Chapters 5-6, Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble

   In my classroom, I have been working on ways to incorporate digital citizenship lessons into my curriculum so that my students have a better understanding of the tools they are using and the responsibility that goes with this technology. Just from the discussions and mini lessons I've given, I realize students are using technology in many ways without fully understanding the elements of digital citizenship. Until taking this class, I had very little knowledge of these and have always been very hesitant to be too involved in internet related technology because of the issues I often hear or read about.
     While reading chapters 5 and 6 in Digital Citizenship, I found some great ideas to help me create lessons that work really well in my 6th grade classroom. Chapter 5 discusses 4 stages for reflection when understanding appropriate use of technology. What I really liked about these stages of reflection was the questions that Ribble gives to help discuss the contentious use of technology. I think that these questions work really well when combining them with the foundational lesson plans Ribble discusses in chapter 6. For instance, I really like the foundational lesson 1 on appropriate or inappropriate use. The stiudents are given scenarios to discuss and then decide if they are approprite. After they have their discussion I would go back to chapter 5 and pull some of the reflection questions for students to respond to. These lessons can easily be incorporated into some of the ways we use technology in our classroom. Teaching students the right way to use information found on the internet or the appropriate way to respond to a blog gives students a more meaningful understanding of what they are actually doing when using this technology.
     I believe this connects to all aspects of 21st century skills because students are working together to create a better understanding of the different elements of digital citizenship. Each student brings their own unique view and opinions to their discussions and this helps all students to have a broader view of their use of technology. Also many times a student will come up with a idea that hasn't been thought of before and this opens up the discussion of new scenarios involving use of technology.
   
      These standards require that students use technology in an appropriate way and teaching good digital citizenship will help students accomplish this goal.
 
      Common Core Standard W6:
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.
   
     Common Core Standard W8
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.