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Digital LiteracyGood TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

Another New Infographic Tool: Icograms Designer

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Infographic tools are a great resource for teachers and students. Both can use them to capture complex concepts in pictorial form. In this blog entry, let’s explore a new infographic tool.

“Infographics use imagery to highlight, explain, or enhance text-based information” (source).

The Research Connection

First, let’s revisit why infographics are so powerful. As a surface learning strategy, imagery (d=0.51) accelerates student learning. It does this because it combines images (such as graphs, diagrams) with textual information. Infographics can serve K-12 education in many ways. Some of those include:

  • Illustrating a historical timeline
  • Emphasizing significant statistics
  • Focusing on a topic or issue of interest

There are several more ways infographics can work in the classroom. Here’s one example built around writing a research paper:
icogram

Infographic Tools

icogram

Wondering how to make infographics? You may be reaching for Canva, Google Slides (or MS PowerPoint), or Google Drawings. These are all powerful tools for creating infographics. You may already know about these below from the Infographics Made Simple (IMS) resource I have shared before.

Video Infographic Makers

Infographic Design Tools

This long list may leave you thinking, “Ok, I can do it all with these.” But wait, there’s one more. With infographics, you can never have too much of a good thing. So here’s another great tool to add to your tool belt: IcoGrams Designer

Does Icograms Have Templates?

Icograms Designer, like other infographic tools, enjoys an abundance of templates. Use these to start with or adapt for your own purposes. If you enjoyed building things in SimCity, then Icograms Designer will bring back fond memories.

icogram

How Does the Icograms Designer Work?

To start with, Icograms lacks the infographic design tools like the others. It opens to a plain screen with a big box. Into that box, you can click-and-drag all sorts of icons. You can save your infographic to PNG or JPG image formats without creating an account, which is a big plus.

If you want to save your icogram so you can work on it again, though, you will need an account. Upgrade your Icograms account, and you can save to SVG image format as well. See pricing options.

How Much Does It Cost?

icogramThe Basic account, which is free, offers more than 3,050 icons, 390 templates, and lets you save eight designs. It requires attribution and imposes these limits:

  • All of the Stock Icons and Icograms Templates remain the property of Icograms.
  • You must put a backlink with credits to icograms.com. It can be a part of the image and/or a part of the description.

Also, the IcoGrams license does not allow the following uses:

  • The Media may not be used in commercial project;
  • The Media may not be sold, sublicensed, rented or transferred;
  • The Media may not be modified in shape and/or color;
  • Icograms copyright, logo and credits may not be removed, if exist;
  • The Media may not be used to create pornographic, libelous, obscene, or defamatory material.

The Pro and Expert licenses are a bit more permissive, but costs (billed annually) range from $14.25 to $25.50. Little or no provision is granted for educator pricing. That said, the Basic level account offers use of non-commercial projects, as indicated below:

The Media can be used by You for any number of personal and/or non-commercial projects including social post, web design, web application, software application, mobile application, documentation, presentation, computer game, gui design, advertisement, illustration, video, school and university projects for You without having to pay additional licensing fees.

This makes it a worthwhile tool for use in K-12 education, as well as university level.

Creating Your IcoGrams Design

icogramCreating an icogram is really a matter of design and time. You will find a variety of icons ready to use. Some of the categories include:

  • City Basic
  • Sport
  • Farm
  • Supermarket
  • Warehouse
  • Logistics
  • Construction

This is a wonderful tool that should appeal to students and teachers.

Infographics for Students

The power of icograms is that it allows us to merge images with text and numbers, which is something that students need to practice and learn. What images might students use to convey an idea? What conclusions could they capture in the icogram design? And what learning will they walk away with just from using this simple, powerful tool?

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author via Icograms

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legislative priorities
AdvocacyCTO/CIODigital LiteracyFundingLeadership

TCEA’s 2021 Legislative Priorities (Part 2)

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

Last week, we took a look at some of TCEA’s legislative priorities for the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature. This week, we explore digital learning topics and policies.

Legislative Priorities for Digital Learning

Technology Planning

legislative priorities

Technology is ubiquitous in our society. Almost every aspect of our day is powered by technology. This is true for a school district as well. This has required many districts to quickly adapt as they strive to find personnel that have the level of technical expertise that is required to support sophisticated networks, teachers who can leverage technology to support student learning, and staff with the skills to analyze data that was once only needed in the corporate world. The network and equipment these staff members need must also be purchased and maintained in a safe and secure environment. All of this must be accomplished with limited funds. But none of this is possible without careful planning. Currently, Texas school districts are not required to create, follow, or update a technology plan.

