Be Cyber Smart and First Grade

Every year I work through several Internet safety and citizenship concepts with all the various grades. This week, I am reviewing a computer ethics topic titled "Is This Yours?" at the CyberSmart web site.

Be Cyber Smart

In general, I like the CyberSmart! Student Curriculum. They have lessons in:

• Safety and Security Online
• Manners and Cyber Citizenship
• Cyberbullying
• Authentic Learning and Creativity
• Research and Information Fluency
• Twenty First Century Challenges

When the link is clicked on the menu on the left side of the screen lesson plans and student activity sheets are revealed. The lesson plans are great. They walk the teacher through an overview, objectives, NETS standard, and provide a list of materials, an introduction, and step by step lessons to teach.

From Simple Concept to Analysis

The simple concept behind the lesson on Is This Yours? is that children have to realize that computers in the school are property that must be respected. It comes with a little coloring sheet for use in the discussion. I've rearranged my room and it will be harder for the students to color than in previous years. I've modified the experience by putting together a template in Kidspiration.

Kidspiration Template

This week we will use the template to find three pictures representing items the student may or may not need permission to use. I've placed the template on my wiki. They will then switch to the writing view and add a sentence for each image telling why they do or do not need permission to use the item. The final work will be imported into Word and turned into a single paragraph. I think this extension should help them analyze the lesson using images that might more closely represent their personal experience.

CyberSmart's lesson is a great beginning discussion in digital citizenship. I am looking forward to the complementary Kidspiration template enhancing the content.