In my last post, I discussed the website, Weebly, and its uses in the classroom. After learning about Global Digital Citizenship these past few weeks in class, I will now discuss Global Digital Citizenship as it relates to Weebly. As future educators, it is important that we take the time to teach our students the importance of technology and how to properly use it and how to be safe while using it. We need to teach our students to be Global Citizens. Teaching students to be Digitally Responsible Global Citizens is extremely important. The next few questions will help guide the discussion.
In what learning environment would the technology resource I presented be appropriate?
Weebly would definitely be appropriate in the classroom and could be used as an electronic classroom or a classroom portable that could be made available for both parents and students. With Weebly you can create a classroom blog which allows parents to follow what their children are doing in school. With several different tabs that open up different sections of the blog, there could be a homework tab with the homework for that night posted for students to refer back to as needed. There could be a gallery where the teacher can post pictures of special things that are done in class, like science experiments, interactive math lessons, field trip pictures, or anything special that goes on in the classroom. Weebly would definitely be appropriate for any classroom, but depending on the age group of the class, student interaction on the webpage may be limited.
I don't think there is any environment where a Weebly account wouldn't be appropriate. To make Weebly more helpful for teachers and have pages with layouts that align with the different components that would be used in a classroom page, Weebly has a "Weebly Education" section that is for teachers. Weebly can be used for any sort of business; a personal business page, a large corporation page, anything really. Depending on what your use for Weebly will be, you can choose the appropriate settings for that area.
How might it be modified to be appropriate?
As I mentioned in the previous response, Weebly has several options for the web page designs that can cater to almost any business or group or corporation. Depending on what it is you're promoting, you can find a Weebly layout that will work well with what you have in mind!
What do you now know that needs to be considered when using technology in the classroom?
After this week and learning about Global Digital Citizenship, I was refreshed on concepts I had already been aware of and introduced to new areas I hadn't thought of with regards to technology and the classroom. With Weebly and having older students, I now know that I will need to monitor their pages very closely and keep an eye out for inappropriate use of the comment section, the information put on their page and the privacy settings put on their pages and the classroom page I make. I now know to make it a priority to teach my students about proper technology usage and how to practice proper "netiquette" whole on the web. I can also create a tab for Global Digital Citizenship on our class website for students to refer to and for parents to look over and become aware of signs to look out for with regards to their children and technology usage at home. I can have resources there for parents who are interested in being active members in their child's "online life". I have always known that online safety was important, but I had no idea of all fo the resources available out there to help teach global digital responsibility.
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job writing this piece about your technology resource Weebly. I remember when you picked Weebly and you were not sure about what it was, but then you took the time to investigate Weebly and you did a really great job. I heard of Weebly but did not really know much about it until you did your presentation. I also learned a lot from reading about how Businesses can use it,but also teachers. In the last paragraph you wrote about how you need to be able to monitor your students pages very closely and keep an eye out for inappropriate uses. In my blog I wrote about the same thing how it is so important to be careful with your students being on the web. I also had no idea of all the resources that are available and I actually gained a lot of knowledge from all of our research on Global Citizenship.
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that you would use the questions we were provided, in regards to our resources and global digital citizenship, to create a discussion with your students that guides them on concepts of safety and responsibility. I think that is a great way to inform them about online uses, and how you plan to incorporate Weebly into your classroom management system. Do you think there could be a way to increase the younger student use on classroom blog? Perhaps posting simple flashcard sight words, that they can study on Weebly, could improve their navigational skills as developing online users! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Cynthia. It is excellent that Weebly can be appropriate for any environment. It seems like a very helpful resource. I agree that Weebly has a wide variety of options and designs for many uses. I can tell by your blog post that you understand global digital citizenship very well. I agree that we need to monitor closely. This is true for any online resource we pull into our classrooms. It is important to use them appropriately. Do you think Weebly would be used often in classrooms? I have not heard of it before you shared it. Thanks for sharing.
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