What I learned about Digital Citizenship
During this course, I learned about the specifics of digital citizenship. Before this course, I had taught my students about digital citizenship and what it broadly encompassed. I had vaguely known about Ribble's Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship. Still, during the first week of EDLD 5316, I learned about the specifics and why each element is important to users/students.
Biggest Accomplishment in EDLD 5316
Honestly, this course was not easy. My biggest accomplishment in this course was finally figuring out what copyright entails. Week 3 was an overload of information, but information that every educator should know. I think it could have been its own course!
Challenges during EDLD 5316
A challenge during this course was the amount of work. During this course, there were hours and hours of articles and videos to watch. I was trying to soak in all this important information, and my brain was on overload.
Best work in EDLD 5315
Although I did not get a perfect grade on “Animated Video -Technological Advances and Digital
Citizenship”, the information I presented was closest to the COVA model we had in this course. I was able to be creative while creating this video, and I had personal information that connected with the subject. While I was creating it in Powtoon, I had to learn the software and make it work for the information I wanted to portray to the audience.
Connection to my Classroom
I am an online teacher this year, and there is much more of a learning curve for teachers and students. In the first three weeks of school, we didn’t focus on any new content but focus on SEL skills and how to use technology. I used this time to focus on digital citizenship to help their learning and our online learning environment. I needed to make sure they could utilize and create the technology we are using for their learning(digital literacy). They need to know how to communicate with each other, myself, and others we will be collaborating with throughout the school year(Digital Communication), and how we will respect others and treat each other with respect as if we were in the classroom(Digital Etiquette).
One useful thing
If I could pick one useful thing I learned in this class, it would be about copyright laws. Everyone needs to know and be aware of these laws to make sure they are giving credit as they should.
What I learned to help me grow as a leader
The week about Cyberbullying was telling. Unfortunately, all of the articles for that week were outdated. I had to do a lot more research that week to see how the administration handles these situations now.
What was your favorite aspect of this course? Why?
I learned a lot of information in this course. My brain is on overload with the amount of info in the 5-week course. Even though there was a lot of writing in this course, it did help me take the resources and put my thoughts and information onto paper.
What suggestions would you give other students on ways to get the most out of this course?
I would give other students a suggestion of not procrastinating. Every course, I tell myself to do a little every day, and every course, I end up procrastinating. To get the most out of this course, you need to take it day by day and read a few articles or videos a day and take notes on them. It will help during the assignments.
If you could change any one of the activities, you did for this course, which one would it be? What would you change about it?
Honestly, the assignments every week were hard to complete because they were different from all of my prior courses. I would love to see the assignments follow the COVA model that is preached throughout the program.
What will you say if you have a chance to speak to your friends about this course?
This course is not easy. It will be a lot of work and very time-consuming. The amount of information and knowledge you will learn is crazy. There is a lot of busywork, but you will get through it.