Teacher Readiness

In a recent report written by Common Sense Media, it was noted that 56% of teachers felt that lack of training is a “significant or extremely significant problem.” The quick pivot to remote learning was taxing on many teachers. They were unprepared to adapt to the demands of knowing how to use the conferencing platforms, but also how to integrate the technology tools within their pedagogy and their content. In 2011, when districts lost the Technology Allotment, many schools disbanded their instructional technology training teams. These districts had used their Technology Allotment funding to pay for personnel to train their teachers. When that resource was eliminated, so were those positions. We are still reaping some of the consequences of the loss of that dedicated technology funding. 

legislative priorities

Digital Literacy

There is a mistaken assumption that since most children and teenagers have a smartphone, they must be digitally literate. Knowing how to use a consumer product and how to utilize digital technology for work and learning are two separate skill sets. The digital literacy skills that students need today are complex and require not only access to a variety of technologies, but also instruction and guidance in how to leverage digital resources in order to research, create, analyze, curate, and collaborate as they are acquiring new knowledge and skills. At the same time, they need to be taught how to protect themselves and their data since much of their life will be lived online. 

Technical Support

legislative priorities

School districts often have the largest and most sophisticated networks within a community. These networks must support the growing technical demands of the school district while protecting the student and staff personal information from cybersecurity attacks. These networks and the digital devices that access the networks require technical staff that can keep up with the demands of a large scale deployment of devices. They are often understaffed and underpaid, but they are committed to the core mission of the school district. These dedicated personnel are managing complicated networks and face many security challenges. Keeping them trained and staffed at a level that is manageable is a challenge. It requires funding for technical equipment, salaries, and training to provide the level of support required to ensure the technology is always available and is safe to use. 

Recommendations to address the various components of digital learning:

In the 85th Legislature, SB 810 required the SBOE to update the Long Range Plan for Technology at least every five years. The SBOE updated the plan and added it to the appendix of the Long Range Plan for Education in 2018. The Texas Education Agency brought together a group of stakeholders together to reimagine what is possible if we utilize technology within our educational environment. TEA then took this group’s ideas and built a plan that, if enacted, would address the barriers identified by TCEA. 

The plan has already been developed and approved. To address the barriers of digital learning, the state now needs to implement the plan. Below is a list of actions we believe the Texas Education Agency and the ESC’s should do to assist districts in implementing the Long Range Plan for Technology (LRPT). 

  • The Texas legislature should provide appropriate funding to accomplish the goals and strategies in the LRPT. These funds would support the following activities: 
    • Create a task force made up of district and state stakeholders to establish benchmarks that districts can use to measure their progress in implementing the LRPT. 
    • Require districts to write and adopt a three-year technology plan that demonstrates how they will align their district’s goals with the LRPT. 
    • Establish a Digital Teaching and Learning grant that districts can use to implement their technology plans once they are approved by the state. These grants should be available for all districts that submit an approved plan. 
    • TEA, ESC’s, and educational technology nonprofits should provide districts with support as they implement their plans. This could be in the form of, but not limited to: 
      • Technical support and advice
      • Professional development for both administrators and teachers
      • Workshops on best practices for implementing digital instructional materials 
      • Technology planning advice
      • Exemplar districts who exhibit best practices are identified so that other districts could contact and visit them. 
  • The Texas legislature should also: 
    • Replace the outdated time-based system (Carnegie unit) of awarding credits and funding with one that is based on a student’s competency.
    • Allow school districts to create their own full-time or part-time TxVSN school, if only within their own district boundaries. 

In Conclusion

After reviewing our legislative priorities, you can see why we see 140 days as the biggest barrier to making these priorities a reality. Our enemy is the clock, not our policies. Throw in a pandemic that has negatively affected the state budget and will decrease our access to legislators and their staff members and you can see why it is imperative that we focus on a few of our major priorities. Broadband has been a priority of TCEA’s for more than eight years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the chances that it will also be a priority of the Texas legislature. We are hopeful that some meaningful legislation will be passed on broadband policy.

We will look for ways to move all of our legislative priorities forward, but the clock, the budget, and access will make this a difficult session. If you are interested in following our progress and you are a member of TCEA, be sure and join the Advocacy group in the TCEA Community. If you are not a member, consider joining and/or come back to the blog for updates and check out my Twitter feed @jbergland. And finally, if you want to get more involved in TCEA’s advocacy efforts, email me at jbergland@tcea.org.

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legislative priorities
AdvocacyDigital LiteracyFundingLeadership

TCEA’s 2021 Legislative Priorities (Part 1)

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

Those who eat, breathe, and sleep politics in Texas know that January 12th is an important day. This is the day that the 87th Texas Legislature will begin their work and all of the various groups that engage in the act of persuading the legislature to adopt their legislative priorities kick into high gear as well. As the Director of Government Relations for TCEA, I have the privilege of representing more than 57,000 educators’ interests at the Texas Capitol.

I know not all of our members are from Texas, but the vast majority are. And even if you aren’t living in Texas, but you are an ed tech enthusiast, rest assured that our efforts in Texas play an important role in influencing what happens in other states, just as other states’ laws and policies influence Texas. The U.S. Constitution has established that education policy is delegated to the states. The only reason the U.S. government has any influence over public schools is that they provide some financial support for educating our children. If states want the money, they must follow the federal guidelines. However, the vast majority of education decisions are made at the state level. 

