Digital Citizenship

In a time where bullying, fraud, pirating, and other cruel and mostly illegal things are taking place online, it is important to teach students how to be safe, responsible, and good citizens on the internet. Because it is so important, North Carolina has developed standards to be taught in the classroom called Common Sense Media. In this blog post, I will be showing how to teach the Kindergarten standard of remembering internet safety rules. 

One way of teaching internet safety that I found was a lesson plan developed specifically for kindergarteners written by Mary Beth Hertz. The lesson is designed to teach students about "Stranger Danger" on the internet and what is and isn't okay to tell a stranger on the internet. Check out the article which contains links for videos, quizzes, and other resources for teachers to use.

One of the links in Hertz's articles is for a website called NetSmartzKids. This website has tons of videos, games, songs, and other great tools to let children explore and learn about staying safe on the internet, like this video below:

The video discusses ethical uses of the internet, including why it's wrong to steal music or movies and how to avoid strangers on the internet. NetSmartz uses creative songs, games, and activities for students to learn about the dangers of the internet and stealing. So if a class were to have a day in the computer lab, having the students explore around NetSmartzKids would be a great idea.

Finally, it is important to teach students how to treat others on the internet. Common Sense Education is a website full of lesson plans to teach digital citizenship to students from grades K-12. On the website, there is a lesson plan designed for grades K-2 entitled "Screen Out the Mean". In order to download the PDF of this lesson and others, you will have to create an account, but the process is simple and painless. The lesson plan contains warm-up and wrap-up activities, videos, handouts, and is even scheduled out with how long each section should take you. 

As students continue to have access to the internet at a younger age, it is important to teach them how to have common sense online. This includes teaching them how to be safe and how to be a good citizen online. 

Responsible Use of Social Media in the Classroom

In the 21st Century, teachers must be flexible with their instructional methods. As a student, I feel I learn better when able to interact in class through the use of social media. In the past, I've had teachers create class blogs, use Twitter to have discussions, or create Facebook groups for the class. Integrating social media is a new and refreshing take from traditional lecturing or information sharing, however it must be used carefully and responsibly in order to maintain a professional atmosphere.

In order to help teachers define what is and isn't acceptable when using social media, Guilford County Schools has developed set guidelines for their employees about social media. The guidelines basically boil down to this: if you don't want it on the nightly news, don't post it. While teachers have the right to their own personal lives, Guilford County wants to ensure that they are being properly represented by their employees. Another thing I found interesting was that GCS advises their employees to learn about the different security settings on social media sites. For example, I didn't know that Facebook has a privacy setting that allows you to control who sees your posts, whether they are your friend or not. In the past, I have blocked those who I didn't want to see my posts or that I didn't want to see theirs. However, if you log off of Facebook and your privacy settings allow anyone to view your profile or photos, the person that you blocked still has access to your page.

This does not mean, however, that social media should not be used in the classroom. There are many different ways to use social media responsibly and effectively in the classroom. One way to responsibly use social media is by using YouTube to post instruction videos or extra information. Many teachers use YouTube videos in order to flip the classroom.  Check out this teacher explaining how to calculate the area of a triangle.

By posting the videos online before class, students are able to come into the classroom with the material and then class time can be used to further discuss or work out any misunderstandings. Then, if things still aren't clear, they still have the original videos to look back to.

Another way to use social media in the classroom is to create a classroom Instagram like the student's in Mrs. Brown's first and second grade classes. With the privacy settings Instagram has in place already, Mrs. Brown created a private Instagram account for her classes after asking parent's permission to have their students featured on the page. She then has parents give their e-mail addresses to grant them access to follow the class page, but does not follow them back for the sake of her own privacy. After posting some of the pictures, Mrs. Brown will print them off and use them as decorations in the classroom which you can see in the article.

In Kathy Cassidy's classroom, her students all have personal blogs where they share their work and are able to interact with each other's blogs which you can see in the video below. Even further, Ms. Cassidy will pull up the students' comments on the board and have them read the comments aloud in class. Class blogs let students share their work with each other, their families, and even allow them to give direct feedback to each other in a safe and secure environment.

Social media in the classroom is a beneficial tool as long as it's used responsibly. It allows teachers to use differentiated instruction to teach to all types of learners, lets students share their learning with others, and allows the students to give each other feedback. Even better, it keeps students engaged and excited to learn.