Online Citizenship and Education

Creative Commons Licensed Materials

Creative commons licensed materials can help teachers while creating instructional materials. These materials can range from videos to audios to photos and many more. By using these free-to-use resources, teachers can create a wide variety of materials to aid their teaching. Creative commons licensed materials are free to use, serving as a great jumping off point for creating educational materials. Using these could be a bit difficult at times as you do need to take the time to find appropriate materials that fully suit your needs, which may be hard to find depending on what kind of materials you need. In some cases, this may make it easier to create new materials, but these creative commons licensed materials can still be used as inspiration! 

Helping Learners Manage their Digital Footprints

There are many ways that we, as teachers, can help students learn to manage their digital footprint. Emphasizing the importance of monitoring online activity is a great place to start. Information posted on the internet is there forever, so it is important to show this. There are many different archival websites that preserve even personal social media accounts and can be used to show what they looked like at various times in the past. This goes to show how important it is to monitor posts before they are shared, not just reflect on them after. Though it is important to teach about safety with regards to digital footprints, you also want to ensure that you aren’t just making the students fear using digital technologies. These technologies can be very beneficial both socially and educationally when use correctly and safely. The main emphasis should be on privacy when reviewing different technologies, ensuring that there are ways to manage the student’s digital footprint and any possible interactions with other users of the technology.

Video Creation as a Learning Resource in Middle Years

Video creation can be used in the classroom as a great learning resource as it provides students with a creative outlet to present information. When thinking of video creation, I think that many people first think about how kids like to make silly videos for fun, not necessarily how these videos can help a student in an educational setting. Students can use video creation for almost any subject by being given assignments that involve making educational or informative videos. These can be created in a variety of ways, from students just recording a virtual presentation to students making documentary type videos to present information. This allows variety for students, allowing them to operate in whatever mode they feel comfortable. Students can also get very creative with video creation, incorporating a variety of art forms into its creation. This also gives students more options for presenting information, making this a versatile tool. It can also help students who may feel uncomfortable with presenting in front of the class, as they can just present to a video camera and edit it which may help them feel more secure in the information they are presenting and give them a safer environment to present their information.

Example of a Creative Commons Licensed Video