DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

  In this lesson digital citizenship which is component of digital literacy, I have learnt that digital citizenship is a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology. Digital citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use.

There has been a lot of online collaboration in this lesson including wiki collaboration. And the benefits of collaboration has continued to be manifested.

So online collaboration, like most digital phenomena, is good at solving very specific kinds of problems: time problems, distance problems and communication problems. By solving time problems it creates the benefit of 24/7 production cycles; by solving distance problems it enables newly diverse teams; and by solving communication problems it lets us work together in ways that tap into a broader set of skills and capacities. When we use online collaboration to support tasks and projects that specifically leverage these distinctive benefits, we go beyond treating online collaboration as a Band-Aid for the problem of dispersed teams and use it to actually move our work.

However online collaboration has some challenges among which include

1. Poor attitude by some of the members in the collaboration, to collaborate.
2. Having different work schedules.
3. Technology related problems like, luck of internet connections, electricity and computers. This is still a problem in our country and they are very expensive.

Now since Digital citizenship involves users knowing how to use technology appropriately.

I have curated some resources that I feel can be of good help to me and my students when using technology mainly surfing online.

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

Helpful advice and tools you can use to help keep your child safe whenever and wherever they go online

http://www.safekids.com/

Contains information about the dangers of children using the internet. Rules, advice, and tips relating to child security and the web.

http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety

This site gives tips on how to deal with with challenges of online which include ;

•                                  Cyberbullying
•                                Exposure to inappropriate material
•                                                          Online predators
•                                                          Revealing too much personal information 

http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety
This site is an interactive, educational program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline.

http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/publications/safeonline/
This website has different guidelines on how you can be safe online. This guide includes tips for people with learning disabilities on how to stay safe in social media and online.

These resources I plan to guide students to look critically at these sites and take note of how they can keep safe on the internet.

They need to appreciate the fact that when online they have to be able to know

·         How to look for information

·         How to filter the information

·         Evaluate it and use it accordingly. 

SEARCH SKILLS (SL) AND INFORMATION LITERCY INTEGRATION (IL).

I have gained a lot of knowledge under digital literacy and have come to realize that when it comes to technology integration in education. It is not just a matter of using computers in the teaching.

And having realized the importance of search skills, I plan to help my learners develop the following search skills.

1. Check the Sources

Evaluating information found in your sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, and appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context.

As a class, discuss the benchmarks for evaluating a website: currency (Is the information up to date?), security (Does the site ask for too much personal information or prompt virus warnings?), scope (Is the information in-depth?), and authority (Does the information come from a trusted expert?). Challenge partners to find one site that meets these benchmarks and one site that fails to do so. During research projects, encourage students to check the benchmarks off a list for each of the sources they use.
 

2. Ask Good Questions

Developing and refining search queries to get better research results.

Give small groups three search terms each, ranging from the general to the specific.

3. Go beyond the Surface

Displaying persistence by continuing to pursue information to gain
a broad perspective. Invite students to create fact trees about whatever they are researching. The starting question is the root of the tree. 

4. Be Patient

Displaying emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite challenges. Challenge teams to come up with a well-researched answer to a question that isn’t “Google-able.”.

5. Respect Ownership

Respecting intellectual property rights of creators and producers. By inviting students to write about what it would feel like to get a record deal, star in a movie, or have a book published. As a class, discuss the emotions involved. 

6. Use Your Networks

Using social networks and information tools to gather and share information. Talk to students about when you might use social sites for research.

What is information literacy and how I plan to integrate it in my teaching?

Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.

 Being able to access and manage information competently is a vital twenty-first-century survival skill. The current information landscape is constantly changing, with internet searches now commonplace, the move to user-generated content such as blogs and wikis, and the widespread use of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Many people today – our current and future students – are confident in using technology, and in generating their own content. However, this also raises skills issues:

From the experience I have gone through so far in Digital literacy with IL I feel my students should have the following skills:

v Understand the information landscape.

v Plan and carry out a search.

v Critically evaluate information.

v Manage and communicate your results.

 I therefore plan to integrate information literacy in my teaching by helping my students to;

1.     Formulate questions for research based on information gaps or on re-examination of existing, possibly conflicting, information;

2.     Determine an appropriate scope of investigation;

3.     Deal with complex research by breaking complex questions into simple ones, limiting the scope of investigations;

4.     Use various research methods, based on need, circumstance, and type of inquiry;

5.     Monitor gathered information and assess for gaps or weaknesses;

6.     Organize information in meaningful ways;

7.     Synthesize ideas gathered from multiple sources;

8.     Draw reasonable conclusions based on the analysis and interpretation of information.

We’ve got to give people the skills to be able to make their mind up themselves.