“Protecting one’s equipment is not only a matter of personal responsibility but also necessary for protecting the community.” Mike Ribble

For students to practice good digital citizenship, they need to value their privacy and understand how to protect their personal information. Here are a few resources we recommend:

• Protecting Online Privacy and Security – More great resources from Common Sense Media, a curriculum we are currently rolling out in our middle and high school sites.
• My Privacy Quiz – Excellent resource from the Canadian Commission on Privacy.
• Cybersecurity Posters for the Classroom – From Stay Safe Online, a collection of printable posters and lesson resources.
• Identity Theft – What Teens Need to Know - Short video from Highway Quest.
• Do You Really Have a Private Life Online? – Video animation – very informative!

We will continue to add resources on the topic of guarding online privacy.  Please join the conversation and add a comment if you have questions you’d like us to address or additional resources to share with our EGUSD community.

Much has changed over the past decade about the art and skill of communicating, including the definition for literacy. Digital citizenship, therefore, requires that students have access to social networking and collaborative, multimedia writing opportunities and instruction as part of their school day. We believe that blogging is an excellent starting point for transforming teaching and learning in the 21st century.

Some Why’s:

Why blog with elementary students? Let’s start with New Zealand primary teacher Rachel Boyd’s list:

With 22 reasons already listed, what could we add to the above video?  How about some elaboration on the last point, “To give them skills for their digital futures”? Blogs are a great tool for teaching our students how to use the Internet safely, effectively, and ethically. For many of our students, understanding what constitutes personal information or too much information (TMI), for instance,  or how to publicly and respectfully disagree with differing viewpoints comes down to how technology is being used in the classroom.

Through blogging, we can also address the research as we cross digital divides and level the playing field:

“Economically disadvantaged students, who often use the computer for remediation and basic skills, learn to do what the computer tells them, while more affluent students, who use it to learn programming and tool applications, learn to tell the computer what to do. Those who cannot claim computers as their own tool for exploring the world never grasp the power of technology…They are controlled by technology as adults–just as drill-and-practice routines controlled them as students.” Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education

Some How’s

Come join us for a blogging workshop. We offer a 2-hour Blogging 101: Blogging for Absolute Beginners and Blogging 102: Going Live with Edublogs. You’ll leave Blogging 102 with your own classroom blog, ready to use the next school day!

As part of the workshop, we’ll provide you with resources to get you started, such as a sample parent letter that you can customize and send home, along with instructions to help your parents to join your blogging conversations.

We’ll also send you on your way with useful tips, such as Five Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers, Five Borrowed Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers, and Five Tips for Teachers New to Edublogs; ideas for classroom projects, links to a network of elementary classroom blogs, such as:

• Gail Poulin – Kindergarten
• Maria Knee – Kindergarten/Grade 1
• Kathy Cassidy – Grade 1
• Mrs. Peter – Grade 1
• Mrs. Boekhout – Grade 2
• Tara McCartney – Grade 3
• Mrs. Kolbert - Grade 4
• Leslie McKillop - Grade 4
• Teresa Cheung – Grade 4
• Lutricia Hardaway – Grade 4
• Rudy Alfonso – Grade 5
• Kevin Hodgson – Grade 6
• Bill Ferreirae – Grade 6

So why blog with elementary students?  Let’s listen to what students would like you to think about:

Looking for some more resources on how blogging benefits teachers and students? Take a tour of the National Writing Project’s Digital Is site, starting with Bud Hunt’s piece Teaching Blogs not Blogging.

Please let us know if you have blogging resources to add to our collection!