Digital Citizenship

Mystery Skype

One of my Masters program professors asked a few colleagues and me to take part in the professional development she was leading for some middle school teachers. She is a technology coach in another school district and wanted her teachers to experience a Mystery Skype so they would understand the value of this type of digital communication for their students. Above is a photo of some colleagues and me participating in a Mystery Skype session with teachers in La Habra. The teachers were focusing on geography, asking us yes and no questions to guess our exact location. They were using Google Maps to focus their questions. The purpose of the Mystery Skype was so teachers could see it in action and discuss how to apply this strategy in their middle school classrooms.

This artifact shows that I am working toward meeting ISTE Standard 5.c: Model and promote diversity, cultural understanding, and global awareness by using digital age communication and collaboration tools to interact locally and globally with students, peers, parents, and the larger community. By participating in this Mystery Skype activity, I helped teachers in another school district see how they can use digital age communication tools to interact with their peers and others in their community. After the Mystery Skype, my colleagues and I discussed how we can use this strategy with students at our schools to promote local and global communication. We also discussed how Mystery Skype can be used in other subjects to help students think more critically about content. I will be planning ways to have students communicate with other students in Anaheim, California, the United States, and in the world. Once I facilitate digital age communication such as the Mystery Skype with students, teachers, and parents in multiple locations, then I will feel I have met the performance indicators for Standard 5.c.

Digital Citizenship Board

I created a Pinterest board for other Digital Learning Coaches (DLCs) and me to collect resources on digital citizenship. I began this collaborative board at the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year during a meeting with all of the DLCs. We discovered that all of us had the same need for resources to use with K-6 students to teach digital citizenship. We also agreed on the need to provide teachers with digital citizenship resources. I created this collaborative Pinterest board as a way for us DLCs to curate digital citizenship resources. This is the first year that our school district has had a clear technology focus with defined goals. Knowing that ACSD students will have access to more technology, there is an increased importance in teaching digital citizenship to students and providing resources to teachers.

Click the image above to see the collaborative Pinterest board I started.

This artifact shows how I am working toward meeting the performance indicators for ISTE Standard 5.b: Model and facilitate safe, healthy, legal, and ethical uses of digital information and technologies. Most teachers at my school sites do not teach digital citizenship to their students. When I have asked teachers why they haven't explicitly taught digital citizenship, the majority of teachers said they didn't know how to teach it or where to find resources. I have made this Pinterest board accessible to all of the teachers at my schools. The DLCs and I continue to add resources to this board. We use the resources during demo lessons and to embed into presentations. I am facilitating the distribution of digital citizenship resources to teachers so they know how to teach safe, healthy, legal, and ethical uses of technologies. Once I have modeled digital citizenship lessons in all classrooms and to all teachers at both schools, then I will have met all the performance indicators of Standard 5.b.

Evaluating Websites

I created a presentation with a colleague to inform teachers, parents, and students about evaluating educational websites. It teaches the audience how to critique a website to determine its credibility and to make sure the information is valid and appropriate for children. The presentation includes links to website evaluation resources for teachers and parents, a WebQuest for children to participate in, and lesson plans for teaching students how to effectively evaluate websites.

Click the above image to view the entire presentation.

This artifact demonstrates my competency in meeting ISTE Standard 5.a: Model and promote strategies for achieving equitable access to digital tools and resources and tehnology-related best practices for all students and teachers. I have shared this presentation with teachers and students, and have encouraged teachers to share my resources with parents. I am using this presentation to model and promote technology-related best practices when using websites for educational purposes. As I have taught these lessons to students, I have found that most classes have spent little to no time in teaching how to evaluate websites. This knowledge is especially important for students as they perform most of their research online. This information is valuable for teachers so they can more informatively lead their students in researching on the Web. It is helping to promote digital literacy in teachers, students, and parents.

Technology Coaches model and promote digital citizenship.