The Digiteen Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, GA USA) in 2008. This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. Topics of study include digital: access, communications, literacy, security and safety, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, law, health and wellness, and commerce.The purpose of the project is to promote effective Digital Citizenship and responsible online choices. Students are participating from Australia, Qatar, Canada, Austria and the United States. Classrooms from India and Bangladesh are also expected to join the project shortly.
The digital tools used in this project are:
- Wikispaces - students collaborate on research of Digital Citizenship
- Ning - students are members of a social network so that they can get to know each other.
- Diigo - students & teachers use social bookmarking to share helpful resources.
- Elluminate - teachers meet weekly to discuss progress and help one another with obstacles.
- Google Groups - teachers belong to a group for communication and document sharing.
- iGoogle - teachers (and some students) share a start page consisting of shortcuts to relevant links, and rss feeds of updated project information.
So far my students have learned so much about the life of the students in these other countries. They have also learned how to use a wiki (including using the discussion tab on the wiki to propose and debate ideas for wiki content). As a result of this project, I have learned that I need to do better preparing my students for global interaction. They need to know how to communicate WELL digitally, how to use multiple applications/websites to get the job done, and how to contribute POSITIVELY to the digital society that they are so immersed in.
The Digiteen2008 Wiki will contain lots of information about Digital Citizenship and, upon project completion, will contain the offline action projects developed by the collaborative teams. Be sure to check back often to follow the project progress.
Maybe as you explore this project you'll have the same inner questions as I do... Am I really preparing my students for a digital life? Can my students really, truly collaborate with others? Are their skill sets ready for the collaboration? Do they know how to research? What can WE do starting in elementary school to build their skills?
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3 comments:
It is really intriguing, and like you say, it provokes the question of how to really prepare students for what lies ahead. To me, that's always summarized "lifelong learner" very well. It's one thing to give students the most up to date tools, but quite another (more challenging) thing to make sure they can intelligently approach the tools that will become available to them throughout their lives.
I have to admit that one of the most challenging aspects of this project is the fact that so many valuable resources are blocked in my district compared to the other schools. Students in the other schools are able to embed videos and slideshare presentations into the project wiki to help illustrate their topic. My students cannot view or post either while at school.
I feel that, in order to teach students how to responsibly use web 2.0 tools, we have to give them access and opportunities to make wise choices. We can't shelter them and then send them home expecting them to use it responsibly.
This sounds like a great way for the upper level students to become successful online learners. I will share this with my peers in the high school.
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