Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship is an incredibly important aspect an educator needs to have when using technology, with and without children. Topics include copyright knowledge, choosing appropriate applications, and teaching people how to be safe on the Internet, just to name a few. It is important for me to include this particular artifact because it not only shows something successful I helped create, but it shows that there is room for improvement. This also shows that I love to collaborate with others. I do not always have all the answers. By collaborating with others, I am able to learn from someone while sharing my knowledge and expertise.
Being part of the Internet Technology Leadership Cohort for my district allowed my leadership skills to grow. Members of the cohort were asked to collaborate, create, and present different technology elements that Kindergarten through Eighth grade educators needed. At an August 2015 training for our district, Shannon Soza and myself presented a Digital Citizenship Training. Collaborating with Shannon was a wonderful experience. I was a third-grade teacher and had never taught middle school. Shannon is a middle school math teacher. Our knowledge of both elementary and middle school teaching helped us create a successful training session.
The slides we created were full of a lot of information, but did not overload our audience. The training also allowed for the audience to interact with the information, enabling them to make their own meaning. Our colleagues walked away from our training with knowledge of why Digital Citizenship was important, plus a plethora of resources to use in the classroom. After each session, we were greeted with compliments about how useful and well designed the training was.
Being part of the Internet Technology Leadership Cohort for my district allowed my leadership skills to grow. Members of the cohort were asked to collaborate, create, and present different technology elements that Kindergarten through Eighth grade educators needed. At an August 2015 training for our district, Shannon Soza and myself presented a Digital Citizenship Training. Collaborating with Shannon was a wonderful experience. I was a third-grade teacher and had never taught middle school. Shannon is a middle school math teacher. Our knowledge of both elementary and middle school teaching helped us create a successful training session.
The slides we created were full of a lot of information, but did not overload our audience. The training also allowed for the audience to interact with the information, enabling them to make their own meaning. Our colleagues walked away from our training with knowledge of why Digital Citizenship was important, plus a plethora of resources to use in the classroom. After each session, we were greeted with compliments about how useful and well designed the training was.
I have not changed the presentation to show the original, and it is not mine alone to change, as I collaborated on this. Looking back, however, there are several things that I would change. We talked about copyright in our presentation, but we did not include a reference page. It is important to practice what I preach. If I am asking teachers to be sure to cite their sources and teach their students to do the same, then I should have made sure to model the practice. I would also make sure to test out the specific applications we used.
We created three different sessions of Todays Meet. The intention was to have the different grade level spans discuss what they knew about digital citizenship. We ran into the problem of the links leading to one session rather than three different sessions. We wanted the different sessions to have a log of what we discussed as a group, rather than having information overload. I believe the problem came from one person creating the three different sessions. The application recognized the creator as only needing one session. During each session my colleagues were still able to share their ideas and thoughts, but it was not easily viewable as there were too many comments to sort through.
This artifact is a reminder that there is always room for improvement, regardless of “done-ness.” As in classroom teaching, and repetition of lessons from year to year, one always discovers little ways to tweak a lesson, or a presentation, to make it more user-friendly or more easily understandable. And, as technology changes and becomes even more entrenched in daily instruction, this Digital Citizenship presentation will need to be continuously updated, as all living documents must.
Please click on the button below to see a PDF version of Google Slides presentation that I helped create.
Technology Team and ITLC
I was part of the Technology Team at my school site for 10 years. This team usually consisted of three to four people from various grade levels. We did the troubleshooting for any technology issues at the site before we contacted the technology team at the district level. Often, we were also the ones who vetted new software or devices. We also oversaw staff development for new software and devices at the site. One training we held was on Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We offered beginning-, intermediate-, and expert-level trainings, allowing teachers to find the level they needed to learn. This was the first time I helped with creating a staff development and it was a success.
