This past week I was invited by the PTO of the middle school that I serve to talk with parents about Internet safety and digital citizenship.  More than two years separate this presentation from the last one I gave to parents on this topic.  It’s amazing to think how very much has changed in such a short time, and this year I wanted it to be different.  Parents are facing a very different environment, and, more than my voice, they need to hear one another’s – and their children’s.

My focus for this presentation was to get people talking – to one another in the session, and to their children when they returned home.  My mantra for the night was “Use everything I say as an excuse to talk with your kid.  Ask them if they agree.  Ask them if I’m crazy.  Just get them to talk with you.”  The conversation has moved from “safety” to life skills, as it should, and parents have so very much to offer their kids in this area.

My slide deck is below.  The frequent references to “talking points” are just that – links to share with children for whom life is, and will be, both digital and analog.

After our successful presentation on building community inside and outside the language classroom for the MO3 conference, Eileen Rodriguez-Kiser and I were encouraged to submit a presentation to the 2011 Foreign Language Association of Missouri conference focused on making international collaborations work.  We were delighted to be joined, in person, by Ramiro Luna, English teacher from Prepa Tec Garza Sada, Monterrey, Mexico, with whom we have learned some guiding principles of successful international collaborations.

A wiki with materials from this session is available online, and our presentation slides may be viewed below.  If you have questions, feel free to contact any one of us.

I was privileged to present with Eileen Kiser, Spanish teacher at Parkway West High School, at the Missouri Modern Languages & Modern Technologies Conference (MO3), hosted by the University of Missouri – St. Louis.  At the end of our presentation, we were joined by Ramiro Luna, English teacher from Prepa Tec Garza Sada, Monterrey, Mexico via Skype to describe how he and Eileen have taken community building beyond the walls of their classrooms.

Our slidedeck was accomplished through Google Earth. The KMZ file is available here.

Below is a playlist of the first half of our presentation, covering ways Eileen has used TodaysMeet, Edmodo, and VoiceThread to build a sense of community within her classroom and across her campus.

In addition to presenting on aspects of Digital Citizenship at this year’s Midwest Educational Technology Conference, I also had the privilege to be a part of a session new to METC – Speed Geeking. In this style of presentation, presenters have about 8 minutes to deliver a compelling message on one topic before moving to another part of the room. Attendees have the opportunity to interact with a number of engaging speakers, each delivering content in their own style.

Our Speed Geeking topic this year was focused on inspiring teachers to meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). We attempted to accomplish this by each taking one standard and outlining practical ways teachers might meet that standard. The full wiki with all standards and presentations is available online.

My assigned standard:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:

• promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
• engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
• promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
• model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

My presentation:

For a number of years, I and other Parkway technology integration specialists have been asked to talk with students and teachers about the elements of digital citizenship.  I have presented a two-day presentation for middle school students on Internet safety and online community, and recently presented on additional themes of digital citizenship with fellow technology integration specialist, Amy Johnson.

Our presentation was partly a round-table discussion of resources that can be used in classroom discussion, and partly a presentation of practical classroom ideas for incorporating these themes into the guaranteed curriculum.

Our slide deck is below, and our resources can be found via a simplebooklet (Firefox or Chrome browsers recommended to view this resource).