I created the presentation below as part of an Internet safety introduction lesson for 4th and 5th grade students who are embarking on a blogging adventure with their classroom teachers.

It is based on Part IV of the Blogging Unit Plan for Elementary School Students.

Slide 21 & 25 were created with student input during class.

I believe that we need to teach our students to be able to extract information from a variety of sources. They do not only need to be able to read text, but they also need to be able to:

• extract
• comprehend
• evaluate
• summarize
• re-use
• re-mix

information from other forms of media. They also need to be able to choose, use and be comfortable with a variety of tools to help them accomplish just that.

As we are continuing our journey Around the World with 80 Schools, I am delegating more and more of the documentation of our connections to students, trying to give them practice and reflection time.

Ideas how to let students work on summarizing and reflecting:

1. Oral recount of what we, as a group,  have learned during the Skype conference
2. Individually filling out of index cards with key points during skyping
3. Individuals taking digital images
4. Individuals recording video footage
5. Chrissy Hellyer in Thailand assigns her students to comment on her blog post about the connection made.

I decided to try integrate another tool after our last Skype connection with Nathan Toft’s 5th grade class from Canada. 6tgh graders were invited to a private chat room after we finished speaking with Nathan’s class.

I chose TinyChat.com as the service, because it is:

• web based
• no registration required
• private, unless you share the URL
• possibility to download chat content
• once you close it, the chat room and its content cease to exist

Before we got started, we had a short review of a previously taught internet safety lesson.

• Don’t give out personal information
• Don’t believe everything you see or hear online
• EVERYTHING you say/type/upload/ is online FOREVER, others can copy/save/forward it to ANYONE (yes, even your grandmother!)
• Understand what cyberbullying is and how to recognize and prevent it. Don’t be a bully, don’t be a victim!

I reinforced the concept that chat rooms are even a step further ahead on the scale of places that you should be extra careful with. Don’t go there alone. We advocate to our students to ALWAYS take a buddy with you (we are talking about 11 year old students). At their age, they should not even go to a random chat room. I compared it to going alone at night downtown in the spirit “Let me see who I can meet and talk to there”.

I created the chatroom, then linked it on our blog. Here were the directions before they entered our chat room:

1. Sign into the chatroom with your first name only
2. Text messaging Acronyms are ok
3. No talking, we are communicating only through the chat room
4. Summarize what we heard and learned from our Skype connection with  Canada
5. Be polite, don’t say anything you would not say in our school environment

Once you are ready to finish the chat, make sure you save your chat log. Once you close your browser window or exit out of the chat room, you will loose everything.

You have 4 choices of how to save the chat log:

Reflection of  using a chat room with students:

• Students were VERY excited about going into a chat environment. It seems that that holds some sort of fascination…. the forbidden fruit… Everyone was alert.
• They figured out quickly how to send private messages (without being shown how). BTW, the private messages are NOT included in your chat log. That could be an issue.
• Even though we repeatedly reminded students that the chat was not a social occasion, but there to collaboratively work to summarize what we learned from our Skype call, it took students a while to get the “giggles” out and focus.
• It is a skill to be able to read AND follow along in a chat window.
• It is a skill to learn to be “part” of a chat. Some students only “threw” out sentences, but did not read or respond to others
• GREAT typing practice

Here is the chat lines from students (Their names have been removed). I bolded the text that had something to do with the Skype conference. Notice how it took them a while to start focusing. This was the first time for many to be in an online chat environment. I think they did pretty well! As with any other skill, they will get better with practice.

