students texting mean comments, playing games at inappropriate times and cheating by sharing test questions digitally.  While they know that all these instances go against our Acceptable Use Policy, I think they need to be taught digital etiquette.

I immediately started looking up resources and the first site I found had the best description of digital etiquette and the choices our students make on a daily basis. “These choices include viewing age appropriate websites, communicating with others in a courteous and respectful manner, respecting others’ views and material, and using technology during the appropriate times and in the appropriate settings. In addition, students must avoid engaging in inappropriate behaviors such as harassing, threatening or flaming others, cyber bullying, posting or sharing personal and private information and using inappropriate language.” http://areyouadigitalcitizen.weebly.com/digital-etiquette.html  We can’t assume that  students know exactly what is expected so we need to teach this and provide resources for them.  I  made a folder on my class schoology page for digital citizenship.  In this folder, I am posting a variety of resources for my students to refer to.  In doing this, I am addressing some of the ISTE-T Standards.  I am (3) modeling digital age work and learning by showing them appropriate use of technology in my classroom and out, as well as (4) promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility by providing them with the resources they need in an accessible place.   KNowing that they need to use the same ethics they would use in a paper and pencil, face to face world when using their IPADS is essential.

Modeling for my students not only the expectations I have for them in my classroom such as being kind to each other, staying on task and not sharing tests, will help them in their future digital interactions as well.  These lessons  also touch on the CITW 9.  They allow me to set objectives for my students and give them feedback if they aren’t demonstrating Acceptable Use.  I can also recognize students when they are and aren’t following those students who aren’t.  They are becoming their own people.  Lastly, it promotes cooperative learning in an environment where all are accepted and can act with digital responsibility

“Thing 4” Cloud Initiation

This “thing” is a very practical.  I use Google Drive quite frequently.  I use it to communicate with my student council students.  Each year we have to work on the Award of Excellence for MASC.  I create a folder which I share with the students and they are able to put their pieces in it and I can add comments where they need to revise and they can edit in real time.  We use it as a school to share all our meeting agendas and when working on committees we can all manipulate the documents.  My math department has a folder where we put copies of our syllabi, review sheets, etc. so all the department has easy access.

Something new for me was Diigo.  This bookmarking site is something that could be very helpful in many ways.  I have many bookmarks on my laptop, but this site would allow me to access my bookmarks from any device.  If for some reason something happened to my laptop, I would still be able to access all of my sites.  I also like that I am able to use it with my students so share links that they would be able to use. I’m thinking of how I would use this with my math students since I normally post everything on my class page to be consistent with the school.  However, this could be very helpful with student council.  I often find links to activities as well as information on leaders or leadership characteristics.  Sharing these with my council would be incredibly easy and I can also keep my links in an organized fashion.

https://www.diigo.com/user/klsophiea?filter=bookmark

 

This “thing” addresses several of the ISTE Standards for teachers. Most importantly, it is a great example of (2) Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments:   (a) Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.  Being able to share links and files with my students with Diigo and google drive allows students to use the ipads that they have at their disposal daily.  It makes working with my student council very efficient since not all our work and planning happens in the class room.  This idea of communicating with my student council students using technology is an example of (3) Model Digital Age Work and Learning a and b.  I can collaborate with my students using these digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  We can start planning homecoming over the summer, I can share leadership files and students can simultaneously work on their Award of Excellence and get/receive feedback.  These standards addressed go hand-in-hand with several of the CITW best practices particularly cooperative learning shown through the ability to collaborate through googledocs, cues/questions/advance organizers shown through the organization of bookmarks and folders, summarizing & notetaking with both diigo and google docs and the ability for me to assign homework & practice.