Internet Safety
In my opinion, introducing the concept of digital citizenship should begin as early as Kindergarten. If a child is using a type of technology, he or she needs to be familiar with the dos and don’ts of what the applications and services they are using. Because of the vast number of topics related to digital citizenship, I think a great strategy would be to begin adding some technology vocabulary words on a weekly basis. Elementary teachers could do this easily; beginning in kindergarten, teachers could simply add one vocabulary word to their vocabulary lists each week; of course, the words should be developmentally appropriate. This would cause a strong foundation of programs, software, and Internet-use prior to heading to middle school. Another strategy that would be great (in all grade levels, K-12) is to enforce children, along with their parents, to sign some sort of digital contract outlining their responsibilities and expectations of digital uses. This type of strategy could also promote parents to be more strict and aware while in their home setting as well. One resource I found to have many resources, including sample digital contracts, is http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/. The site includes safety concepts through nine different elements including: digital access, digital commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness, and digital security also referred to as self-protection. This website also has examples of lesson plans to teach Internet safety, hot topics in technology today, and journal articles about technology and safety. Another strategy to disseminate information and raise awareness would be to include information on weekly newsletters, such as one fact a week. Posting rules and expectations in one’s classroom should also be the new norm for all teachers, including all subjects and grade levels. If students cannot visually see what is expected of them, some may tend to forget (out of sight, out of mind).
At the school where I work, the instructional assistant in our computer lab just received her Digital Citizenship Certification from Common Sense Media. Her awesome feat encouraged me to learn more about becoming certified as well. Anyone can become certified by following the guidelines for certification on the website, which increases attentiveness about Internet safety and cyberbullying through a group of lessons ready to teach. An educator, school, and district can become certified; this type of endorsement can only be a positive approach in getting this type of pertinent information out to students. More information about becoming certified can be found at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/.
A great website I found for teachers, parents, and kids can be found at http://www.digizen.org/. This resource originally caught my attention because of its name, Digizen (which I obviously thought was cute). The website then gained my respect and interest by having information for all three parties, teachers, parents, and students. Each group has its own website with resources specific and dedicated to its audience, which I felt was appropriate in approach. This would be a great tool to share with parents to help increase their awareness as well. The website also recognized an Internet Safety Day to dedicate time and efforts in getting the information out as well.
Tools of the Future
With all of that said, I decided to try Cartoon.Pho.to this week. Because my lap top and desk top are the only two computers in the school with access to Photoshop, I’m always looking for other photo editing tools to use with my students. This cartoon site is great and so easy! As far as using it in my classroom, I think it would be great with story writing. Once a child writes a story, he/she could choose to take pictures and turn them into a cartoon. Students could make books, animated cartoons, or comic strips (adding speech bubbles and dialogue). The piece would be great to go on a menu, allowing choice to take place for a project. Diverse learning needs could definitely be met through using this tool, as some students respond to visual projects much more openly than ones that are only written. This tool is definitely a great tool to differentiate based on product, choice, or interests, and it can be used with any grade level or subject area. I did find that when you use the cartoon effect with people, it seems to lose a lot of details; I would recommend using Cartoon.Pho.to to edit pictures without a lot of detail. I have included some examples below. Because Photoshop does have more options, you can decide how much you want to “cartoon” someone; therefore, you can control what the characters look like. With Cartoon.Pho.to, you can’t control the photo once it has turned into a cartoon. I hope the pictures below show the difference, but I still think Cartoon.Pho.to will be an easy and effective tool you can use in the classroom. With the Photoshop picture, I showed some options one could add for a comic strip. You could also do this through Paint after the picture has completed the cartoon process.
Both challenges and noted advantages in Web 2.0 are expected. I think the main one that we may all face would be if the Internet goes out and we lose access. To alleviate this problem, I think purchasing some sort of hot spot available for school systems would be a great idea. In addition, technology isn’t perfect; we cannot expect it to be. If you learn how to use each of the tools in your classroom well, then most of the challenges that come up are ones we can eliminate. In the future, I do believe school systems will be forced to create more technology positions that will not only help troubleshoot problems that may arise, but also to teach professional development to other teachers about the use of different tools and devices as well as how to implement them seamlessly in the classroom setting. More personnel in this area would be an advantage for teachers, and more knowledge in this area would be beneficial to students in general. All in all, I think the best and most important advantage our students will have in learning how to use Web 2.0 tools is the preparation it’s giving them for their future. They need to be prepared completely when entering the world as independents, and the more time they spend learning how to use the variety of tools available to them will help them in a variety of ways. I remember a time when knowing how to use technology made you stand out; for today’s generation, knowing how to use technology simply makes you just like everyone else.