The Wizard of Apps

After watching Kim Confino's keynote, I was drawn to the Wizard of Apps. Since so many of you have already commented in such detail on Kim's piece, I will comment on Joyce Kasman Valenza's "Wizard of Apps." Joyce creatively had several students dress as characters from the Wizard of Oz and she eventually showed up as Glinda, the good witch. While I doubt that I will be dressing up in costume for my students anytime in the near future, I thought the introduction certainly caught people's attention.

As Dorothy sang about leaving good digital footprints and creating a PLN, I was thinking about how important it is for students to learn about the ethics of the the digital world. Many of the parents may be too busy or too clueless about their child's digital experiences to know what is out there. How do we teach how to become "good digital citizens?" In our already compact schedules, does something need to go or will we be adding more time? Who will teach this information? If it isn't assumed by a specific department, don't we risk teaching the same things over and over or missing some components???

The websites that Joyce mentioned pipl.com, 123people, and that'snotcool.com all have merits for demonstrating to students what their digital footprint looks like. So many students in middle school probably do not consider what comments or pictures they post on Myspace or Facebook as being an issue when they go years from now to apply to college or to apply for a job. We have enough of an issue trying to stress that they need to learn study strategies and good habits for high school....

Issues of ethical behavior on the web develop every year, though, at this level. Whether it be the recent news story about the Facebook page suggesting that students hurt an assistant principal or the many bullying issues that occur in cyberspace or students that post inappropriate pictures of themselves online or text them to "friends." No school is immune and I fear that we may already be behind. Many of the students believe that they know more than we do about the web. They find ways to get past the school filter and get into Facebook or text one another. How can we educate them while expanding their uses of the digital world? How do we teach them to be good digital citizens? How do we stress good, healthy collaboration where students "question, create, and invite" rather than the dark side of the digital footprint?