Let me begin by saying how wonderful, amazing, and exciting it is to know that we will be in our new building November 1, 2012, only nearly 3 months past the original date. Even though we have had to endure so many stressful elements, our patience has finally paid off. We will be fully enmeshed in our new building on Friday, November 2, 2012 for our first full day of classes and a brand new beginning in the middle of the year. With freshly painted walls, we will have a fresh start.
That being said, this week has to be finished first. As we continue our delving into the complexities of digital citizenship, we are now looking into how companies can track our online activity and target specific ads and searches based on our demographic information and digital history. Although this concept may be disturbing because it feels like an invasion of privacy, getting individualized results does not have to be a negative thing. Having limited search results only becomes disconcerting when you consider all of the information that is hidden from you. What things are you missing out on because your results are "individualized" based on the tracking by companies and search engines?
How can you stop companies from collecting too much of your information? I'm glad you asked. My students used Mixbook to create a brochure of advice on how to keep companies from tracking your information through cookies and then targeting you based on your demographics. A basic example is located above that I created to model for my students. Notice that my students continue to cite their photos using (Description, URL, Date) formatting as I have mentioned in a previous post.
The information I used for this lesson was developed by a wonderful resource: Common Sense Media. This website is a truly phenomenal resource for teaching digital citizenship. There are resources available for all grade levels, educators, and parents. I truly recommend this for teaching 21st century digital literacy.
Summarily, this has been an eventful week as the week of Halloween always is. My thoughts are with those who have been affected by the superstorm Sandy.
What a busy week. From website evaluation to creating mindmaps, Intro to Publications has been busy.
Initially, IRIS: (Information and Research Instruction Suite for two year colleges) provided the information that I used for my students to discuss website evaluation. My students really enjoyed looking at fake websites and trying to identify if the sites were real or not. We discussed that knowing whether or not the information was true is extremely important academically and professionally.
My favorite website to use for evaluation is GenPets. It is a great site that can be confusing if students don't look for the information that states the website it the product of an artist.
Our Web 2.0 tool this week is MindMeister. For some people, creating concept maps is a helpful tool. A lot of templates showed Mind Meister to be a great tool for organizing websites, projects, and to-do lists. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of concept maps; I have never been able to really utilize them personally. Hopefully, someone will find this tool useful for many other aspects.
Students are continuing to use Michael Clay Thompson's Magic Lens as a basic structure for grammar instruction. I am wanting to develop a consistent level of knowledge among our freshmen so that English 9 will be less about catching-up and more about implementation. Here's a snapshot of our student work.
I am optimistic that creating a baseline of information will benefit our students when discussing writing.
Additionally, this week we integrated the fabulous Digital Driver's License website. I am using this as an extension tool for our digital literacy curriculum. DDL is an interactive website that uses multimedia to discuss many digital citizenship topics, and I recommend it to anyone concerned about digital literacy.
Finally, I have decided to really incorporate more editing procedures with our blog writing. Although many students have great ideas and want to discuss them, it is difficult for readers to understand with the errors that go unnoticed.
As a rule, students have to have a partner read their work and point out any inconsistencies. Students then have to read their work out loud to themselves so that they can hear any problems before publishing. I'm hoping this focus on revision will encourage students to read their work and think about what they write rather than considering the first draft a publishable version.
I also created three basic outlines to help students reorganize their blog posts this week. Many had difficulties transitioning from a journal style to a more formal format.
Beyond the academics, classes are going extremely well. Students appear engaged and excited to learn new technology. I only wish that my own college classes were as different.
Currently, Intro to Publications has discussed a lot of new perspectives on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Many students feel that a lot of the ideas we discussed are common sense. Unfortunately, not a lot of people practice common sense.
We agreed that a good digital citizen:
Respects others' privacy online
Respects others' creative work by citing or asking permission
Respects the diversity of others' online
Is honest in his/her expression of identity
Acts in a safe and mature manner
7 Principals Online Learning. Available at: FlickrCC. March 18, 2011.
Being a good digital citizen is just like being a good citizen in our communities. We follow ethics in day-to-day physical interactions that should reflect in our digital relationships. In order to show our beliefs in the defining characteristics of a digital citizen, we created music videos using Animoto.
Animoto is a free Web 2.0 resource that creates music videos using photos; either from the website or from outside sources. This nifty tool is a great resource to creatively showcase concepts visually. Students were required to create a video at least 1 minute long answering the question: What makes a good digital citizen?
Here is my example I used to model for my students.
Knowing how to be safe and respectful online is an extremely important tool for students to use in all aspects of life. The ethical rules for online interactions are the same when applied to face-to-face communication. I am hopeful that these guidelines will permeate various aspects of students' lives.
Furthermore, students practiced at finding a current event that relates to technology. There were many interesting posts this week; I definitely learned some new things. As a good practitioner, I also posted a current event article as a model for my students. I believe that models of good writing are important for our students. Without good examples, how can anyone learn what to emulate?
I am encouraged by the writing skills I see every week from my students. Although these students are freshmen, their writing has far exceeded many previous classes at this point in the school year. I am jubilant at where I see these students' skills are heading. It's going to be a good year.
