Digital Citizenship In Schools - Chapter 4: Professional Development Activities in Digital Citizenship

"Before technology leaders begin to integrate digital citizenship into their school or district, faculty and staff should be trained on the appropriate use of technology.  To do this, ongoing staff development activities covering the various areas of digital citizen ship should be provided, along with informational resources to help participants understand the concepts."  Ribble starts chapter 4 with these, to me, powerful sentences.  I couldn't agree more with providing professional development to teachers who will be expected to integrate technology, at some point in their classroom.  I am proud to say that our district has been offering more technology based PD development from using ipads in the classroom, (even though we aren't provided with them, you have to bring your own) to using I-Teacher/I-Parent as we begin our journey towards furthering our communication to home about student grades.  I-Teacher/I-Parent is an online system in which teachers input student assignments/grades & as of next year, parents will be able to log-in and view their child's grades.  I know this isn't new however it will be for our district.  I feel this is something that all teachers can "feel comfortable" doing because it's basically an online gradebook that allows parents to view their child's progress at their leisure. 

Our district is also implementing PD360 which is an online learning community for teachers.  It provides videos to watch that range in topics from classroom environment to organizing physical space in your classroom.  We are using it to help enhance our "Professional Growth Objectives."  Again, I go back to what Ribble states in that teacher and administrators need to be educated in digital citizenship and its implementation in schools.  My connection with this is that PD360 is an online learning community for teachers and teachers are able to search and watch videos on how to incorporate technology into the classroom effectively.  So we are using technology to learn more about using technology in our classrooms.  (Does this make sense to anyone else except myself?)

I like the activities presented in Chapter 4 can be useful for teachers to become more comfortable using technology, not just with students but with other teachers as well.  I actually like the idea of the "Appreciation Blog."  This opens up conversation and dialogue amongst staff members in a new way.  I would love to try this at my school with the whole building.  I look at it too that teachers will have the opportunity to talk and collaborate with staff members in which he/she does not necessarily have the chance to daily.  It could also be good for department conversations.  For example, in my building, the Math Department meets once a month.  In that one meeting, we talk about things that need to happen/change, however, some topics aren't revisited until the next meeting which is the next month.  How great would it be to have ongoing conversations through a friendly blog!