Recently, Common Sense Media named Ask a Tech Teacher as one of the 2014 blogs to watch on the topic of Digital Citizenship. It reminded me what a massive topic this is!
Education has changed. No longer is it contained within four classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Students aren't confined by the eight hours between the school bell's chimes or the struggling budget of an underfunded program.
As experienced teachers, we've been conditioned to reach for curriculum when we have something new to bring to the classroom. But as digital age educators, we also know that kids do best when they can learn something authentically, by figuring out their own answers to real-world problems that are relevant to their lives.
Teachers in Littleton, Colorado - like teachers in many places - are increasingly asking students to read and write online. Free tools like Google Docs have made it easy for students to work on the same piece of writing at home and at school, and have allowed teachers to explore collaborative writing assignments and synchronous editing with students.
In a world filled with digital communication, how do we teach our digital citizens to use social media wisely? Parents are frequently nervous to talk to kids about online safety, relying on the schools to cover it. Teachers, therefore, are often the default catalysts for change as we educate teens on how to use social media: Educate them to become savvy social-media users.