CyberCitizenry

Welcome to the RWLD's related to the topic of CyberCitizenry.

Please, watch all 7 segments of the pbs feature “Growing Up Online” (56 min), and consider the questions below.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/

Also, watch the newest pbs future and the follow up to the video above: "Digital Nation - Life on the virtual frontier" (90 min)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

Check out the blog with the great cyber safety tips and resources http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-do-i-help-my-child-learn-to-use.html

Are you a good Cybercitizen? - Take a short quiz designed for your students; Choose what you might do, and what might happen as a result of your choice.

Questions to ponder after watching "Growing Up Online":

• The program describes social networking sites as places where kids post pictures, accumulate friends, post messages to others and describe themselves. Social networking also allows young people to express themselves, experiment with different perspectives, and play with aspects of their identity. Do you think it would be possible to use social networking in the classroom to better facilitate students learning? Can you imagine an example to support your opinion?

• Who should be responsible for teaching about cyber safety-- parents or school?

• What is or should be a teachers’ role in students' online life?

• Do you think that we should restrict (block) students from using Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, Ning...) and other user generated websites (YouTube, Wikipedia...) or rather teach them how to use them wisely.

Additional resources:


ISTE-NETS for Students connection: 

• Standard #2: Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others
• Standard  #5: Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.

thetrevorproject.org -  The Trevor Project -  The leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

itgetsbetter.org - It Gets Better Project -  video website created to sent the message and to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. Created in response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school.

Diversity in Media & the Classroom

image source: benettongroup.com

- Begin by analyzing short “State of the village report” from 2005

http://www.odt.org/Pictures/popvillage.pdf originally created in 1992 by Donella H. Meadows

- Watch the video “Misconceptions; Do’s & Don’ts of a 1st Year Teacher” created by Mississippi State University students about racial stereotypes (4 min)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ5HDM5H1yM

- Read a short article about challenges in defining Multicultural Education and also about the areas of social transformation.
www.edchange.org/multicultural/initial.html

- Read about “Key Characteristics of a Multicultural Curriculum” by P.Gorski
www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/characteristics.html

- Read short article “Transforming Myself to Transform My School: with the special attention to “Ten Critical and Self-critical Things I Can Do to Be a Better Multicultural Educator:
www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/edchange_10things.html

- Watch the An Anti-Bullying Message From the NOH8 Campaign (2.27 min)

- Watch the digital story about the depression and issues faced by Asian American girl - pay attention to the poem in the story (also typed under the video) (5.29 min)

Additional resources:

ISTE - NETS for students connection: Standard #2 c: Students develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures

How to Tell if You Are a Racist? Consider the questions, answer to yourself. http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-You-Are-a-Racist

Uses and Gratifications model of the media (Blumler & Katz)

• http://tinyurl.com/32a6bv

• www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A770951

Video “Tellin' Stories” about program designed to increase parental involvement and student achievement in America's public schools.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRNZZiyYJv4

Visual Literacy

Image: Creative commons: Ray eye

“Are you visually literate? Are your kids?” Read the blog posting by Leslie Madsen Brooks and follow the links listed in the post. http://www.blogher.com/are-you-visually-literate-are-your-kids

Color Matters! Visit the Color Matters website and read about color symbolism in different cultures. Browse the website to learn more about the significance of colors in our lives. http://www.colormatters.com/symbolism.html

ISTE-NETS for students connection:  Standard# 3:Research and Information Fluency

Supplementary Resources:

The Smithsonian Photography Initiative - Lesson plans, ideas and resources from the Smithsonian Education

Color Resources

• A short compendium about color theory
• Complementary/Analogous color schemes
• Always test the colors
• Color Palette Generator - Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image.
• Color database

Visual literacy – ideas and resources for young learners

• Visual literacy for K-8
• Resources for Kids related to color
• Visual Thinking Strategies

Copyright, Fair Use, & Creative Commons

Image source: Wikimedia Commons (this image is in the public domain)

These RWLDs for your upcoming lecture on Jan 30 introduce you to fundamental principles of U.S. copyright law, fair use, and creative commons. Your understanding of these concepts is key to making legal and ethical decisions about how to incorporate media into educational projects (and guiding your own students to do so in the future).

