Course 2: Week 4 - THINK

My biggest takeaways for this week's readings and ideas were the resources I can use with my students. Helping children become aware of how to act online (and in person) is such an important part of our role as their teacher. It is not something that can be ignored or brushed under the rug. It is so much part of their lives that they need to have some guidance and advice to walk them through this new normal (new to us, but not to them!)

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https://www.commonsensemedia.org

As a school and a studio, we use the Common Sense Media courses and lessons.
While I enjoy these lessons (and so do our students), I did kind of feel this year that it was a bit of a "one and done" type situation. Of course I try to bring up these topics and ideas as often as I can, but I can see how the concepts and lessons learned could fade away easily.

https://mediasmarts.ca

In contrast, I enjoyed looking through the Media Smarts website. The videos seemed simple and enjoyable for myself and (I assume) my students. I like that there is now another bank of lessons and resources I am aware of to supplement what we normally use. I will be recommending this to my year group next year, and possibly to other year groups as well, after we test them out with the students. I also like that it is not just focused on safety online. Their lessons seem to have more of a a media literacy focus which is so important. I think this will be a great suppliment to our Common Sense Media lessons.

https://mediabyexample.com

​Another website I am starting to dive into a little more is my friend Adam Hill's Google Innovator Project, Media by Example. He has partnered with... you guessed it... Jennifer Casa-Todd! (I think that is three posts in a row I have mentioned her now???).

Media By Example's mission is to help educators to:
​1. Embrace their role as digital role models
2. Explore the positive potential of social media
3. Inspire the next generation of digital leaders

This project lends itself well to the Citizen standard of ISTE's Educator Standards. There are many educators (including Trevor MacKenzie, Carlos Galvez) and students who have written guest blog posts for them related to their mission. I highly suggest taking a look at the many resources they have available. They also have a free four week course for educators that they are working on for summer 2020. Check it out!

​A short one this week, but really powerful resources were brought to my attention. Fantastic!