Essential Question: How can the complex ideas behind digital citizenship be captured in simple, effective tools and programs that can help assess and develop digital citizenship skills? What tools and programs currently exist that teachers can use?
I was previously familiar with the Digital Driver's License program, so this week I decided to check out Common Sense Media's Digital Passport, since it was a new tool (to me, anyway). I was very impressed...and ended up spending way too much time trying out some of the activities (the Twalkers game, for example, sucked me in!). A few things really impressed me with this resource:
1) The wealth of materials on the Digital Passport site is very impressive! The educator guide and student workbook are organized in ways that really do make the materials ready-to-go with very little planning on the part of the teacher. Other tools (digital certificates, student progress charts, and interactive components) make it much more than just a resource site. The games could easily become part of "choice activity" time in a classroom, for example, where students could play while learning about digital citizenship -- which seems like a great deal!
2) I really (really, really, really) like the "Get Trained" section for teachers. The concise videos are nicely done and provide the essential information teachers need to get started with Digital Passport and the resources on the site. I appreciate that they have included training videos instead of just text. A busy educator can quickly feel overwhelmed by too much text to read to figure out how a program works...but it's pretty easy to have a short video playing while you're exploring the site and options and, at the end of it, you feel ready to complete a task or have a better understanding of the topic presented. The availability of live webinar trainings is also nice for those who want to learn more.
3) The site just feels really user-friendly and manageable for educators who are already trying to pack a million things into the day but still need to find resources and time for digital citizenship awareness, instruction, and reinforcement. The visual organization of the resources is clear and it's easy to find whatever is needed within the "module" visual arrangements with links and student videos.
Finally, I am super impressed with what Common Sense Education is providing, in general. I dug a bit into their work beyond Digital Passport and love the resources available via Graphite, the 1-to-1 Essential Program, in the "Connecting Families" resource site, and on their Professional Development page, as well. The quality of the materials is outstanding, and the fact that it's FREE makes it even better!
From the main Common Sense Education page, I found iBooks textbooks, a Digital Citizenship scope and sequence, Digital Citizenship Toolkits, and a REALLY cool program called "Digital Bytes" which "teaches teens digital citizenship through student-directed, media-rich activities that tackle real-world dilemmas." With every click, it seemed like there were additional resources, classroom-ready and engaging. As a whole, I can't think of a thing that I would add to the resource ... and it is definitely something I will recommend for use in my district!
References:
Common Sense Education. (2015). Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators
Common Sense Media. (2015). Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
Digital Driver's License. Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from https://otis.coe.uky.edu/DDL/launch.php
1) The wealth of materials on the Digital Passport site is very impressive! The educator guide and student workbook are organized in ways that really do make the materials ready-to-go with very little planning on the part of the teacher. Other tools (digital certificates, student progress charts, and interactive components) make it much more than just a resource site. The games could easily become part of "choice activity" time in a classroom, for example, where students could play while learning about digital citizenship -- which seems like a great deal!
2) I really (really, really, really) like the "Get Trained" section for teachers. The concise videos are nicely done and provide the essential information teachers need to get started with Digital Passport and the resources on the site. I appreciate that they have included training videos instead of just text. A busy educator can quickly feel overwhelmed by too much text to read to figure out how a program works...but it's pretty easy to have a short video playing while you're exploring the site and options and, at the end of it, you feel ready to complete a task or have a better understanding of the topic presented. The availability of live webinar trainings is also nice for those who want to learn more.
3) The site just feels really user-friendly and manageable for educators who are already trying to pack a million things into the day but still need to find resources and time for digital citizenship awareness, instruction, and reinforcement. The visual organization of the resources is clear and it's easy to find whatever is needed within the "module" visual arrangements with links and student videos.
Finally, I am super impressed with what Common Sense Education is providing, in general. I dug a bit into their work beyond Digital Passport and love the resources available via Graphite, the 1-to-1 Essential Program, in the "Connecting Families" resource site, and on their Professional Development page, as well. The quality of the materials is outstanding, and the fact that it's FREE makes it even better!
From the main Common Sense Education page, I found iBooks textbooks, a Digital Citizenship scope and sequence, Digital Citizenship Toolkits, and a REALLY cool program called "Digital Bytes" which "teaches teens digital citizenship through student-directed, media-rich activities that tackle real-world dilemmas." With every click, it seemed like there were additional resources, classroom-ready and engaging. As a whole, I can't think of a thing that I would add to the resource ... and it is definitely something I will recommend for use in my district!
References:
Common Sense Education. (2015). Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators
Common Sense Media. (2015). Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
Digital Driver's License. Retrieved 3 Mar 2015 from https://otis.coe.uky.edu/DDL/launch.php