The Plan: 1-Digital Citizenship

In this post, I will describe the first cornerstone I see for my 21st Century Literacy Classroom: Digital Citizenship.

Digital Citizenship refers to the idea of being a good citizen of the global online community. It means behaving ethically and safely online.

Kids need to know how to keep themselves safe both online and offline. Parents are pretty good about teaching their kids how keep themselves safe in the real world, but are clueless about how to keep them safe while on the internet. Online, they need to know how much information to post on the internet, how to manage their online identity, and who to chat with. I could use some online safety programs like i-SAFE or Wiredkids. However, NetSmartz kids has worked very well for me to teach internet safety.

A big issue about kids online is cyberbullying. There are bullies in the virtual world as well as the real world. It’s actually easier to deal with them in the real world, because you can identify who they are. Online, people can be anonymous. They feel untouchable when they are anonymous online and think that their actions don’t really matter. It may feel much like a video game, where the person on the other end is not real. Kids have to realize that the person they are bullying has feelings just like they do. They should treat people online, as they would treat them face-to-face in real life. NetSmartz kids does a pretty good job of teaching kids how to deal with cyberbullies: tell an adult you trust.

The last part of Digital Citizenship I want to deal with in my class is ethical behavior towards copyright.

I started comparing my vision for a 21st Century Literacy Classroom with the Framework for 21st Century Learning by the and the updated NETS for students. My ideas didn’t fall neatly into the same categories they had, but they were pretty close.

NETS for Students Standards by ISTE

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical
behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Correlation with the 21st Century Skills
Information Literacy

• Accessing information efficiently and effectively, evaluating information critically and competently and using information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand
• Possessing a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

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The Plan for my 21st Century Literacy Classroom

I know you couldn’t help but notice all the reflections on the K12 Online conference 2007. The main reason for the all the reflections was as a requirement for graduate credit for the conference. I would like to make the final project for the conference relevant to my classroom. Here is my outline for how I plan to implement 21st century literacy in my 3rd grade classroom. I now have a thin client computer for every two students in my classroom this year. This will allow my students more access to technology, so that it can be more easily integrated into my curriculum. However, the thing most people (parents and teachers) say when they enter my classroom is, “Wow, look at all those computers.” I need a response to justify why I have the computers in my classroom and how I will use them. First the brief “elevator speech,” then a more detailed plan of how I will use the technology to improve learning in my classroom. This will probably take a few posts.

Them: “Wow, look at all those computers you have in your class.”

Me: “Yes, I really think they will add rocket fuel to the learning in our classroom. We will learn Digital Citizenship-how to behave ethically and safely online. We will collaborate on projects with other classes in the nation and hopefully across the world. We will learn to read critically online and how to check the sources cited for reliability. Finally, we will creating written, artistic, pictoral, audial, and video content both on the computer and online for real audience, like family, friends, and other 3rd graders.”

Them: “Oh, wow.”

I’ll have some future posts where I explain each cornerstone of the 21st Century Classroom.

21 Century skills rainbow

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K12 Online Conference Reflection #21

This is my reflection on the K12 Online conference presentation:

Classroom 2.0

Motivating Student Writers by Fostering collaboration through Tagging and Aggregating

By Vance Stevens, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Nelba Quintan, La Plata, Argentina; Doris Molero, Maracaibo, Venezuela; Saša Sirk, Nova Gorica, Slovenia, Rita Zeinstejer, Rosario, Argentina

What were the main points made during this session, the “takeaways?”

1. Background about how each presenter got involved in the Writing Matrix.
2. What is the Writing Martix project?
3. How the project works.
4. Stages for student involvement in the project
1. Class blogging and podcasting
2. Individual blogging and commenting
3. Tagging and Blog Search Engine
4. Tracking Blogs
5. Social bookmarking with Del.icio.us
6. Student feedback: Awareness of the audience
5. What they plan to do in the future

In terms of your own professional development, what did you gain from the session?

I like the interesting idea of making a video of collaboration in Elluminate.

