I.

Reflection Questions

1. Of the nine digital citizenship topics presented which do your students struggle with?
Which are they strong in?

Of the nine topics presented, I believe my students struggle with Digital Rights and
Responsibility, Digital Law and Digital Access. These are skills that are introduced to at a
very basic level and are something students in elementary school continue to work on and
develop throughout their academic career. So even it though these skills may not technically
be something they ‘struggle’ with, they are definitely skills students at the elementary level
are not yet proficient in.

2. Based upon your role as an educator, in what ways might you engage different
stakeholders in digital citizenship (S3). 

As an educator, our stakeholders include parents, families, supervisors, administrators (at all
levels) and the students of course. It’s important to engage this audience using a variety of
methods and involvement activities such as:

- Quarterly conferences (virtual or face to face) with parents and families: keeps them up to
date on their child’s technology usage, how they use their technology time in the classroom.
Are they utilizing it to complete assignments and stay within the assigned/designated school
apps?

- Daily/weekly/monthly communication systems or a check-in systems: a lot of teachers

(including myself) utilize planners that parents initial so they know the parent has seen what
has been assigned (homework/classwork/makeup assignments) notes, etc.

- Monitoring/Data tracking systems through your school’s LMS:

my school system utilizes the CLEVER portal so we can manage access to apps and
technology activities. Within those apps we can monitor student usage and progress. We can
also monitor the history on any one student device.

- Modeling what responsible digital citizenship is at home (outside of school and at school):
A great ‘go-to’ when teaching stakeholders about digital citizenship. This can truly look like
an in the moment lesson (teachable moment) and can be explicitly or implicitly.
Example: “This is what this should look like… these are the conversations you should be
having with your child…this is how we are practicing digital citizenship in the
classroom…”

- At-home activities and review lessons: send home activities and or reading activities that
students complete with their parents and families. This increases involvement and allows
parents and families to see what is happening in their child’s education. Overall, the key to
success in teaching stakeholders and the greater community about digital citizenship and
appropriate technological use is communication.
II. Lesson Plan Review

1.   Share a synopsis of the lesson you chose to review

For this activity, I chose to look at the common sense curriculum’s “Pause for People:
how do you say goodbye to technology when you don’t want to?” lesson. This lesson is
designed for Kindergarten aged students. Link here:
https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/pause-for-people

As a former Early Childhood special education teacher (and special education teacher)
one thing I see in my field is technology overstimulation with a lot of my students.
Young children (especially those with disabilities and sensory needs) are often drawn to
technology due to bright colors, fun games, cool noises, but most importantly…instant
gratification. Technology can often stimulate parts of the brain and eye that are still
developing in young children, yet giving another reason why parents, families, and
educators need to keep an eye on technology usage with young children.

Now more than ever, we (as educators) are seeing more and more students with
difficulties in emotional regulation in regards to delayed gratification. These students
have a hard time dealing with disappointment (having to wait for something, or being
denied access to something) and often do not have appropriate coping strategies to help
deal with these emotions. Have you ever seen a kid throw a full on temper tantrum when
he/she was denied access to their iPad? That’s emotional dysregulation. Our social-
emotional curriculums and health curriculums have become more involved and now
include technology usage and understanding why it’s important to “disconnect”.

Synopsis:

 Teacher asks students if they have ever had to disconnect (turn off) from
technology or ‘PAUSE’ it when they are having so much fun with it. Students
respond with how they feel (emotions: mad, frustrated, sad, tired, etc).

 The teacher asks students when they might have to Pause technology. (when
there’s an emergency, when a friend comes over, etc.).

 The teacher asks and later discusses with students why it’s important to Pause
technology. Leading to these key takeaways:

 Invite students to respond and highlight the following reasons:

- To be respectful and kind
- Someone may want to tell you something important
- Someone wants to know you are listening to them
- You may have something important to do (eat dinner, go somewhere, etc.)
The students watch the video and then practice the actions of Pause, Breathe, Finish Up
followed by a drawing/writing activity to demonstrate they know what to do when it is
time to transition away from technology.

2. Note which of the 9 elements you believe this lesson meets.

This lesson meets the following elements of Digital Citizenship:

Digital Health and Welfare  knowing when to disconnect from technology and
understanding the different situations where one might need to disconnect.

Digital Etiquette  behavior and conduct in how we use technology. This lesson
can be incorporated as a classroom routine for transitions. It emphasizes that
students need to be aware of others and their environment when using technology.

Digital Fluency  emphasizing the use of technology/ why we use it.

3. What do you see as the lesson's strengths and weaknesses;

This lesson is relatively short in length but has a lot of potential and carry over. It can be
taught explicitly at first and then implicitly over the course of a week or longer. I
personally like that it emphasizes an appropriate coping strategy and focuses on
appropriately transitioning from technology in the classroom. The lesson also features a
video, movement activity, song and a writing/drawing activity which are very appropriate
for the age group of this lesson (kindergarten).

One weakness I think the lesson has is that it does not contain a ‘why’ factor. The lesson
discusses situations where we might need to pause from technology, but doesn’t discuss
the outcomes and what might happen if we don’t disconnect. I think taking it a step
further and providing students with situations or scenarios (visuals) where students can
see the negative outcomes in not pausing/transitioning from technology will allow for
better comprehension.

4. How might the lesson work in your instructional setting (or hypothetical class)

I would use this lesson in the very first week of school when students are practicing
routines and learning how the classroom is run. I would teach it as an explicit lesson, then
have students practice it throughout the day and week. Always going back and revisiting
“Pause, Breathe, and Finish Up”.

With younger students, I would incorporate this into centers rotations and use a reward
system in place for students who are able to show me they can “Pause, Breathe and
Finish Up”, and return to the carpet for directions. I would embed this routine in to and
all transitions in the classroom.

5. What changes you would make to address the issues you present.
Just from my experience working with younger students who have difficulties
transitioning in general, I would probably set a timer during the technology transition so
students understand there is a clear start and finish to the transition itself. I would also put
a reward system in place for those who could demonstrate the skill.

Based on the previous ‘lesson weakness’ I addressed earlier, I would model and discuss
different scenarios that show the consequences when we don’t disconnect from
technology or know when to transition away from it. For example, with my fourth
graders I would show a teen/adult using the phone in the car (texting and driving) and
discuss the consequences or what might happen when the individual doesn’t disconnect
from the technology (distracted driving). A big part of teaching any lesson in my opinion
is the WHY behind it. When my students understand the WHY behind a lesson or activity
they are able to engage with it more.

6. What technology might you integrate into this lesson to make it stronger and
more impactful to your learners?

I think the lesson itself incorporates the appropriate amount of technology. I would
definitely continue to utilize the lesson video when practicing the Pause, Breathe and
Finish Up routine.

I might design a Smart Board sorting activity that visually showcases different
scenarios/situations where a student is transitioning from technology appropriately. This
could be a whole group lesson, small group and even one on one lesson and serve as form
of assessment for your students. You could even do this during the lesson as check-ins
throughout the duration of the lesson to make sure students are understanding.