Cyber Safety Tips for Kids and Teenagers

Beware the 'digital native' stereotype

found image @ Academia Marketing Digital

Technology teacher Mary Beth Hertz writes on Edutopia that teachers need to beware of the "dangerous" stereotype that all students these days are ‘digital natives’.  There are a lot of dangerous stereotypes out there. "Asian students are always better at math." "Boys are always better at sports." And perhaps the most dangerous of all: "The current generation are all digital natives." Hertz says that just because students know how to use technology doesn't mean they understand how to "create, read critically, use online content responsibly," and be respectful of others in the digital world. And those skills are necessary to be truly digitally savvy, she contends.

Mary Hertz cites a study in which the nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child left pre-loaded tablets with illiterate children in remote Ethiopian villages. The children quickly figured out how to use the applications and began teaching themselves to read. Within a few months they'd overridden the software meant to freeze the desktop settings, and customized their devices.  But Hertz says this proves her point that being able to use technology does not make you proficient:

“Sure, we can place a tablet in the hands of children who have never seen a package label or a sign, and they will learn on their own. But what happens when and if those children become connected to the larger, global online community? It is not guaranteed that they will be ready to navigate etiquette and intellectual property rights on their own. “

Instead, Hertz writes, we should call students "digital citizens," which implies a more complicated relationship with technology—not innate proficiency.

She is not the first to argue that teachers cannot assume students know how to properly navigate the digital world. Jody Passanisi and Shara Peters said in Scientific American that students struggle with basic Internet searches, and a majority of teachers in a recent Pew Research Center survey said students need more training in finding credible information online.

Perhaps Hertz' claim boils down to semantics. Aren't 'digital natives' simply those who've only known a world in which electronic devices are the primary means of accessing information? The term brings to mind this video.

Source:  Education Week Teacher (slightly abridged and adapted)

Using Video to Reinvent Education

Steps into 21st Century Classroom

21st Century Classroom infographic

Curation Tools for Education

image credits: Content Crossroads

What is Content Curation?

As instructors, we are all  information curators.  How do you collect and share currently relevant content with your students?  How do your students research and share information that they find with the rest of class? What tools do you use to manage or facilitate presentation of resources? Is it public? Can students access it at other times? In groups?

Modern web tools make it easy for both students and instructors to contribute online discoveries to class conversations.  Using free online content curation software, we can easily integrate new content in a variety of ways.

How can I use Content Curation in My Class?

Instructors are using online content curation tools in the classroom to:

• create group activities.
• organize and disseminate new content as a sort of digital handout to students in online and flipped classrooms.
• collect and share professional reading materials with students.
• foster discussion about current events.
• encourage students to become both content creators and curators.
• connect to experts outside class and to the world knowledge base.
• critique information available on the web.
• teach students to curate social media.
• help students gain credibility and exposure.
• keep track of online research efforts.
• create reading lists.
• help students gain access to the ‘collective intelligence’ of the Internet.

The following are some real-life examples of how content curation tools are being used in education. Pinterest is a pinboard-styled social photo sharing website. The service allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections linked out to sites of origin.

• English literature reading list - http://pinterest.com/steven_bickmore/texts-for-english-7542-fall-2011/
• Literary theory course - http://pinterest.com/steven_bickmore/literary-theory/
• Chemisty course study guide - http://pinterest.com/cnikky/chem-1411/

Storify is a way to tell stories using social media such as tweets, photos and videos. Users search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag individual elements into stories. Users can re-order the elements and also add text to help give context to the readers.

• All about the tundra biome: http://storify.com/knewton/all-about-the-tundra
• Journalism: How to make a basic news video for web: http://storify.com/kellyfincham/how-to-make-a-basic-news-video-for-the-web 
• Syllabus constructed in Storify: http://storify.com/edwardboches/strategic-creative-development

Scoop.it allows users to create and share their own themed magazines designed around a given topic. 

• Bioinformatics course: http://www.scoop.it/t/bs2064-bioinformatics
• Plant biology teaching resources: http://www.scoop.it/t/plant-biology-teaching-resouces-higher-education
• IT professional skills course: http://www.scoop.it/t/ct231-it-professional-skills-module

Diigo is a soical bookmarking tool that allows users to collect bookmarks, annotate them and share to groups or lists.

• UW Madison chemistry course Diigo group
• Connectivism and connective knowledge course Diigo group
• Teaching computer programming group

Pearltrees is a content curation site that forms communities through sharing links through a visually striking interface. 

Get Started Using Content Curation Tools

Each service listed above offers a Bookmarklet to help you grab items of interest to add to your curation boards. A Bookmarklet allows you to quickly grab any content you find on the web and put it into your chosen collecting/sharing service. More information on bookmarklets at: Tech Support Guides.

In  iTeachU (sligthly abridged)

What we're learning from online education