Digital Citizenship Projects

I truly enjoyed everyone's presentations on digital citizenship. I thought the topics chosen were very pertinent to today's society. Everyone is online in some form or another - email, surfing the web, blogging, social networking, etc. Parents and students, and everyone else for that matter, need to realize the dangers that are out there in the online world.

Netiquette and Cybersafety are very closely related and equally important. Everyone should required to attend some sort of training on these issues if they are to use the Internet to communicate, research, and other things. Copyright laws, as I found out, are very technical. Certain amounts of songs or words can be used, and so forth. Students should also have training on this because they are so quick to use someone else's work and claim it as their own. They need to realize how serious copyright violations really are.

Again, all of the topics were very important to the world we live in today. I've seen information and presentations on some of these topics before but it was great to get a refresher because I think it is easy to forget how these issues affect us and those around us every day. We, as teachers, need to talk to students about these issues and show them the correct ways to communicate online and use the Internet.

Week 12 - Progress??

I don't have much to report on the progress of my project. It is in the works but have not taken place yet. I am continuing to work out all of the kinks. I realize that I have used a few of the components of my project before, but never all together. I just want to make sure I have everything moving in the right direction before I start my project.

As for the conference I don't have anything to report there either. I was unable to attend the conference in person and I haven't had any time to visit the virtual sessions. I will soon, though.

On a side note, I am working on my written comps for graduation which has unfortunately taken up most of my time over the last week. I can't wait to be done!

I hope all of your projects are going well!

Week 10 - Critical Thinking

I know that I do not focus on critical thinking skills enough in my classroom, and sometimes not at all. As I have stated before I teach at the middle school level. Many of my students are so low in so many areas that it makes even thinking about using CT skills impossible. I have to go so slow with everything, like giving instructions for the students to follow, that half of my class gets off task because they are waiting on the other half to catch up. I know that I need to improve some things that I do in my class before I can truly focus on teaching CT skills. I know it can be done at my school because many teachers at my school probably teach CT skills in their classrooms so I can't blame it on the ability of my students, I just need to use my CT skills to figure out how to do it in mine.

Yes, I think that CT skills are very important. If students can master the use of CT skills they will be able to use them for the rest of their lives in so many different areas. Again, I just need to figure out how to teach them in my classroom. Hopefully one day, and sooner than later, I will be able to accomplish this goal!