digital footprint and blogging - ideas conference 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Teens and Digital Footprints
Creating Digital Work &Being Responsible Digital Citizens
Using Blogs
a presentation by Shauna Pollock and Gill Crosbie
Miss Pollock’s grade 8s in Ottawa
When it comes to using social media with
students, what are you afraid of?
Get online with your students.
• Meet them where they already are: “I think other teachers should try blogging because the Internet is where students spend most of their time, and they therefore enjoy completing work more.” - Kelly, grade 7, Oshawa
• There is no better way to teach them essential 21st century literacy skills.
What are the benefits to using social media?
• engagement, motivation
• ownership, pride, creating authentic content for a real audience
• extending learning (go deeper, outside the classroom)
• explicitly teaching digital responsibility (through role modeling, discussion about online persona)
The Three Cs
• Communicate
• Create
• Collaborate
Communicate
“Blogging is fun and it is a good way to read your friends’ work and get feedback on your own work. It’s also cool to make little quizzes and polls to interact with your friends
online.” - Morgan, former student, Ottawa
“Teachers should try blogging because it’s a great way to share ideas. The other students we talk with have
different opinions on topics, so reading them helps us to see different points of view.” - Sam, grade 8, Oshawa
Create
“I learned that using blogs is really easy and I’ve been able to accomplish work that I
never knew I could do.” - Tanisha, grade 8, Oshawa
Creating authentic products
for a real audience
“The best thing I’ve learned is to speak my
mind more and say what I think. I’ve learned that I can
be really creative.” - Kaitlin, grade 8, Oshawa
Blogger allows for simple personalization
“You can customize your blog and make it look so professional and you can look back years later and see how much you
accomplished.” - Melissa, grade 8, Ottawa
Students extend their own learning, some use code to personalize
Collaborate
“Teachers should try blogging so that their pupils have a chance to learn technologically
and make new friends. Also, it can help teachers communicate and strengthen the
educational community.” - Karran, grade 8, Oshawa
Students learn from one another
Collaborative problem solving
“We all had different ideas that I personally
could never have come up with. Each of us had something to
share.” - Mateen, grade 8, Ottawa
“All the members of my group learn differently and
have different strengths and weaknesses. The best parts
about working with a group was the fact that we could
put all of our strengths together.” - Hannah, grade 8,
Ottawa
Digital Buddy > Pen Pal
-Digital Lit Circles-Commenting on buddy’s blog posts-Borrowing tips-Sharing ideas
The Glorious Teen Brain and why Blogging
is so Effective
• potential to learn things: neural networks enlarging, synapses develop with stimulation
• makes changes depending on demands of environment: can master new technology
The Teen Brain
• inability to make snap judgements, need for adult examples and feedback, need to be reminded of potential consequences
• interested in interactions with others, developing a sense of self, identity formation
Digital Footprint
• Your digital representation of yourself and your digital reputation
• DIGITAL IS FOREVER
• Your online persona can be accessed by anyone with the Internet
• Think before you post; you are responsible for everything you put on the Internet
• A footprint is determined by us, as well as by others
• Create positive and ethical digital footprint (would my grandparents be happy reading/seeing this?)
• Most teenagers’ digital footprints are constructed by social and interest-based activities, blogging in school creates a digital component
• Our digital footprints will stay with us and become more and more important in the future
• Consider appropriate privacy settings
Some information: David Jakes
If you don’t teach them responsible digital
citizenship...who will?
Blogging saves paper and headaches!
“There are no excuses for lost papers or forgetting your
homework, as we spend a lot of time on the Internet.” - Walid,
grade 8, Ottawa
“Teachers should try blogging because it is a great way to learn on the Internet and you can ask your teacher a
question even when you are at home.” - Rob, grade 7, Oshawa
You’re interested? How to blog with 25 teens
• access to computers!
• collaborate with your peers (within your school, in other schools, cities, provinces, countries - the sky’s the limit!)
• create authentic tasks
• provide feedback (rubric with qualifiers, checklist, self and peer evals...)
• share successes
Get yourself comfortable online
• learn from playing on your own
• learn from reading edublogs
• learn from other teachers
• learn from students
Getting started with Teens
• Practice by making blogs and comments on paper
• Blogging contract
• Netiquette
How can I use this in my class?
• Read blogs
• Make comments on blogs
• Make a class blog
• Make personal blogs
• Self directed research
• Evaluating sources - Pacific Tree Octopus, About Explorers, editing wikipedia
• Glogster
• Avoid plagarism, cite sources
• SOLEs (Self-Organized Learning Environments - groups of 4)
• Effective google searches
• Digital Lit Circles
• Media literacy
“Teachers should try this because students can write as much as they want, in their own time, and they can be
proud of their thoughts even if they don’t have the confidence to say them in front of their classmates. I have
learned to sink deeper with my words during an assignment. I have learned to be cautious about my digital
footprint and wiser about the things I post on the Internet.” - Haneen, grade 8, Ottawa
“puts the fun back in to learning.”-Will, grade 8, Ottawa