Guided Lessons in digital Citizenship, Chp. 7 Digital Citizenship in schools by Mike Ribble.

9:01 PM | Labels: Digital Citizenship In Schools

As I was finishing up the conclusion of Mike Ribble"s Digital Citezenship book, I was thinking about the role that teachers need to play in the teaching of Digital Citizenship. He discusses the idea that parents need to play an important role in educating their children on the issues involved in this topic. I agree with this, however I am a parent of two middle school age children and I know that until I read this book, I didn't consider half of the material that is involved in digital citizenship. I honestly didn't know what it was or how integral this was to my children becoming well rounded in the use of all areas of technology. As a teacher, I consider it an advantage to have an excellent insight into the curriculum my children are being taught. Except for some very basic skills in internet research, citing sources, and typing, my children and students in the district are not getting any in depth instruction on digital citizenship. Also many of their parents, like myself, do not have an understanding of the topic because it simply didn't exist when we were younger. Therefore, it is not being taught at home.

Chapter 7 in Ribble's book is a great resource for more in depth lessons to help students understand the ins and outs of digital citizenship. In this chapter, the author has 15 lessons that include issues on the 9 elements of digital citizenship. These lessons are great because they can be adapted to different grade levels, they include excellent questions that teachers can use in discussion with students and they have ideas to help bridge a connection to parents that, I believe, will help give parents some good tools to open up these discussions at home. One of the best parts of these lessons are the website resources that are provided to to give teachers, students and/or parents more information on each topic. I will be taking a closer look at these lessons to find ways to incorporate them into my curriculum for the remainder of this year. I am really excited to see what works with my students. With that information, I hope to convince my teammates to work on a school year curriculum, using these lessons and other we can create to fully incorporate digital citizenship into our classrooms in the coming years.

Each of these lessons include a variety of 21st century skills. Some examples of collaboration are, in lesson 3, Using the Internet Appropriately, students with internet experience work with students with limited or no experience to help them learn how to search for information. In lesson 9, Digital Etiquette, students work in groups to come up with a list of rules to follow and then the class discusses these list to come up with a classroom set of rules. Communication is visible in all of these lessons, with an emphasis on small group and class discussion. Also students are encouraged to have conversations at home with their parents about the discussions at school. For lessons that involve online commerce teachers send information home for parents so they know what students are learning. I would also add sending website resources or written information home to parents so they can have informed discussions with their own children. Some examples of creativity are, in lesson 14, students take a look at how technology is used and come up with a list of ergonomics issues they find. they then need to brainstorm ideas to fix these problems; in lesson 4, students are asked to make a list of technology skill that they think are needed in the workforce today and then speculate on other skills they may need in the future. This is also a great critical thinking lesson because they are asked to look beyond the information they already know and create new ideas for future skills. Another great critical thinking lesson is lesson 6 because after completing the activity, students brainstorm ways to help those students that do not have technology access.

Here are some 6th grade Common Core Standards that relate to many of these lessons.

RI7: Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

W6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

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.

SL1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.

b. Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.

c. Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

d. Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.