Three things that I think students should be proficient in regarding
digital learning are copyright laws, safety in online collaboration and
the appropriate use of educational technology. When I grade essays or projects, I notice large amounts of plagiarism. Students would
literally copy and paste entire assignments. I tried talking to them
about the importance of citing sources and paraphrasing works of others.
I also shared with them bibme
to help students in citing their resources. (I also set up limits on what could be quoted) I think that online safety
is especially important as "social networking" becomes more pervasive
in our students' lives. Students need to know how to act appropriately
online as well as advocate for themselves if they become victimized.
If I were teaching my students about digital citizenship, I would use Atomic Learning's courses on "netiquette,"
"online harassment" and "avoiding plagiarism." I would also plan
mini-lessons for each of these videos early on in the year to allow students time to process
and practice with these important topics.
As far as sharing this information with
parents, I would send home a letter at the beginning of the year explaining what we are doing in class and then post updates on our class blog.
I agree that it is important to teach these aspects of citizenship explicitly. There is so much potential here for assumicide, when our assumptions lead to outcomes we don't desire. This is particularly true when we confuse things that are intuitive with those things that must be taught explicitly.
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