Module 4-2 Digital Literacy

Making Everyday a Technology Day

Mary Scroggs Elementary is ready for the 21st Century Skills. Good thing too, in case you didn't know we are already 10 years into the 21st century. This school is not find ways to use technology as an aide to teaching. It is use technology to as a tool for learning. The students don't just go to the computer lab to type papers, or learn a new form of technology. Rather the students are immersed in the technology as it is being used in the real 21st century world.

The technology is being use to understand, evaluate, and analyze their world. The technology is being use to apply knowledge and create a rich learning experience for not only students, but teachers and parents as well.

What's the Price of Censorship?

Great question. Let's ask Google and China.

I looked at the title of this article and my liberalism came flooding out. How dare someone take away the right of free press. Then my conservative right side of my brain began to fight back. In the blog post Grace Rubenstein stated that a school newspaper was not allowed to print an article about a recent superintendent's resignation. The school stated that inaccurate details and lack of evidence were to reasons behind the restriction of publication.

Grace points out that the school should let the students publish and if then the article is indeed invalid the students will learn how to retract a statement. She compares it to trying to learn science with out experimentation. Good point, but do we just give the student a chunk of uranium and say have at it?

Digital Ethics

Howard Gardner and Digital Media

I am curious!

What are the ethics behind your experience with digital media? Or what beliefs did this video challenge about your thoughts of digital media?

When I listened to Mr. Gardner share his thoughts about the ethics in digital media. I thought about the what is now a yearly experience. I usually get a letter, email, or phone call from a parent informing me that another student in the class posted something threatening on the web towards their child. The problem is that the two students don’t see each other face to face until they get to school. At home online, muscles seem bigger, bravery skyrockets, and friends peer over the shoulder encouraging the bullying.

So where do we teach the students the ethics about digital media. Well from Mr. Gardner's point of view we need something like a cybermentor. I think that teachers should be cybermentors in social networking sites. Teacher's and parents should be the digital role models for the students. When the students witness the ethical use of digital media by adults in their real world, they can then apply those ethical skills to the ambiguous digital world.

MY GOAL: Teach netiquette to the students in my class. I will be their cybermentor on Facebook and other sources of digital media.

Storybird

I "jumped in" and will be keeping a journal as I tool around and try to make a story about fractions. I hope that if I make a story that is engaging enough I will only have to teach reducing fractions 10,000 more times this year.

Oh No! No spell check. I will love to see what the students spell in their storybird story. I guess I need to get my journal of What Students Said or Wrote ready.

Okay this program lends itself to including dialogue. The hilarious characters that you can put in the story are just begging to get a voice. I am having a blast making them come to life.

I am having trouble focusing on putting the math content in and not focusing on the plot of the story.

I think I am going to scrap this book and focus on literacy (boo!)

check it out and sign up. It's FREE!

www.storybird.com