Cyberbullying may not be an immediate threat to the first grade students I teach, but the truth is that they are going to face cyberbullying at some point in their lives and I feel compelled to prepare them to be responsible digital citizens. There was a major case of cyberbullying in the media these past few days as an actress from the new Ghostbusters movie (Leslie Jones) was bullied on Twitter. The comments made were hateful and wrong, and very hurtful to the actress. This made me think about our class and how we need to be aware of the reality of cyberbullying and start at an early age to teach kindness as well as responsible technology use.
As we looked at the NETS standards for Teachers and Students, it can be overwhelming to think about all the expectations laid out for technology use. I think it is important to know that technology can support our other content areas and meeting those standards and technology use doesn't need to be in addition to what we already do. I could see teachers being overwhelmed by adding more standards, but hopefully technology can be used to support and enhance learning across the board.
I think you make a good point. Technology isn't about "adding something" but about using it to enhance and support what is already done.
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