World (Wide Web) Peace!

In a world that is increasingly relying on technology for our day to day lives and now even our day-to-day work lives, I would say learners have many strengths but also struggles with element three, Digital Communication and Collaboration. Learners are excellent in using technology to decide how to organize their thoughts with their group. I have witnessed and been apart of multiple groups that can easily divide up the work they are assigned on a google doc where everyone can edit their own as well as other’s work. Learners can then share their thoughts in a common space and be free to share knowledge in a digital small group without having to worry about speaking in public since they can take time to articulate their thoughts in the document.

The struggles learners have is accountability in this area. Learners will tend to not be as motivated to contribute if they are not in their small group face to face. Some learners will wait until the last second to hand something in because they never are never feeling the same pressure as they would if they had to go into class and talk face to face with their group.

Another element that learners have many strengths as well as weaknesses in can be found in element 4, Digital Etiquette. Children are the first generation of learners to have this level of technology in their learning. Therefore, they also have the largest responsibility in their use of the technology. Learners have strength in learning how to behave online rather than finding out the hard way. I have seen many students find strength in positivity on social media as well as being supportive in the group chats in class when we are having a group discussion.

The underlying weakness is when students make mistakes by not thinking how their comments can hurt others when they are in group chats for school. Some students do not realize the power of phrasing their feedback or criticism without coming of as condescending or simply abrupt. A connection with another element is how cyberbullying can wreak havoc on students’ lives as they do not realize the power their words can have on another learner.

The next element that learners find strength in is element 5, Digital Fluency. This is arguably the most important element because of the toll it is taking on learners of all ages. Some learners are very strong at being able to scour the web to find sites that end in .org, .edu, or .gov. They are good at realizing there is endless information on any topic, and they can look for it in many ways such as google or a school library website that has access to digital books and other publishing.

A weakness is when learners rely on social media to get their news. Many sites will post a headline without context and the comment section is people arguing over the topic simply based on the headline. When learners are taking headlines at face value, they are subjecting themselves to falling for out of context narratives and simply fake news.

Digital Health and Welfare is the next element that learners have found ways to benefit from but also struggle with. Learners have found great strength in using technology to assist their needs but also knowing when to take a break from devices and work on a writing assignment rather than typing it. Teachers have also found a way to balance out the screen time by listening to administration as well as parents who have a say in how much time students should be spending on the screen.

The weakness in this area is when students become too reliant on their screen to provide things for them. Whether it be entertainment or educational purposes, it can be a dangerous slope for educators and parents to set the kids up like this. When parents provide most of their children’s entertainment through devices like video games and iPads, then the child will only want to play with those when given free time. When an educator assigns only online assignments, then students may be spending too much time with their device in school.

A very important element is the Digital Law element. A strength that students find in this is being able to see how their words matter and can hurt someone. Enough incidents have happened with cyberbullying in that learners have seen the power of words online and now understand the gravity their words possess. However, this also leads to the weakness of students wanting to use social media to hurt someone. They feel like it can be an impactful way to hurt someone who they feel wronged them, or they simply do not like. Cyberbullying rules have been set in place far more now than ever, the only question is whether students are going to learn from those laws to make the online world a better place.

A final example is the element of Digital Security and Privacy. Students’ strength lies in being able to inform adults who are not as technology savvy as they are. Many older learners will click on phishing scams, but younger learners are better adapted to assess if they recognize the sender as well as their friends being a quick text away to ask if they are receiving the same scam.

A weakness is when students are going on social media and revealing too many details about their lives. They might assume only their friends are looking at their social media, but the things they post can be used against them. Many students have no problem posting their house or personal information like birthdays of them or loved ones online which can lead to online attacks on their identity or property.

Based on my role as an educator, I have a responsibility to engage stakeholders on the issues of digital citizenship. My strategy would be to hold an event at our back-to-school night when most parents are in the building. We would host it in the gym and have parents sit in the crowd with their kids. I would start off with the first element of Digital Access and move through each element in a slideshow. Each section would focus on teaching parents how each area of digital citizenship relates to their lives as well as what the students are dealing with in their lives. This would show that these issues are going to last forever and not fade away as the students get older. I feel like this would increase the level of importance for the adults as well as the students.

For example, I would be on the Digital Communication and Collaboration section and highlight issues that students as well as adults face. I would talk about how adults use this every day in their work environment. They send emails and communicate through technology in a professional environment more than they realize. I would then transition into how students are learning these same skills at a much younger age. We are teaching students to be digital citizens at a young age so they can learn these skills early on and come into the workplace as professionals. Students respond to feedback and messages through Schoology, communicate with other students via group posts and google docs. Students are essentially using the same technology their parents use; therefore, we are teaching them to become well adjusted digital citizens as they grow.

For my lesson review, I have chosen then fifth grade lesson, Reading News Online (commonsense.org). This lesson falls under the elements of Digital Fluency first and foremost. It deals with Digital Fluency first because the lesson teaches students about the value of choosing your resources wisely when it comes to reading the news. Students are taught what elements to look out for such as URL, images, types of sponsors, and many other elements that go into determining the news site’s integrity.

I would also add the element of Digital Rights and Responsibility as being apart of this lesson. This lesson teaches students about how to determine the value of a news site when reading the news. Therefore, this lesson is teaching students to become more responsible digital citizens that only share valuable articles. When students are taught to vet their sources, they are becoming better digital citizens as they are making the internet a safer, more reliable place.

The lesson starts off with students conversing with the rest of the class as they discuss the sources they go to when they are looking for news updates. Students then are asked to discuss what makes their sources worthy of being looked at for the latest news. Finally, students are asked to look at an article and dissect its elements and what they would change about it. The lesson transitions into students doing a mixing and matching activity about the elements of a news site such as URL, dates posted, and related articles posted. After students match up the cards, the class goes over the answers and discusses each part of the site that the matching activity included. Students are then given the assessment where they label each part of a news site by cutting and pasting the definitions.

This lesson has multiple strengths and a few weaknesses. A strength is found in the background knowledge of the students. Students of all ages can relate to this lesson because almost all students in modern classrooms have a device of some sort, being a tablet, phone or computer where they can explore websites. Students will be able to easily use their background knowledge to connect and build off of in this lesson.

Another strength in this lesson is how students will find use in it throughout their lives. One of the biggest things we learn as teachers is to make our lessons relevant for students to use in their lives. Students will see the value in this lesson because it affects their lives, and they will be able to use this knowledge as they grow.

A weakness I find in this lesson is a lack of applying the knowledge students are attempting to learn. The lesson does not actually have students exploring a site on their own but rather just some generic ones on a paper. Students would benefit from exploring a real-life site of their choosing and it would keep them engaged to be able to choose their own site.