Em's Ever Evolving Erudition

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 the...

Knowledge is not a destination, it's a journey. In this class, we definitely went through a journey. I learned many things that I can put into my professional practice. One really nice thing about this class was that we learned technology tools by exploring some complex ideas like inquiry based learning and project based learning. This way we didn't learn technology in a vacuum. Overall I would say that my time spent in this class is very useful as I have grown new knowledge and developed many lessons I can put to use in my classroom. Some of the projects that we did this semester really stand out to me as they were poignant in my learning and practice. One such project was when I worked with Holly to develop a presentation on Digital Citizenship. This was really good for me in wrapping my mind around this big topic. There are so many different parts to Digital Citizenship that at first I felt so overwhelmed but working with a partner totally made it manageable. I also rea...

My reaction to Doug Johnson’s article is “easier said than done.” I like many of the points he makes. The internet is a teachable moment with students. The fact is that the internet is a fast growing part of everybody’s life. It is accessible everywhere with the invention of smart phones. Our society is hyper connected. Students are definitely going to be exposed to the dangers of the internet, along with the benefits. It would be a great mistake to not teach appropriate behavior for our digital lives. The internet allows a degree of anonymity that can allow people to act irresponsibly. They believe that their words and actions cannot be assigned to them, giving them a green light to misuse the internet. As the suicide of that girl after the mother cyberbullied her shows, adults are guilty of bad internet behavior. It is of the utmost importance to teach all appropriate behavior. My concern is about policy. To get federal money, schools are required to have filters. This will take...