This was the first presentation to mention technorati. They gave a great example of how to use it with tags.

I like the Frapper map. I had heard about it, but not seen it before.
The Youtube video of the bungee jumpers is nuts. I would never do that.

What questions did you have after this presentation?

Did I see a picture of a class with XO laptops?
What kind of discussions took place in the classroom about the online conversations?

How will you apply the learning to your professional situation?

I think I will introduce blogs in an almost opposite order to how they introduced blogs. We will start with a class feed reader, so we can read blog before we actually write blogs. We always move from whole-class to individual aggregators and blogs.

What other resources (including reading material) are relevant to this session?
www.writingmatrix.wikispaces.com
http://www.rostilj.blogspot.com/
www.technorati.com

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K12 Online Conference Reflection #20

This is my reflection on the K12 Online conference presentation:

Classroom 2.0

Travel through Time and Space
by Silvia Tolisano, Jacksonville, FL

What were the main points made during this session, the “takeaways?”

Traveling across the world transformed her classroom by connecting physically and vitually.
Preparing the students for the trip to China.
Teacher preparation for the trip to China.
Shanghai, China
Terracotta warriors in Xian
Learning the Chinese provinces
Chinese Art day - Year of the Pig
Piggy bank
Cut paper Kiragami
The equipment
Broaden horizons: Raising Global Awareness

In terms of your own professional development, what did you gain from the session?

I love traveling in Google Earth.
“Telling stories connects the listener to someone, somewhere, or something far away.”
Learning a second language not only makes you more job marketable, but it also helps you learn about different cultures and appreciate diversity.
I love the concrete connection to other countries by send Jose the Bear.
This presentation gave compelling, concrete reasons to teach global awareness

What questions did you have after this presentation?

How do I connect with someone in another country to start a project?
How do you manage the time differences with classes in far different time zones?

How will you apply the learning to your professional situation?
I will definitely share about my trip to Alaska this summer.
I would like to find a class in another country to trade a stuffed bulldog with. I think Global Schoolhouse, Think.com, or Keypals might be good places to start looking.

What other resources (including reading material) are relevant to this session?

San Jose Episcopal Day School
http://www.sjeds.com/

China Blog
http://www.sjeds.com/blog/china/

Global Studies
http://www.sjeds.com/blog/global_studies/

Egypt Blog
http://www.sjeds.com/blog/egypt/

Spresent.com
http://www.spresent.com/

Splashr
http://www.splashr.com/

Skitch
http://www.skitch.com/

Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/

SnapZPro
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

Quicktime
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

Google Earth
http://www.googleearth.com/

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K12 Online Conference Reflection #19

This is my reflection on the K12 Online conference presentation:

Professional Learning Networks
“Changing a System: Network Centric Learning Communities”

by James Folkestad

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

What were the main points made during this session, the “takeaways?”

1. Changing the setting
2. Organization systems
3. Characters in the system
4. Collaboration and collective action skills may help us survive an avalanche of change
5. We will build a new environment of networking and collaborating.
6. Industrial era learning was isolated,, disconnected, and discarded topic students were interested in.
7. Students now discover they like curiousity, connected, networked learning.
8. The new skills with be creating and sharing.
9. Networked collaboration through social networks.

In terms of your own professional development, what did you gain from the session?

Networked systems perform much more efficiently than bureaucratic organizations.
Part 2 explained with words while demonstrating with pictures what is networked learning and why we need it.
Decentralizing and aggregating help us adapt to change.
Aggregation very simple to do through RSS.

What questions did you have after this presentation?

He is talking about businesses. How do network systems apply to schools? Oh.
The antiquated system is clunky. How do we make it more nimble?

How will you apply the learning to your professional situation?
I will have to use other Web 2.0 tools instead of Ning, since my students are not yet 13.
I could use Think.com as a social learning space and Moodle or a page on our class wiki to aggregated various feeds.

What other resources (including reading material) are relevant to this session?

http://switchspace.wikispaces.com
http://switchspace.blogspot.com

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