Week 1: Digital Citizenship
For this week we were to explore the nine elements of digital citizenship. Those nine elements have been broken into three areas that should be taught beginning as young as Kindergarten and continue throughout a student's educational experience. I can see the benefit of breaking the elements into the three areas and teaching the students the importance of respecting, educating, and protecting during internet use. The areas and elements have been described in more detail below.
Respect Yourself/Respect Others
Etiquette: This is following the digital code of conduct and procedures for technology use. For some websites, and digital interactive site there are written rules of conduct and etiquette. However, for others there are not and the users are expected to know and understand what correct etiquette would be. Therefore, students need to be taught and understand what correct digital etiquette is, what it looks like, and how to be respectful of themselves and others through what they say and do online.
Access: This element is effort of working toward expanding access of technology to all digital citizens. For students, I think this applies to learning to share technology in the classroom and understand that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to practice and use the technology that is available. For teachers, digital access should be something they are aware of and work toward supporting. They should provide other resources for students that don't have access at home when digital resources are being used and encouraged for homework. Teachers should also always being seeking ways to obtain more technology in their classroom or use the technology available in their schools for those students that don't have home access.
Law: This element refers to the ethical use of digital citizenship through abiding by all laws of society.
Educate Yourself/Connect with Others
Communication: This element refers to the ability to communicate in digital form through email, phones, instant messaging, and online. Teaching students to use digital forms of communication to educate themselves and positively connect with others is extremely important. Using digital communication can be great way for collaborating and working with others however students really need to know how to make appropriate decisions about who, what, where, when, and how they should use digital communication.
Literacy: This is an important element because it is what technologies must be taught and teaching students how to learn in a digital society. It is teaching students to have digital information literacy skills. I find this element particularly important because it is one of the main focuses of my job as an education technology specialist. We work on educating teachers and increasing their technology literacy so they can help their students being technologically literate.
Commerce: This element refers to the digital buying and selling of goods and being effective consumers or producers in the digital economy.
Protect Yourself/Protect Others
Rights and Responsibility: This element is the basic set of rights that every digital citizen is privy to and the responsibilities that come with those rights. Students must learn how to use technology in an appropriate manner and protect theirs and others rights to privacy, freedom of speech, etc.
Safety and Security: This element refers to having the correct electronic precautions to guarantee safety including virus protection, data backups, surge protectors, etc.
Health and Welfare: This element refers to the physical and psychological well-being of digital users. It is important for students to learn that digital technology does have dangers and can effect their personal health and welfare. Children need to be taught of the need to monitor the amount of time spent using technology. They should balance their technology use with other physical and educational activities, spending time with family and friends, etc. Students need to be taught how to protect themselves and their health when using technology.
Respect Yourself/Respect Others
Etiquette: This is following the digital code of conduct and procedures for technology use. For some websites, and digital interactive site there are written rules of conduct and etiquette. However, for others there are not and the users are expected to know and understand what correct etiquette would be. Therefore, students need to be taught and understand what correct digital etiquette is, what it looks like, and how to be respectful of themselves and others through what they say and do online.
Access: This element is effort of working toward expanding access of technology to all digital citizens. For students, I think this applies to learning to share technology in the classroom and understand that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to practice and use the technology that is available. For teachers, digital access should be something they are aware of and work toward supporting. They should provide other resources for students that don't have access at home when digital resources are being used and encouraged for homework. Teachers should also always being seeking ways to obtain more technology in their classroom or use the technology available in their schools for those students that don't have home access.
Law: This element refers to the ethical use of digital citizenship through abiding by all laws of society.
Educate Yourself/Connect with Others
Communication: This element refers to the ability to communicate in digital form through email, phones, instant messaging, and online. Teaching students to use digital forms of communication to educate themselves and positively connect with others is extremely important. Using digital communication can be great way for collaborating and working with others however students really need to know how to make appropriate decisions about who, what, where, when, and how they should use digital communication.
