Reflection on Think Digital

Think Digital through the Seasons    

   

After the AUA’s were signed, and an assembly was held, MacBook Pros went home with the kids at the end of September.  E-mail accounts, with lessons on strong password, were established as well as class YouTube channels and blogs.  For parents, two sessions were held about technology and children, one at Back to School, and one in October sponsored by ES PTA.

It took over 8 weeks to cover “Think Digital”.  Teachers and I are well aware that this is a topic that needs to be discussed throughout the year in class as well as in our team meetings.

Unit Plan:Think Digital

Essential Question: How do I use technology responsibly, respectfully, honestly and safely?

Content UNDERSTAND: My words and actions, both positive and negative, impact others I can protect myself, my online identity, and the identity of others I can make appropriate choices about when and how to use technology I can be respectful of the work and ideas of other’s. KNOW: Good digital citizens communicate respectfully You can protect yourself and your online identity ​You can make appropriate choices with technology ​Online communication can be easily misinterpreted ​How to email ​When (​time of day & how frequently), who (audience), and which tool (email, chat, message, face-to-face) will help me communicate most effectivel ​Strategies to protect online identity ​How to deal with ads, pop-ups, personal information in a form, adult content, hurtful material, downloads ​The difference between consumption and creation Giving credit is a sign of respect for other people’s work​ The consequences of illegal downloading / piracy / file sharing What a healthy balance between online/offline looks like

Skills Compare and contrast online communication with face-to-face communication Identify the components of face-to-face communication that don’t come across in online communication Empathize with those who have received mean and hurtful messages Judge what it means to cross the line from harmless to hurtful communication Write an email containing a subject line indicating the email’s content, has a salutation, includes clear message, end with a closing Proofread and reread by paying attention to tone create secure passwords determine information that is safe to share online When you post something online it becomes public and permanent Know how to deal with ads, pop-ups, personal information in a form, adult content/hurtful, downloads List the different types of tech use (Steve’s slideshow) Monitor type of tech use and time spent on each (Steve’s slideshow) Define plagiarism and describe its consequences Cite for an image Reverse image search in Google to find the most likely originator of an image

Assessment Prior Knowledge Survey Formative: Technology Project Respond to a series of questions t about prior knowledge of AUAs and the behaviors of good digital citizens. Cyber Academy PAL Successfully complete all Carnegie Cadets training missions to:        *recognize and filter spam from good email        *recognize unsafe chatroom behavior       *distinguish the difference between advertising and legitimate content       *manage a cyberbully iMovie Project: Generate practical solutions to digital problems commonly faced by fifth graders. Student Reflection

Strategies / Activities 1.       Word bundle 2.       Survey 3.       Introduce and play Carnegie Cadets (3 lessons) 4.       Bull’s eye chart: Am I being safe online? & CommonCraft video  http://www.commoncraft.com/video/protecting-reputations-online 5.       Slideshow: Using strategies to create a strong password 6.       What do I need to know about email? (2-3 lessons) - see attached document what is appropriate to email? what do I do if I receive an email that feels funny or makes me uncomfortable? what do I do with my strong feelings like when I am angry with someone? what is an email thread? Is it okay to tell someone I like them over email? how often should I email people? what is the difference between an email to my friend and an email to my teacher? emails don’t use text language address, CC, BCC reply, reply all folders attachments dealing with SPAM subject lines, greeting, farewell 7.       Being honest: plagiarism by CommonCraft  http://www.commoncraft.com/video/plagiarism 8.       Trifold document: AUAs 9.       Manage your technology; don’t let your technology manage you 10.       Assessment: iMovie (6 lessons)

iMovie Projects on Digital Citizenship

Grade 5 Team Reflection

Unfortunately, I could not be a part of this meeting on account of a crisis; but here are meeting notes.

• Overall, it was a great unit. Much better start this year than last.
• ​liked the focus on AUAs
• ​liked the time spent on Carnegie
• ​good to focus on being a producer not just a consumer; use it as a device for learning
• parents as partners
• liked having Naho involved in team teaching

Suggestions for next year:

• adjust words in word bundle activity
• share movies between classes
• Be more intentional about assessment next year. Be sure to build in the self reflection at the end of the unit, sharing things they’ve learned and how they feel about technology.

My Reflection

I was pleased with how this unit went over all.  Systematic approach to introducing 1:1 program through Social Studies unit gave us plenty of time to get students ready for this  adventure.  There is absolutely no way to do this right without having it in the curriculum.

I loved co-teaching with the classroom teachers.  The down side was that other teachers and other grades were not seeing me that much at the beginning of the year.  I have over 50 new grade 1 students to get to know, and it is taking a little slower than I would like.

Swim team study hall was a pitfall we didn’t anticipate. With fairly limited supervision, it’s difficult to carefully monitor students’ tech use.  Next year, we will not let the kids use their laptops during that time.

Overall, kids have been really good about including adults when something happens, parents are well aware of what is going on in the classrooms, and there have been no hurtful interactions online — as there were last year.

