Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Track 2: Thing 15 Digital Tattoo & Digital Citezenship

The timing of this track couldn't have been more timely. I just attended to NY SS Conference in Syracuse and there was a great deal of emphasis on "news sources" and teaching students how to critically analyze information that is being presented to them in a variety of media formats by a variety of "authors". It made me realize that although I touch on this topic within many of the cross-curricular units I do with classroom teachers, I feel that I need to spend a week or even a 2 week unit on this with my upper levels. I feel that this track was perfect for wrapping my head around what I would like to design and what information and resources I feel are appropriate for my 5th & 6th graders.

I started off by reading Vicki Davis's article on "What your Students Really Need to Know about Digital Citizenship". She provided "9 Key Ps" of digital citizenship. I thought that these were nice building blocks for starting a unit myself, but I wanted to more practical tools and lesson ideas that I could use with the younger kids to teach of these "key P's". That is when I decided to look at "A Great Guide on Teaching Students About Digital Footprint". I loved how this article really laid out how you might introduce the topic and continue on with different key lessons and ideas. Although I might not use each of the videos and ideas, the article definitely provided me with the framework I was looking for to begin designing a two week lesson. I really want to have a powerful impact on my students. I want this to be eye-opening for them. So, instead of starting with the Common Sense Media clip on digital citizenship, I would start by using the youtube clip with the "Amazing Mind Reader". I feel that would create more of a shock factor for them. I would have students view this video first, as if they were close reading. Then I would have them watch it again this time I would have them annotate it with Videoant (Click this link to get the one I created to use with my class https://ant2.cehd.umn.edu/qebqvqsogs).  I would ask them to record their thoughts and questions that they have when they are watching. 

I also would want to start the unit with a question that would get them thinking about their digital footprint and then get them to see that it is way bigger than they think. I think I would use either of these questions to start the unit (before showing any videos): "If we were to look you up online what would we learn about you?" or "Is there anything online that you wouldn't want your teacher or parent to know about you ?", both of which were mentioned in "A Great Guide to Teaching Students about Digital Footprint". Then I would use the next suggested video, Youth and Media- Digital Dossier
which helps students understand that their digital footprint started when they were in their mothers womb and continues to grow throughout their life.

After giving them a background on digital footprints I would pull from the framework within the article and get them to discover their own digital footprint next. I like how in the article it suggested doing a basic Google Search first, but also listed the option of using Pipl, which I felt was very powerful.  I almost wonder if it might be worth starting this lesson by pre-searching some of the students in the class and writing facts about them on the board and tell them that I learned all this information by doing a simple Google Search on them. Then I would have them search themselves. Naturally, this would lead into a discussion on how to protect yourself, your information and your digital footprint. Although the article provided great tips, I feel like I would like to take a day or a lesson to expand on these tips. I would teach them how to change privacy settings, what the impact of posting a photo can have, etc. I don't know if I would go as far as having each students create a fake fb or social media page on their own, but it might be powerful to create one as a class.

Finally in the wrap up of the framework there is a video posted that I think would be very powerful in a high school setting, but not necessarily in an elementary. Jobs are too far in the future for them, I originally thought that I might like to find a video that would directly show the impact of their online behavior on their life today, but when searching for that I came across this video on Living in a Digital World and thought this would be a perfect segway into the conversation of digital citizenship. This topic is crucial to include in my two week unit and I could also see it fitting into the SS units in the younger grades.

After digital citizenship I would move onto digital literacy and use the plethora of resources available on Stony Brooks Digital Resource Center. If you haven't got a chance to check it out, it is amazing.

I am feeling good after exploring all of these resources and I am ready to start collaborating with classroom teachers to see where we might work this into the curriculum. I feel that this is extremely important and that students can't and shouldn't wait until high school to start thinking about it. In my mind HS is too late! Their digital footprint is already well on its way to being established. We need to equip them with the knowledge and tools way before any damage is done.