Computer Literacy students at Liberty Elementary in Flower Mound recently learned a thing or two about digital citizenship.
For the lesson, students worked in pairs anywhere in the classroom; most chose the floor or corners of the room to sprawl out and work on their project.
Each student had a laptop – one laptop to play NetSmartz videos and the other to work in Google Classroom to record key words and clues about digital citizenship. The more words students were able to record, the better since they would be creating a Tagxedo – an online website that turns words into visually stunning word clouds.
“We hope our students learn pieces of digital citizenship via NetSmartz, which is more fun than me standing up in front of the room telling them what it is,” Computer Literacy teacher Mandi Tompkins said.
“Digital citizenship is a hard concept to grasp, and if they can piece words and clues together from the videos, then they will be able to retain the concept better. Ultimately, becoming the creators of their own learning.”
Students were quick to point out some of their new digital vocabulary.
“It’s important to have good Netiquette, because if you don’t use it, most people would be mean to you and you wouldn’t have any friends online,” third grader Erick Wade said.
Overall, this one project will go toward students earning a “feather” for the digital citizenship category for a campus-wide, project-based learning opportunity. At the end of the year, each student is expected to earn his or her “wings.” More information about the hands-on project-based learning is coming soon.
