Digital Citizenship: Save the Digital Drama for ya Momma

Digital Drivers Ed 101:

  21st century learners have so many advantages with the use of technology.  The increase in technology has led the way to new opportunities which no other generation of students have ever had.  Yet there are some unintended consequences which this generation is also being exposed to.  The constant social connection, high demands of an increasingly faster pace life style, and the continual criticism and ridicule which has created a new monster known as cyber-bullying.  Many argue that these social strains are adding to an increase in anxiety, depression and even suicide among our adolescents.  Our adolescents have been given the keys to these technological devices but have never taken a drivers ed course in how to make sure they are safe behind the digital steering wheel.  This is why it is it critical that we take the time to properly train our students in the best practices of being a 21st century student.  Common Sense Education is one of the leading companies in developing digital citizenship lessons for our students to learn how to appropriately use the devices and technology that we have readily available.  One of the most critical lessons that must be addressed is the increase and dangers of cyber-bullying, also known as Digital Drama.  Using the framework from  Common Sense Education, I have designed a lesson on Digital Drama to share with our students to help them navigate through the information superhighway.

Digital Drama Google Slide Lesson:

The first stop on the creation of this lesson was Common Sense Education to gather resources to use to create the lesson.  The lesson is delivered through Google Slides with the addition of the Pear Deck add-on to insert an interactive experience with the class.  Using these tools allows me to deliver an immersive presentation which contains highly engaged resources to develop a strong blended learning lesson.  Using Pear Deck the teacher has the flexibility of changing the control of the slides for whatever desired effect.

The Start Up: 

Starting off the lesson as a whole group instruction, the teacher and the students can  review the target question, the agenda, and the definition of Digital Drama.  Once Digital Drama is identified the lesson shifts gears to explore the why, why does it happen.  Using a video from Common Sense Education embedded into the slide presentation allows the class to see examples of Digital Drama through the experiences of students much like them, hopefully providing authenticity of the issue.  This is where the power of Pear Deck can be implemented into the lesson, with providing a slide which tasks students to share some of those examples of Digital Drama from the video.

Flip the Switch: Blended Learning

At this point in the presentation the teacher can now switch the controls to the students allowing them to now navigate the slides at their own pace, creating a personalized learning lesson which allows for students voice and choice, self pacing and the ability to view and review as they need.  Now that the students have control of the lesson they are guided through a choose your own adventure story which focuses on different strategies of avoiding Digital Drama as well as the implications of our actions on others.  Once they have journeyed through the choose your own adventure they are given the opportunity to reflect on the different strategies presented and to create a graphic organizer to demonstrate some of the strategies they discovered through the video and the story.  Now that the class has gone through the lesson it is time to assess what they have learned.

Bring it home: Assessment 

 Using the Google Form embedded in the presentation students can complete the quick check for understanding through the Google Form.  This will give the instructor a pretty good indication on who learned the concepts and who might need some additional guidance to master the material.  After the quiz students than have the opportunity to design a poster to teach others about the significance of Digital Drama.  Once students have completed the poster they will have a thorough understanding of Digital Drama and how to avoid it.

Reflection:

Our students are extremely familiar with using their devices for their own source of entertainment, however many of them are unaware of the dangers that can also play hand in hand with technology.  The statistics and research that are behind the increasingly higher levels of anxiety, depression and suicide especially in adolescents prove the significance of these lessons.  It baffles me that over 6 million teenagers have

been diagnosed with anxiety health related issues and that depression has increased over 63%.  This is a serious issue and many of the world's leading scientists and researchers are claiming that the changes in today's society are the leading factors of this increase.  These changes would have to include the increase dependency on technology and the constant social media connection of our lives. These statistics prove just how critical it is for us as educators to make sure that we do all we can to prepare our students for 21st century.  They are not just 21st century students they are 21st century citizens as well.