The process of getting children ready to use technology in learning takes tons of planning and conversation, and I believe that this process is as important as actually using the technology per se.

Thank you Kim for offering COETAIL in Japan. I have grown leaps and bounds as a semi tech savvy counselor.  I will continue integrating technology in my guidance classes.

お世話になりました。

*image from http://office.microsoft.com/ja-jp/images/results.aspx?qu=%E7%B4%85%E8%91%89&ctt=1#ai:MP900400815|mt:0|

Acceptable Use Agreement: New and Improved.

Every year we tweak our Acceptable Use Agreement, last year, to the point that last year we’d lost track of what version we were supposed to be using.  Finally this year we created an Agreement we are pleased with, and can use as a working document in every classroom.  Here it is below. ( I tried for a while to embed issuu to this blog, but couldn’t do it.  Embedding is still a challenge.)

View the pdf

The notion of four central concepts, Responsible, Safe, Honest, and Respectful,  stemmed from COETAIL’s course 2 final project.  The Grade 5 team and I decided on the format (tri-fold, and color),  with copies for home and school.  The following letter went home with the document, with an e-mail to all parents with linking to Digital Life at ASIJ blog.

September 21, 2012

Dear Parents of Fifth Graders,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA) for technology use at ASIJ.

We seek a close partnership with you in guiding your child’s development of digital citizenship, knowing that many students use technology tools as much at home as they do at school. A strong level of dialogue and oversight ensures that expectations are clear and students’ use of technology is appropriate. It is important that the guidelines students learn at school are supported and reinforced by parents at home.

The AUA document attached to this letter is our written set of agreements.  Students have been involved in learning activities to help deepen their understanding of these agreements and how they can make good choices aligned with them. At this stage, we ask that you make time in the next few days to sit down and discuss the AUA with your child, sign it to indicate your agreement and support, and then please have your child return the form to his/her homeroom teacher. 

 Consequences: Student behaviors that are not in keeping with ASIJ’s Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA) may result in restricted use of school provided hardware or other consequences. ASIJ may limit or suspend a student’s access to technology resources or ASIJ’s network if he/she disregards the AUA. Violations will result in loss of technology privileges for an indefinite period of time and possible suspension from school.  Finally, students and their families will be liable for any loss or damage to their school-issued technology device.

Many thanks for your support and please advise us if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Improvements for next year:

The school’s publication office has offered to help us give AUA a more professional look, plus printing on solid paper.  They will also work with us on posters to illustrate each of the four main concepts,  to be displayed all over the school. Also in the works creating an elementary school logo/character, so we can have our own brand. (Thanks to Course 2)   What fun!

P.S.

*Grade 4 will have AUA of its own, emphasizing the use of iPads.

*Grades 1, 2, and 3 AUA will cater language to younger learners.

 

 

Moving on with “Think Digital”

Beginning of September, 2012

For the  first three weeks of school, we met almost every other day for the “Think Digital” unit.  In addition, individual teachers gave students  time to get familiar with MacBook Pros.  Kids had to learn how to use the track pad (for some kids, this was initially quite hard), change their desktop picture, figure out what gadget they wanted, and play with Photo Booth.  So much to learn, so little time. Eventually,  teachers and I realized that we need to go slowly, not overwhelmingly.   Kids were also realizing that we are not going to let them take their machines home right away (like we sort of did last year….)  It felt like we could spend all day teaching kids about digital citizenship and technology, but school involves reading, writing,  math, music, art, P.E, Japanese too……how to fit it all in?

The Carnegie Cyber Academy

Next we introduced the students to The Carnegie Cyber Academy.  Signing in 90 kids took some time, but we got there.  This gave us an opportunity to go over the importance of remembering one’s password.  Students learn about cyber safety by playing this game as a cadet in the academy, and they can earn badges as they complete a task.  It is set up that kids must read everything on the screen in order to complete a task. (Someone clever thought through this.) Kids find it challenging and fun. I highly recommend it for upper elementary school students.

Being Safe Online:

Kids learned what personal information was safe to share online by discussions and the activity below.  Students became aware that certain combinations of information can lead to a precise identification of a person.

This lessons was almost like a review.  What I found out is children seemed to have a pretty good prior knowledge about being safe online.  Perhaps many of them had a conversation about this with their parents.

*image from Yahoo image search.

*Keeping Safe Online picture taken by Ms.Reed

Think Digital, Lesson 2

Survey    

During the second lesson, the students used their laptops for the first time, and were SO excited.

During this lesson students took an online survey.  Here are the questions on the survey, plus results I found particularly interesting.