Our Legislative Priorities

Every two years, the TCEA Board of Directors establishes the legislative priorities for TCEA. The reason this is done every two years is because the Texas legislature meets for 140 days every two years. That’s right, they only have 140 days every other year to create and pass a budget and any new laws. Our board establishes our legislative priorities that will help guide the association’s actions during the Texas legislative session, but also throughout the rest of the biennium since part of the process includes implementing any new laws that get passed during the session. 

TCEA has been actively monitoring and advocating to remove or diminish the barriers to digital learning for many years. And while the COVID-19 pandemic surely exacerbated and drew more attention to these barriers, the problems themselves have remained the same. Many Texas districts have been working over the years to provide their students with digital resources that enable them to learn anytime and anywhere. The districts who have been moving in this direction through strategic planning, resource allocation, and preparing their personnel for the shift from print to digital were far more prepared to be able to make the necessary adjustments during the pandemic. Those who had not have struggled. Part of their struggle was due to circumstances beyond their control, but with planning and preparation, many of these obstacles can be overcome. After review, the board has made the following recommendations for the upcoming legislative session. 

Broadband Access

COVID has made it obvious to all that many Texas students do not have adequate access at home. This was a barrier even before the pandemic, but the pandemic has highlighted the inequities that these families face. Broadband is not a luxury anymore. It is as much a necessity as basic electrical service. Without broadband, many students and some teachers have not been able to access the remote learning opportunities that many other Texas students have utilized to continue learning from home. It is important to note that these students who do not have access at home need this access even when they are able to go to school. Anytime, anywhere learning relies on access to resources regardless if the student is at home or at school. It is imperative that Texas provide the leadership that is necessary to solve the disparities in broadband access across the state. 

Recommendations to address the barriers for affordable and scalable broadband:

  • Establish an office to coordinate the efforts to provide broadband access to all Texans. 
  • Create a broadband plan that will guide the efforts of local and state agencies as they strive to provide affordable and scalable broadband for both rural and urban areas of the state. 
  • Improve the accuracy of the broadband mapping data by requiring a process to verify this data. 
  • Determine how to fund the installation of this vital infrastructure. 
  • Include broadband infrastructure projects in the list of eligible projects for public private partnership funding.  
  • Ensure that cities have the ability to provide this service if it is the best solution for their citizens. 

Technology and Instructional Materials Allotment

The TIMA is intended to be a dual-purpose fund to support the purchase of instructional materials and technology. However, districts have very little discretion on how to use the TIMA due to the size of the textbook proclamations and the sharp increase in the cost of instructional materials. 

In a recent survey conducted by TCEA, 50% of the districts that responded indicated they rarely, if ever, used the TIMA for technology. The respondents said that the cost of instructional materials increased in direct correlation to the size of the allotment, leaving little, if no money for technology equipment, support, or professional development. They also indicated that if there are remaining funds in the TIMA at the end of a biennium, instead of using those funds for technology, those funds are saved for the next biennium’s proclamations. 

Most districts do not view the TIMA as a source for technology funding. According to our survey, 61% of the districts rarely, if ever, include technology personnel in the discussions on the use of the TIMA. Therefore, it is obvious that the TIMA is not effective in providing funding for both instructional materials and technology under its current structure. 

Recommendations to address the barriers preventing the TIMA from functioning as planned:

  • Remove the requirement to purchase all instructional materials before a district can purchase technology. 
  • Require TEA to provide more assistance in helping districts learn how to leverage this allotment to align their goals with the state’s Long Range Plan for Technology. 
  • Require the SBOE to limit the size of the proclamations to no more than 75% of the expected distribution as stipulated in HB 663 in the 86th Legislature. 
  • Stipulate that a certain percentage of the TIMA be used by districts for technology purchases. This could be determined by the legislature or the commissioner. 

Next week, we’ll explore more of TCEA’s legislative priorities, focusing on digital learning.

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CybersecurityDigital Literacy

Three Easy Strategies for Computer Security

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

November is a big month for computer security. The 30th happens to be National Computer Security Day, a nice reminder for students to reflect on their “digital hygiene” and assess what might be going well and where improvements could be made. If not reminded, students may forget that they should back up their electronic devices, run antivirus programs, and watch out for any suspicious websites they may come across regularly. This is especially important if they are using loaned or borrowed equipment for extended periods of time from their schools.

Some students may feel confused when it comes to protecting their laptops and devices, but there are some easy strategies educators can implement, whether teaching in person or virtually, to help their learners feel empowered and safe online. There are plenty of computer security tools available that offer a variety of benefits and fit most budgets, so it is important to assess what exactly your students’ needs are within the classroom environment to make the best decision for you.

Download a Password Manager

Generally speaking, the more services that are offered online means the more online accounts one has to make in order to use those services. More online accounts means there are more passwords to remember, and most people default to using different variations of the same password because it is easier to remember. Although convenient, this poses a security risk. If there was ever a data breach, your password could be used by a hacker to log into your other accounts and steal sensitive information.

On the other hand, some people are good at creating unique passwords, but are bad at remembering them. A common way this is dealt with is either by writing each unique account down on paper or on a note-taking app on a frequently-used device. Paper is the preferred method here, as an electronic copy of all your private information could easily be deleted or corrupted, but paper can just as easily be thrown out or discarded by accident as well.

