Lesson | Guest Post | Who Are You Online? Considering Issues of Web Identity Wednesday (Feb. 6) is Digital Learning Day, an annual opportunity to contemplate the place of technology in the classroom and in our lives. Last year, we celebrated by digging through 40 years of New York Times reporting on technology in education to find gems like the 1982 article “Computers Alter Lives of Pupils and Teachers.” This year, we have a student essay challenge, and we have also invited a guest post from Common Sense Media, an organization “dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.” We collaborated with the Common Sense Media writer Kelly Schryver to focus on the increasingly important and nuanced question “Who Are You Online?” – Katherine Schulten and Shannon Doyne Who Are You Online? Are You the ‘Real You’ Online? What kinds of things do you tend to post online, and how much thought do you give to choosing or creating them?
What's your digital footprint? Take this quiz and find out! I developed this quiz with members of my personal learning network (found at end of post) to get students thinking about their digital footprint. The quiz was created at the request of high school students I spoke with who thought the creation of a such a quiz could lead to a smart conversation about ways students can update their digital footprint so that it is one that leads to college and career success. Check it out with your students and let me know how it goes in the comments below. How’d you do?
The 5 Things All Digital Citizens Should Do Being a digital citizen is a fact of life these days. Everyone must be a well-behaved digital citizen looking to help others. Think of it like the Girl / Boy Scouts but online. First off, let’s take a quick look at what the all-knowing all-powerful Wikipedia says about the topic: People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use IT extensively, creating blogs, using social networks, and participating in web journalism sites. Personally, I don’t think the definition needs to be limited to people who ‘use IT extensively’ (whatever that means – are they swapping out servers and using desktops as stepping stools or something?) See Also: The Teacher’s Guide To Digital Citizenship These five are just the tip of the iceberg though.
Turning Students into Good Digital Citizens 21st Century Literacy | In Print Turning Students into Good Digital Citizens Schools have always been charged with the task of producing good citizens. But how has our definition of a "good citizen" changed over the ages? By John K. In today's world of near-ubiquitous connectivity, in which ordinary people have almost instantaneous access to unlimited stores of information and the ability to interact with anyone, anywhere, anytime, what does it mean to be an effective citizen? Ask a K-12 educator these questions and chances are the answers will have something to do with teaching proper behavior and setting appropriate prohibitions. But some educators, particularly those who think about this issue in higher education, will say that digital citizenship has less to do with safety and civility than participation in the worldwide online conversation--participation that requires a set of relatively sophisticated skills.
Rethinking Difficult Parents Image credit: iStockphoto "Jack tells me that lots of kids are doing way worse things, but you ignore them and pick on him." "Are you saying Mandy is a liar?" "As far as I know, three kids did the same thing, yet Ben was the only one punished! Is that fair!" "Really? In my seminars with educators on Handling Difficult Parents (the title of my book on this topic), I often begin by asking participants to call out words that come to mind which best describe parents who are difficult. View Difficult Parents as Misguided Advocates Keep in mind that even an angry parent is better than an absent parent! Ms. View Difficult Parents as Having Something to Teach You I remember Mrs. Keep the Focus on Their Child If parents complain about unfair treatment towards their child and offer examples to support their conclusion, acknowledge that you often do different things with different students because you want to help each become more successful or learn more about responsibility. Share Honey Before Vinegar
Why Digital Citizenship Must Be Taught in Schools - Scott Steinberg - Voices Wake up and smell the silicon: From smartphones and apps to computers and social networks, technology has permanently invaded kids’ lives, much to the benefit of parents and educators. But with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad now topping children’s wish lists, kids aged 2 to 5 are more equipped to run apps than tie their own shoelaces. In the rush to place high-tech and mobile devices in so many hands, we’re also doing perilously little to prepare adults and kids alike for life in a connected world, potentially endangering future generations. According to the latest Norton Online Family Report, nearly 62 percent of children worldwide have had a negative experience online — nearly four in ten involving serious situations, i.e. cyberbullying or receiving inappropriate photos from strangers. Even technology insiders presently struggle to define rules of online etiquette, social media conduct and personal boundaries, given the speed at which advancements now arrive and online trends shift.
School Defends Student Suspension for Tweet WEST SENECA, N.Y. -- A senior at West Seneca East High School has been suspended for sending out a tweet outside of classtime about a teacher. School administrators call the punishment fair. Brandon Guzda is an athlete and honor society student, but he's suspended for five days because of something he wrote on Twitter. "I put a swear word and then the teacher's name and then I wrote #freedomofspeech," said Guzda. He says it was written in frustration after a school hockey game that he attended. "I was cheering for my team and I jumped on the boards, the glass, cheering on an exciting play." West Seneca East High School Principal tells 2 On Your Side's Claudine Ewing that Brandon and a few other students were misbehaving at the game. It was a few days later when Brandon's mom received a letter indicating that Brandon was being suspended. Both Brandon and his mom believe the suspension was harsh. Cervoni said "some people may refer to that tweet as threatening as intimidating.