Literacy: This is an important element because it is what technologies must be taught and teaching students how to learn in a digital society. It is teaching students to have digital information literacy skills. I find this element particularly important because it is one of the main focuses of my job as an education technology specialist. We work on educating teachers and increasing their technology literacy so they can help their students being technologically literate.
Commerce: This element refers to the digital buying and selling of goods and being effective consumers or producers in the digital economy.
Protect Yourself/Protect Others
Rights and Responsibility: This element is the basic set of rights that every digital citizen is privy to and the responsibilities that come with those rights. Students must learn how to use technology in an appropriate manner and protect theirs and others rights to privacy, freedom of speech, etc.
Safety and Security: This element refers to having the correct electronic precautions to guarantee safety including virus protection, data backups, surge protectors, etc.
Health and Welfare: This element refers to the physical and psychological well-being of digital users. It is important for students to learn that digital technology does have dangers and can effect their personal health and welfare. Children need to be taught of the need to monitor the amount of time spent using technology. They should balance their technology use with other physical and educational activities, spending time with family and friends, etc. Students need to be taught how to protect themselves and their health when using technology.
Week 2 and 3- Cyberbullying
This week we read articles and watch some examples videos about cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is where technology is used to harass, threaten, humiliate, and hassle others. This form of bullying is often thought of as even more devastating than bullying that takes place in person. This can be for several reasons including:
- The cyberbully can hide their identity and the victim may not know who is targeting them or why.
- The actions of the cyberbully are viral with more people having access and witnessing the bullying.
- The cruelty can be more intense because the bully isn't seeing the immediate response by the target.
Prevention of cyberbullying comes through education. Educating children on how to prevent cyberbullying in an appropriate and meaningful way will lead to the most productive results regarding this problem. The documents provided in the agenda outlining ten tips for preventing and responding to cyberbullying are fantastic resources for teachers. I feel that these tips can be great resources students, teachers, and parents. This is a way in which some of the tragedies and suicides that result from cyberbullying can be prevented.
Besides just teaching students how to prevent and respond to this form of bullying for themselves it is important to empower them to advocate for the rights of others as well. Students should learn how to report bullying and not be afraid to provide information to families, teachers, and other professionals to increase prevention. We teach students how to advocate for themselves and others again bullies in person and it is equally important regarding cyberbullies. When reading the articles and information given regarding cyberbullying I noticed a common problem. That is teachers and parents don't always understand technology and the digital age well enough to monitor their student's online activities. I think that is where we start. We must educate parents, teachers, students, and community member of the dangers online and cyberbullying. This is one of the priorities for the education technology department of Canyons School District. A brochure has been created for secondary students and parents to help inform and guide parents. The brochure can be found and downloaded here. We are also working on a brochure for elementary parents and students because of the different needs of that age group regarding digital safety. I think informing and educating is one of the first steps to helping reduce the tragic deaths and damage that happens due to cyberbullying. |
Teacher and Parent Resources |
Week 4- Online Safety Resources
Week 5- Class Copyright Guidelines
This week was about Copyright and Fair Use for teachers and students. I created a Fair Use Guidelines form that can be found on the right. Danae Reff introduced me to a fair use resource for teachers to use in their classrooms with their students. I also have created a permission request form for teachers to use. This form can be used when they would like to request permission to use entire copyrighted works. This form could be modified for student use as well.
|
Fair Use Guidelines
PerMission Request Form
|
Week 6- Appropriate Citation of Sources
This week the focus of the course was on appropriately citing sources. The Bibliography I created in APA format is found to the right.
|
Bibliography
|
Final Project- Digital Safety Lesson Plan
The purpose of this lesson is increase student’s knowledge on digital safety by teaching them about strangers online and what information should and should not be shared online. This lesson will be available to teachers at the schools in which I work with. Teachers will be encourage to use and adapt this lesson plan and its contents with their students. The lesson plan and it corresponding worksheet can be found the the right. All other media resources can be found within the lesson plan.
Most of the resources used for the lesson plan can be found at BrainPOP Jr. |
Lesson Plan & Resources
|