A small pearl of wisdom from a rookie wiki-maker

Screenshot of Pearltree on Digital Citizenship

As a nosey mother, I regularly check what my 10 year old son is doing on his iPod. He is usually pretty good and asks if he can install an app or listen to music from Spotify.

“What is this app?, I asked one day.

“Oh Mum, this Digital Citizenship thing hasn’t been good for you!” he said.

He was slightly annoyed about my nosiness but still boasting a cheeky smile. Thankfully he does have an understanding of being a responsible, respectful person in the digital world  (poor thing with two teachers as parents). We have had to educate him on appropriate apps, websites and social media, as already at the age of 10 he can access these very easily, even while you are just outside putting clothes on the old-fashioned line. Our household has iPhones, an iPad (dominated by the 5 year old), laptops, computer (dominated by the 7 year old), apple TV…you name it, we’ve got it, as my husband has always loved technology. We decided we couldn’t watch him all of the time and thought that it would be better to educate him.We think and hope it is working.

This Digital Citizenship subject he speaks about has been good for me!

I have connected and collaborated with other students in this subject, in making our own Wiki for heavens sake! Our topic was ‘creation and curation of digital objects’ (Group 3.2). What did the topic even mean? We struggled over the concepts and lack of knowledge when it came to using digital tools for learning. It was a daunting experience being asked to work with complete strangers and have to write and design a wiki page with them. But then the chat started, discussion flowed and we were home and hosed….all friendly, respectful and successful. It was a steep learning curve for all of us, but oh so satisfying when you clicked on ’embed’ and it worked, or the citations sat where you wanted them.

Working on a wiki together was the best lesson you could have in becoming a 21st Century learner and collaborator. It makes you think of all of those things you do to be respectful in every day life…turn up on time, respect others opinions, effectively participate, provide encouragement and constructive advice and take the lead at times. If I had been working with students in other parts of the world, there would also need to be an intercultural understanding. All of these good qualities make a global digital citizen and this is one of the Standards for students from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

I have learnt that a good digital citizen is a person who is very kind, understanding, active, helpful and respectful. They know how to share information, but not their personal information unless in known and safe digital communities, such as the classroom. It is extremely important that as an educator we have these digital learning experiences ourselves, so we can understand what is required for teaching our students to be good digital citizens. It is not enough to know that we have to protect our students, as that is always our priority. We have to teach them how to behave in these digital environments. They have taught themselves all things digital from games, being active members of online games, such as Club Penguin and Minecraft. Now we need to ask them to articulate what it is to be a member of that club – how should one behave in that environment, to keep active, safe and respectful?

There are many resources to help us as teachers, from Government websites, such as Cybersmart and Smartcopying to professional learning networks, such as Scoop it and Linked in. You only have to search ‘digital citizenship’ and you will come up with a plethora of resources. But are they all relevant to your needs? This is where content curation comes in. I have come to really enjoy this area of the subject. Content curation is about purposefully selecting information to organise and comment on for others. It is really liberating to set up your own curated spaces, such as on Pinterest and Scoop.it. You will find so many helpful articles to inform your teaching and learning in the digital age. I even found a new curation tool through this subject – Pearltrees. I found it really interesting, as it is a visual way of curating websites, files, images or notes. You can also curate resources in a team situation, like working on wikis together. I was so excited to find that Robin Good, a content curator and blogger, had shared my video of Pearltrees and even scooped it! I don’t know if anyone outside of this subject would be excited for me, but it is a definite indicator for me that I have made a connection and collaborated. It makes you realise that all teachers can do this – just put yourself out there.

Learning in 21st Century environments is all about being active creators of information, co-creators making connections with others and collaborating in local and global digital environments. Our students need to be able to do this, for the information-rich globalised digital world that awaits them. This has been acknowledged by the new Australian curriculum with General Capabilities that our students must develop. They include literacy, numeracy, personal and social capabilities, ICT Capability, ethical and intercultural understanding, creative and critical thinking.This is the direction that teachers need to take to develop the skills and dispositions in our students for them to cope in a world of digital bombardment. We can’t be the gatekeepers of information any more and passively pass this on to our students. There is too much information! Instead, we have to make our students independent in their learning, through inquiry learning, so they can cope and hopefully thrive in these digital learning environments, developing awareness of Individual, Social, Cultural and Global aspects of being a digital citizen (Lindsay).There are great examples of this happening around the world, including the Digiteen and Digitween projects as part of my lecturer, Julie Lindsay’s Flat Connections global ventures (Lindsay, 2014). Students from all over the world are creating content about digital citizenship to share in a collaborative way with a global audience.

I would really love my cheeky 10 year old to be a part of that!

 

References

Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2011) General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum Retrieved fromhttp://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/general-capabilities-in-the-australian-curriculum

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library Information Association (ALIA) (2009) Joint policy on guided inquiry and the curriculum Retrieved fromhttps://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/aliaasla-policy-guided-inquiry-and-curriculum

ETL523 Digital Citizenship Group Wiki https://etl523-digitalcitizenship-14-1.wikispaces.com/

Good, R. 2014 Content Curation World blog Retrieved from http://curation.masternewmedia.org/2014)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students Retrieved from 

Click to access 20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf

Lindsay, J (2014) Flat Connections Retrieved from http://flatconnectionsglobalproject.net/

21st Century Fluency Institute (2013) Connecting Curriculum to 21st Century learning

Digital citizenship for educators

ETL523 Digital Citizenship Forum comment Module 1.2

Perhaps one of the most important messages we should be sharing with our colleagues is that we need to shift the focus of our teaching styles and lessons, to acknowledge the digital world that our students are living in. It is part of their daily life and they need guidance, while still engaging in all of their subject areas.

As an Infowhelm video made clear – information is abundant and overwhelming. The students don’t need to be given lots of information, but rather need to develop the skills to manage this situation. They need guidance in pathways to follow and critical thinking skills in how to use information. The students most likely are really enjoying their digital world that they play in (fun, exploring, creating) compared with the DLE that they learn in at school (limited access, restrictive).

The use of iPads and smart-boards have been used as a motivator for student engagement, both in the library and classrooms in our school. They have been used as part of regular research lessons and classroom work. It has changed the way some lessons are delivered – the students are directing more of their own learning, with guidance as to particular websites. The smart-boards have allowed students with different learning styles, especially the more visual learners, to more fully understand the content. There is a great deal more that can be built in our DLE.

So how should teachers best teach their students about digital citizenship in the DLE? Our large primary school is educating students on ways they can protect their identity, awareness of digital footprint, ethical behaviour and cyber-bullying. This is being taught as part of regular computer lessons.

My own digital footprint is expanding through my study of Teacher Librarianship through Charles Sturt University in Australia. I have this wordpress blog…twitter, Pinterest, delicious, diigo, google and scoop.it accounts. I already had facebook and find the facebook messenger the most useful to communicate with friends. Oh yes and there is also Linkedin. It is useful to have quite a few online digital environments, to connect with other professionals. If you want to share information, it is handy if you already have accounts set up for these curation tools.