Saturday, August 8, 2009

Thing #11

I have a big concern about teaching digital citizenship to our students. Students can learn and create easily using Web 2.0 tools for a real-world and varied audience. With that "power" comes a responsibility, one for the student and the teacher as well. We need to make sure that our students know how to find and verify accurate resources, how to be a responsible author and collaborator by responding fairly and interacting with all people respectfully, and how to stay safe by not divulging too much information about self and peers.

All of this takes time and knowledge that teachers are just learning themselves. Most of us haven't participated in a global community and yet we need to help our students do so. Do we have the tools ourselves?

I think teaching digital citizenship will take more than a lesson or two. I plan to take the district AUP and tie some mini-lessons to the bullet statements. Then, I think I will use a variety of resources to illustrate the different points and encourage discussion among the students so we will have a common language and vision for what each looks like.

There are a number of resources available, but we need to help find the time and organize the resources for our teachers.

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