I teach units for different parts of cyber safety, Netiquette, etc. at each grade level. I am excited to see a few of these site. I found some new ideas in terminology and focus from these so I put a short list to help me remember where they are. These and the 9 themes give me some new things to think about.
Important Links
Cyber bullying Tool Kit- And other resources. Common Sense Education site. Their curriculum page.
Learning First Alliance - Cyber Bullying
Digital Citizenship Nine Elements for using technology appropriately
Digital Foot Print- teaching students about their foot print on the web.
Shopping Online-Does and Don'ts and warning
Twitter Etiquette and Top 10 Twitter Etiquette Tips
Attorny General Sites
Wayback Machine - Check out Internet history
Cyber bullying Tool Kit- And other resources. Common Sense Education site. Their curriculum page.
Learning First Alliance - Cyber Bullying
Digital Citizenship Nine Elements for using technology appropriately
Digital Foot Print- teaching students about their foot print on the web.
Shopping Online-Does and Don'ts and warning
Twitter Etiquette and Top 10 Twitter Etiquette Tips
Attorny General Sites
Wayback Machine - Check out Internet history
Google Yourself-Interesting, not much about teaching, but lots of pictures and videos of me singing or playing my fiddle. Nothing bad at all. There are sure a lot of David Wikstroms in the world though.
9 Themes of Digital Citizenship - My Review
I was lucky enough to attend this years MACUL conference (my 15th one) where I heard many references to ISTE and also the 9 Things. By far, the main theme of most of what I attended was for students to have a voice using technology.This includes both access to, and availability of technology (REP 1). I dawned on me that, while our school has plenty of machines available, I don't give them enough opportunity to have a voice and share time in the cyber world. There are so many new ways to express, share, and collaborate now. The promises I heard from the gurus 20 years ago are finally here! Bandwidth, cheap machines, universal access, are finally good enough where I can have the students step outside the walls. MACUL sessions were no longer just about "hey, look at this cute and cool stuff," it's finally about empowering the learner. Here is where it's time for me to step it up a notch and have my students Participating in Society (REP 1)
Step One - My Next Move
I have already done some test runs with TodaysMeet and I found I need to teach the students how to be active participants and give meaningful feedback, not just Hi! How ya doing. There were many schools in the student showcase at MACUL. About half of them had there students sharing and commenting on each others work on line. I need to get my students to post their work, both for parents and to make their work more meaningful and real to them. I want them to have a platform to speak and give opinions, to take part.
I am meeting with my admins and tech/library teams to figure out more of what can be posted and where. Our Acceptable Use doc is very vague as far as guidelines. I am also researching to figure out what will be the best platform. We use Google and the kids have Google Sites available, but I don't like the layout at all. I am also research Weebly education, edmodo, and other possible sites. I welcome any input that will help with my choices
. I want to move as soon as possible, but I want to set it up so the students can use the site for years as a portfolio. I am also finding things that bill themselves specifically as a digital portfolio like Three Ring. I tend to lean towards sticking with Google for the portfolio. I want more of a voice. I am thinking I want them to post there work for the world. Where? The search is on for that.
I have already done some test runs with TodaysMeet and I found I need to teach the students how to be active participants and give meaningful feedback, not just Hi! How ya doing. There were many schools in the student showcase at MACUL. About half of them had there students sharing and commenting on each others work on line. I need to get my students to post their work, both for parents and to make their work more meaningful and real to them. I want them to have a platform to speak and give opinions, to take part.
I am meeting with my admins and tech/library teams to figure out more of what can be posted and where. Our Acceptable Use doc is very vague as far as guidelines. I am also researching to figure out what will be the best platform. We use Google and the kids have Google Sites available, but I don't like the layout at all. I am also research Weebly education, edmodo, and other possible sites. I welcome any input that will help with my choices
. I want to move as soon as possible, but I want to set it up so the students can use the site for years as a portfolio. I am also finding things that bill themselves specifically as a digital portfolio like Three Ring. I tend to lean towards sticking with Google for the portfolio. I want more of a voice. I am thinking I want them to post there work for the world. Where? The search is on for that.
Implementation
So I am having some of my 5th graded classes experiment with Google Sites. Here are some of the issues I am running into:
So I am having some of my 5th graded classes experiment with Google Sites. Here are some of the issues I am running into:
- Issues regarding actual format/use. I had to be sure that they only use the blank template. There are many format choices, but they become confusing. There is a pretty big learning curve here. A title and copy/paste a paragraph they had already written worked the best to start. I like the fact that the pages can be easily deleted if need be. They can also be set up as an assignment in Google Classroom.
- Safety: I am using just general common sense that I teach in my Internet Safety Class. No last names. I noticed a lot of the sites at MACUL used just a first name and initial. Part of the reason I have not done this before is because of the almost paranoid reaction to anything going to the net. I have to find a balance. So, no personal information as far as full names, phone, address, etc. Again, our use policy covers none of the issues of student online work other than to keep it appropriate.
- Bullying: At this time, I am leaving comments off anything that is going to be open to the world. In my closed loop, comments are welcome because we can see who said what and when (sharing and comments with Google) so I am having the class make their comments before the work gets pasted to the web.