Digital Natives and Tribal Elders
"Of the many special obligations incumbent upon an educated citizen, I would cite three as outstanding: your obligation to the pursuit of learning, your obligation to serve the public, your obligation to uphold the law."
~John F. Kennedy, at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963
One of your highest pursuits as an educator is in helping to create an educated citizen -- someone who has a fundamental and working knowledge of core curriculum areas, coupled with an appreciation of creative pursuits, and who supports through tangible behaviors our shared responsibilities and rights.
Teaching the development of our nation's laws, and underscoring our personal rights and responsibilities while interacting in the real world, is baked into the K-12 Social Studies curriculum. Integrated curriculum helping our students to understand their online rights and responsibilities - and to safely (and critically) navigate digital content, is still in the works. You can start now in helping your students to become educated digital citizens, because the amount of time they (and we) spend interacting with others online is growing with each passing year.
Digital Natives?
This generation of students has been referred to as "digital natives," in that they have never known a time without the Internet - without the ability to instantly connect to information and others online. Spend just an afternoon watching students interacting with tablets, smart phones, desktops, laptops and Chromebooks, and it's easy to come to the conclusion that they were born proficient in their use. This would be an incorrect assumption.
According to the Megan Meier Foundation (Links to an external site.), 1 in 4 children have been bullied -- including online.
According to a Pew Foundation Study (Links to an external site.), 88% of teens believe people share too much information about themselves on social media. In the same study, 1 in 5 teens stated that they have shared an online password with a friend.
According to another Pew Foundation survey (Links to an external site.) of over 2,000 middle and high school teachers, "“research” for today’s students means “Googling,” and as a result, doing research “has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.”"
Were you fooled by this, too?
Did you watch the Animal Planet fictitious "documentary" on the parallel oceanic evolution of Mermaids alongside Man? Here's the trailer... (and turn down your volume please)
Called Mermaids: The Body Found, the program aired in 2012, and had an initial 3.6 million cable viewers (Links to an external site.). Many of them skipped over the statement at the end -- that the information was made up -- and promptly began sharing a slew of webpages and videos on whether or not mermaids were "real." The fact-checking site Snopes literally had to create a page (Links to an external site.) on the show. Think about that -- people in the 21st Century, in this country, had to be reassured that there aren't really mermaids. Swap mermaids with the term "flat earth," "slender man," "bigfoot," and a variety of others, and you will begin to understand the importance of teaching our students to be discerning with information they find online.
There's help with this
There are a variety of organizations that have created websites devoted to the cause of teaching students how to be educated digital citizens. There are lesson plans for teachers, helpful advice for parents, videos and activities for students, and handouts to help underscore the importance of being safe and smart while online. Here are two great ones to begin with.
Google's Be Internet Awesome (Links to an external site.)
Common Sense Media (Links to an external site.)
Using lies to your advantage
Good educators use all the tools available to them - including fictitious content designed to help others understand how alluring non-factual media can be. Your students must understand that those who spread falsehoods are often just as adept at leveraging professional media techniques and technologies as those who are paid to share important factual information.
Liquid Mountaineering
All About Explorers
This website, great for grades 3-8, can be introduced to students as a resource for a one-page writing project on the explorer of their choosing. Allow your students to write up and share their reports, before you reveal that the site has a lot of glaring factual errors in it. Take the time to point out the errors, explaining how the information can't possibly be true, and ask your students to explain why they think they were "duped" by the site.
Discuss how the site looks professionally done, containing visual elements similar in nature to completely factual and carefully vetted sites with similar content. Explain the old adage "you can just a book by its cover," and how it applies to web content. No matter the "look" of a site, students must be cautious of who provides them information.
DMHO.org
This website (Links to an external site.), while not as visually professional as the Explorers site, has still managed to fool individuals of all ages, with its dire warnings about Dihydrogen Monoxide -- otherwise known as H2O. It can be deadly if inhaled. It's included in a variety of toxic chemical mixtures. It's the largest element in corrosive acid rain. Combine with electricity and you enhance the danger. Vicious animals have been known to have ingested this chemical solution at some point prior to attacking people. The list goes on and on...
This site is great in showing how easy it is to fool people if they lack even a basic understanding of science and science-related terminology.
Remember, you are the Tribal Elder
Sure, students these days natively take to technology. Remember, however, that you are still a tribal elder. You have a vast storehouse of knowledge on how to behave, in real life (IRL,) according to the Golden Rule - and what can happen when you do not. You understand the importance of following the laws of this country, and have viewed a variety of cautionary tales about people who do not. You understand what can happen when you overshare, both IRL and online. You understand that it's no longer a digital "footprint" -- it's an eternal "tattoo." Take that common sense you have developed over time, and think about how you can apply it to your digital life. Then share that understanding with your students, using the tools above.
