This week all our students were introduced to a wonderful digital literacy project called #walkmyworld. Students each week will be learning digital citizenship skills as they join in sharing a *walk in their world*. We looked at the meaning of the word ‘Hashtag’ and how the symbol # is used to group ideas and information. We spoke about Twitter and some of our students were quite knowledgeable about this form of social media as their parents have Twitter accounts. Students learnt that you only have 140 characters (spaces, punctuation and letters) to compose a message on Twitter. You have to be very resourceful and words are often constructed in an abbreviated new form.
This project is being run by a team of researchers from The University of New Haven in America and explores the use of digital texts and tools as a means to connect, collaborate, and share. For more information regarding the project you can visit Assistant Professor W. Ian O’Byrne’s website Digitally Literate. This project is also an ideal platform to connect thinking to ethical and moral behaviour in online spaces and as a class we will be having lots of discussions around this topic and what it looks like as we participate using our school and student blogs to connect with a global audience. For the next 7 weeks (each Wednesday afternoon 2-2.50pm) students will be creating a ‘walk in their world’ post and parents are most welcome to join the class and participate. Students are being asked to take images on a camera, drawing, or other mobile device and select two for the following weeks activity (they must be downloaded and brought in on a USB please). This is an opportune time for parents to discuss and explore with their child the suitability of the image i.e. how much information are they sharing…“students should think critically about how they create and curate their online brand. They need to be thoughtful, and careful when selecting what to share online about themselves.” W. I. O’Bryne
Dr Bronwyn Stuckey (NSW Educational Technologist) was interviewed for an excellent article regarding what she calls ‘a lived curriculum’ and all parents and educators should make it compulsory reading! Digital Citizenship, the ‘lived curriculum’.
Here is a small walk in the students world from their first day of the new school year.
Mrs Booth
This is going to be a great way for the children to learn about digitital citizenship tools. It will also be a great way for parents to be involved in classroom activities.
I have always believed that the best way for humans to communicate with each other was limited to face to face interactions. That view is (as they say) evolving, and this is one of the reasons!