Digital Citizenship - Engaging in Conversation with Kids

Teaching our children about digital citizenship is a 24/7 job. Every time they use a piece of technology, there is the opportunity to discuss appropriate ways to use the tool. It is also important to discuss when technology is being used inappropriately and engage your children in honest conversation about their options and possible consequences of their actions. Here are some role-playing scenarios to help start conversation about the nine themes of digital citizenship.

Scenario 1: A friend stumbled upon a website at home with inappropriate pictures. The next day at school, he pulls up the site in the library after school and shares it with you. How do you respond? (Digital Access)

Scenario 2: You want a subscription to a game site but need your parents’ credit card. Dad is out working in the yard and his wallet is sitting on the kitchen counter. (Digital Commerce)

Scenario 3: You had a bad day at school. When you get home you went straight to Facebook and posted some negative comments about a teacher to share with your friends. What can happen? (Digital Communication)

Scenario 4: You have a science research project due in a few days but you are having trouble finding information. What resources are available?

(Digital Literacy)

Scenario 5: Two friends have a sleepover where they make dance videos together. After the sleep over, one friend decides to post the videos to You Tube without permission. (Digital Etiquette)

Scenario 6: A student leaves her computer without logging out of her email account. Another student walks by, sees the "open" account, and sends vicious emails using the other girl's identity. You see everything that has happened. What are your options? (Digital Law)

Scenario 7: A number of your friends have Facebook accounts but your parents say you are too young. A friend offers to make an account for you. What are the consequences? (Digital Rights and Responsibilities)

Scenario 8: You like to go bed at 9:30 but your friends go to bed later than you. They wake you up with their late night messaging. (Digital Health and Wellness)

Scenario 9: You begin getting text messages from a number you don't recognize. (Digital Security)

Scenario 10: You get a message from someone you just met online playing games. What information is OK to give them? What should you watch out for? (Digital Security)

Raising a Digital Child

With the introduction of iPads into the daily routines of our Middle and Upper School students, faculty are, more than ever, focused on helping their students become responsible and ethical users of technology and media.  We strive every day to help our students become good digital citizens.

Digital citizenship is defined as the expected behavior of individuals as they use responsible practices with regard to technology. As a way to better understand the complexity of digital citizenship and the issues of technology use, abuse, and misuse, the International Society for Technology in Education has identified nine general areas of accepted practices that make up digital citizenship.

1.   Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure

2.   Communication: electronic exchange of information

3.   Education: the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology

4.   Access: full electronic participation

5.   Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods

6.   Responsibility: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds

7.   Rights: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world

8.   Safety: physical well being in a digital technology world

9.   Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety

Faculty and parents need to serve as role models each and every day in the nine areas listed above, and we must think about what is developmentally appropriate at all times. Here are some websites, articles and books to get you started learning more about raising a good cyber citizen.

Raising a Digital Child by Mike Ribble

Digital Community, Digital Citizen by Jason Ohler

Rules of the Road for Parents in a Digital Age

Our Space: Being a Responsible Digital Citizen of the World

Digital Citizenship – Using Technology Appropriately

The Hour of Code is Almost Here!

The week of December 9^th -15^th has been designated Computer Science Education Week.  Students across the Shorecrest campus along with more than 5 million students (and counting) across 164 countries will participate in The Hour of Code sponsored by Code.org.

With computer programming jobs growing more than two times faster than students entering the field, it is essential students get an early start in learning these important skills.  Even if your child does not become a computer programmer, coding teachers them to think logically and systematically as well as problem solve.

Shorecrest students will engage in conversation with their peers, explore coding apps and software on their iPads and classroom computers, and work with self-guided tutorials in various programming languages during CSE Week.

Learn more about The Hour of Code at http://csedweek.org/ and be sure to check out next week’s E-bytes for pictures and videos of campus events.

We would love families to consider spending time coding at home too. Here are some of the iPad apps students will be using next week.

BeeBot: FREE (Ages 3-6) The Bee-Bot App is based on the Bee-Bot floor robot. The app uses directional language and programming through sequences of forwards, backwards, left and right 90 degree turns. The app has 12 levels.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/bee-bot/id500131639?mt=8

Daisy the Dino: FREE (Ages 4-6) Learn the basics of computer programming with the easy drag and drop interface. Kids will learn the basics of object sequencing and loops by solving this app's challenges. After playing Daisy, kids can choose to download a kit to program their own computer game.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278?mt=8

Move the Turtle: $2.99 (Ages 6-10)
Move The Turtle teaches the basics of creating computer programs using intuitive graphic commands. Students can also create their own programs from scratch.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/move-turtle.-programming-for/id509013878?mt=8

Kodable: FREE (5 and up) The Fuzz Family crashed their spaceship on Smeeborg and need your help to explore the planet's mazes. Drag and drop instructions for Fuzzes to follow. Hit Play to watch them roll through the maze.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/kodable/id577673067?mt=8

Cato's Hike: $4.99 (5 and up) Cato is a little boy who likes to play. One day Cato was playing outside when a portal to another world opened up! Cato stepped through and discovered that this world didn't follow the same rules. Every time he tried to take a step he'd find himself stuck in place until he discovered the rules in this new universe.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/catos-hike-programming-logic/id574335479?mt=8