(1:38 pm)  yo yo my name is bobby joe
(1:38 pm)  So do we summerize what we did?
(1:38 pm)  lol
(1:38 pm)  the skpe was cool
(1:38 pm)  hola
(1:38 pm) – hey…..ive typed hi like 20 times
(1:38 pm)  shh…
(1:38 pm)  Hi peeps
(1:38 pm)  shh……
(1:38 pm)  lol hi kt
(1:38 pm)  bob saget
(1:38 pm)  yo
(1:38 pm) – hahaha
(1:38 pm) – don’t feel bad i type even slower
(1:38 pm) – lol
(1:38 pm) – who
(1:38 pm) – what
(1:38 pm) – lol
(1:38 pm) – how was the skype
(1:38 pm) – when
(1:38 pm) – where
(1:38 pm)  – sweet
(1:38 pm) – this is histarical!!
(1:38 pm) - I thought the girl with the red hair was a good talker person
(1:38 pm) – and how
(1:39 pm) – when did you get your degree/
(1:39 pm) – hey katie
(1:39 pm) – i type really slow slower than all of you
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – i type sooooooo slow
(1:39 pm) – i can smell mama citas cooking
(1:39 pm) - I had a feeling they’d say pizza, isn’t that what they all sail, Mrs. Tolisano?
(1:39 pm) – wat??
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – i think were having baked beans
(1:39 pm) – rotf
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – Cut the cheese
(1:39 pm) – so random!
(1:39 pm) – i feel really silly because i’m typing to the person right next to me
(1:39 pm) – and maybe somke burgers
(1:40 pm)- they were good speakers
(1:40 pm) – ya deffinetly
(1:40 pm) – ur right!!
(1:40 pm) – what
(1:40 pm) – how did u like the skipe ?
(1:40 pm) – how was the skype
(1:40 pm) – I liked it
(1:40 pm)  – what is the conversation
(1:40 pm) – i did too
(1:40 pm) – i think they should have been more organized
(1:40 pm) – i liked the skype….. it was really cool
(1:40 pm) – Hi
(1:40 pm) – I did to
(1:40 pm) – i wonder how big there school is?
(1:40 pm) – it was
(1:40 pm) stop saying hi
(1:40 pm) – skypaping is so fun
(1:41 pm) – probably big
(1:41 pm) – hi matt u want to talk
(1:41 pm) – did you like the canadians
(1:41 pm) – i cant believe they dont have a cafateria
(1:41 pm) – i thoguht it was weird how they didnt have a cafetria
(1:41 pm) – kt i dont think they understud you!
(1:41 pm) – well the skype cofersation took longer than we thought and they sdidnt hav a caferteia
(1:41 pm) – those canadian kids had alot to say
(1:41 pm) – i liked the trophy they got from there blog!!!!
(1:41 pm) – i know
(1:41 pm) – me to
(1:41 pm) – i know it big
(1:41 pm) – ik
(1:41 pm) – it was plastic
(1:41 pm) – didn’t they ask what we had comming up?
(1:41 pm) – I don’t like the cafateria
(1:41 pm) – and they had a video podcasrt
(1:41 pm) – it looked like it was metal
(1:41 pm) – that trophy was so great
(1:41 pm) – Podcast trophy!
(1:42 pm) – I like there school
(1:42 pm) – The tropie was for the blog
(1:42 pm) – why do u think they don’t have aa cafiteria
(1:42 pm) – i cant believe they don’t buy lunch? is the expenses 2 much?  is canadian money worth more or less than a $
(1:42 pm) – they alsoa hav a podcast and a trofie for it!!
(1:42 pm) – thats cool that they have a blog and video podcast
(1:42 pm) – We should have asked if they liked canadian bacon
(1:42 pm) – i kan talk faste
(1:42 pm) – I cant believe they half to bring their lunch every day
(1:42 pm) – i cant wait to see the blog
(1:42 pm) – I like
(1:42 pm) – My brother’s school didn’t have a cafatiria
(1:42 pm) – ya
(1:42 pm) – i wanna see there blog 2
(1:42 pm) – wow
(1:42 pm) – same
(1:42 pm) – their podcast was called “Portable Radio”
