Ready, Set...Action!

Funded Jan 5, 2017

Thank you so much for funding my request for a digital camera. Although the new camera will support many, many projects on the road ahead, the current learning theme in my classroom is "Digital Citizenship." In the most basic terms "Digital Citizenship" is described as how to appropriately and safely behave in the digital world. This topic is particularly important for students as they are navigating a very new technological world, mostly on their own, as things are changing at a rapid pace. Many of my special education students have challenges with impulse control, a grasp on time, space and sometimes reality. It is my hope that with more knowledge of the digital world they will be able to become better advocates for themselves as well as practice safe and responsible practices online and in our growing digital world. The first project was to explore the 9 elements of digital citizenship. They were to create an information sheet that would later be turned into a poster that outlined the meaning for each element as well as how each one impacts people living in a modern society. The posters were designed keeping in mind that they would be show cased throughout the school. The main attraction for each poster was a photo, thanks to the new camera. They were not allowed to copy and past images from the internet, instead, they had to work in their collaborative group and think of how they could produce a photo that represented the information they used in the write up. My students had a blast trying to figure out how they were going to produce a visual representation of the 9 elements of digital citizenship, and by doing so, they also gained a deeper understanding of the material. I was excited and surprised by their creativity and grasp of the subject matter through photography.

Even after finishing the project, a lot of my students are still making comments and making personal connections to the information on digital citizenship. I think it mostly due to having created a very personal connection by using the digital camera to create images. Merging art, technology and core subjects can be very powerful. All of my students have learning disabilities and many of them shined on this project because they could incorporate talents other than reading and writing which is difficult for them, and still prove their grasp of the material. I think it's important to note that most of my students really didn't know what the camera was. They understood it was a camera but most had never seen one in real life and definitely hadn't ever handled or used one. They are used to cameras on cell phones and not much more. It was exciting to broaden their world a little bit. We are all encouraged to move on to the next portion of the project.

Although my students have not gotten to this stage of the "Digital Citizen" unit, they will be using the camera to record short shows, in the same fashion as a news segment, that review the 9 digital elements. The students will be in charge of video taping their peers, setting the "stage" and each taking turns as news anchors and interviewees.

I can already imagine the engaging and creative fun we will have with this educational experience.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Varelas