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Do you want to be a leader in Digital Technolgies education?

What are teachers doing to support online learning both locally and globally? When interacting and collaborating with others beyond the immediate classroom, what are expected protocols or norms of behavior, and what are the essential understandings needed to forge working relationships between learners? Julie Lindsay, an education leader in digital technology, online learning, and curriculum across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and author of the new book, The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching, explores. Please also join us on Twitter next Thursday, July 28, for a special #globaledchat with Julie Lindsay on her new book!

"Digital Intelligence (DQ) is the sum of social, emotional, and cognitive abilities essential to digital life. It is having the necessary knowledge, skills and ability to adapt one's emotions and adjust one's behaviour to deal with the challenges and demands of the digital era. Beyond knowledge, these abilities must be rooted in human values of integrity, respect, empathy and prudence. These values enable the wise and responsible use of technology - an attribute which will mark the leaders of tomorrow."

Do you think this will replace digital natives and digital immigrants? That we all just need digital intelligence? Marc Prensky is now focusing on Digital Wisdom - similar thing but all good, methinks.

GenYes and TechYes - new website looks great! Student leaders providing solution for technology use within schools to support project-based learning, tech integration.

It would be great to see students involved in planning and managing how technology should be used in their learning. Young people already have many of the skills needed to use new technologies. They would be no doubt enthusiastic about being taking a leading role in how these would be used in their learning.

School systems are still being far too reactive in their social media policies (some do not even have one). Outside of schools, students are 'on and connected' to virtual environments and social networks. Teachers must embrace these technologies inside and outside of the classroom to have a meaningful connection with their students and promote collaboration amongst students. Too many improprieties are occurring because the rules of collaboration are unclear and the power of online collaboration and communication goes untapped. Parents, teachers, and school leaders have a responsibility to guide students through understanding the characteristics of a global digital citizenship. "

Important message for all information and knowledge leaders/teachers. Best tools to used shared.

"Well, to help, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has released an AUP guide ( Acceptable Use Policy Guide) to help school district leaders rethink their internet use policies and how educational technology can best be used to help students get the most out of their time in school."

"Cyber Safe Kids is a resource for online safety and digital citizenship resources and is managed by its founder Robyn Treyvaud an educational leader and online safety educator working with schools and communities across Australia and the Asia Pacific region"

"Mobile devices are now found in the hands of most children, and school leaders are using that to their advantage by incorporating devices that students already own into classroom lessons and projects. Concerns remain about students who are unable to purchase or borrow a device for use in the classroom, but districts might find creative ways-such as asking local businesses or community organizations for help-to provide devices in such instances, advocates of the trend say. With access issues in mind, allowing students to bring their own devices from home can offer educational benefits, as well as some surprisingly positive results when it comes to creative thinking and classroom behavior."

It's interesting that the school districts mentioned in this article are embracing "BYOT", while other schools around the world continue to clamp down on students' tech use, banning devices instead of educating about ethical use.

"By blocking students from the digital world, the jobs of administrators and educators are made easier, but if people became teachers, education leaders or parents because it was easy, they've selected the wrong profession.While it is true that banninig is an easy way out, doing so is short sighted and not visionary. It does not approach the innovative status that we hear so much about. "

An example of a job description for a digital leader.

The digital world is a vast expanse of learning and entertainment. But it is in this digital world that kids are also exposed to many risks, such as cyberbullying, technology addiction, obscene and violent content, radicalization, scams and data theft. The problem lies in the fast and ever evolving nature of the digital world, where proper internet governance and policies for child protection are slow to catch up, rendering them ineffective. Moreover, there is the digital age gap. The way children use technology is very different from adults. This gap makes it difficult for parents and educators to fully understand the risks and threats that children could face online. As a result, adults may feel unable to advise children on the safe and responsible use of digital technologies. Likewise, this gap gives rise to different perspectives of what is considered acceptable behaviour. So how can we, as parents, educators and leaders, prepare our children for the digital age? Without a doubt, it is critical for us to equip them with digital intelligence.

Part of a series of case studies produced by Digital Promise examining the work of members in our League of Innovative Schools. Click here for more info on the League. To stay up to date on future case studies, sign up for our email newsletter.

"Digital media often heighten young people's exposure to the global community and to peers with different cultural backgrounds. Such exposure increases the need for young people to recognise the social, cultural and historical influences that shape their own and others' understanding and learning. For example, they need to understand that the same actions may have different meanings in different cultures, and that many things which appear at first glance to be natural and neutral are in fact created by particular cultural and social understandings. Digital technologies, particularly online spaces, provide young people with opportunities for many new forms of interaction. Increasingly, these interactions are mediated by different modes of representation such as images and sounds. Being able to decode these multimodal texts requires an understanding of the social and cultural practices that surround their creation."

"Our students need adults to stop being afraid, and stop hiding, so education can get out of the shadows and into the light of the world in which our children live."

With due respect to Howard Gardner, there is not necessarily anything new here. Gardner's notion of synthesis is not far removed from Bloom and his concept of creativity follows the continuum set out by Cohen, with what appears to be references to Kaufmann's Four Cs of creativity. Certainly, the notion of lifelong learning is part of the character of the twenty-first century learner, while the need and process for evaluating information is at the core of information literacy. But this concept of synthesising and the effective evaluation and application of knowledge, is central to the teaching work of information leaders in the twenty-first century.

This news article caught my eye as it is my old high school in Victoria! This type of media reporting is problematic - a typical negative report based on the need to have ultimate control. A more positive approach is for teachers to be modeling best online behaviour and being online in the same spaces as the students. The conversation needs to be about how to best represent yourself and your ideas online while being respectful to others.

"A CYBER safety expert has slammed primary schools for letting students as young as eight use Twitter. Roxburgh Homestead Primary School is one of a number of schools to set up classroom Twitter accounts so students can share snippets of their work with the outside world. Parents have been encouraged to 'follow' the accounts for an insight into their children's school life."

Article showing both sides of the argument for letting younger students use social media (including Twitter) for learning.

Is this skills list valid for Information leaders too? Should we be adding these to our curriculum for digital citizenship?