To prevent either scenario from happening, there are programs called password managers that you can download which store your information in one easy place on your laptop or computer. This is a great tool for students because they may forget what they set their passwords to, and a password manager can easily find and populate your account information into login screens.  

Install a Firewall

Securing your digital accounts is a great step in the right direction for digital hygiene. Next, you might want to take a look at your computer’s network security. Most computers offer some type of malware protection as an add-on when it is first purchased, but it is a good idea to check your computer to see if you have protection or if it may be expired.

If you discover that most of the classroom computers don’t have adequate protection, consider investing in a next-gen firewall program. Firewall technology can detect potential threats in web traffic before they reach your system, which is definitely an advantage if you’re teaching full classes, virtually or in person. The added security of advanced systems may not be the first thing administrators would want to consider spending their budgets on, but it will surely be worth the money saved on potential cyberattacks as schools continue to navigate learning from home. Alternatively, there are a few cheap or free options for securing data.

Purchase a Webcam Covering

One of the easiest ways to make an immediate impact to your personal security on your device is to buy a cover for your webcam. In the current Zoom Era, video conference meetings are the so-called new normal, and it might be worth having manual control over who can and cannot see you. 

Although you can turn your front-facing camera off in your settings, it might be worth it to place a physical covering over the camera when you are done with meetings for the day. It can give parents peace of mind knowing that their families aren’t being watched if they are at risk of a cyberthreat, and it also adds another layer of protection against potentially awkward Zoom mishaps.

The end of November marks the beginning of the festive holiday season which is going to be celebrated very differently this year than years before. Families will be relying on their tech devices working properly now more than ever to help spread the merry spirit, and viruses are going to be the last thing on everyone’s minds. To help the holidays run a bit more smoothly this year, consider using one or two of these strategies and tools to help keep everyone’s spirits bright.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

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Coding/Computer ScienceContent AreasCybersecurityDigital LiteracyGood TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Thanksgiving Resources, Names, Templates, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I’m back with even more cool websites, neat ideas, and other ed tech innovations in this blog. If you missed the previous six, be sure to search our blog site for them. They are packed with tools to use immediately.

Thanksgiving Resources

Julie Smith offers a writing activity called Turkey Texts that can be completed in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Students create a text message conversation between a turkey and any person or character of their choice. Two different templates are provided: five texting bubbles or six texting bubbles. Whichever is chosen, students will have to plan out their conversation to fit the pertinent information in.

There is also a great Scratch coding lesson called Hide the Turkey! The lesson is simple enough for beginner coders, but also provides some growth room for those already very familiar with the language.

The Importance of Saying Students’ Names

tips and tricks

Recent research has shown that hearing our own name makes our brains ecstatic and causes some parts of the brain to light up. But this only happens when we hear our own name, not any other name. This shows how important it is for teachers to say their students’ names as often as we can and to make sure that we are pronouncing them correctly when we do say them.

Word Time Traveler

Take your high school students on a trip through time as they try to guess when a particular word first began to be used. Merriam-Webster offers this free website that shows the new English words and what year they first appeared. The information is kept all the way back to before the 12th century. An easy activity to get them started with this is to ask them what new words they think appeared this year (2020).

Greeting Card Time

The amazing Jennifer Wagner has, for over a decade, run a free world-wide activity called the Holiday Card Project. Students create their own holiday card around a theme. The project is open to all PreK-6th grade classes. If you have older students who would enjoy this activity (and who wouldn’t?), then you can offer the same activity yourself for your classes, your campus, or your district.

More Google Slides Templates

You can never have enough templates, and these, designed specifically for teachers, are fantastic. There are 25 of them to freely download from alphabet learning games to breakout rooms, Harry Potter themes to letter writing slides. You’re bound to find some you can’t live without.

If you’d like to jazz up your teaching (or faculty meetings) with some fun sounds, check out the Teacher Soundboard. Twenty different short sound effects are already set up for you on this Google Slide, all ready to be used.

For those doing station rotations, here’s a very nice template created by Stephanie DeMichele. It can be downloaded for either Google Slides or PowerPoint and includes a spot where you can add an audio message to your students.

tips and tricks

Creating Groups in Zoom

The ability to have students break out into small groups for collaboration or discussion is one of the many fabulous things about using Zoom. But creating those rooms can be difficult. Here are some easy-to-understand directions for intentionally creating groups quickly.

News Literacy Practice

Teaching students (and adults) to be able to tell fact from fiction is critical these days. Checkology – The News Literacy Project helps you do just that. The project offers several resources and services for educators, including an online learning platform, a free weekly newsletter, professional development opportunities, a variety of classroom materials, and more. It’s free for educators and students, but does require that the teacher create a free account.

How Safe Is Your Password?

