For better or worse, technology is a part of our daily lives and how we comport ourselves online matters! This is why it is essential we help students gain the abilities to be able to navigate through it appropriately and effectively.
Here are a few ways you can use Wixie to help students engage in digital citizenship.
Build respect for yourself and others
Now more than ever, words matter... as they can be shared in a nanosecond electronically to raise someone up or cause them harm. Providing opportunities for students to use positive messages encourages a culture that supports, not divides.
Start by having students brainstorm what being respectful in a digital space means. Use Wixie's RESPECT acrostic or one of the many cluster organizers in the Templates folders to have students share their ideas.
Wixie also provides a wealth of templates and backgrounds that students can use to show their respect and empathy for others online, including:You can also read Todd Parr's It's Okay to Be Different and have students complete an "It's Okay" adaptation of their own.
Protect your rights, wellness, and character
Teachers can easily customize any template in Wixie or create their own activity to match their site's digital citizenship curriculum. Minnesota Educator, Cindy Pratt, customized an existing Wixie template into an assignment that asks students to drag and drop what they think is okay and protected information to share online.
Use activities like Information About You to kick off an Internet safety lesson or as a formative assessment at the end of the unit.
Use the My Digital Footprint template to help cultivate student's awareness of the permanence of their actions in the digital age. In this project, students fill the bubbles with social media posts and headlines they want to see in the future when someone searches for them online.
With so many students having access to games and social media through personal devices, the importance of knowing when to unplug is essential. Get students thinking about balancing media use with other activities like cooking or taking a walk in the fresh air.
Be a good digital citizen and educate others
Blank screen projects are some of the most powerful ways to use Wixie to help students build any skill and digital citizenship is no different.
Start with a simple project like writing an email message (template). Digital Citizenship week takes place in the middle of October each year, which also happens to be National Book Month, so you might ask students to share a favorite book and encourage others to read it too.
Students can also simply start with a blank page and combine images, text, voice and video and publish as eBooks, videos, and more. Try a format like comics so students can share what they have learned in a way many of them love to read.
Simply search "comic" at your Wixie home page to get started with a template or create a multi-page project and export in comic form.
Students can also use Wixie for public service announcements, allowing them to explore issues, express opinions, craft arguments, raise awareness, and change minds, all while being great digital citizens!
Help students put their best digital footprints forward by using Wixie creative tools and templates to solidify good digital citizenship and behaviors.