(1:42 pm) – I like shiny trophs
(1:42 pm) – i know
(1:42 pm) – i wonder if they have micdonalds
(1:42 pm) – me 2
(1:42 pm) – the trophy they got from having the best webchat in the world is really cool
(1:42 pm) – I wonder if they play any sports
(1:42 pm) – this was cool i thought they wound speak candiean
(1:43 pm) – no you don’t
(1:43 pm) – ya
(1:43 pm) – I forgot too
(1:43 pm) – I just knew it was a podcast
(1:43 pm) – i felt bad because we didnt say as much stuff about our school and they said a lot about theirs
(1:43 pm) – the trophy was won 4 the best podcaast in the world
(1:43 pm) – I wonder how good there podcast was :p
(1:43 pm) – yall type to fast
(1:43 pm) – there class was huge!!!!!
(1:43 pm) – was their class size 31??
(1:43 pm) – The podcast was pretty great
(1:43 pm) – they also interveiwd a famous dude from canada
(1:43 pm) – me too
(1:43 pm) – they had two korian kids E. and J.
(1:43 pm) – ya it was huge 32 or 31 kids
(1:44 pm) – they intviewed a 12 year old 4 making shows and only 3 kids got to meet him
(1:44 pm) – lol
(1:44 pm) – I like there podcast name very simple
(1:44 pm) – They also had a big class
(1:44 pm) – they both wore glasses
(1:44 pm) – yeah i cxant believ they have 31 people when we only have 14
(1:44 pm) – yes very big
(1:44 pm) – WOw
(1:44 pm) -  the girl
(1:44 pm) – rofl
(1:44 pm) – from korea
(1:44 pm) – I also like the teachers name
(1:44 pm) – i felt really small when they said 31
(1:44 pm) – My uncle is working in the CFL and maybe he could visit them
(1:44 pm) – thur class is mor than trise our classses size
(1:44 pm) – lol
(1:44 pm) – i know
(1:44 pm) – i wish i could see the blog
(1:44 pm) – THE TEACHERS name was nathan
(1:45 pm) – What was the teacher’s name? I forgot..
(1:45 pm) – yes daniel cook
(1:45 pm) – danniel coook
(1:45 pm) – oh
(1:45 pm) – they interveiwed daniel cook on the local radio show
(1:45 pm) – We also sould have asked if they had mouse in their backyard
(1:45 pm) -  I wonder wich Korea the 2 kids came from
(1:45 pm) – daniel cook daniel cook daniel cook
(1:45 pm) – I think Canada is a long way from florida
(1:45 pm) – oh yeah me 2
(1:45 pm) – ya
(1:45 pm) – i bet all the kids are sad that E. and J. are going back to koria
(1:45 pm) – i want 2 be on the podcast
(1:45 pm) – ya
(1:45 pm) – u think?:()
(1:45 pm) – you spelt korea ronge
(1:45 pm) – Daniel Cook is a kid from disney chanell
(1:45 pm) – wrong
(1:46 pm) – yeah 3 kids interveiwed cook, right?
(1:46 pm) – it looked like they attacked J…..or was it E.
(1:46 pm) – what
(1:46 pm) – we should make a podcast
(1:46 pm) – probley
(1:46 pm) – ya
(1:46 pm) – yeah
(1:46 pm) – Serouisly
(1:46 pm) – I think they pulled in J.
(1:46 pm) – Dainel cook wasn’t his teacher his name was mr.toft
(1:46 pm) – they look like sister dont u think so
(1:46 pm) – that would be a lot of fun!!!!!
(1:46 pm) – yes
(1:46 pm) – we could get famous
(1:46 pm) – u guys type fast
(1:46 pm) – please
(1:46 pm) – yes we do
(1:46 pm) – who was the one who kept waving 2 us
(1:46 pm) – their bteachers name is mr. toft
(1:46 pm) – I know it wasn’t cook, I couldn’t remember
(1:46 pm) – it was taft
(1:46 pm) – I don’t think i could pack my lunch every day!!!
(1:46 pm) – mr.toft
(1:46 pm) – People stop
(1:47 pm) – he was african canadian
(1:47 pm) – Mr Toft?
(1:47 pm) – no he wqasent
(1:47 pm) – I wish i got to interview mr. cook
(1:47 pm) – me 2
(1:47 pm) – i feel realy good about typin

