Sydney Alin's Tech Ed Blog post #2

Digital Citizenship is nothing to be feared, it should be embraced, and shared with students and parents as a very positive message for keeping students safe online. It sounds like a very sophisticated concept, but when you break it down, digital citizenship is nothing more than helping teach how to steer clear of cyberbullying, leaving a positive online footprint, and showing students what is available to help them online, all while keeping them safe and private. There are many online tools and seminars to help teachers in this evolving area, as technology continues to increase its presence in classrooms at all levels. The good news is that these lessons apply directly to the North Carolina Essential Standards and are part of a good curriculum. The lesson I want to outline for you is called, Rings of Responsibility, and will show what kinds of responsibilities a good digital citizen has. It applies to the NC Standards on Safety and Ethical Issues, 3.SE.1, Understand issues related to the safe, ethical, and responsible use of information and technology resources. This lesson shows the students their responsibilities, both offline and online by categorizing activities into categories: Self, Friends and Family, and Larger Community. This helps the students see what is expected of them and what their responsibilities are. The lessons online that help establish good digital citizens focus on being respectful and not bullying, communicating with people you know, visiting safe sites, and keeping your information private. These are all lessons that are important both offline and online and it is important that students know that the online world can be unsafe as well. This lesson is accomplished by making three rings of responsibility that mirror the categories of self, friends and family, and larger community. Students will place keywords such as: I protect my password, I get permission to post photos, and I keep my information private on the appropriate ring, and discussion takes place to reinforce and answer questions.

            Before engaging in any lessons, it is important that the students understand digital citizenship. Teachningchannel.org has a wonderful video of a teacher giving a lesson to a fifth grade class that can be used as a resource. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-digital-citizenship In his lesson, the teacher engages the class in small groups, asks probing questions, has the students talk among themselves and listens to the students ideas. He then has the students build a digital citizen superhero and apply words and concepts to that superhero. In this way, the teacher engages all of the students in a collaborative manner. Each student has their own superhero and makes a comic so that learning and understanding can be evaluated by the teacher. The video is seven minutes long, but is filled with good ideas and concepts to keep the students safe and make them good digital citizens.

            Another great tool that teaches about digital citizenship is the Webonauts game on pbskids.org, This game takes you through several lessons that stress privacy, how to deal with situations of bullying and being responsible online. Through a series of scenes, it teaches the students about keeping information and settings private so only people you want to see your information can see it. It also shows how what you post online can be public information and how people can use it against you. It teaches about why you should protect your password at all times and is a fun interactive way to learn how to be a digital citizen. This is a game that students can do in groups, individually, or at home with their parents as a learning experience for the family.

  There are even websites for teachers to participate in continuing education and listen to speakers and watch videos online. Technology is a great tool in the classroom and allows teachers to differentiate education plans, and monitor student progress faster and better than before. Many students in elementary school will come to school with great exposure to technology, but it is important for all educators to remember that many of the safety lessons online will be taught in school, not at home. We as teachers need to educate ourselves, so that we can teach our students about digital citizenship. 

Sydney Alin's Tech Ed Blog Post

The Guilford County Schools Social Media Policy is quite clear as to what constitutes proper use of social media by an employee of the county. One of the many interesting rules and guidelines has to do with a teacher should always consider themselves a school employee, even if they are posting pictures from the beach, a vacation, or a party that happens on a weekend. If you have a Facebook page, an Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter account, it is important to remember that your students, their parents, your colleagues, and your administration can be viewing them. An employee should not be friends or follow any student or parent as well, and should make that known to the class, if they are older, or the parents at a back to school night, if the students are too young to have a social media presence. An innocent or fun picture can be construed differently by different people. I remember when a picture went around my middle school of our assistant principal and several teachers playing beer pong at a party, it made the students look at them differently, and the pictures were promptly taken down. A good rule of thumb is to think, if I were a parent of a student in your class, would I think this post was appropriate or not? Another interesting point is that it is not ok to use e-mail, text messages, or any other instant messages to talk about anything not school related with a student. I would further recommend that any communication to a student be through the school email or messaging system and not from the teachers cell phone directly, that way the district has copies and the messages cannot be manipulated in any way. While it might not seem fair, as a teacher, you lose the ability to post whatever you want, and as an elementary teacher, it is further restricting as the students are so much younger.

            This does not mean that social media is bad, quite the opposite. Social media can be used very effectively to praise students and build confidence or interest. A teacher named Gregg Breinberg has his own Facebook page where he posts videos of his PS 22 Chorus in New York. Mr. Breinberg is the director of the chorus, and his postings are wonderful and confidence building for his students. Here is a video of his children singing with Carrie Underwood, imagine how great his students must feel! Here is the video with Carrie Underwood, and the look on her face is of pure joy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOYKV2x_TM 

This video has over 191,000 views, absolutely incredible. With music programs needing funding to continue in many schools, Mr. Breinberg is maximizing social media exposure to show how important music and the arts are. His chorus has been on Oprah, played at the White House, and almost every morning show. Another use of social media was a page established at Lake Brantley High School called the “Be Kind Crew.” http://www.tbktobekind.org/about.html This group established the TBK program in Florida to promote anti bullying and wants to prevent all bullying, not just teach students how to react to it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if students were not bullied in the first place? This group established a very positive website and has over 4,000 likes. A teacher named Ms. L in Surrey British Columbia has set up a Twitter page for her K-3 class that is connecting them worldwide. https://twitter.com/MsLsClass This page has over 2,200 followers and has sent out 3,385 tweets. Ms. L posts pictures of her class doing various activities and learning new things, and it has been very well received. These are three strong examples of how effective social media can be at all grade levels and these teachers should be commended.

            Although teachers need to be very careful posting about themselves online in any capacity, social media should be used as a tool in the classroom to promote learning in a positive atmosphere. Social media posts should only be done within the guidelines of the school districts rules, making sure parental consent is also obtained. If done within the guidelines, posts should be positive in nature, show the students in a safe and caring environment, and have a point and message. Mr. Breinberg, the TBK student group, and Ms. L all reach different audiences and have different messages, but as a teacher, I would look at those examples and try to emulate them as they are making a difference for the students. I learned that as a teacher, I have to make sure my personal posts are within the guidelines of my employers’ policies, are in good taste, and would be something that you could show an elementary school class. A picture from Disney is ok, a picture from the beach would not be. In addition, once something is posted, you have to assume that even if you delete it, someone can find it, or there is a copy somewhere. Lastly, communication with students is an important part of a teacher’s job, but teachers need to be careful of content, and how that communication takes place. Social media can connect students to the world and be an effective tool, but there are many pitfalls that need to be considered every time you post.