One way I do this in my classroom is by using the tool, Edmodo. Edmodo is an excellent, secure place for students to ask their peers for help, look at assignments, and keep up with class announcements. While we set up Edmodo on the first week of school, I have the students do a sample discussion. Basically, this is the equivalent of a FaceBook status that everyone comments on. As we are completing this assignment, we discuss the rules of how to interact with each other on Edmodo. The consequence for not following this rule is becoming a "read only" student. This means that although students can access Edmodo, they may not interact with anyone on the group page; they may only send direct messages to me. When students see this happen to someone in their class, it usually ends the problem right away.
Although this is small taste for what they will experience in the real world, it is a nice introduction for my 6th grade students. Even though digital media is so prevalent in our society, each year I am continually amazed at my new students lack of digital literacy. I remember during the first week of school I had approximately ten students who could not logon to the school computer and access the internet without assistance from another student or myself. I find this shocking. This is why I feel a small introduction through Edmodo is the most effective way to make sure all my students understand how to become a digital citizen without becoming overwhelmed at the difficulty/amount of technology to take in.
In addition to Edmodo, next year I believe I will be taking my digital citizen education one step further. Below this post, I have listed several websites and activities geared toward middle school students, teachers, and parents alike to help them learn how to leave behind a positive digital footprint. While I am teaching my students, I will be using three strategies to guide my instruction get parents involved, set clear guidelines, and
have students walk through possible scenarios. When these three strategies are put into place and students are aware
Resources for Reflection:
1. Digizen: This is a website that contains resources for parents, teachers, and students. One key to ensuring that your students are leaving a positive digital footprint is involving the parents. Most of the problems that bleed into the classroom from technology take place in the home environment. When schools develop a plan and partner with parents, it will be more likely for the school to see a reformation in how the students behave online. It must involve a team! I also love Digizen because it shares valuable information, such as, copyright laws with the students in an appropriate way. These are pre-made lesson plans that are easy for a teacher to access and use on the fly.
An interesting pre/post-assessment that can be done quickly using Digizen is having students create their own Digizen. (I have created one that is embedded below.) On their Digizen, students have desires for themselves, their friends, and the digital world. After a complete year of teaching and utilizing technology regualry, it will be fun to see how students have grown in the way they think about the digital world surrounding them. Other lessons pre-made on the Digizen website include a Cyberbullying simulation.
Resources by Topic:
- Internet Safety and Cyberbullying
- Digital Responsibility
- Media and Digital Literacy
- Other Resources From Edutopia
- Additional Resources on the Web
One thing to note about this page is how current and relevant the articles are. Although the page was first published in 2011, all the videos and are articles are continually updated to keep up with changing trends in technology.
3. Digital Citizenship Web Quest- As I have mentioned multiple times, I am a huge fan of Web Quests. After all, if we are teaching students how to leave a positive digital foot print, shouldn't they be using technology regularly to practice this? This Web Quest is a Weebly site that has a variety of topics relevant to technology use. It has them analyze infographics, web pages, and end with the students making their own digital footprint in a word cloud program called Tagxedo. All along the way, students are responsible for doing short comprehension checks and even using higher order thinking skills to evaluate websites.
4. Digital Compass- This activity is a very thorough lesson plan that has students work in groups to critically evaluate and analyze technology use. Although I would not use this with sixth grade students, I do believe it would be well-suited for a 7th or 8th grade classroom.