Presentations on Digital Citizenship
Great work to our 4 presenters last week. My takeaways were:
1) Leigh (check out her awesome blog! Video is top left) I really liked the line: "schools need to stop blocking everything because you can't keep it all out and teachers lose teachable moments as a result". This is a divine line. Certainly, one of the worst things we can do it just block everything, as it robs teachers and students of the chance to experiment with these tools in a safe setting. Making social media impossible to access at school doesn't actually stop anyone from accessing it (many students at my school finds ways around the filters, or simply just use their cell phone data). Blocking means that teachers have trouble using it reliably in class to teach. What a mistake. 2) Victoria (check out her awesome blog! Video is top right) Best line: "By restricting student access to social media we fail to actually teach students anything about being digital citizens"... this couldn't be more true. Very similar to my favourite line from Leigh's video. It'd be like teaching how to drive without ever driving a vehicle. 3) Matt and Trevor (check out their blogs here and here respectively. Video is bottom) What did I enjoy most about their video? I really liked the idea of using social media to examine how science misconceptions spread online... that's a great exercise and highly relevant today, and would be relevant anytime! Big shout out to our presenters, who did such a great job! Thanks for facilitating the conversation.
How Should We Introduce Social Media to Students Nowadays?
You know, I guess I sort of got lucky. Social media wasn't a thing yet while I was in my "crazy" years during high school and university... I say "crazy", because I may have been more inclined to post things online that may have not reflected well on me in the future. By the time blogging and social media were just becoming a thing, it was maybe a year or two before my education degree, and I was a bit more mature. Enough to understand that whatever you post online is there forever.
Thinking of this, I really think schools can provide an invaluable service in teaching students how to be digital citizens. I do think it's an integral part of school. Many parents need help in this area, and probably always will need help. If you click the image below, it'll take you to a few great resources from ISTE on how to approach social media and technology based on the age of your child.
Another great resource I shared last week with my group was Google's How To Be Internet Awesome, which is a great game-based way of teaching students and kids about being safe online. A lot of topics are covered. I wish in my past, I had this... but I was also lucky enough that by the time I needed it, I was more than capable of finding the information for myself (being an adult). Kids nowadays don't have this luxury.
Moving Forward
Moving forward, I'd like to continue to inspire my students via social media if possible, and model for them appropriate uses of such. I have a few unique opportunities to do this (and, if I can finally manage to interview my colleague, Tyler Letkeman next week, I'll be able to share what he has been doing with social media in his classroom).
The ways I can model digital citizenship and "good" use of social media for my students includes: 1) My use of YouTube for instructional classroom videos 2) Use of social media for the Massey Robotics Club 3) In general, I chat with my students all the time and surf the web with them, and we have very informal talks about what is out there right now on on the internet. Although these chats don't seem like much, they do seem to engage students very much as we talk about the weeks/days happenings and what we think about them on the internet and social media. I don't think teachers can get away with not having some sort of online presence nowadays... you have to practice the craft if you are going to teach about it effectively.
I think that teachers must model the use of social media for students... this'll be the greatest way of helping them understand how to use it. Of course, I don't think EVERY teacher needs to do this... it's easy enough to just go look up people who use social media wisely and just show that to students... but I am coming to sort of expect teachers to have some sort of online presence... you have to practice the craft if you are going to teach about it, after all.
Till next time my techy friends... stay curious, Matteo
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AuthorMy name is Matteo Di Muro, the original Prairie Boy, and I've been teaching since I was 14. I currently teach mathematics and computer science in Brandon. I try to keep on learning things, and I'm getting onboard with sharing with others, hence this site! Archives
March 2020
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