Digital Citizenship for Teenagers
Reflective Writing
During this term in Year 9 Information Technology and Software, students have under-gone and participated in the 2009 Digital Project. This project involves the understanding of digital citizenship, which are active societies and communities using today’s technology to communicate all around the world. Students, who participated in this activity, were asked to study and learn the basics of digital citizenship. This citizenship can be summed up into 9 digital topics:
1. Access
2. Communication
3. Literacy
4. Security and Safety
5. Etiquette
6. Rights and Responsibility
7. Law
8. Health and Well-being
9. Commerce
Within these groups, students were split and placed into other groups with students from across the globe. They were assigned their own topic with a sub-topic to research and discuss using Wiki Spaces, an online communicating network. Each student got a grasp on their own individual topic, but also got an understanding of the other topics also. But all this work could have only been achieved by co-operation between group members. We used a number of sources to communicate and improve our responses to the wiki and each other.
One of the most important forms of communication between members was using the online Ning site. This site acted like our own MySpace in the fact that information and messages could be passed onto from one member to the other. Because of this, students could post their responses onto their blog and receive responses of improvements or adjustments. From my own perspective, the Ning helped to communicate or be-friend the other members, but my group personally did not utilize this tool to its potential. Because of this, we referred to another form of communication.
When editing our page on the wiki, we were fortunate to be provided with a discussion tab which allowed us to leave a message after our response. Students merely had to type a message on the discussion tab to notify other team members of a change in the wiki-page. This was useful when wanting feedback for a piece of information you have written.
If we did not receive any feedback from other members, there was still the option of e-mailing the teacher. When students had completed a rough copy of work, e-mailing the teacher was the best option when asking for feedback and any other queries. I found this most useful when needing advice or suggestions for any improvements on the work I had written, whether it was to the wiki page or merely a response to a forum. Because of these suggestions, student’s pieces of work were more precise, clear and knowledgeable.
This type of communication with the teacher was most helpful and insightful. I had posted notes on the discussion tab excepting feedback from my team members, but with no avail. Because of the lack of support from my group, we did not accomplish as much writing as we would have hoped for on our wikispace. The information was good but there was simply not enough of it.
This could have been one way to improve the project. Students should have been posting discussion notes after each edit of the page; this would have made communication a lot easier. Also, the use of the Ning must be improved by future groups if they wish to respond well to their topics.
Another improvement they could have made may be the timing of the project. What I mean by this is the time of year in which the project began. Many schools were either starting the new term or just finishing the school year all together. Many students may have slacked off after receiving their final year reports, thinking that there isn’t any more work o is done by them. Because of this lazy attribute, many of the groups struggling with communicating and collaborating with each other also struggled to edit and publish their research on their topic.
Just like many other schools, our own class was help-up with many school events such as school camp and public holidays. This made it difficult to receive instructions from the teacher towards the following parts of our assignment which involved responses, reflections and finally the Action Plan.
After the wiki pages were completed, each school had to submit an Action Plan. This is basically a form of writing or visual media to represent how we will bring across our knowledge digital citizenship to the general public. The communication during this exercise will be much easier due to the fact that groups are made up of students from the same school. With each school submitting more than one action plan, other schools may view these to help improve their own and make it easier to communicate with the public. This was really the purpose of the Digiteen Project, to work together, considerately and responsibly so that we could find a way to help educate the public about Digital Citizenship.
But it was not just the people being educated, it was also mainly the students, not just knowledgably learning, but the type of learning that can only be achieved by working cross culturally. Being able to collaborate with people from other cultures is not a natural gift, it must be practiced and by participating in the Digiteen Project, students were forced to acknowledge their differences and set them aside by working with one another. Many career paths require the knowledge of operating today’s technology but also being able to co-operatively use it to communicate with other people.
In relation to the student’s social lives, the project taught them how to behave and act while using social networks such as MySpace or Facebook. By acting responsibly on these networks, you would hope that they are setting an example for other people using the system. But most importantly when using these networks, students learn how to be safe and secure their identities and personal information for predators.
In conclusion, as a result of participating in this activity, I have been educated in the proper behavior and act of communicating responsibly with communities from around the world. If mere high school students can perform well with other cultures, I see no reason for the world leaders of today to not be able to work and resolve conflicts between each other. Otherwise, young people all across the globe communicating with each other may just be the future, in a world where all communities, no matter how diverse, can happily collaborate with each other.