I frequently volunteered to pilot new versions of the district’s grade book software. During my second year of teaching, I was one of the first teachers to use the electronic version of the report cards. I always enjoy trying new things, so this was a fun experience. This was also true when the district deployed a new online grade book. When we first started using Power School, I was the first at my school to volunteer to move to the new system. Each time we had a new version of the software, I became very excited. I would critique the software as I was using it and give suggestions to my district administrator, who would share it with the company representative. My favorite part of the new version deployment was navigating through the changes and to see if any of my suggestions were implemented. To help with the deployment at my site, I was tasked to hold mini training sessions in my classroom. This allowed teachers to get help with specific problems they had in a comfortable environment. They were able to do the same thing I was doing, following along on the projector or the Smartboard. The teachers liked the small setting, because they felt comfortable to ask questions and found it very hands-on.
Four years ago, I was accepted to be part of a new cohort created by my district, the Integrated Technology Leadership Cohort or ITLC. The first cohort consisted of ten of us, two teachers from each school site. ITLC was an amazing opportunity that I fully embraced. We were the first teachers to receive and implement a classroom set of iPads and an Apple TV and have Apple and Google training. During the first year of having the iPads, I was very careful. I was the only one who would get them out and put them away. I was very specific with the apps that I allowed the students to use. Going to the monthly ITLC meetings allowed me to share my successes and concerns with my colleagues, who were also going through the same things as me. Going into the second year of implementation, I was more willing to let the students become independent with the iPads, after carefully setting classroom rules, standards, and procedures. I taught them device safety and digital citizenship.
The third year of the program saw the addition of a second cohort. I became mentor to the six new cohort mentors at my site. I helped them with setting up their classroom rules, standards, and procedures to make the implementation of the iPads and peripheral technology a little more worry-free for them than it was for me my first year. The third and fourth year of ITLC was very collaborative, having seven teachers at one site, bouncing ideas, apps, and projects off one another. I believe being part of this cohort gave me the confidence to apply to the George Washington University master’s program, where I have refined my teaching, leadership, and technology skills.
I frequently volunteered to pilot new versions of the district’s grade book software. During my second year of teaching, I was one of the first teachers to use the electronic version of the report cards. I always enjoy trying new things, so this was a fun experience. This was also true when the district deployed a new online grade book. When we first started using Power School, I was the first at my school to volunteer to move to the new system. Each time we had a new version of the software, I became very excited. I would critique the software as I was using it and give suggestions to my district administrator, who would share it with the company representative. My favorite part of the new version deployment was navigating through the changes and to see if any of my suggestions were implemented. To help with the deployment at my site, I was tasked to hold mini training sessions in my classroom. This allowed teachers to get help with specific problems they had in a comfortable environment. They were able to do the same thing I was doing, following along on the projector or the Smartboard. The teachers liked the small setting, because they felt comfortable to ask questions and found it very hands-on.
Four years ago, I was accepted to be part of a new cohort created by my district, the Integrated Technology Leadership Cohort or ITLC. The first cohort consisted of ten of us, two teachers from each school site. ITLC was an amazing opportunity that I fully embraced. We were the first teachers to receive and implement a classroom set of iPads and an Apple TV and have Apple and Google training. During the first year of having the iPads, I was very careful. I was the only one who would get them out and put them away. I was very specific with the apps that I allowed the students to use. Going to the monthly ITLC meetings allowed me to share my successes and concerns with my colleagues, who were also going through the same things as me. Going into the second year of implementation, I was more willing to let the students become independent with the iPads, after carefully setting classroom rules, standards, and procedures. I taught them device safety and digital citizenship.
The third year of the program saw the addition of a second cohort. I became mentor to the six new cohort mentors at my site. I helped them with setting up their classroom rules, standards, and procedures to make the implementation of the iPads and peripheral technology a little more worry-free for them than it was for me my first year. The third and fourth year of ITLC was very collaborative, having seven teachers at one site, bouncing ideas, apps, and projects off one another. I believe being part of this cohort gave me the confidence to apply to the George Washington University master’s program, where I have refined my teaching, leadership, and technology skills.