The "New and Improved" Digital Citizenship Survival Kit

I have been thinking about some "new" items I could add to my original Digital Citizenship Kit that I created last year. Like I said in that blog post, I love using props when teaching. After some great conversations with the good wife @jenbadura on what I should include, I have come up with some new items to include in the survival kit. Yes, you can use this with your students! After I blogged about the original kit, I had a plethora of teachers email me or send me a tweet me asking if it was okay to use this idea at their school. Please do! Packet of Seeds Any packet of seeds will do for your kit. Plug In I used a six foot extension cord and cut it so that I have the male and female end together. Mirror Imagine having the mirror attached to your computer/device. Sheet of Paper One of the most powerful items in the kit. Magnifying Glass Remember when first impressions started with a handshake? Strainer The amount of information on the internet is amazing! Soap

Putting the World In Their Hands: Augmented Reality in the Classroom Augmented reality at Avenues: The World Schools By Courtney Pepe When many of today’s teachers who grew up in Generation X are asked to reflect on traditional learning objects from their classrooms of the 1980’s and 1990’s, they think of paper, pencils, chalkboards, and textbooks. When they’re shown a series of pictures of those classroom’s from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, and asked to describe them, they use adjectives like “utilitarian, boring, and two-dimensional.” The classrooms in which Millennials and Generation Z learn are a world apart from those of Baby Boomers and Generation X. In 2014, using augmented reality as a launching pad into discovery is becoming more common. Even the sound of learning has changed in today’s classrooms, from the vocal command of the teacher directing students toward the sound of students working together in groups, or listening to audio or visual content on their devices through their ear phones. Related

Developing Outstanding E-Safety Provision The first thing to realise when thinking about e-safety is that it does not involve teaching children how to communicate online - the skills needed to: create online avatars, attach files to messages etc. should be taught separately. E-Safety is about ensuring that children can understand the risks associated with communicating online and can describe some safe and responsible strategies/rules to follow to help minimise or respond to them. A few months ago, Ofsted published a document (see here) detailing what they consider to be outstanding e-safety provision in primary (elementary) schools. Some important things that they mention include the need to: All of these can implemented fairly easily using simple strategies like: giving training to staff;raising parent's awareness of e-safety issues through the school website (e.g. by including the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency button to link to: advice, guidance and, if required, the ability to report online crime);

45 Design Thinking Resources For Educators 45 Design Thinking Resources For Educators Imagine a world where digital learning platforms help adult learners succeed through college completion; where a network of schools offers international-quality education, affordable tuition, and serves hundreds of thousands of children in economically disadvantaged countries; where we engage parents in understanding national trends and topics in education; where a comprehensive learning environment seamlessly connects the classroom with the opportunities of the digital world for young students; and where system-level solutions help more students gain access to college. Educators across the world have been using design thinking to create such a world. Design thinking consists of four key elements: Defining the Problem, Creating and Considering Multiple Options, Refining Selected Directions, and Executing the Best Plan of Action. An early example of design thinking would have been Edison’s invention of the light bulb.

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