The graphic below shows how long it will take for a hacker to crack your password and what you can do to make it stronger. This is also good to share with your older students.

tips and tricks

How Technology Supports Relationships Between Teachers and Students

This article by Kevin Baird has some incredibly important points to make about how technology can be used to build and support relationships between teachers and their students. As he says, “Researcher John Hattie’s work into Visible Learning found that combined teacher self-confidence and student self-confidence are among the most critical factors for learning. ” What helps to create that is when teachers are fluent in the use of a focused technology tool such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom or Google Classroom. Be sure to read the article to see how you can implement this in your classroom.

I’ll be back in another week or so with more tips and tricks. See you then!

More Thanksgiving Resources

Ready-to-Use Thanksgiving Resources

Give Thanks with Google Forms

Gratitude Activities for You and Your Students

Native American Heritage Day

Gratitude Towers for Social-Emotional Learning

The Gobble Gobble Breakout

Thanksgiving Digital Resources

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data privacy
CTO/CIOCybersecurityDigital Literacy

Addressing Data Privacy in a Time of Online Learning

by Rachel Jane, Guest Author
written by Rachel Jane, Guest Author

With October designated as cybersecurity awareness month, there’s a great deal to focus on. Indeed, the argument can be made that the conditions we’re living through in 2020 have brought cybersecurity to the forefront of people’s attention more than ever before. With more people working, teaching, and learning remotely, we are simply relying more on technology — and navigating all of the risks that come with that reliance.

This set of circumstances can open up all sorts of interesting and important conversations. In this one though, we’re going to look specifically at some ways to address and protect data privacy in an online learning environment. For teachers, school administrators, parents, and students alike, it’s important to keep data privacy in mind. And the following tips and ideas can help with that effort.

Take Advantage of Encrypted Ed Tech

The term “encrypted ed tech” would have sounded obscure, to say the least, just a year ago. Now, however, it’s something more school systems are looking into as a means of making sure that the vast troves of data changing hands in remote learning environments are protected. Naturally, it’s already expected that teachers, students, and administrators will take basic security precautions when handing this data — device passwords, good judgment, and so on. But encryption can add another layer of data security.

The idea of endpoint encryption for data protection is simply that information changing hands — between students and teachers, teachers and administrators, and so on — is encrypted within ed tech programs. This all but eliminates the possibility of data being intercepted or improperly exposed in the course of its transfer and storage, thus protecting the privacy of all involved.

Use Well-Made Devices

Much of the focus in ed tech and remote learning concerns software tools, but plenty of teachers and students are also working with devices more frequently — from laptops and tablets to mobile phones, and even smart speakers and voice assistants. By and large, these devices don’t pose many privacy risks people aren’t aware of. They can be protected against through passwords, encryption, secure network usage, and standard precautions. But more dependence on devices also means that the devices themselves have to be well made and secure.

Ultimately, more goes into the security of modern devices than most of us take the time to recognize. It begins with the internal printed circuit board, which is basically the instrument through which electric signals are passed. Once upon a time, these were relatively standardized, but today, the thickness of a printed circuit board and the style of its design can help to make it more secure and durable, even if it’s facilitating complex connections. By a somewhat similar token, a robust and modern battery is also a necessity. A weak or unreliable battery can easily overheat or die out quickly where modern device usage is concerned. And in fact, the same goes for an internal processing chip.

These internal electrical and mechanical concerns have more to do with security than privacy. Inadequate parts can make it all the more likely that a device in heavy, day-to-day use will break down or malfunction in such a way as to compromise student or teacher data. For that reason, even though they can be more expensive, well-made, and reputable devices are best whenever it’s possible to obtain and use them.

Adopt Cloud Storage

This is something a lot of schools and school systems have already done or looked into, and fortunately, in 2020, the idea of cloud storage is fairly ordinary. But it is still something that should be considered with specific regard to data privacy in online learning situations. Cloud networks are designed in some cases to be both more accessible and more secure than local storage, making them excellent choices for the storage of class-related data. Additionally, cloud storage can be backed up on a regular basis so that even a perfectly innocent system or device failure won’t result in the loss of saved data.

Specifics can change according to a schooling situation, but generally now would be a wise time to set up cloud environments that teachers, parents, and students can all access, so that all relevant data can be kept in a reliable digital location (ideally with tiers of access or separate folders for different purposes).

Be Transparent About New Tools and Processes

The final point is that it’s also important for all involved to be open, transparent, and communicative about new tools and processes that are being implemented to assist with remote learning.

Between communication programs, storage options, digital learning tools, and devices, there can be a lot for people to get used to as they adjust to remote learning. This is all well and good, but it also poses a challenge. Anyone using an unfamiliar system or tool without full knowledge of how to use it can make himself vulnerable to data breaches unwittingly. Thus, it’s important that when new tools and processes come up, there is open and thorough dialogue about how to use them, and how to do so in a way that protects privacy.

Photo via Pexels

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digital citizenship week
CybersecurityDigital Literacy

It’s Digital Citizenship Week

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

Civics classes can help students learn their rights, privileges, and duties as a part of a larger society. For that reason, we include civics in most education programs. But today, being a positive part of society includes not only our words, actions, and behaviors in “the real world” — but those online as well.

Helping anyone, including students, understand the potential and potential dangers of the online world can be tough. Luckily, many are working on spreading awareness of what it takes to be a good digital citizen.

Defining Digital Citizenship

It’s all about staying safe while staying connected and understanding the realities of the digital world that we spend so much of our time in. Being aware of one’s actions online is a lot like our behavior in face-to-face society. That is, a good citizen should also be a good digital citizen.

With so many aspects of our lives online — no less now because of restrictions to gatherings — from banking to schooling, it’s important to consider our digital behaviors, and for educators to help learners understand the potential and potential pitfalls of the connected life.

Here’s a simple, memorable definition:

“The quality of habits, actions, and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities.”

Terry Heick, https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/

Virtual Library offers this definition: 

Digital citizenship can be defined as engaging in appropriate and responsible behaviour when using technology.

It encompasses digital literacy, ethics, etiquette, online safety, norms, rights, culture and more.

A digital citizen is one who knows what is right and wrong, exhibits intelligent technology behavior, and makes good choices when using technology.

https://www.virtuallibrary.info/digital-citizenship.html

Good digital literacy could include using strong passwords and password managers, understanding our personal online “brand,” and ensuring that our actions and words online are safe and secure, and that privacy is maintained, especially for students. 

Defining the Event

Digital Citizenship Week is designed to promote awareness of sound digital literacy habits and inspire best practices in organizations and individuals. That means sharing ways to interact safely online. This year, it is observed October 19–23. 

Common Sense Education is sharing events you can take part in to better understand your role as a good digital citizen.

  • Digital Citizenship and Supporting Young People’s Lives Online (RSVP)
  • Helping Kids Use Social Media Responsibly: An Educator’s Guide to “Social Media TestDrive” (RSVP)
  • Workshop for Educators: Digital Citizenship and Supporting Young People’s Lives Online (RSVP)
  • And more!

You can also check out a planning calendar, activities organized by age and grade, and many other resources. 

More from TechNotes

Looking for more ways to understand this topic, and inform your students (and staff, educators, and families) about staying smart online? Check out more digital literacy resources from TCEA below, and don’t forget to share your ideas in the comments!

More Digital Citizenship Week Links

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smartphones
Digital LiteracyEducational Trends

Tips for Integrating Smartphones into Lesson Plans

by Luke Smith, Guest Author
written by Luke Smith, Guest Author

Let’s face it: Teaching changed significantly in 2020 thanks to COVID-19. And it may be a while before things get back to normal. Now, as teachers, students, and parents make their through the fall semester, a lot of questions remain unanswered.

Whether your school has chosen to reopen its doors, experiment with a hybrid model, or remain fully online, the order of the day will undoubtedly be adaptability. Welcoming your students to the fall semester, no matter if you’re doing it face-to-face or virtually, is going to require some improvisation, at least for the time being. 

If your school has reopened, you’ll need to engage with your students while adhering to social distancing and other health guidelines, and that’s going to make even the most familiar and inviting classroom feel strange, and perhaps uncomfortable, at least for a while.

And if you’re teaching remotely or in a hybrid model, you’re going to have to figure out the best strategies to optimize your students’ learning at a distance.

A Tool in the Palm of Your Hands

But there’s good news because now teachers have more tools than ever to provide their students with the most enriching and inspiring learning experience possible, regardless whether your students are in the room with you or connected to you only in cyberspace. Best of all, it doesn’t require a multimillion-dollar technology investment or a degree in computer science from MIT to make it work.

Perhaps your best tool is right there in the palm of your students’ hands (or hiding in their bags): the ubiquitous smartphone. 

Why the Smartphone?

Life in the new normal of coronavirus has not only changed the ways we work and learn, but also how we interact with one another, even our closest friends and family. That not only takes a significant mental and emotional toll on us all, but it can also be profoundly detrimental to student learning.   

Anyone who’s spent any time in a classroom will understand why. Students aren’t just empty vessels you pour information into. They need engagement and interaction. And Bandura’s Social Learning Theory explains why. Bandura, a psychologist, says learning is a deeply social activity. That is, students learn from and through one another. 

Getting Engagement

Engagement with other students, with the teacher, and with the external world around them enables the acquisition of information. Even more importantly, however, it helps students to absorb the information and transform the material into something useful, something they can apply. Students learn best via collaboration. Often, the more chances for interaction, the better, whether virtual or in person.

For instance, if students are learning about gravity, speed, and velocity by dropping an egg without breaking it, they’ll learn best by watching their peers and seeing what worked and didn’t work. They’ll see a friend’s egg broke when it was wrapped only in tissue, so they’ll try bubble wrap. Then other students watching will see the wrap worked better, but not perfectly, so perhaps they’ll try wrapping the egg in bubble wrap and putting it in a box. And so on, student’s understanding growing with every attempt they observe or engage in. Smartphones give us another tool to engage in this kind of learning.

Social Connections (Even While Social Distancing)

In the age of COVID, though, the social aspects of learning are sometimes in danger of being lost, or at least significantly changed, even when students are together with their teachers in a physical classroom. Smartphones, however, can help to bridge that critical gap, providing the interactivity, engagement, and collaboration that social distancing guidelines might otherwise undercut.

Here are some strategies for using smartphones to restore the sociability of the socially distanced classroom, whether you’re online, in person, or both.

1. Calm, Cool, and Connected

Even if your school has reopened for regular or hybrid courses, chances are you will have at least a few students who will be learning remotely, either because of their own pre-existing conditions or those of someone in the household. So one of the first and best uses of smartphone technologies is to help your students stay connected with you and their peers, even if they don’t have access to broadband at home, by using their smartphone connection. 

2. Schoolhouse Here, There, and Everywhere

Smartphone apps can help your students download written texts and videos, as well as create documents and securely submit assignments via various free and low-cost apps such as LibreOffice. You can even livestream your classroom to your students’ smartphones on a secure server through an app like Zoom, Facebook Live, or Google Meet. That way, no student needs to miss a moment of the action!

3. Get Outside

Another terrific way to engage your students, both in person and online, is to incorporate geocaching into your lesson plans. If you’ve not yet heard of geocaching, you’re about to fall in love, because geocaching is a fantastic way to teach a range of skills from math, geography, and Earth science to reading, critical thinking, and creative problem solving.

Basically, geocaching is a treasure hunt on steroids. And it’s endlessly customizable. If you’re teaching in the classroom, you can geocache in the school’s playground or even in the classroom itself! Additionally, if you’re teaching remotely, geocaching is a fantastic way to get your students, with their families, safely outside, such as in a local park.

4. I Get By With a Little Help … 

As exciting as these tools may be, perhaps the greatest benefit of the smartphone in the classroom, both digital and live, is that the smartphone puts an entire world of information at your students’ fingertips. Not only that, but your students can use their phones not just to acquire information, but also to test their knowledge through tools such as Quizlet. 

You can share content you want your students to explore directly to their smartphones. You can also create assignments that require them to do their own research. You can even lead them in real time through searches to help them answer questions, look up information, and, in the process, learn important lessons about digital information literacy.

Best of all, with tools like Poll Everywhere, you can receive real-time feedback from student questions to polled responses, no matter whether your students are online, on the ground, or both. This allows you to gauge students’ reactions to the presentation and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The Takeaway about Smartphones

Teaching in 2020 is a whole different world than it was just one year ago. Fortunately, teachers have the opportunity to leverage technologies that are likely already in students’ hands to support their learning. With a bit of strategy and a lot of creativity, you can use smartphone technologies to give your students an unsurpassed learning experience, whether they’re learning in the classroom or from home.

Photo via Pixabay.

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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Fire Safety, Halloween, Hybrid Learning, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I’ve discovered some really cool tech tools and tips to share with you this week, including a couple of must-see ones for fall. So let’s dive right in.

Fire Safety and Prevention Resources

This site offers lots of fun resources for elementary students about Fire Prevention Week (October 4-10, 2020) and fire safety. It includes two different ebooks, choice boards, videos, and more.

Halloween Scratch Lesson: Spooky Clones

This cute lesson plan for upper elementary to middle school students includes an opening video for engagement and then four lessons to help students create a “scary” game. Note: You must request the lessons via email from the creator (form included in the website).

Six Requirements for Successful Hybrid Learning

Mark Anderson, the ICTEvengelist, shared what has to be in place in order for hybrid teaching and learning to be successful. If any one of the eight items below are missing, then failure may result. How are you making sure to provide all of these if you or your teachers are leading hybrid teaching?

tips

Noise Canceling App

If you need to record a video for your students or staff to watch, but find that the noise in your classroom or at home is interfering, then check out Krisp. The app is available for Macintosh and Windows computers and will mute both microphone noise and background noise for 120 minutes/week for free. There are examples of how good the app is on the website that let you hear what it sounds like with and without muting. It works on 800+ communication programs including Zoom, Teams, and Meet.

Weekly Tech Tips

K-2 technology integration specialist Traci Plitz provides a fabulous weekly tip sheet for her teachers. You can scroll through them and see the past weeks, as well as the current one. While they are designed for use in primary classrooms, many of them can be applied K-12.

Have Your Students Publish to the World

The Global Writing Project is a free weekly writing experience for all ages, a place where learners can write about the world with the world. With a weekly prompt, students can submit their writing via Flipgrid, Buncee, or Wakelet and be provided with an authentic global audience and an opportunity to be showcased as part of their weekly “Global Write” Champions Corner.

Release Your Inner Artist

I admit to being old enough to remember fondly the hours I spent creating with the Spirograph, a fabulous drawing tool for those of us who can’t draw. Now there’s a free, online version available called Inspirograph. Since you’re using your mouse instead of a pen or pencil, it’s a little bit harder to maneuver. But it’s still tons of fun and very relaxing in these stress-filled days.

A New Tech Tool to Improve Your Virtual Self

David Jakes shares his new favorite tech tool, mmhmm. “This is a tool that provides a series of new options to improve your virtual presence – in my case Zoom (it also works with Google Meet, and Chrome or Firefox only). The basic idea of mmhmm is that it provides a virtual camera interface for Zoom that gives you some interesting new features.” The tool is currently in private beta, but you can request an invitation here.