Digital Natives and Tribal Elders
Digital Natives and Tribal Elders
"Of the many special obligations incumbent upon an educated citizen, I would cite three as outstanding: your obligation to the pursuit of learning, your obligation to serve the public, your obligation to uphold the law."
~John F. Kennedy, at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963
One of your highest pursuits as an educator is in helping to create an educated citizen -- someone who has a fundamental and working knowledge of core curriculum areas, coupled with an appreciation of creative pursuits, and who supports through tangible behaviors our shared responsibilities and rights.
Teaching the development of our nation's laws, and underscoring our personal rights and responsibilities while interacting in the real world, is baked into the K-12 Social Studies curriculum. Integrated curriculum helping our students to understand their online rights and responsibilities - and to safely (and critically) navigate digital content, is still in the works. You can start now in helping your students to become educated digital citizens, because the amount of time they (and we) spend interacting with others online is growing with each passing year.
Digital Natives?
This generation of students has been referred to as "digital natives," in that they have never known a time without the Internet - without the ability to instantly connect to information and others online. Spend just an afternoon watching students interacting with tablets, smart phones, desktops, laptops and Chromebooks, and it's easy to come to the conclusion that they were born proficient in their use. This would be an incorrect assumption.
According to the Megan Meier Foundation (Links to an external site.), 1 in 4 children have been bullied -- including online.
According to a Pew Foundation Study (Links to an external site.), 88% of teens believe people share too much information about themselves on social media. In the same study, 1 in 5 teens stated that they have shared an online password with a friend.
According to another Pew Foundation survey (Links to an external site.) of over 2,000 middle and high school teachers, "“research” for today’s students means “Googling,” and as a result, doing research “has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.”"
Were you fooled by this, too?
Did you watch the Animal Planet fictitious "documentary" on the parallel oceanic evolution of Mermaids alongside Man? Here's the trailer... (and turn down your volume please)
Called Mermaids: The Body Found, the program aired in 2012, and had an initial 3.6 million cable viewers (Links to an external site.). Many of them skipped over the statement at the end -- that the information was made up -- and promptly began sharing a slew of webpages and videos on whether or not mermaids were "real." The fact-checking site Snopes literally had to create a page (Links to an external site.) on the show. Think about that -- people in the 21st Century, in this country, had to be reassured that there aren't really mermaids. Swap mermaids with the term "flat earth," "slender man," "bigfoot," and a variety of others, and you will begin to understand the importance of teaching our students to be discerning with information they find online.
There's help with this
There are a variety of organizations that have created websites devoted to the cause of teaching students how to be educated digital citizens. There are lesson plans for teachers, helpful advice for parents, videos and activities for students, and handouts to help underscore the importance of being safe and smart while online. Here are two great ones to begin with.
Google's Be Internet Awesome (Links to an external site.)
Common Sense Media (Links to an external site.)
Using lies to your advantage
Good educators use all the tools available to them - including fictitious content designed to help others understand how alluring non-factual media can be. Your students must understand that those who spread falsehoods are often just as adept at leveraging professional media techniques and technologies as those who are paid to share important factual information.
Liquid Mountaineering
All About Explorers
This website, great for grades 3-8, can be introduced to students as a resource for a one-page writing project on the explorer of their choosing. Allow your students to write up and share their reports, before you reveal that the site has a lot of glaring factual errors in it. Take the time to point out the errors, explaining how the information can't possibly be true, and ask your students to explain why they think they were "duped" by the site.
Discuss how the site looks professionally done, containing visual elements similar in nature to completely factual and carefully vetted sites with similar content. Explain the old adage "you can just a book by its cover," and how it applies to web content. No matter the "look" of a site, students must be cautious of who provides them information.
DMHO.org
This website (Links to an external site.), while not as visually professional as the Explorers site, has still managed to fool individuals of all ages, with its dire warnings about Dihydrogen Monoxide -- otherwise known as H2O. It can be deadly if inhaled. It's included in a variety of toxic chemical mixtures. It's the largest element in corrosive acid rain. Combine with electricity and you enhance the danger. Vicious animals have been known to have ingested this chemical solution at some point prior to attacking people. The list goes on and on...
This site is great in showing how easy it is to fool people if they lack even a basic understanding of science and science-related terminology.
Remember, you are the Tribal Elder
Sure, students these days natively take to technology. Remember, however, that you are still a tribal elder. You have a vast storehouse of knowledge on how to behave, in real life (IRL,) according to the Golden Rule - and what can happen when you do not. You understand the importance of following the laws of this country, and have viewed a variety of cautionary tales about people who do not. You understand what can happen when you overshare, both IRL and online. You understand that it's no longer a digital "footprint" -- it's an eternal "tattoo." Take that common sense you have developed over time, and think about how you can apply it to your digital life. Then share that understanding with your students, using the tools above.