We also decided to send home an e-mail to the parents:

During our Tech Connect Class on Tuesday, your child’s class had the opportunity to Skype with an elementary school from Ottawa, Canada. After we had finished our video conference, Mrs. Tolisano followed up a previously taught Internet Safety lesson and engaged them in a safety conversation especially focusing on chat rooms, which several of the students in the class were already familiar with. Students were then invited to a private online chat room. This chat room was closed, only accessible to our students and moderated by Mrs. Tolisano.

Once the class was over, the chat room ceased to exist in cyberspace. The intent of the lesson was not only to open up the conversation about internet safety, but also give a platform where, as a class, students collaboratively were able to summarize and discuss their experience about the Skype call.  On Tuesday, students had the opportunity to not only connect internationally with other children, but practiced how to act in a controlled online environment with their classmates.

Title: Cyber Safety Smartz!
Presenter:  Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton
Description:  Want to learn how to protect your students online? This is the session for you. Learn all about Cyber Safety.

Presenter started out with youtube video of I look so much cooler on Myspace,  a song from Brad Paisely.

Internet Safety Technical Task Force released Enhancing

Internet is not as dangerous as the media is portraying.

Cyber bullying is more prevalent than predators onlineWhy do you talk to your students about Internet Safety: to keep THEM safe.

Start out with questions like:

• How many have a computer?
• How many are connected to the Internet?
• How many have e-mail, mySpace and Facebook account
• Where is your computer located?
• Have your parents talked to them about being safe online?
  

Take this quiz as a class together : SafeKids

Don’t include the following online:

• keep usernames generic
• do not make screen name sexually explicit or suggestive
• do not make your name gender specific
• avoid posting personal information
• hometown
• addresses
• name of school
• name of sports team
• sports numbers
• telephone numbers
• favorite hangout
• financial information
• marital status in chat rooms
• bulletin boards and profiles

My thoughts:

While I am listening to the presenter, I am wondering if all the information she is telling them NOT to put online and using scare tactics to “keep them safe” will be effective TODAY? I remember reading about and also teaching the same kind of advice to my students, but that was OVER 5 YEARS AGO!!

Can we really teach the same things about Online Safety today?

• It seems to be INEVITABLE that our tweens and teens will be on Facebook, mySpace and online networking places and an earlier age.
• We want to encourage our children to become tech savvy and internet literate. Giving them their own laptop to be creative, literate, stay in touch with friends and family is something GOOD and should be encourage.  Info available anytime and anywhere applies to kids too. So how to combine that with “Family computer only in a central place”. For younger students yes, but what about tweens and teens?
• We need to create new advice and tips that MAKE sense to these kids and that they will be able to follow while they are still allowed to participate safely in the online spaces that they socialize in.

What are your thoughts on REAL advice for today’s kids to stay safe online. Forget the scare tactics, forget to limit their exposure to the online world, forget pretending that when you keep them in a walled garden without allowing them to spread their wings, they will magically know how to fly on their own when they are at their friends house , with their internet cell phones, game consoles or head off to college.

Technorati Tags: TCEA09

Putting your Best Face Forward- Using avatars

I uploaded the following post to our school’s TechConnect blog. It was spurred by the wave of avatar creations for ALL students across grade levels due to the participation of each class in the Egypt VoiceThread.

What is an avatar?

An avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself or herself. We need to be careful when representing ourselves in any form online. You do not want to use a photograph of yourself, that might identify you to others how you look, how old you are or where you live. You also do not want to name your avatar with your full name. First names are defining without being revealing, unless you have a very unique first name.

There are many different ways how you could create you own avatar. You will use them when you write on a blog, in a VoiceThread (digital storybook), or participate in a chat or discussion forum.

You can create an image on the computer using a drawing or illustration of yourself, use clip art or take a digital picture of an object, such as a guitar, football, that you identify with. Be creative.

Here are some examples of great avatars:

Before introducing the concept of an avatar to the kids, I ask each student to share something about themselves that most of the class did not know. We heard that one girl liked rodents, one had her own pet raccoon, another owned 5 turtles, etc. After each student shared a tidbit, I asked if a stranger would know who in this class had something to do with a raccoon? No! Do we (in the class) know, which student likes raccoons? Yes! It seemed to make sense to them now to use a representation, such as a picture of something else, to allow friends to identify them, but not strangers. In come the avatars…

I asked my Twitter network (thank you @murcha, @technoteach, @tmcgrath, @metaweb20, @karlyb) for more elementary school website that allow an easy and appropriate creation of avatars. The following links were suggested, but after a closer (remember I teach elementary students) I chose not to use them for the following reasons:

• WeeWorld- Ads with inappropriate and suggestive images and text. Once you choose a body part, eye color and head shape you are confronted with a Adam & Eve style leaves in appropriate places. I can just imagine the gasping among the students! You can create the avatar without having to register.
• Voki - Also with ads, geared towards the older crowd. Talking avatar, which would not work when needed in VoiceThread
• Portrait Illustration Maker- Google Ads on the side, which always make me nervous with the elementary crowd. Otherwise looks OK, except too outgoing links take you too streaming RSS feed. No control or idea what will be displayed if students happen to end up on the page.

In the end, I ended up suggesting to the students to use KidPix to create a portrait of themselves or to use Build Your Wild Self website, from the New York Zoo and Aquarium.

Once students had created their “wild self”, they saved it > as a Wild Desktop > then right clicked >Save Image As> and we had a copy of the avatar. Kids LOVED it. It was a lot of fun, in addition to learning animal facts from the different body parts they chose.

There is also a Avatar-Maker in Kerpoof. Children do need to register (no e-mail address required) There is no “save as” option in Kerpoof, but if you have a screen capture tool like Jing, you have a work around.

Last week, I ordered a Webkinz Polar Bear from Ebay. The main purpose was to have a Polar Bear stuffed animal for my upcoming German Summer Camp. It arrived in the mail today (If you are wondering about the connection between Germany and a Polar Bear, you need to check out Knut). I am getting ready to explore the possibilities with my almost 13 year old daughter on the Webkinz website and the possible uses in an educational setting.

Please let me know if you have, planning to or are using it Webkinz in the classroom.

Maria Knee commented on Online Gaming here to stay. Do you dare enter? post by Chreyl Oakes

As you already know, my kindergarten class has adopted a Webkinz – a frog they named Spikey Spike. We visit the site a couple of times a week, in class, for about 15 minutes each time. As a class, we make decisions about how to spend our money and what to feed our pet. We usually do the daily activities. Using this virtual environment in class provides opportunities to discuss online behavior with my students. I also enjoy having class discussions about how to care for the pet and using decision making skills/tools. My students also enjoy the soft, cuddly Webkinz as well.

Why would a teacher look into Webkinz? What educational purpose could it have?

James Tubbs from MrTeacher blog writes in this blog post “Webkinz: Web 2.0 for younger kids”:

To me, the popularity of the Webkinz site and my students’ level of engagement with Venture Africa reinforce the necessity of using these technologies–games and social software (my students communicated with each other through my classroom blog)–in the classroom. It’s very important that we begin to leave behind the tired teaching approaches that still dominate our classrooms. Our kids are bored and unmotivated by them. Bring in the right video game though and engagement soars.

Bob Sprankle in a Bit by Bit post “Dead Ends in Webkinz?” also pays attention to the maybe not so great side affects, such as consumerism and asks himself:

Why can’t Webkinz rise above this? Bring in more challenging material? They need to pump it up soon, or kids will tire of rearranging their virtual rooms, and hopefully, also tire of endless, mindless buying.

Violet, a commenter on Bob’s post states:

The games are filled with strategy and build logic skills in order to solve them. The trivia questions are, first of all, differentiated for different ability levels, but also challenge the kids with using the context of the question to problem solve to find the correct answer. The vocabulary is challenging, which I find that schools do not emphasize as often as they used to do. I will admit that the site does not give a lot of opportunity for creative and divergent thinking, but that is the nature of computer-type games. There is some room for creativity, but within a limited scope, like when allowing the children to decorate the rooms where their pets live. All in all, I find the Webkinz site to be an excellent educational site for kids from elementary to middle school ages.

Here are some other links I came across regarding Webkinz.

• Second Life for the elementary school set
• Webkinz: A Second Life/MySpace Mashup for Grade Schoolers:
  

Take a look at it and you’ll begin to realize how soon the kindergarten through junior high generation will leapfrog over adults in their ability to use the Internet, their understanding of e-commerce, their acceptance of online community, and the idea that one’s social life can be centered in a virtual world.
Publishers: this is how kids will learn instead of with already obsolete text books. Fashion, music, art and commerce online will be as natural a part of young digital natives’ lives as TV was to baby boomers. The Internet has indeed changed everything. We sure live in interesting times.

• Staying in touch with Long Distance Relatives

So, it’s a fun toy. But it’s much more than that, because their grandmother has one too. And so do their cousins. Their grandmother can invite the kids’ pets over to her virtual room. She sends them presents and notes. They play against each other in trivia and arcade games. My boys get a kick out of their grandmother being online and playing with them on their level. I think it’s a great idea. We live very far away. Even when we do visit, it’s hard to find time to just sit and play, because lots of relatives are around, too.
Their Webkinz animals have become a way for them to check in with their grandmother and cousins several times a week. I know they will always remember playing this way with their relatives.