I finished reading Digital Citizenship in Schools this week and my views and values of technology education have shifted quite a bit. One of the great things about the second half of this book is the skeleton of a curriculum designed to teach students digital citizenship. In particular, the book provides the teacher with a full set of lessons that are built to teach students how to interact with technology in an appropriate manner. For instance, as many students struggle with understanding how their own decisions with technology use affect other people, the book provides teachers with a “digital compass,” which helps students to analyze their own choices and leads to stronger class discussions on said choices. As stated in the book, “When evaluating each scenario, users need to consider not only their feelings but the feelings of other users around them.” (Ribble 97) In order to assist students in knowing how to use technology appropriately so that they can be a successful part of the working world, these conversations need to begin in the classroom.
As the common core state standards for English require, students need to be able to “integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media formats” as well as “use digital media... to express information and enhance understanding...” (CCSSI) In order to implement this sort of technological use, we as teachers need to help students to navigate the internet and other technological tools in an appropriate, task-oriented manner. One way in which I can begin to do this is give students a mini-lesson that highlights the difference between websites that are trustworthy sources of information and websites that are untrustworthy. (Students are always amazed to find that MartinLutherKing.org is a website that is run by the KKK...) Once students have taken part in this lesson, they will then write a research paper using information solely gleaned electronically. In order to hold them accountable for their use of appropriate sites, they need to keep track of the sites that they use, and give explanations as to why each site is trustworthy. In doing this, students will not only be appropriately using technology to complete a research task, they will also be meeting the common core requirement that they “integrate and evaluate” digital information.
Finally, the book closes on a note highlighting the necessity of digital citizenship. As Ribble states, “Statistics show that billions of dollars are lost by businesses each year through the inappropriate use of digital technologies.” (139) During a conversation that I had about technology with one of my AP classes, a student shared with me that their mother had been “let go” from SNS Worldwide due to repeated warnings about spending her work time shopping online. This example highlights the issues raised by the book, and led to a deep discussion with my students about why appropriate technological use is so important for students and their eventual success in the workforce. If we build the foundations now, these students will eventually teach their own children how to use technology, and we will begin to move towards a society that respects the technology at its fingertips.
2 comments:
Garrett, I quickly glanced at that website and could not stomach staying there for long. Not to mention how frightened I became of big brother knowing I visited a KKK related site!
Garrett- I really like your lesson idea- I think that many of my students think that because they read something online, it must be true. This lesson would be a great example to use in an English/History class, and would be a terrific example of how students need to determine the validity of a website before assuming that the info. is trustworthy. If you don't mind I am going to pass this along to one of my co-teachers. We spoke just last week about how advanced the students in her class are with using technology- but how students do not have the ability to conduct academic research- as they believe everything they see.
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