Sunday, August 8, 2010

Tool 11: Digital Citizenship

This was a very important tool. We cannot continue to teach our students of today as we did yesterday. Their world is not the same as it once was and we have to teach them how to good citizens in today's world. Just like it shocks me to hear someone say to me "I don't text" teachers can no longer choose to simply put students on a computer with a CD Rom and say they are teaching technology. Here are some important lessons that teachers need to teach all students:

1. We have always taught children not to talk to strangers. Now we must do the same with the Internet and it must start in PK. We must teach children about keeping information private and how to protect themselves from early ages.
2. We have always taught children to be nice to each other and that words hurt. Cyberbullying and netiquette are equally as important if not more important when you think about how many more electronic transmissions occur between children today. Additionally, when something is in writing and a person cannot see body language or hear intonation it is much easier for someone to misinterpret someones message.
3. We encourage children to try new things. Some children may come in more technologically savvy then we are and other may be reluctant (as some of us may be). We must encourage them to try new things with technology and experiment. None of us can afford to be left behind and technology is changing rapidly and opens up the world to all of us.

We are living in exciting times and must throw out our old ways of teaching and teach our students using the technology of today...and tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment