21st Century teaching – Page 6 – Media! Tech! Parenting!

21st Century Learning, 21st Century teaching, connected learning, digital life, parents and technology

The 2013 Digital World? What CAN I Be Thankful For?

Posted on November 27, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

martipicTGiving — Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

It’s Thanksgiving 2013, a time when we give thanks for family, friends, and the richness of our lives. It’s also a time to take stock, gain perhaps a bit more insight about the quality of life, and maybe even refrain from always wishing for more.

As a teacher, 21st Century learning advocate, and educational technology enthusiast, I spend much of the year on this blog suggesting ways that families, educators, children, and certainly, my students, can strategize, enrich, and improve their digitally connected lives and, of course, learn enough to avoid potential problems.

But today is different!

We spend so much time grumbling about all the problems that arise in our digital era. So to add some extra fun to our family’s Thanksgiving 2013 celebration, here are a few special experiences and joys that the digital world has brought into my family’s life — for which I am most grateful.

I am thankful that digital life allows me to: Continue reading “The 2013 Digital World? What CAN I Be Thankful For?” →

21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital citizenship, digital kids, digital parenting, digital world conversations, workshops and conferences

Soundbites From Day Two of FOSI 2013 – Conference Post #3

Posted on November 8, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

While I could not spend the entire day at the FOSI2013 conference, I joined the event around 1:00 P.M. after a morning at school and just in time for a terrific panel, Child Psychology and the Effects of Technology. Later I attended a session, Creating Trust on Social Networks, with panel members from the social media industry who described in some detail how vendors and social media sites strive to commit themselves to user support, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and integrity — in theory, above profit concerns.

As usual, each of the break-out periods featured two sessions — topics that I really wanted to attend but scheduled at the same time — so I had the difficult task of making choices. Because FOSI2013 provided a detailed schedule before the conference began, I arrived with a pretty good idea about which session related more to the issues that I am currently thinking about and coping with at my school. Still, making this type of choice at a conference is always challenging. I’ve tentatively arranged to get together, face-to-face, with local colleagues who also attended the conference and swap notes about the sessions that we missed.

I might mention here that during a break my edtech colleague, David, and I struck up a conversation with Patricia, a conference attendee and government official from Kenya. She had arrived just before the conference and was leaving almost immediately afterward. He asked her if she would be attending the FOSI2014 conference next year and invited her to plan a few extra days and visit his school. I chimed in and offered an invite to mine. Then we told Patricia that our independent school technology community is close-knit, and would welcome her at their schools, too.

To round out the afternoon, conference attendees all came back together to hear a group of experts discuss and distill some of the issues — privacy, digital citizenship, parenting, social media, connected life — that FOSI featured during the two-day conference. This was one of the most engaging conference activities, I think, because of the way the panelists — a journalist, an academician, a therapist, and a legal scholar — ranged back and forth over the topics connecting events and adding their own information.

Continue reading “Soundbites From Day Two of FOSI 2013 – Conference Post #3” →

21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital citizenship, digital kids, digital learning, digital parenting, educating digital natives, kids and privacy, parents and technology

Soundbites From Day One of FOSI 2013, Conference Post #2

Posted on November 7, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Some of these ideas come from researchers describing the results of various studies. Others come from presenters’ comments. My apologies for not connecting individuals with their comments.

I am drawing from my 30 pages of actual handwritten notes (handwritten because the seats were not a comfortable height for me to use my iPad).

In the Digital World

Six billion people have access to a cell phone in today’s world — more than have access to clean toilets.
The enemy of empowerment is fear and lack of expertise.
Be the change that you want to see in the world. (a Gandhi quote)
Children are using the Internet at younger and younger ages.
Surveillance does not create safety — only the illusion of safety.
Think less about digital citizenship. The Internet is a huge part of life and we are citizens on and offline.
Digital world communication often eliminates a person’s visual and aural signals setting the scene for misunderstanding.

Teens Continue reading “Soundbites From Day One of FOSI 2013, Conference Post #2” →

21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital citizenship, digital kids, kids changing lives, online safety, parents and technology

Digital Childhood and Technology: Another Good NPR Series

Posted on November 1, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Parents and educators can learn a lot about children’s digital lives — and the importance of helping young people develop strong digital citizenship skills — by listening to a series of broadcasts from National Public Radio (NPR) on raising digital natives (also available in print). The radio reports focus on children’s experiences in daily connected life and present wide-ranging information about the responsibilities of parenting 21st Century digital kids. All of the stories are posted at All Tech Considered blog, but I’ve included links for each story below.