1. Access
2. Communication
3. Literacy
4. Security and Safety
5. Etiquette
6. Rights and Responsibility
7. Law
8. Health and Well-being
9. Commerce
Within these groups, students were split and placed into other groups with students from across the globe. They were assigned their own topic with a sub-topic to research and discuss using Wiki Spaces, an online communicating network. Each student got a grasp on their own individual topic, but also got an understanding of the other topics also. But all this work could have only been achieved by co-operation between group members. We used a number of sources to communicate and improve our responses to the wiki and each other.
One of the most important forms of communication between members was using the online Ning site. This site acted like our own MySpace in the fact that information and messages could be passed onto from one member to the other. Because of this, students could post their responses onto their blog and receive responses of improvements or adjustments. From my own perspective, the Ning helped to communicate or be-friend the other members, but my group personally did not utilize this tool to its potential. Because of this, we referred to another form of communication.
When editing our page on the wiki, we were fortunate to be provided with a discussion tab which allowed us to leave a message after our response. Students merely had to type a message on the discussion tab to notify other team members of a change in the wiki-page. This was useful when wanting feedback for a piece of information you have written.
If we did not receive any feedback from other members, there was still the option of e-mailing the teacher. When students had completed a rough copy of work, e-mailing the teacher was the best option when asking for feedback and any other queries. I found this most useful when needing advice or suggestions for any improvements on the work I had written, whether it was to the wiki page or merely a response to a forum. Because of these suggestions, student’s pieces of work were more precise, clear and knowledgeable.
This type of communication with the teacher was most helpful and insightful. I had posted notes on the discussion tab excepting feedback from my team members, but with no avail. Because of the lack of support from my group, we did not accomplish as much writing as we would have hoped for on our wikispace. The information was good but there was simply not enough of it.
This could have been one way to improve the project. Students should have been posting discussion notes after each edit of the page; this would have made communication a lot easier. Also, the use of the Ning must be improved by future groups if they wish to respond well to their topics.
Another improvement they could have made may be the timing of the project. What I mean by this is the time of year in which the project began. Many schools were either starting the new term or just finishing the school year all together. Many students may have slacked off after receiving their final year reports, thinking that there isn’t any more work o is done by them. Because of this lazy attribute, many of the groups struggling with communicating and collaborating with each other also struggled to edit and publish their research on their topic.
Just like many other schools, our own class was help-up with many school events such as school camp and public holidays. This made it difficult to receive instructions from the teacher towards the following parts of our assignment which involved responses, reflections and finally the Action Plan.
After the wiki pages were completed, each school had to submit an Action Plan. This is basically a form of writing or visual media to represent how we will bring across our knowledge digital citizenship to the general public. The communication during this exercise will be much easier due to the fact that groups are made up of students from the same school. With each school submitting more than one action plan, other schools may view these to help improve their own and make it easier to communicate with the public. This was really the purpose of the Digiteen Project, to work together, considerately and responsibly so that we could find a way to help educate the public about Digital Citizenship.
But it was not just the people being educated, it was also mainly the students, not just knowledgably learning, but the type of learning that can only be achieved by working cross culturally. Being able to collaborate with people from other cultures is not a natural gift, it must be practiced and by participating in the Digiteen Project, students were forced to acknowledge their differences and set them aside by working with one another. Many career paths require the knowledge of operating today’s technology but also being able to co-operatively use it to communicate with other people.
In relation to the student’s social lives, the project taught them how to behave and act while using social networks such as MySpace or Facebook. By acting responsibly on these networks, you would hope that they are setting an example for other people using the system. But most importantly when using these networks, students learn how to be safe and secure their identities and personal information for predators.
In conclusion, as a result of participating in this activity, I have been educated in the proper behavior and act of communicating responsibly with communities from around the world. If mere high school students can perform well with other cultures, I see no reason for the world leaders of today to not be able to work and resolve conflicts between each other. Otherwise, young people all across the globe communicating with each other may just be the future, in a world where all communities, no matter how diverse, can happily collaborate with each other.
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aww, so pretty
05:46
Really creative, and one of the most detailed videos (in a descriptive way).
But some moments were REALLY corny.
Very detailed :)
but it was kind of boring.
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© 2009 Created by Vicki Davis
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