Thing 17: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship
I have decided to review Thing 17 in the hopes of learning about new resources/lessons for children in grades K-2
about keeping them safe online as well as teaching them to be responsible digital citizens. As I have mentioned in
earlier posts, I have worked with grades 3-5 for the past four years but due to the closing of my school I will be
teaching K-5 next year. I am very excited to begin this new journey but would like to make sure I am prepared for
the new challenge. Prior to exploring this "thing" last year, I had relied on Netsmartz videos and BrainPoP for my
digital citizenship lessons. As much as I enjoyed these resources I felt there had to be something more to use
because some of the kids were still making poor online choices. I was introduced to the Common Sense Media
website at a regional librarian's conference a few years ago but only thought you could do the digital passport and
due to the limited amount of lab time I could get it did not seem like a workable solution. However, last year I
learned through this course that there were other lessons that could be used in the library to teach the kids about
digital safety and digital citizenship. This past fall I began using a couple of their lessons for grades 3-5. The first
of which was the Rings of Responsibility. I loved this lesson and had the kids brainstorm things that they do
(positive and negative) as an individual, group (class) and community and what the impact to others would be. I
had some terrific discussions with the students and was very pleased at how many kids were thinking of positive
ways to give back to the community (here they went a little away from the idea of digital issues but I felt it was
great to have them see how this could apply to the other areas of their lives). At the beginning I tried to use all
of the worksheets but ended up eliminating some because they ended up being a little too confusing for the kids.
Next year I will either eliminate them altogether or adapt them into a format the my students are more familiar
with. I was very surprised that this also became a terrific behavior management tool because we talked
about how the class or a group of students can be impacted if you choose to make a really bad choice in class. One
of the favorites was showing the impact of not washing your hands when you are sick. The class will be impacted
because some of them may get sick because they touched something the infected person touched and then this
can spread beyond the classroom to the rest of the school community so that other students and teachers are
getting sick. It really hit home with so many of the kids - I even had a teacher come up and ask me what the Rings
of Responibility were because several of her students were talking about it in her classroom.
The other lesson I did collaboratively with the school psychologist was the Group Thinking - this lesson dealt more
with the issue of bullying - both cyber and noncyber. I did like this lesson as well because they used a scenario of a
child hosting a party where his best friend goes online to his social media account to spread the news of who he has
a crush on. The boy is upset because he had told it in confidence to his best friend and now the girl found out. The friend
continues doing this type of thing and ends up getting the whole school involved. This opened up so many wonderful
discussions about friendships, sharing personal information such as passwords. This made the kids really think about
how something as simple as sharing their password with their best friend could cause a lot of problems for themself
and others whom they may not even really know. I was surprised at how many of the kids originally didn't see a problem
with sharing their password because it was their best friend but had a problem with a parent knowing it. So many
great discussions were had with this one and it was great to see the kids self reflect on how they would react to these
situations - would they be a bystander or an upstander.
With that being said, I will be using these next year as well but will also try to add some new ones in as well from Common
Sense Media. I started exploring the K-2 lessons and was excited to see the offerings and how they created them for the
younger students to tie them into their digital world and personal world. For instance, the first lesson deals with Going Places
Safely - this can easily be included in discussions about personal safety in the real world as well. I am very excited to
explore this in more depth this summer and perhaps do some of the PD offered through the site.
I also explored the article about the 8 digital skills we must teach our children. As we all know this is becoming more important
every year as the kids become more and more technologically saavy. However, as much as they find using technology
easy to use/learn the big question becomes are they using it correctly and safely. I really want to explore more ways to teach
children how to do just that. I thought the colorful pie chart on digital intelligence was terrific and really broke
this concept down to a level that all can understand. I will be sharing this with my teachers, administrators and colleagues
because I think it it really important for all educators to realize that this has to be included into the education of our
children. Just to note a few that I found intriguing, Digital Identity, Digital Use and Digital Literacy. Digital identity is so
very important - the kids are so comfortable in the online world that many do not realize they are making bad choices
nor do they realize how their bad choices can negitively impact their future. Digital use is also important as we see kids
that can not balance life online and off. On a physical level they are gaining more weight because they are not as active as
previous generations. I myself have seen a decline in their attention span and disinterest in anything that is not "fun".
All of the areas on the pie chart are relevant to today's society and it needs to be integrated into our educational framework.
The other resource I explored was DQWorld.net. I was very excited about this site and want to dig in deeper this summer.
I am thinking of perhaps using it with a few classes at first to "test" it out and learn more about the program. I like the idea
of it being like a game that will engage students in an environment that they like yet provide them with knowledge. I also
like that it is something that they can do on their own so that this could be a good choice for them to do as extension activites
or free time activities. I think this looks like it would be useful for the entire school and at least from the information
I found tonight it is a free resource. However, before I suggest it to administration, I would like to know more about it and be
able to provide feedback to my colleagues about what I liked and did not like. Our district is going through many changes,
particularly in the area of technology. I have been told that we are going to be moving to the use of Chromebooks in the future
so the kids will be exposed to more technology in the classroom. Even prior to this, our department has been discussing
this topic because we know we will be asked to provide more instruction on digital skills, etc. that the students need.
