Sunday, November 26, 2023

🙋🏽‍♂️🌟Teacher Feature - Matt Felton - Digital Literacy and Citizenship🌟🙋🏽‍♂️

 

New Teacher Feature alert! 





Matt Felton (email matthew.felton@eagleschools.net) is a 5th-grade Math and Science teacher as well as a teacher leader at Red Sandstone Elementary School. He has been teaching for the last 15 years at both Eagle County School District and in New Mexico. Matt got a chance to attend the ISTE conference last summer in Philadelphia (coming to Denver in the summer of 2024!) and is regularly having students engage in learning on the Chromebooks. Read more to learn about how he sets his students up for success!

  1. What question were you trying to answer?


I start the year trying to answer the question “What skills do my students need in order to academically interact with technology while having a focus on digital citizenship?” I really try to impress upon the kids the ideas of how and when to use technology and how to stay safe online. I explain the purpose of GoGuardian and other tools teachers and the district use to help keep students safe while online. I don’t use small group rotations, but rather more of a “how-to” whole group lesson with various Google tools (Docs, Slides, Gmail, etc.). I am not an expert by any means, so I try to leverage kiddos knowledge and experience to show them how digital tools can be used and how I would like those digital tools to be used in the classroom. I do similar lessons with Schoology, our LMS, or Learning Management System. Our focus isn’t just on the user experience, but also on ethical and professional ways to comment on someone’s assignment or post. ISTE has a digital citizenship in action course  (linked here) that I have used bits and pieces from. It is pretty comprehensive as a resource. 


  1. How did you decide to answer that question?


As we use our computers on Day 1, I will start right away with these lessons. The students sign a contract (linked here) for both the school and myself that tells me they will be responsible with their devices. We go over certain topics before they even open their Chromebooks for the first time. Topics like how to hold the computer (2 points of contact), never carry it open, no food or drink on the table, etc. Once we have that taken care of, I will spend about 45 minutes each day over the next 4-5 days working through some of the applications mentioned above and how to use them at the basic level. 


  1. What impact did the solution have on your students?


Having done this beginning-of-the-year technology launch allows me to start with digital assignments right away without having to hassle with paper copies. Students are also able to access material easily from home and therefore come to school prepared with pre-taught material or can choose to review any of the work that was done in class up to that point. I feel that if you can start students off with clear expectations around technology use from the beginning of the year, you won’t have as many problems down the road. Also, it’s important to review these expectations after a break. 

4. If you were to do it all again, would you do anything different?

Any other tips or tricks you would recommend for teachers who want to

implement something similar in their classroom?

I recommend finding your resident digital expert among your students or in your building (You can always reach out to EdTech!). I have a colleague every year who can help me problem solve or show me shortcuts that I didn’t even know existed! I try to train my really proficient students with the tips and tricks I know so that when I’m working with a kiddo one-on-one, those students can float around and show other classmates how to do anything that may be confusing.

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