I appreciate all the resources we've examined on digital citizenship this week in my Leadership and Technology class. They have me really examining my current practice and contemplating future goals. When reflecting on current practice, I've felt very negative. Changing jobs has changed my role and what I'm required to teach. This has left me unsure about how to address digital citizenship for my students. The little that I have done seems to be in a vacuum. It's not because I'm fighting a culture of fear and a list of don'ts, but more that there just isn't a conversation happening. But I'm not feeling completely negative because I am inspired by the participatory digital citizenship model discussed by Dr. Mattson and reinforced by so many other resources. I think it's exactly what I am looking to dive into for the future.
I've been inspired by other's around the state that use social media and technology to empower their students as learners and global citizens. I'm looking to them to help guide me in my goal to change my practice to include more #digcit in my instruction. I really want to create a safe "walled garden" for students to get their hands dirty with participating in a digital community. Students need to practice these skills if we expect them to be able to transfer them to "real life."
There will be some hurdles though. And although I want to stay positive, I need to address these before I can be as successful. As stated by Richard Culatta in his keynote to ISTE 18, these skills need to be taught within context. Teaching these lessons in my library class is all good and well but they lose their effectiveness if not tied to something that my students will be expected to do in their classroom. I have similar issues with the AASL library standards. These are great inquiry and personal growth standards that would support classroom teachers and make their students better researchers, critical thinkers, and citizens. But again, they work best when taught in context.
My plan for the future: approach a team of teachers who are friendly to these ideas. I'm going to talk to my 3rd grade team to see how I can support them with these standards and skills. I will look at the current curriculum and see where we can add these lessons in. Since classroom teachers already have a lot on their plate, I will teach these lessons in my library class at the appropriate time with the expectations, follow up, and assessment of the standards done through their classroom work. If I can be successful with one group of teachers, they I can move forward with other groups so that we have a more well defined plan throughout the school. Baby steps!
I've been inspired by other's around the state that use social media and technology to empower their students as learners and global citizens. I'm looking to them to help guide me in my goal to change my practice to include more #digcit in my instruction. I really want to create a safe "walled garden" for students to get their hands dirty with participating in a digital community. Students need to practice these skills if we expect them to be able to transfer them to "real life." There will be some hurdles though. And although I want to stay positive, I need to address these before I can be as successful. As stated by Richard Culatta in his keynote to ISTE 18, these skills need to be taught within context. Teaching these lessons in my library class is all good and well but they lose their effectiveness if not tied to something that my students will be expected to do in their classroom. I have similar issues with the AASL library standards. These are great inquiry and personal growth standards that would support classroom teachers and make their students better researchers, critical thinkers, and citizens. But again, they work best when taught in context.
My plan for the future: approach a team of teachers who are friendly to these ideas. I'm going to talk to my 3rd grade team to see how I can support them with these standards and skills. I will look at the current curriculum and see where we can add these lessons in. Since classroom teachers already have a lot on their plate, I will teach these lessons in my library class at the appropriate time with the expectations, follow up, and assessment of the standards done through their classroom work. If I can be successful with one group of teachers, they I can move forward with other groups so that we have a more well defined plan throughout the school. Baby steps!
It is so hard to get teachers on board with us librarians! I totally see where you're coming from.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I like VoiceThread is that it provides a walled garden that is not exclusively video. Having choices like Text, audio, video increase student voice and when used to have conversations, tools like Voicethread can give students practice that you are talking about.
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