Digital Citizenship Lesson Activity and Reflection

21st Century Citizenship Lesson

Activity

Design a curricular lesson which embeds one major theme from the Cornell University Digital Literacy Resource site. The Digital Literacy (DL) component should not necessarily be the focus of the lesson, rather cover the curricular content while including DL as an aspect of the lesson. 


Here is my lesson plan for Mockingground: An INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET RESEARCH exploring the Cultural and Historical Background of To Kill a Mockingbird aligned with ISTE Student Standards.

Here is a detailed list of instructions for the eight activities students will undergo in my Mockingground lesson plan.

21st Century Citizenship Lesson

Reflection

Review the District 219 Internet Safety materials.

Blog Post: Reflect on how one establishes a classroom culture where students respect themselves and others and interact safely on the Internet. 



(How fascinating to learn that Internet Safety is required to be taught in District 219! The courses on Intellectual Property, File Sharing, Social Networking and Cyber Bulling/Privacy/Relationships look like excellent lessons for the students but I can't get the d219tv video links to work - perhaps I need to be at school? When and where are these lessons taught? Did the Digital Literacy course for Freshmen replace these lessons in the curriculum?)

Creating a classroom culture where physical and emotional safety are the first priority begins the first day of school. Teachers can create a warm and accepting environment by greeting students warmly and personally each day, by learning the correct pronunciation of their names and using all of those names daily, by creating assignments that draw on the students' personal experiences, by learning as much as possible about the students' backgrounds and lives at home, by clearly establishing classroom expectations for behavior and the rationale behind those expectations, and by remaining calm, consistent and respectful whenever a students needs to be corrected.

However, threats to an adolescent's ego more often come from peers than from adult teachers. The teacher can foster respectful, kind and compassionate relations between students by encouraging students to use each others' names; to use appropriate language at all times; and to eliminate scorn, sarcasm and shame from their language. Daily lessons designed to make use of cooperative learning and team-building rather than competition or teacher-focused lecture can help students see collaboration as a powerful and empowering form of education.

In this environment, Internet use should then be an extension of the respectful, responsible and kind behavior that is expected in the classroom every day. Students will have clear identities when they post and respond to each other online; they will use encouraging and helpful language, they will refrain from destructive criticism.