When students are in third grade they are eight and nine years old. Students now in the year 2020 have grown up with technology in the home their entire lives (a majority at least). What I have noticed about my students is that they are now becoming more and more interested in technology than they were in their previous academic years. When teaching second grade I never had students asking if they could use this website or that website. Students used what was on the iPads and never questioned it. Now teaching third grade, I have students asking every week if they can use a website I have never heard of before. Many students now have their own cell phones, whether it is just for walking to school or simply using the parent approved apps when they can connect to wifi. I believe in third grade it is really important that students are learning digital citizenship.
When moving into third grade from the primary levels my first thoughts were wondering how I was going to get my students on devices and learning what they need to learn while still having control over their internet usage. I began by teaching some basics of internet safety, what links should you click, who do you talk to when online, and always ask permission. Honestly, all my students already knew this information, I believe because they have grown up with technology. When it came time to introduce research for writing assignments, I knew I needed a more in-depth lesson for my students to be on task and not getting into trouble online. After talking to my grade level teachers about how they taught research and the tools that they use, I came across kidrex.org. This is a kid friendly search engine that allows students to research material needed while not having to constantly worry about what could possibly pop up on their screens. While it does not block everything, I have not had any issues with inappropriate content coming across their screens. It is not perfect, so it still provides opportunities for students to learn what websites to trust and what to not trust when it comes to content being provided. As I have opened up more to using technology in the classroom I have introduced google drive, google docs, and google classroom to my students. While I am still learning how to incorporate technology into my classroom, I am also still learning how to teach digital citizenship. I have been teaching it as I go throughout the year, building my toolbox for the following years to come.
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