PPS Instructional Technology

Digital Citizenship is not something that can be tackled by schools on their own.  It needs to be a partnership with families and the community.  Just like the schools, parents don't always know where to start in regards to talking about digital citizenship with their kids.  In order to open the door to some great conversation, here are some resources that we can send home in order to create the bridge between what we are teaching in the classroom, and what is expected at home. Common Sense Media Family Activity Worksheets These worksheets by the amazing Common Sense Media are developed to go along with the K-12 scope and sequence curriculum.  There is a worksheet for each lesson.  Each worksheet contain the following sections: Did you know? What do you think? Family Activity Tech it Up Common Sense Says... This is a quick and easy way to continue the conversations started at school and bring the parents into the equation. DigitalED Anothe...

Sometimes you need a tool as a refresher or as a way for students to independently walk through some short lessons on Digital Citizenship.  Thankfully, Common Sense Media also has some wonderful programs for this very purpose.  My favorite one is Digital Passport , which is a self-paced, 5 "mission" activity that allows 3rd-5th graders the opportunity to explore topics like: Multi-tasking What to share and what not to share Cyberbullying Copyright Search Check out this great video from Common Sense. During these missions, students watch a video and play a game as they go through the activity.  If you can have a conversation about the videos and topic as you go along, that enhances the impact of the activity even more. If you are looking for activities for older students, check out the following activities: Digital Compass (Middle School) Digital Bytes (High School)

Google hangouts has a lot of wonderful educational uses, but it can also be a big distraction.  One way to help minimize that distraction is to have students turn off the "Auto-launch" feature.  By turning this off, Google Hangouts will no longer launch every time a student logs into the chromebook. Now you can choose when you want your students to open hangouts in order to collaborate and share, instead of it being a constant distraction! Enjoy!

It is that time of year again, to bring awareness to the importance of teaching positive Digital Citizenship to our students, families and the community at large.  Digital Citizenship is one of those topics that everyone knows they need to teach, but no one knows how or when they can fit it in.  This week we will be sharing some great resources for teaching digital citizenship in order to keep all our students safe and foster common expectations. The first resource on the list is my absolute favorite resource when it comes to Digital Citizenship: Common Sense Media ! Common Sense is a wonderful resource for both families and educators.  It contains a complete K-12 scope and sequence for digital citizenship lessons, as well as app reviews, movie reviews, lesson plans, videos, 1-1 resources, and much more! Check out these great free lesson plans from the scope and sequence today to see how you can take 20 minutes to change the perspective of your students and help ke...