This particular module has so many wonderful pieces of information and resources to learn from. The topics I studied last
year made a great impact on my lessons but more importantly it had a great impact on my students. I have seen a lot
of growth and use of better choices when I have the students in the lab working on digital projects. I am really looking
forward to incorporating the new resources I have just learned about into next years curriculum.
about keeping them safe online as well as teaching them to be responsible digital citizens. As I have mentioned in
earlier posts, I have worked with grades 3-5 for the past four years but due to the closing of my school I will be
teaching K-5 next year. I am very excited to begin this new journey but would like to make sure I am prepared for
the new challenge. Prior to exploring this "thing" last year, I had relied on Netsmartz videos and BrainPoP for my
digital citizenship lessons. As much as I enjoyed these resources I felt there had to be something more to use
because some of the kids were still making poor online choices. I was introduced to the Common Sense Media
website at a regional librarian's conference a few years ago but only thought you could do the digital passport and
due to the limited amount of lab time I could get it did not seem like a workable solution. However, last year I
learned through this course that there were other lessons that could be used in the library to teach the kids about
digital safety and digital citizenship. This past fall I began using a couple of their lessons for grades 3-5. The first
of which was the Rings of Responsibility. I loved this lesson and had the kids brainstorm things that they do
(positive and negative) as an individual, group (class) and community and what the impact to others would be. I
had some terrific discussions with the students and was very pleased at how many kids were thinking of positive
ways to give back to the community (here they went a little away from the idea of digital issues but I felt it was
great to have them see how this could apply to the other areas of their lives). At the beginning I tried to use all
of the worksheets but ended up eliminating some because they ended up being a little too confusing for the kids.
Next year I will either eliminate them altogether or adapt them into a format the my students are more familiar
with. I was very surprised that this also became a terrific behavior management tool because we talked
about how the class or a group of students can be impacted if you choose to make a really bad choice in class. One
of the favorites was showing the impact of not washing your hands when you are sick. The class will be impacted
because some of them may get sick because they touched something the infected person touched and then this
can spread beyond the classroom to the rest of the school community so that other students and teachers are
getting sick. It really hit home with so many of the kids - I even had a teacher come up and ask me what the Rings
of Responibility were because several of her students were talking about it in her classroom.
The other lesson I did collaboratively with the school psychologist was the Group Thinking - this lesson dealt more
with the issue of bullying - both cyber and noncyber. I did like this lesson as well because they used a scenario of a
child hosting a party where his best friend goes online to his social media account to spread the news of who he has
a crush on. The boy is upset because he had told it in confidence to his best friend and now the girl found out. The friend
continues doing this type of thing and ends up getting the whole school involved. This opened up so many wonderful
discussions about friendships, sharing personal information such as passwords. This made the kids really think about
how something as simple as sharing their password with their best friend could cause a lot of problems for themself
and others whom they may not even really know. I was surprised at how many of the kids originally didn't see a problem
with sharing their password because it was their best friend but had a problem with a parent knowing it. So many
great discussions were had with this one and it was great to see the kids self reflect on how they would react to these
situations - would they be a bystander or an upstander.
With that being said, I will be using these next year as well but will also try to add some new ones in as well from Common
Sense Media. I started exploring the K-2 lessons and was excited to see the offerings and how they created them for the
younger students to tie them into their digital world and personal world. For instance, the first lesson deals with Going Places
Safely - this can easily be included in discussions about personal safety in the real world as well. I am very excited to
explore this in more depth this summer and perhaps do some of the PD offered through the site.
I also explored the article about the 8 digital skills we must teach our children. As we all know this is becoming more important
every year as the kids become more and more technologically saavy. However, as much as they find using technology
easy to use/learn the big question becomes are they using it correctly and safely. I really want to explore more ways to teach
children how to do just that. I thought the colorful pie chart on digital intelligence was terrific and really broke
this concept down to a level that all can understand. I will be sharing this with my teachers, administrators and colleagues
because I think it it really important for all educators to realize that this has to be included into the education of our
children. Just to note a few that I found intriguing, Digital Identity, Digital Use and Digital Literacy. Digital identity is so
very important - the kids are so comfortable in the online world that many do not realize they are making bad choices
nor do they realize how their bad choices can negitively impact their future. Digital use is also important as we see kids
that can not balance life online and off. On a physical level they are gaining more weight because they are not as active as
previous generations. I myself have seen a decline in their attention span and disinterest in anything that is not "fun".
All of the areas on the pie chart are relevant to today's society and it needs to be integrated into our educational framework.
The other resource I explored was DQWorld.net. I was very excited about this site and want to dig in deeper this summer.
I am thinking of perhaps using it with a few classes at first to "test" it out and learn more about the program. I like the idea
of it being like a game that will engage students in an environment that they like yet provide them with knowledge. I also
like that it is something that they can do on their own so that this could be a good choice for them to do as extension activites
or free time activities. I think this looks like it would be useful for the entire school and at least from the information
I found tonight it is a free resource. However, before I suggest it to administration, I would like to know more about it and be
able to provide feedback to my colleagues about what I liked and did not like. Our district is going through many changes,
particularly in the area of technology. I have been told that we are going to be moving to the use of Chromebooks in the future
so the kids will be exposed to more technology in the classroom. Even prior to this, our department has been discussing
this topic because we know we will be asked to provide more instruction on digital skills, etc. that the students need.
This particular module has so many wonderful pieces of information and resources to learn from. The topics I studied last
year made a great impact on my lessons but more importantly it had a great impact on my students. I have seen a lot
of growth and use of better choices when I have the students in the lab working on digital projects. I am really looking
forward to incorporating the new resources I have just learned about into next years curriculum.
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