The entire set of news stories, shared by a number of different NPR reporters, contains information that can help parents and educators think more carefully about how to strengthen their roles in children’s lives.

Exploring Digital Childhood on NPR – October 28, 2013
What You Need to Know about Babies, Toddlers, and Screen Time – October 28, 2013
Raising Social Media Teens Means Constant Parental Learning – October 29, 2013
How You Handle Screen – Technology Time With Your Kids – October 29, 2013
How Video Games Are Getting Inside Your Head and Your Wallet – October 29, 2013
For the Tablet Generation a Lesson in Digital Citizenship – November 1, 2013
Tech Week That Was: Kids and Screens – NSA and Our Data – November 1, 2013

Continue reading “Digital Childhood and Technology: Another Good NPR Series” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, Library of Congress, parents and technology, plagiarism

Teach Digital Kids to Respect Ownership: Copyright Resource Update

Posted on October 27, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Some time ago I chatted with a parent about the concept of copyright. Both of us were concerned that digital kids understand very little about intellectual property. The free-for-all digital information climate ensures that children have considerable ease accessing information and considerable difficulty comprehending what belongs to whom. Given this easy access parents and educators need to spend time helping children understand the basics.

Copyright laws are arcane, and even a bit crazy, but it’s critical to teach kids that protecting the intellectual property of others is a necessary 21st Century skill. With your child take the Copyright Challenge quiz at Copyright for Kids to see how much you know. When you finish the quiz check out these frequently asked questions about copyright.

Continue reading “Teach Digital Kids to Respect Ownership: Copyright Resource Update” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital citizenship, digital kids, ethical behavior, parents and technology

Is It Digital Citizenship or Just Plain Citizenship?

Posted on October 16, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

As the lives of my students, online and off, grow more complex by the day, I spend a good deal of time helping them learn more about digital citizenship. Today the digitally connected, always-on world presents students, teachers, and parents with confusing questions and baffling behavior expectations.

But wait a minute!

Is this digital citizenship or just plain citizenship? Building strong 21st Century citizens is of paramount importance whether we are living our lives offline or on, and we need to avoid using old-fashioned compartmentalized instruction in a connected world.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines citizenship as “The qualities that a person is expected to have as a responsible member of a community,” and helping students shape themselves into responsible community members is what caring adults do. We model appropriate behavior and help children learn how to participate as respectful and ethical members of society. No matter where they work or play, our citizenship goals are the same.

Continue reading “Is It Digital Citizenship or Just Plain Citizenship?” →

21st Century Learning, 21st Century teaching, cell phones, digital change, digital devices, digital parenting, iPhones and iPads, parents and technology, teaching digital kids, values in digital life

Managing Change and Learning in a World With Updates

Posted on September 21, 2013March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

It never fails!

Just when you feel good about your digital world learning curve, a new device operating system brings a serious case of update-time discomfort. While none of us ever stops learning, sometimes these periods of relearning tasks that, in theory, we already know pretty well can be daunting.

I work with educational technology in a school, where updates are part of the job. Yet each time I need to relearn routine tasks I get a healthy reminder that when it comes to digital skill problem-solving and tinkering, I remain a digital immigrant — always a bit slower at figuring out new things than most of my digitally native students. [See note at the end of this post.]

A few nights ago, when I read the stories about the new iOS7 for my iPhone, I resolved to wait a week or two and let any glitches work themselves out. But the next afternoon, Julian, a middle school student, stopped by my technology office asking questions about the cool new iOS7 system that he was downloading — that very minute. I did not know the answers to his questions.

Aha, I thought. Some of my students may need my help. So the next morning at 5:30, I downloaded the new operating system on my iPhone. An hour later with a somewhat different looking device, I fumbled around, located my Audible account, and listened to my latest recorded book as I drove to school — while patting myself on the back. I can manage the new iOS7 — not to mention change.

Then I arrived at school, got out of the car, and could not turn off my book. For more than five minutes I stood in the parking lot tapping at vaguely familiar iPhone icons and finally managed to turn it off. But in the process I turned on some bluegrass music. I had no idea where that music was coming from, because as far as I know, bluegrass does not reside on my iPhone.

Continue reading “Managing Change and Learning in a World With Updates” →