Responsible Digital Citizens

CC0 1.0 Universal

I cannot help but believe that we must teach and model the use of social media for our elementary students. Those of us in elementary education have a responsibility to model for our students the proper use of twitter and blogging before they hit middle school and are setting up their own accounts. We have the unique opportunity to mold their minds before they begin using these on their own. Not to mention the huge positive classroom implications they have — twitter allows our classes to become schools without walls; learning becomes so much more global as students reach across the continent and over the oceans to students everywhere. These give students an authentic purpose to write and spell well. We all know that when students see a purpose in what they are writing, they do a better job of elevating the standard of their writing. So many possibilities are out there for our students when it comes to using social media under the watchful eyes of teachers. I look forward to moving my school in this direction of authentic digital learning.