HARLINGEN — “Take only memories, leave only footprints.”
Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes in Washington state is believed to have said these powerful words in his fight for ecological responsibility.
However, more than 150 years later, we live in a world where we must be careful even with our footprints.
Zavala Elementary has been teaching its students about digital responsibility. The lessons have come from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids stay safe while succeeding in a technological world. Because of Zavala’s vigorous efforts to teach its students about appropriate and safe behavior on the Internet, the school has just been named a Common Sense Certified School.
One of the many lessons in the quest for this responsibility is “Creating a Positive Digital Footprint,” said Beatrice Cruz, a fifth grade teacher at Zavala.
“If you are on the Internet, you are going to be posting things that future colleges, future employers will see,” Cruz said to Jonathan Castro. “If you’re applying for school, anything, your digital footprint will stay.”
The children seem to have enjoyed that and the other digital citizenship lessons they’d taken so far. They were vital skills on how to thrive in cyberworld while engaged in the kind of learning they were performing Thursday. They stood or sat in groups of two with their iPads, tapping with their fingers or pencils or shifting things around.
Jonathan and his partner Frank Rivera, both fifth graders, had used the app “Pic Collage” to create a digital project outlining the steps on how to make a ham and cheese sandwich. The assignment targeted multiple skills. One of those skills was to learn how to explain, in precise detail, how to accomplish a task. Another purpose of the project was to reinforce collaboration, while another was to encourage student creativity by providing students with a variety of choices.
They’ve been enjoying the digital citizenship lessons.
“They are really fun and educational,” Jonathan said. “I learned a lot. What’s really important is that they show us how to talk to people if they ask us to provide information. We have to keep that to ourselves.”
Another set of lessons are called “Netiquette,” which is basically good manners online.
“It’s how you address people online,” Cruz said.
Obviously some common courtesies remain whether in the physical world or the cyberworld. And like the physical world, we don’t go around sharing TMI — Too Much Information.
The advice in digital responsibility is “Protect your information.” This is a lesson that is strongly emphasized through the whole program.
“Keep a secret,” says one lesson. “In today’s world, photos, texts, and videos can be posted, copied, forwarded, downloaded, and photoshopped in the blink of an eye. If you think something might embarrass someone, get them in trouble, compromise their privacy, or stir up drama of any kind, keep it to yourself — and maybe delete it for good measure.”
Cruz said she’ll be teaching her students the difference between public and private information. In private information between friends they can use “text talk” such as “UR” instead of “You are.” Publicly, in a professional dialogue, “UR” goes out the window and it’s strictly “You are.”
“That will be in our lessons,” Cruz said. “This is real world, real life scenarios.”
Last names, passwords and Social Security numbers should never be given to anyone except parents.
Abigail Rodriguez, 10, said she enjoyed learning so many things.
“I am learning to use the iPad in different ways,” Abigail said. “We don’t write in our notebooks. We write in our iPads.”
What about cyberbullying, using technology, any technology to pick on a classmate — or someone outside the school?
“Don’t do it,” she said matter-of-factly.
What if someone does it to her?
“Tell a trusted adult,” she said.
The children continued typing away, creating whole worlds with the technology at their fingertips, armed now with the first shipment of armaments to defend themselves against the threats in cyberland. Not only that, they’re understanding responsible use of technology’s Brave New World.
Teaching kids online manners
Lots of kids — and alas, adults — treat the Internet like an anything-goes no-man’s land. That can be part of the fun — within reason.
But when people choose aggressively meanspirited screen names, make spiteful comments, hide behind anonymity to be cruel, send around photos to humiliate others, or just act in a way that would be considered rude in the real world, it creates an environment that doesn’t allow kids to experience the best of what the Web has to offer. The negativity can actually hurt people and harm reputations.
Here are some guidelines to make it a little more civil.
Rules for Online Etiquette
Context is everything. If kids want to have silly online names that conform to the convention of a particular online community and only their friends will see, fine. But for more formal communication — like email addresses, posting comments, or anything to do with school — have them choose a respectable screen name (though not their real name) that they wouldn’t be embarrassed to utter out loud in front of, say, their grandmother.
Double-check before you hit “send.” Could something you wrote be misinterpreted? Is it so littered with slang that it requires a Ph.D. in Urban Dictionary to be understood? Is it rude, mean, or sarcastic? Don’t send it.
Take the high road (but don’t boast about it). Chatting, texting, and status updates are all “in-the-moment” communication. But if there’s an escalating sense of rudeness, sign off. No good will come of firing off a nasty comment. You can always write out a response to get something off your chest … without sending it.
Grammar rules. Rumors of grammar’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. But again, context is key. An IM to a friend can dangle as many participles as you want, but anything more formal — for example, a public online comment or a note to a teacher — should represent your best self. This applies to capital letters, too. By now, everyone knows that writing in all caps means that you’re shouting, but it bears repeating once your kid starts interacting online.
Keep a secret. In today’s world, photos, texts, and videos can be posted, copied, forwarded, downloaded, and Photoshopped in the blink of an eye. If you think something might embarrass someone, get them in trouble, compromise their privacy, or stir up drama of any kind, keep it to yourself — and maybe delete it for good measure.
Don’t hide. For safety’s sake, kids should use untraceable screen names, but using anonymity to cloak your actions can poison the atmosphere — and hurt people. If your kids want to be contributing members of the online world, encourage them to post productively.
Remember the Golden Rule. Don’t say something online that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. And, according to BeyondNetiquette creator Marla Rosner, author of Digital Manners and House Rules for Kids: A Parent Handbook, you can actually take that a step further. If you do have something negative to say, discussing it in person is a better way to resolve your issues.
APPS
PicCollage
Students use a collage of pictures to create their assignments.
Music Memos
http://www.apple.com/music-memos/
Students can download music and use it as background for their assignments.
Pages
Pages is a powerful word processor that lets you create documents that look beautiful and read beautifully.
iMovie
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=imovie+app
Used for video editing on iPads and iPhones.
DreamBox
DreamBox is PreK-8 math solution driven by a technology that’s as unique as the students and educators who need it, love it, and use it to go to the next level.
Hello Crayons
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hello-crayons/id440149103?mt=8
Hello crayon is an easy & fun drawing APP for children. It provides realistic crayons and marker pens.
What is a Digital Citizenship Campus?
By TRAVIS M. WHITEHEAD
Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Cyberbullying — not.
Protect your information.
What happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace — and that’s the opposite of privacy.
Zavala Elementary has just been named a Digital Citizenship Campus for 2016–2017 by Common Sense Media. It is the only campus in Harlingen to do so.
The distinction is the result of teachers and administrators spending long hours teaching students about digital citizenship. The term refers to a variety of behaviors online, from addressing people courteously, not sharing certain types of information, and not engaging in cyberbullying — or tolerating it from others.
Teachers began the year teaching students from kindergarten to fifth grade about digital citizenship. Tanya Garza, principal, used the digital citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Media. The organization has numerous lessons to teach different grade levels.
Erika Galvan, instructional coach, observed the rigorous approach teachers were taking to make their students more tech aware. She submitted the application to become a Digital Citizenship Campus.
“The application asked for exams of students, PDFs, sample lesson plans,” she said.
About a week later the school had been granted the distinction. Everyone is still jubilant over their success. Galvan said she hoped other schools would work toward the designation as well.
The Common Sense website says certified schools indicate administrators and educators are teaching students to be responsible online.
One school in Missouri is quoted as saying the certification has empowered teachers, parents and students to be safer online.
