Since there are no "digital citizenship" teachers and there are very few schools with computer teachers per se, it falls upon the subject matter area teacher to handle what was missed. To ignore it doesn't help the students and to use things like blogs, you tube, wikis, and other technological aids without teaching the students about the dangers and pitfalls is setting them up to get burned.
Many of us may find it annoying that we have to teach this kind of stuff that "isn't in our subject matter." I happen to be one of them. However, like I said above, if we are going to expose them to it then it becomes incumbent on us to make sure we give the students the full picture on the use of technology. This can seem daunting, because of all the technology that is out there, but to balance the massive amount of time that digital citizenship can take up, I would recommend covering the applicable parts based on what piece of technology we are using. If we are going to post original essays on a composer on a blog, I would cover the importance of citing everything not of their own thought, and that they understand that even though their post may be original, if it is based off another copyrighted book, it still could be a violation. The idea is to balance digital citizenship without it taking over the class. Covering the parts of it that directly relate to the piece of technology being used would the best bet.
Violations in our lives are all over the place, many of which I hadn't previously thought of as violations until I read the "10 myths of copyright." Examples are you tube videos of bands covering copyrighted songs and music teachers copying sheet music for use.
One thing we could do to help inform the school community is talk with parents during the open houses they have at the beginning of the year. As part of your discussion mention the pieces of technology being used by the students in your class and give them the same information you ave your students. That way the parents are aware as well. A letter home with the student would work in the same fashion.
Many of us may find it annoying that we have to teach this kind of stuff that "isn't in our subject matter." I happen to be one of them. However, like I said above, if we are going to expose them to it then it becomes incumbent on us to make sure we give the students the full picture on the use of technology. This can seem daunting, because of all the technology that is out there, but to balance the massive amount of time that digital citizenship can take up, I would recommend covering the applicable parts based on what piece of technology we are using. If we are going to post original essays on a composer on a blog, I would cover the importance of citing everything not of their own thought, and that they understand that even though their post may be original, if it is based off another copyrighted book, it still could be a violation. The idea is to balance digital citizenship without it taking over the class. Covering the parts of it that directly relate to the piece of technology being used would the best bet.
Violations in our lives are all over the place, many of which I hadn't previously thought of as violations until I read the "10 myths of copyright." Examples are you tube videos of bands covering copyrighted songs and music teachers copying sheet music for use.
One thing we could do to help inform the school community is talk with parents during the open houses they have at the beginning of the year. As part of your discussion mention the pieces of technology being used by the students in your class and give them the same information you ave your students. That way the parents are aware as well. A letter home with the student would work in the same fashion.
I like how you gave an example of how we can include digital citizenship in our classrooms. I agree with you in that the best way to expose students to it is to teach it as we get to it. If every teacher were to do this a lot of material would be covered.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It can be a bit annoying a music teacher to have to teach students about "digital citizenship". It's imperative that students learn theses things. Hopefully, schools and administration will realize the importance of learning these skills and make an effort to create seperate, mandatory technology classes for all students. Until then however, we are stuck teaching these skills to our students even though they might not have immediate pertinence to the subject matter that we teach.
ReplyDeleteI think your absolutely correct in finding the balance of teaching digital citizenship without it taking over the class. I personally think that by modeling good digital citizenship from an early age by the time students are participants in the digital word they will need little time to learn the proper etiquette.
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