Familiarize yourself with pages 1—6 of Copyright Basics (PDF) from the US Copyright Office (copyright.gov). This introduction to copyright law describes what works are protected and defines ownership as well as the typical duration of copyright law protection.

Explore the interactive web site Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright (from the Library of Congress), especially the section Files on Record which provides an interactive timeline of copyright milestones (look for the scroll bars along the left and right sides).

Download Brief Notes: Copyright for Students (PDF) from Iowa AEA Online. This 4-page handout provides practical guidance for making informed copyright decisions and concise explanations about educational fair use and portion limitations. Save this document for lecture, for future reference (and to use with students in your own classroom).

Creative Commons licenses make it easy for people to share their works which are otherwise protected by copyright law. This provides terrific opportunities for teachers and students! It's what you might say is a happy middle ground between All Rights Reserved and the public domain. Watch this 3-min video remix of the creative commons introduction.

Watch UNI alumnus Chris Pirillo describe Creative Commons in this 5-min excerpt from his show.

Read this short blog post about the idea of Linktribution (do this when no specific requirements are provided)

Bookmark and explore these UNI sites related to copyright: UNI Copyright Policies and Rod Library Guide to Copyright.

Read about how one Minnesota woman was fined $1.9 million dollars for illegally downloading 24 songs. Read the follow up to the story of Capitol v. Thomas on Wikipedia.

You may or may not be familiar with the case of artist Shepard Fairey. Consider what you've learned from the above resources as you read about the legal controversy surrounding his iconic image of President Obama.

Web 2.0 & Digital Natives

Looking for Change

Complete these RWLDs to prepare for the lecture on Web 2.0 & Digital Natives. This is the first of two lecture topics to be included in Quiz 3.

Begin by completing a few surveys:

Learning Styles: Let's find out a little about yourself and how you like to learn.

Please begin by completing the Felder Index of Learning Styles. You will answer 45 multiple choice questions (about 10 minutes). When you have completed the questions, you will be presented with a results sheet. Please print these responses (or at least write them down) so that you can use them later.

After you have discovered your learning preferences, please complete this student information survey. You will be asked to enter your learning styles along with the other information so remember to have your printout with you when you do this.

---------
This week we will be exploring how the digital world has changed the world, the people and how we interact with one another. This week's assignment begins with an article by Marc Prensky about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. This is followed by a group of videos to introduce you to blogs, wikis and twitter. There are a couple of podcasts that include interviews of educators about using new technologies in schools. Have fun!!!

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.This is the classic article about generation differences. Reflect how this applies to your life and your associates.

To be an effective educator, you need to appreciate your students' characteristics. You will be teaching the Millennials (or Gen Y). Most of you are at the older end of the Millennials but that doesn't mean that you can necessarily identify the important characteristics so that you can address them in your class. Watch/Read the following resources carefully so that you will be more aware of these issues.

Growing Up Digital (Don Tapscott) (video - 25 minutes)

This 25-minute video with Don Tapscott discusses what he has learned about the Net (Millennial) Generation. This video is an interview, not an action show. Pay attention to what haYou may recognize some of your friends in this discussion. =-)

Generation Y: The Millennial Generation (article)This article discusses the characteristics, shared experiences and mindset for Gen Y students. Also includes a number of tips for teaching Gen Y students.


Web 2.0/Social Networking Tools

Social Media in Plain English (video - 4 minutes)
Explains social media using an ice cream metaphor to get to the cold truth.

Socialnomic: Social Media Revolution (video - 4 minutes)Turns out to be an advertisement for a book by this name, but it is informative.

The Twitter Experiment - Twitter in the Classroom (video - 5 minutes)
This video describes Twitter is used in university classes.  Lots of interviews with students who share their feelings about the experience. This process is similar to the process that we have in lecture using our BackChannel.

Social Media in the Classroom (video - 9 minutes)
Dr. Wesch explains how he is integrating social media in his anthropology courses. He uses an open wiki site for students to share their notes and thoughts about the topics in the class.
This is a link to the website he is describing.