Toward the end of last school year I e-mailed my future co-teacher in Busan and asked her if it would be possible for our students to have their own individual Gmail accounts. Within a few days I heard back from her and said that yes they would set it up and that we no longer have IT classes but instead an ICT facilitator. I was thrilled but was incredibly busy packing up my life in Tokyo to start seriously thinking about what the implications would be for this.
When I arrived in Busan I had a rough vision of where I wanted to take the students and what I needed them to do learn in order to get there. However, after having the students read the ICT Policy and realizing that they did not understand it, I knew the plan had to be modified. I immediately put out a call on Twitter for a list of resources that I could use to get the students to analyze and create their own digital citizenship policy which demonstrates an understanding of how to conduct oneself appropriately and safely online. After discussions with my co-workers we decided on the following plan of action to introduce the students to both Google Apps and Digital Citizenship.
Introduction:
During introductory lessons, students were asked to explore the Webonauts web-site and Professor Garfield’s Digital Citizenship guide. After the students explored these sites we had a brief discussion on Digital Citizenship and they demonstrated through their responses that they had understood the information on these sites.
Gmail and Google Apps:
Over the past few weeks we have been introducing our students to the various aspects of Google Apps. Currently we have gone over Gmail and Calendar. Over the next few weeks we will be introducing the students to Google Docs and how to work collaboratively. In order to help students understand the various features of Gmail and Google Apps, I created some video demos and uploaded them onto my Vimeo site.
When I arrived in Busan I had a rough vision of where I wanted to take the students and what I needed them to do learn in order to get there. However, after having the students read the ICT Policy and realizing that they did not understand it, I knew the plan had to be modified. I immediately put out a call on Twitter for a list of resources that I could use to get the students to analyze and create their own digital citizenship policy which demonstrates an understanding of how to conduct oneself appropriately and safely online. After discussions with my co-workers we decided on the following plan of action to introduce the students to both Google Apps and Digital Citizenship.
Introduction:
During introductory lessons, students were asked to explore the Webonauts web-site and Professor Garfield’s Digital Citizenship guide. After the students explored these sites we had a brief discussion on Digital Citizenship and they demonstrated through their responses that they had understood the information on these sites.
Gmail and Google Apps:
Over the past few weeks we have been introducing our students to the various aspects of Google Apps. Currently we have gone over Gmail and Calendar. Over the next few weeks we will be introducing the students to Google Docs and how to work collaboratively. In order to help students understand the various features of Gmail and Google Apps, I created some video demos and uploaded them onto my Vimeo site.
Archiving from Brendan Lea on Vimeo.
Digital Citizenship:
Currently we have requested that the students only communicate with others in the class and have reminded them that if there is any issue to let us know. Our goal is to have the students work together in groups to research and work together to form specialty groups and by the end of it create their own digital citizenship policy and awareness campaign for the school. (Embed Assessment task information). Once the students have a detailed understanding of Digital Citizenship, we hope to open up our classrooms to begin working collaboratively with other schools.
So far this has been a long road of preparation but one that I feel will pay off in the end. It is interesting to watch students learn how to efficiently manage their information and I can’t wait until they learn how to create documents on Google Docs and work collaboratively together to create a project.. This process and journey will be one of the main features in my COETAIL Course 5 presentation.
Currently we have requested that the students only communicate with others in the class and have reminded them that if there is any issue to let us know. Our goal is to have the students work together in groups to research and work together to form specialty groups and by the end of it create their own digital citizenship policy and awareness campaign for the school. (Embed Assessment task information). Once the students have a detailed understanding of Digital Citizenship, we hope to open up our classrooms to begin working collaboratively with other schools.
So far this has been a long road of preparation but one that I feel will pay off in the end. It is interesting to watch students learn how to efficiently manage their information and I can’t wait until they learn how to create documents on Google Docs and work collaboratively together to create a project.. This process and journey will be one of the main features in my COETAIL Course 5 presentation.
Credits
Archiving by Brendan Lea, uploaded to Vimeo, Creative Commons Licensed
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