Student Avatars

TCEA’s own Lisa Monthie offers this cool tidbit that she picked up from Tammy G. Neil (both are great educators to follow on Twitter!). Have the students create an avatar with https://avatarmaker.com/ and “then use a tool such as https://gifmaker.me/ to make a GIF of all the students.”

Halloween Videos for Elementary Students

Celebrate each day of October leading up to Halloween with a different video. This article provides 31 cute and learning-filled shorts for younger students.

Getting Your Students Moving

We know that movement is crucial for learning, and here’s a fun way to put it into practice. Spin It is a random movement and exercise generator. At its default, it includes some very tough exercises like planks and wall sits. But the really cool thing about the spinner is that you can customize it for your students to be much simpler and less exhausting. Put in silly things like hopping five times on one foot or rubbing your stomach and your head at the same time. Mix it up, get students moving, and get them laughing!

That’s all of the tidbits for this time. If you missed any of the previous tips, you can find them all by searching our blog for “tips, tricks, and tech tidbits.” Let me know if any of today’s or earlier tips helped you.

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Digital LiteracyWriting

Email Writing for Students

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Most of us have been using email for a large portion of our lives. So it’s natural to assume that everyone knows how to send a “good” email. But that’s definitely not true, especially for students. Just like any other skill, learning to send a meaningful, accurate, and polite email must be taught. Let’s look at how we as educators can do that.

Age-Appropriate Email Strategies

Depending on the age of the student, the following tips are appropriate (from the article Email Etiquette for Students):

Elementary School:

  • Using proper sentence structure
  • Spell checking
  • Privacy for both the student and the recipient(s)

Middle School:

  • Thinking before clicking Send
  • What to share and what not to share
  • Basic courtesies in email and texting

High School:

  • When to email or text and when not to
  • Not all communications should be emoji or acronym based
  • How to clearly communicate with you mean

College:

  • How grammar and approach can leave an impression
  • How to use email for employment opportunities
  • Portraying a serious intent and professional tone

Start with the Basics of Writing an Email

As a former English teacher, I would begin helping students learn about emails by discussing that writing an email is a different type of writing than, say, writing a text message or a legal document or a joke. There are certain ways that it should be done. Then I would show them this easy-to-understand infographic.

The five steps above, if followed, would result in a polite, informative, email that is a call to action to resolve some problem or question. (Please note that, while this is formulaic writing, something I don’t normally believe in, I do feel that it would work well as an introduction to students on the art of composing an email. Once they’ve mastered it, they can branch off on their own more.)

I would go over this with the students and then pull up several example emails that I had created previously, having the whole class talk through how they could be improved. For each email, I would ask the students, sometimes in pair, sometimes alone, to think through the five steps to see if there were changes in any of them that needed to be made. For me, I would use these as my examples in this order (from simple to more complex):

  • An email with no greeting or closing
  • An email that doesn’t state the problem or question
  • An email that has too long or too short a subject line

Next, ask students what information they think would need to be added to the five steps to help a busy teacher. (Perhaps the class period of the student?) I would then talk about voice in writing and how, since this email is going to their teacher and not a friend, it needs to be grammatically correct. That’s a good time to show them the spell checker and how to use it. This is also a great time to show them how to create their own signature for an email, even several (one for more formal messages and also an informal one for their friends or family).

Finally, I would ask students when sending an email may not be a good idea. I would hope they would come up with when they are angry or when it’s an urgent matter that really needs a face-to-face (or Zoom to Zoom) discussion. They might also say that a student shouldn’t send an email if he/she can just ask the teacher the next day (for something minor).

Putting It into Practice

Before turning your students loose with email, it would be good to have them practice first. Here are two different ways to do that (taken from Classroom Activities: Email).

Class Email

Foster new friendships and help students practice their reading and writing skills. Pair students up in the classroom (or with students in other classrooms) and have them exchange email addresses. Ask one to write a message to the other and start an email change. You may want them to write about a specific topic, such as a response to an issue or a piece of writing, or you may want them to just share what happened that day. Once your students are comfortable with this, they could become e-pen pals with students in another city, state, or country!

Community Leaders

Many government and community leaders, such as the mayor, governor, and even President of the United States, have email addresses that people can write to and share their thoughts. Discuss different issues in the community with your students. What can be changed? What seems unfair? What issues should leaders be working on or improving? Brainstorm different ideas and then have students write emails to their community or government leaders. Remind them that in formal messages, they should refrain from abbreviations and emoticons.

Writing an Email Resources

To help your students learn more about the art of email creation, here are a few good resources:

An Additional Resource

Thanks to Lindsay Foster from Gainsville ISD who created two wonderful infographics to share with GISD students from the information in this blog. One of them is in English and the other is in Spanish. Perhaps you could use these as a starting point for an infographic for your students!

writing an email

*This blog post was updated with new content on August 19, 2021.

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