Implementing Digital Fluency in the Classroom

Currently, my students use the internet for the majority of their science research. PBL gives us the flexibility to integrate technology into the lessons in order for the students to have a variety of tools to create their projects. My plan to implement digital fluency is to expose the students to various ways of how to search for information effectively. Not only do I want to show them the gains of using technology for academic purposes but I would also like to show them how to use technology to leave a positive, digital foot print regarding their work and creativity.

Digital Health & Wellness

I plan to teach students proper digital health and wellness skills. As suggested in the article The Path To Digital Citizenship http://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-path-to-digital-citizenship-andrew-marcinek “the key is teaching kids offline before they jump into an online world”. The objective is to help students understand that their personality and how they behave online needs to match their personality and behavior offline. This article also offers great ideas to teach this concept!!!

Digital Citizenship

I plan to include plans on cyber bullying and also how to access the internet safely. I also want to teach them about how to correctly search for information and cite sources that they have used in their final product. I feel that it is important for students to know that good digital citizens give credit where credit is due and how to behave online.

DC

Digital Citizenship - It is extremely important for everyone to have a clear understanding of digital citizenship.  In advisory, our students will go through lessons that hit on the highlights of what it is and how to become good digital citizens.  It discusses their digital footprint and how important it is to ask questions before sending info out into the world.

Internet Safety & Young Children

When talking to my students about using the Internet, which is very limited since they are so young, I make sure to emphasize the need for them NEVER enter personal information on a website. We talk about the different pieces that fall under personal information. I do this lesson with my students each year when we talk about Internet Safety. I use the Brain Pop, Jr. Internet Safety video with Annie and Mobi so the students have an idea of a computer virus and not sharing their password. I know my students do not use passwords by themselves, however by hearing this information from me it will create a memory which will cause them to pause when asked to enter information on a website in the future. 

Teaching Kindergarten we are learning all about digital access and literacy. Students are learning their rights and abilities and their presence online. Students are also learning about all of the different resources they have online for learning and exploration.

Digital Citizenship

For the past two years I have been co-teaching a lesson with our IT specialist about the district acceptable use of technology policy. Middle School technology TEK 5 concerns digital citizenship. It states that  students should be shown how to practice safe, responsible, legal, and ethical behavior while using technology tools and resources. After doing a sort activity, we talk about related issues: how to properly care for technology so that everyone can use it when they need to, proper network and email etiquette - what is acceptable and what isn’t. Even though they sign a copy of the agreement at the beginning of the year, many students are surprised to find out what it actual says. Students don’t realize, for example, that district email belongs to the district, and that any emails sent using that account can be accessed and read by district personnel. This is a great lesson to learn early, however, as most workplace email accounts are set up exactly the same way. As our school is pretty technology-rich, we are asked to go over this lesson with all three grade levels every year. For next year we are planning on videotaping scenarios related to the district’s idea of acceptable use. Then we can have students explain whether what was in the video was acceptable use or not, and explain the reason for the rule. I think that it is extremely important that students (especially at the secondary level) understand the why of these rules.