We had a short but productive and fun week!  We are working on adding elements to our Padlet Galleries about Digital Citizenship.  This week, we added our thoughts on how we think that Social Media has changed the world.  I heard some fantastic answers about how people across the world can talk, how news travels fast, and how you can share your personal story to a larger audience.   We also practiced our Digital Citizenship vocabulary in Quizlet, and played a game in Quizlet called Quizlet Live!  Below is a picture of the students concentrating on finding the correct answer during the game.  Ask your student about it-they really enjoyed it and asked to play again immediately!  Some of the words we are learning about include plagiarism, copyright, fair use, citizenship, and wireless fidelity (wifi). 

It was nice to see those of you who visited during conferences!  I love being able to share how well your student is doing, and it was wonderful to meet you in person.   If you missed conferences, you can always schedule a time to meet with me after school.  I am here until 4:30 most nights.  

Next week we will continue to learn about Digital Citizenship by exploring Electronic Communication and Copyright Laws.  We will be creating a comic strip about being a safe digital citizen to add to our Padlet Gallery as well. 

Enjoy your long weekend!

The weather has officially turned, and we are trotting off towards winter!  Everyone should see grades in Skyward for their students first project, "mySelfie."  There are also behavior grades posted that go with our first introductory unit.  Please let me know if anyone has any questions about the grades that they are seeing.  I am available by phone or email, and will be available during teacher's conferences as well.  Conferences will be held on October 24 from 3:30 pm-7:30 pm and again on October 25 from 8:00 am -noon.  If there is a time that works best for you, feel free to let me know and I can reserve the 10 minute time slot for you.  Otherwise, you will be able to sign up outside of the Digital Literacy rooms for a slot. 

This week, we finished our Timeline projects.  The students worked on researching a technology or innovation, and completed slides that showed what they had learned.  We focused on sources, specifically what makes a credible source.  I think that this was a challenging project for the students, but I was very proud of what the students produced!  Not only did they show that they knew that Google is just a search engine, not a source, they also were able to produce slides that included many elements of Google Slides.  Ask your student to share their work with you! It's very impressive.  

Next week, we will be starting a unit on Digital Citizenship.  To kick off this new unit, the students started to explore Interland, an interactive program that teaches kindness, safety and how to be a great digital citizen this past Friday.  Monday, we will start making a digital interactive scrap book in Padlet of all the things that we are learning about Digital Citizenship.  I am excited to see what your students will do with their Padlets!

A busy couple of weeks!

It has been a busy couple of weeks here at the DAMS Digital Literacy class!  On Friday, I will be volunteering at the Fall Festival-I hope that I will see everyone there!

Last week, we finished up our mySelfie project slides, and presented the slides to our classmates.  Each student had to get up in front of the class, state their entire name, and explain their slide.  As part of the project, students had to take a "selfie" using their Chromebook, and upload the image into their slide.  Then, each student added facts about their life that they wanted to share with their classmates.  This "get-to-know-you" activity was great for learning basic skills about Google slides including how to change a background, how to save an image to Google Drive, how to upload a photo, and how to create bullet points.  Some students were very creative with their slides, and changed the font, the colors and even put images in the background!

Grades for this project, as well a behavior grades for the month of September should be posted in Skyward this week.  If anyone has any questions about their grades, I can certainly be contacted by phone!

This week, we will be working on our Timeline project.  The students will be researching different points in tech history, such as when the first Chromebook was introduced, or the Analytical Machine developed by Charles Babbage.  In groups, the students will make a slide that shows what they have learned about their timeline point. When all of the 5th grade classes are finished, I will be compiling the slides into one timeline.   I am excited to see what they find! Check back next week, as I will be posting some highlights from our timeline!