Standard 4 of the ISTE Standards for Teachers focuses on the concept of digital citizenship. The past decade has seen an exponential increase in digital tools and opportunities, which carry the need for students to master a new set of life skills for behaving responsibly online. Contrary to popular belief, however, digital natives don't pick up these skills through osmosis. It falls on parents and educators to teach them how. Just as a teacher would talk to students about etiquette and safety before they enter a public place on a school trip, so must they remind students of what's expected of them online. Students are much more likely to understand good digital citizenship - the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use - when teachers model it on a regular basis. The three social studies activities described in the table below are designed for students in grades 5-7. The objective of the lesson is to help students explore another culture and share traditions, events, customs and rituals from their own culture. There are different ways to address these objectives, but not all of them take advantage of the prime opportunity to promote and model digital citizenship.
"The biggest responsibility of any teacher is to equip students with the tools that they can use in everyday life.
The content is important, but with information so easily accessible, it is ultimately more helpful to them if they have critical thinking, analytic ability, and research skills. You can best serve your students by engaging them in active debate, fun and absorbing problem-solving activities, and relevant research assignments.
High-school students are among the hardest to engage, so you have to approach them in a way they understand. Traditional is out, online is in. Giving them the opportunity to use the tools they are most comfortable with can help them in ways that no amount of lecturing can accomplish.
You can make your students better researchers, and thinkers, with the 10 online tools listed in this post"
An interesting article about the skills today's students need. "teaching students to find reliable sources, synthesize research findings and communicate results is more urgent than ever in a world where every blogger with a keyboard can pose as an expert."
"There's no doubt that the experience of reading online is different than reading in print, but does it affect comprehension? While several studies have found student comprehension and retention are lower on digital devices, could it be that students just need to learn the right tools to enhance their digital reading? Maria Konnikova explores the research and theories behind reading in her New Yorker column."
"n2edu.com provides free teacher and pupil resources. Learn to Think, Learn to Learn. Online for 15+ years. The developers are pioneering in providing integrated thematic unit learning resources, that provide a basis from which rich learning tasks can be undertaken. We are one of the leading educational web-sites for educators in New Zealand."
Online-Research-Methods. Infographic. It offers a range of research platforms to use with students. Instead of just using Google and Wikipedia, students can try out some other specific search engines to look for specific information. The infographic could also be used to assist in teaching students about how to evaluate websites and assess the credibility of web content.