Admittedly, Digital Citizenship has been treated (by me) in the way I treat a new toaster: I feel like we know how to use it and comply, and therefore busy myself with other tasks. The paperwork that comes with the toaster— just like the paperwork that comes with digital citizenship student packets— is glossed over.
And I am willing to bet that’s pretty common for teachers. I was reminded recently that DC is important. Actually, really important. And it is likely not taught at home. Because so much of what we do is digital, we have to be mindful of what that can look like outside of our classroom. I am all-in now on learning how to teach this. What can I do? 1. The Stanford COR series will be a bedrock of info for me. The material is centered around the concept of “lateral reading”— which essentially is a skill that can be used to determine if a resource is valid or biased. This teaches the HOW. We talk about it in class, but haven’t went into the depth that the COR series provides. 2. The College Bound “lesson in action” video would resonate with my student population. Again, we have talked about what a college might do in looking up a perspective student, but have never approached it like the video lesson did. Looking at samples of social media footprints could be REALLY useful. I think I need to do this with my baseball players as well. 3. Bias is all the rage these days. Never have I been more aware of the bias attached to a source when researching online. Back to the COR series: Stanford suggests that teachers specifically pull articles from left, center, and right leaning sources and look for bias. Now, I have done this in class. It can be a little dicey because politics are very touchy in my school. However, this reinforces the need to help develop the skills to determine it. Sometimes I think I shy away from political topics in class because I don’t want to come across as having a party affiliation. I can still maintain my professionalism and run this lesson. I also came across a number of specific Tweets that could be analyzed for bias or false info. This really has to be part of my curriculum. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FCc3P7rFPIIq66TVo2nQRcfXEras10XqWpVPTxeN2-8/edit
6 Comments
Sheri Blades
6/7/2020 08:55:12 pm
I think we've all be awoken with the shift to digital learning as well as this class. I feel like as a district, we just simply didn't have digital citizenship on our radar. For me, I never really reflected or thought about what digital citizenship meant for my students because we typically didn't have access to technology in kindergarten or first grade. And the few times we used technology, it was through a specific software program so there wasn't really any areas of concern for safety or for showing respect. I now feel very guilty for NOT having this Ah Ha! sooner. By not exposing and introducing students early on about digital citizenship, it creates a system of reactivity rather than being proactive. I now see how narrow-minded my thinking was...just because we didn't have one to one devices or classroom computers for students doesn't mean I shouldn't teach them how to be good digital citizens. Some might have computers or tablets at home...Do I assume their family is teaching them how to be safe and kind? Regardless of what I have or don't have "in" the classroom, is no excuse to not teach what is very necessary for their entire life.
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Laurie Gaynor
6/8/2020 10:08:06 pm
Hi Jason,
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Lynda Tuttle Bergner
6/9/2020 08:27:07 am
Hi Jason,
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Scott Marsden
6/9/2020 03:07:53 pm
Jason,
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Dustin Green
6/10/2020 10:00:13 am
Jason, your toaster analogy is spot on. It’s safe to say the vast majority of students and teachers sign whatever paperwork is necessary for digital citizenship and move on with their lives.
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6/10/2020 12:07:54 pm
Jason,
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