What it takes to be a good digital citizen
The use of technology and social media isn’t going anywhere. There are amazing things happening at Spring Mills and Huron Valley Schools that leverage these tools to help amplify student voice and engage our students in amazing learning opportunities every day.
Kindergarten, teachers are using an application called See Saw that is a student-driven digital portfolio empowering students to independently document what they are learning at school and share with their parents. I sat in a classroom where fourth-grade students made a prototype of an item that already exists, researched the item online and and made small improvements to modify the existing item. Students then designed online modifications and created the prototype in class using many different materials to get it just right.
Spring Mills students broadcast video news each day to our student body by creating a broadcast through an application called TouchCast. Students create the news broadcast for the day, then record it, edit it and post it on TouchCast and our YouTube Channel. The broadcast is all student driven and often, if I am in my office, the students politely kick me out so they can work on the broadcast and use the green screen.
Instead of micromanaging students’ online behavior, we need to mentor and model good digital citizenship. It falls upon the adults in the child’s life to act as this mentor. Just as a student should strive to be a good citizen in their daily life, they should be taught to carry these principles into cyberspace. At Spring Mills, we educate our students to leave a positive digital footprint, always be nice, beware of stranger danger and be careful sharing information that is private.
There are many great resources that families can use at home to help instill and support the development of strong digital citizens. PBS Webonauts Academy, Planet Nutshell videos and ikeepsafe are just a few. Teaching children that even when they delete something it can still be found is also a powerful tool. Making sure what our kids are doing is meaningful and appropriate is crucial in supporting our kids and helping them develop into good digital citizens who leave a positive digital footprint.
Author George Courous challenges us to make sure our students/kids are well “googleable” when they graduate. When their name is searched by a college, or job, what is the digital footprint that will be seen? As teachers and parents, we must be sure we are strong digital role models for our kids and we must leave a positive digital footprint of our own.
Randy Muffley is principal at Spring Mills Elementary School.