• Which of the devices do you use?  (Laptop, iPod, iPad, iTouch, cellphone, smartphone, reading devices, and game devices) 32% of the students have an iPhone.  77% have their own game device. 
• How much time do you think you spend doing the following on an average day? (Surfing the internet, watching YouTube video, social networking, Skype, creating media, e-mailing,)  2% spend more than 2 hours a day online.  Most of the students have never created media before.  
• How often have you received a message that was hurtful to yourself or others?  8% had an experience with this.
• How often have you send a message that hurt or embarrassed another person?
• How often have you posted or sent photos you have taken?
• Do you have rules in your family about your technology use? 14% said they don’t have any rules at home!
• How much do you know about determining information that is safe to share online?
• How much do you know about writing clear and respectful emails?
• How much do you know about the differences between ‘face to face’ and online communication?
• How much do you know about the difference between consuming and creating content?  More than half the kids didn’t know the difference.
• How much do you know about creating a healthy balance between online and offline time?  More than half claimed they know how to do this.
• How much do you know about plagiarism and its consequences? Most of the students had no idea what this was.
• How much do you know about citing an image? Most of the students didn’t know about this either.
• What does it mean to use technology responsibly, respectfully, honestly and safely?

In reviewing the survey results with Grade 5 team and administrators, it was clear that many students  are quite tech savvy (very important for us to know who they are) spend tons of time online, and don’t have rules at home about technology use. The survey also confirmed that most children have their own game devices, often more than one, and especially love looking for videos on YouTube.

We are thinking about doing the survey throughout the year to see if their online behavior change, and compare from year to year.  We decided not to share the results with the parents because we were not sure if this will be helpful, or scare them needlessly.

I never got around to it, but it would have been interesting to share the results with the students with an Inforgraphics with the results.  I guess it’s not late to do that…..

*Pen checkmark three boxes image from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/similar.aspx#ai:MP900438680|

Think Digital, Lesson 1

Word Bundle

In order to have a sense of where 5th graders were at with technology vocabulary, our first lesson was designed for the following: students define key technology terms,  group them, and then discuss each term.  The students worked in groups, and wrote their ideas on  chart paper.  Here is an example of one group’s product.

As you can see, they did a pretty accurate job grouping the terms.  In retrospect,  I should have taken a video of their discussions in order to really capture their richness. Kids were engaged,  helped each other clarify meanings, and freely tossed around ideas.  Other than “netiquette” and “upload”, kids were quite knowledgeable of the terms involved.  Not long ago, I did a similar activity with grade 4 students, and the  kids had no idea what basic tech words such as “virus” or “streaming” meant.  Technology language is becoming much more familiar to elementary school students than it used to be.

The list of terms is included in the picture above. I now question if we should add or subtract words from this list.  Any suggestions?

Think Digital, Introduction

2012-2013 School Year:        

We are finally done with 3 years of piloting different devices!  2012-2013 school year is our first time  offering school owned MacBook Pros to every grade 5 student.  To get ready for this exciting opportunity, I’ve worked closely with grade 5 teachers, curriculum facilitator, librarian, technology coach, and administration.  It was truly collaborative, and I hope to capture the process of working together,  and to share with you our new social studies unit titled “Think Digital” and focused on Digital Citizenship.  Most of the lessons have been co-taught with me and the classroom teacher, starting from the first day of school.

Think Digital:

Essential Questions How do I use technology responsibly, respectfully, honestly and safely?

Content UNDERSTAND: My words and actions, both positive and negative, impact others I can protect myself, my online identity, and the identity of others I can make appropriate choices about when and how to use technology I can be respectful of the work and ideas of others KNOW: Good digital citizens communicate respectfully You can protect yourself and your online identity ​You can make appropriate choices with technology ​Online communication can be easily misinterpreted ​How to email ​When (​time of day & how frequently), who (audience), and which tool (email, chat, message, face-to-face) will help me communicate most effectively ​Strategies to protect online identity ​How to deal with ads, pop-ups, personal information in a form, adult content/hurtful, downloads ​The difference between consumption and creation Giving credit is a sign of respect for other people’s work​ The consequences of illegal downloading / piracy / file sharing What a healthy balance between online/offline looks like

Come join me in our technology adventure with 10 and 11 year olds!

Dream Academy

Course 4 Final Project

Daryl Imanishi and I worked together for the final project: Dream Academy.  We were both inspired by Sean’s project.  (I am constantly impressed with fellow COETAILers’ creativity, thoughtfulness, and ideas.  Really, for me, my ideal school would be all of us working at the same place.  Imagine that!)

Initially, when I started thinking about an ideal school, I was thinking about what kind of school I wanted to work at.  That is not the point of this project.  I also wanted to stay way from comparing my current school, and the ideal school.  That didn’t feel right.  Daryl and I also decided not to make a promotional video.  In the end, we thought about what kind of emotional experiences we would like for each student to experience in our ideal school.

Here is the link to the video.

For about 3 days I tried to embed the video, but couldn’t do it.  I googled how to embed slideboom into wordpress.  Followed the instruction there, but I couldn’t download the zip file that was needed.  Daryl sent me links as well as a video tutorial on how to do it.  That didn’t work either.  It’s frustrating when that happens, and I am at a place where I can’t figure it on my own.  I am sure there is a simple solution.

Enough of my complaints….

I am pleased with the way this video turned out.  Although we wondered if black and white was too stern looking, in the end we convinced ourselves that simple was better.  It has a clean feeling, rather than cluttered.

What do you think?