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 ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children's literature from around the world.
The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children's literature from around the world.
The World Digital Library hosts more than 10,000 primary documents and images from collections around the world. It is sponsored by UNESCO and the mission is to promote the study and understanding of cultures. The WDL can be searched by date, era, country, continent, topic, and type of resource. There are a lot of maps and images as well as text documents.
"Regardless of the ultimate fate of the printed book, reports of the imminent death of the library as a physical entity seem to have been greatly exaggerated. Bookless digital public libraries are already starting to appear, the first in San Antonio, Texas, where lines of bookshelves have been replaced by e-readers, computer workstations, laptops and tablets.
The simple truth is that, like Roald Dahl's character Matilda, people like going to libraries. Indeed, going to the library is like getting a pay rise, according to a survey conducted in 2014 by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The survey, which attempted to quantify how happy different activities make us, showed that while dancing and swimming nearly always cheer us up, so does going to the library. "
Reading Australia has been developed by the Copyright Agency and aims to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works.
There is a list of titles (download as a PDF). These titles have been selected by the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) Council. They were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia's rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia's history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia.
There is a wide range of teacher resources available (PDF) for Primary and Secondary school teachers and all of these teacher resources include classroom activities, assessments and links to the Australian Curriculum. In addition, many of the Secondary resources include an introductory essay on the text written by high profile writers. The Primary level resources have been commissioned by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association, and the resources for Secondary level have been jointly commissioned by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association NSW."
"When technology is used in education, it is important to teach kids about digital ethics, to help them to become responsible digital citizens.
Digital citizenship includes digital etiquette, literacy, culture, norms, ethics, online safety, rights, and much more. Knowing the traits of a good digital citizen is important in this technological era.
This infographic sets out the characteristics of a good digital citizen."
"One educator's advice after installing makerspaces in several dozen schools. He has developed a process that helps you think through your makerspace and how it fits into the culture and curriculum of your school. Skipping this process, or one like it, will almost certainly result in tension, missed teaching opportunities, and overspending."
"An interesting sketchnote about how to introduce maker stations to the Learning Commons. Of course it's not the only way but this is how we are attempting to change the culture in our school and to foster entrepreneurial spirit in our students. We would love feed back or comments on how others are doing it!"
"The culture of any library should not only encourage meaningful student learning, but also provide the tools, resources, and opportunities for students to thrive and flourish. The impact of these types of transformations on libraries can support all learners and encourage them to contribute to building a more dynamic and creative community."
This is a useful resource when incorporating the Australian curriculum Priority - understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.
" Today's library is a place for social interaction as well as quiet reading. It is a community cultural center, not simply a repository for books. It is a welcoming building with a design focus on transparency, not a series of isolated spaces."
"By blocking social networking tools in our schools, to whom are we really denying access? All kids or only those who cannot afford home Internet access? Are we marginalizing the already marginalized in our society by preventing them from the only opportunity (in school) they may have to participate in a participatory culture by filtering? "
Some interesting ideas and the questions in the last part of the blog got me thinking. "How do you include student voice in your library program? Does your library space reflect student voice? Are your lessons designed to celebrate student voice? We need to relax our adult expectations and be flexible enough to allow our students to shine"
"Links to resources and tools to help bring elements of maker culture into schools and classrooms, and encourage students to explore STEAM subjects within the context of maker projects."