Analyzing media and creating media products.
You thought we needed character education before? Just wait.
We would like traditional character education to be so solid in its perspective that it can survive modern times without much modification. But the character education we have grown up with began during simpler, far less technological times. The reality is that the extreme nature of today’s technology is challenging the relevance of character education in its current form.
The days of sitting in one-size-fits-all
professional meetings are dwindling. Whole day, large group professional
development sessions are being replaced with technology-infused collaboration
ripe for lifelong learning. For me, the best part of this shift in professional
learning is the ability to focus on the topics that interest me the most.
In order to be good digital citizens, students must cultivate a filter through which they view their digital lives and understand online communication. To help students build that filter, we must support them in developing a multifaceted awareness consisting of a number characteristics. Here are three of the most important:
One of the challenges of teaching digital citizenship is to get students comfortable openly thinking and talking about key issues. We know students are constantly facing issues and making choices in their online lives. Creating an environment where students are encouraged to discuss issues helps them think critically about the choices they’re making online. Here are some strategies to start students thinking and talking about digital citizenship.
Social media has undoubtedly expanded classroom walls, but has it also closed the minds of our students? The echo chamber effect suggests so-students want to hear what they think is the truth and search for others through social media who agree with them.
Classrooms aren’t always represented accurately in the media. It is not uncommon for news outlets to highlight the latest teacher scandals but ignore the quality work the majority of teachers are doing. Popular television shows often show students seated neatly in rows, reading textbooks, and looking bored. Images of blackboards and chalk still abound when referencing education, yet the classrooms I see everyday are filled with the very opposite of these depictions.
Each month we publish several newsletters full of digital learning, funding, professional growth, social media, and STEM resources. Below are the resources from our newsletters that educators turned to the most in the month of January.