Cargo-Bot: FREE (5 and up) Cargo-Bot is a puzzle game where you teach a robot how to move crates.  Includes tutorials to teach the game along with easy, hard, and advanced puzzles. A game about programming, programmed entirely on iPad.                                         https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/cargo-bot/id519690804?mt=8

Hopscotch: FREE (5 and up) Hopscotch allows kids to create their own games and animations. Hopscotch programming language works by dragging and dropping blocks into scripts. As you get more advanced, you can add more objects and use custom events, such as shaking and tilting the iPad, to run your code.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hopscotch-coding-for-kids/id617098629?mt=8

Light-bot: $2.99 (5 and up) A programming puzzle game that use procedure, loop, and conditional commands to guide a robot to light up tiles and solve levels. Features 40 levels. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-bot/id657638474?mt=8

i-Logo: $2.99
LOGO is a 1967 computer programming language. It has functional programming capability. Students can use variables and test calculations with polish notation, test recursively, and use arrays. https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/i-logo/id435280247?mt=8

Codea: $9.99 AU
Codea is a code editor that lets you create games and simulations. Turn your thoughts into interactive creations.  Codea is built on the Lua programming language. Uses visual editing tools. https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8

Here are links to some of the online programs students will be using in the computer labs and library.

http://www.kidsruby.com/

Software available for Mac or PC utilizing Ruby as its programming language.

http://light-bot.com/flash-lite.html

A programming puzzle game that use procedure, loop, and conditional commands to guide a robot to light up tiles and solve levels. This is the free flash-based lite version of the app by the same name.

http://scratch.mit.edu/ 

A tile-based visual programming environment and toolkit, lets kids make games, animated stories, interactive art, and share with others.

http://www.tynker.com/

Easy to use, step-by-step curriculum by grade level. The premium version has additional lesson plans. Uses a drag-and-drop interface.

http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/

KTurtle is loosely based on the Logo programming language. Simplifies programming by translating commands and error messages into the native language of the programmer.

http://www.alice.org/index.php

Teaches students computer programming in a 3D environment. Students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program. These tiles correspond with standard programming statements in Java, C++, and C#.

Another Round of Monsters

It is hard to believe the school year is almost over. Even though there are only three weeks of school left there are still so many technology projects to wrap up with the students. This week third grade will be finishing up their Pixie presentations on European Explorers, fourth graders continue to work on their iWeb digital portfolios, and first grade will begin recording facts in their Under the Sea VoiceThreads.

One project that just wrapped up today, which also happens to be one of my favorites, is the Monster Project. This year 33 first, second, and third grade classrooms from around the United States and Canada drew, described, typed, and exchanged monsters as a way to learn about the power of descriptive words to paint a picture for the reader.

Here are few examples of student writing, the original monster, and the redrawn monsters that came back to us as well as the links to each class set of monsters:

Mrs. Deegan's Class

Mrs. O'Mullane's Class

Ms. Graham's Class

Mrs. McKenzie's Class

 

Instagrok - A New Kid-Friendly Search Engine

When researching with young children, I typically utilize a Symbaloo to organize sites by different topics and to make access easy. Symbaloos are simple to create and edit, and are easy to pull up both on computers as well as the iPads. Just last week, the first grade students launched their individual research on ocean animals using sites provided on Symbaloo to get started. Here is the link to my page: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/ldcomputerlab

Fourth grade students, on the other hand, begin practicing their own searching skills to learn about individual states during colonial times. Rather than using Google, which is really geared more toward adults, I introduced students to several more kid-friendly search engines. Some of my favorites include Kid Rex, Boolify, and Quintera for Kids. I also started to use a new search tool called Instagrok.

What makes Instagrok different is how it utilizes both a visual and traditional interface to help kids see connections between topics and ideas. Kids are able to customize their search and even share their results with others. Searches can also be saved for later reference. Check it out at www.instagrok.com

New Word Cloud Site

This week I came across a new 'word cloud' site called Word Clouds for Kids. Sponsored by www.ABCya.com, this site allows students to input text to create a graphical representation from a block of text or other list of words. If words are entered more than once, they are given more prominence in a word cloud.

The idea of creating word clouds is not new. Websites like Wordle, Tagxedo, and WordItOut have been around for many years and have been used effectively by our students. What is different about Word Clouds is its easy to use interface. It is also Flash-based rather than Java-based. Word Clouds is recommended for grades 2-5 but can easily be used by younger students as well.

Here are some of the ways our students have been using word cloud sites this year:

Introduce themselves at the beginning of the year
Practice spelling words
Build story or character clouds based on a book
Create USA clouds
Reinforce vocabulary words
Review important terms and concepts when reviewing a chapter
Reflecting on a project or activity

Scratch Projects... Finally!

Thank you to the very patient third grade students who have been anxiously awaiting for me to post their final Scratch projects from their last rotation in the lab. They all did an amazing job! I can't wait to share their projects with the first and second graders over the next few weeks. You can access the projects here.