Students at Gaspe Elementary earned their first Badge today, and supported their learning journey in Digital Citizenship (DC).

Why a Badge? Well, here it is in our DC context.  In partnership with Digital Citizenship Quebec, we are learning about appropriate behavior online (aka Digital Citizenship).  There are 8 themes for students to explore, and each theme is connected to a really cool Badge.  The concept of Badges is really hot right now.

Boy scouts and Girl Guides have been using this reward system for ever.  Children (and adults) love to collect things and badges are now the craze in the online world.

You have likely already seen that Kahn Academy have implemented badges into their educational resources.

 

Google also uses badges to motivate and reward Teachers and Educational Leaders who participate in their Google Apps For Education Summits (GAFE).

So, the Gaspe Elementary students created a DC Passport with spaces to collect each of the 8 badges in becoming great Digital Citizens.

The video below is a sample of how to make your own DC Passport…

Today’s activity was about appropriate online communication.  Our objective was to become Communication Ninjas and to earn our first badge.

The students exercised their critical thinking skills by analyzing Chloe’s profile page on ‘Friendbook’.

The profile was just a simulation of the Facebook social media platform, but contained some interesting content.  Some appropriate, and some….not so appropriate.  The safe content was circled in green, while red was used for the inappropriate content.

The students then participated in an online survey using Socrative on their Nexus tablets, to demonstrate their understanding in becoming Communication Ninjas.

They were quick to point out that pictures of Chloe partying and comments about being home alone for the weekend, were not good choices. They did however like that Chloe did not indicate her full birthday in the profile, and praised a friend who reported nasty comments.

 

Finally, students left evidence of their learning by completing a reflection document in Google Docs, and submitting it to their Google Classroom.  The reflection was simply;

  • brief description of the activity.
  • 2 new things that were learned.
  • and a picture of the ‘Friendbook’ profile page (containing their own green and red circles).

The students are looking forward to their next venture into learning about Digital CitizenshipStay tuned for more of the ESSB DC Initiative coming soon, as we go after the Cyber-bullying Badge.

 Hey… if you know educators taking the plunge into Digital Citizenship and could benefit from our experiences, please pass along this blog.  We welcome your comments and resources to expand our Digital Citizenship learning 🙂

Resources