Everyday students at our school are assigned a task that requires access to a computer. Students do sign a technology agreement at the beginning of the year, but is that teaching digital citizenship? I feel we need to spend more time in the classroom addressing the importance of safely using the internet. When I first started teaching, my students and I visited the computer lab once a week. Then, gradually over the next two decades I saw technology become part of the everyday classroom. And now I am at a site that has 1:1 devices, that are used EVERY SINGLE DAY! Not only do I feel students need to be closely monitored, I feel as though the lessons like those found on "Common Sense Media", as well as other lessons, should be implemented regularly. Students in my classroom use Google and Google Classroom to submit and share classroom assignments. To make it more personal, I would start with a technology "checkpoint" to see how often students use technology outside of the classroom. As educators, it is our responsibility, to teach "common sense" when using technology. The following lessons can be used in the classroom to help guide students in the cyber world: 1. Talking Safely Online-students learn the importance of only communicating with friends and never revealing private information without asking a parent or trusted adult for permission. 2. Super Digital Citizen- students learn how to be responsible and respectful offline/online and how to be good digital citizens. Students will create digital superheroes who show how to solve digital dilemmas in a responsible way. 3. What's Cyberbullying-students learn and discuss the positive and negatives of communicating online. They will learn the definition of cyberbullying and compare and contrast it to in-person bullying. Students will then read a story and discuss how the target might feel. It is important for me to continue to stress the importance of digital citizenship throughout the school year, and to prepare my 4th graders now for the world that can be reached at their fingertips. Not only is it important for students to learn how to surf the web safely, they also need to realize how their digital footprint follows them. As the year progresses, I will integrate more of these "Common Sense" lessons and reinforce everyday the importance of a being a respectful, safe, and responsible, digital citizen! heather_feinberg_common_sense_lesson_plan.pdf
5 Comments
Amanda Olson
2/12/2018 09:29:04 pm
I completely agree that it is our job as educators to provide our students with the experiences, opportunities, and learning that instill within them skills necessary to be successful citizens, both of their physical and digital worlds. I therefore agree that the digital citizenship skills must be explicitly taught in our classrooms, and that it would be extremely beneficial to first collect data about your students' access to and experiences with technology. Just as you see digital citizenship as being connected to common sense, I too see the many connections that can be made from being a good citizen of the physical world and a good citizen of the digital world especially at a very basic level like I would do for my Kinders. For example, I found a lesson that explored the connection between taking real-life field-trips and traveling on the internet. The more real-life context, both in the physical and digital worlds we can provide our students with, the better prepared they will be and the more they can take advantage of their digital footprint as a means of future success. Jose also was interested in creating comic strips for digital superheroes, and I saw this article online that listed several websites that allow students to create digital comic strips, https://elearningindustry.com/the-5-best-free-cartoon-making-tools-for-teachers.
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Heather Feinberg
2/13/2018 06:03:01 pm
Thank you!
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Maria Dowling
2/12/2018 10:44:06 pm
I totally agree with your statement: "I feel as though the lessons like those found on "Common Sense Media", as well as other lessons, should be implemented regularly. " We also have a digital citizen contract that all students and parents sign at the beginning of the year, but it's not enough. I am now going to dedicate time every week to teach digital citizen lessons.
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Scott Marsden
2/13/2018 03:21:02 pm
I agree that digital citizenship should be taught frequently, if not every day. Every digital lesson is a teachable moment for digital citizenship because issues will always arise with students and technology. I'm glad you have found the Common Sense Media lessons useful. Have you looked at Google's Be Internet Awesome or Stanford's SHEG resources?
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Heather C Feinberg
2/13/2018 06:02:23 pm
My 4th grade class was just assigned Google's Be Internet Awesome! Our classroom discussion that followed was EYE OPENING!! I will be teaching these lessons regularly!
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