Posts on “ digital citizenship ”

BrainPOP is proud to be sponsoring the Apps that Close the Gap Summit at Teachers College, Columbia University this Saturday May 11th.  This unique day long summit is designed to address using technology to accelerate achievement in black and latino students while incorporating Common Core State Standards into classroom instruction. Andrew Gardner, senior manager of BrainPOP educators will co-present about digital citizenship with Desiree Bayonet from GameUp partner iCivics.  In addition there will be panels addressing innovative use of virtual learning spaces and future technologies featuring presentations from Google, Dreambox Learning, ifoster, Coder Dojo,  Global Kids.  Click the link above and register for free!

BrainPOP’s newest topic, ethics, provides an accessible, engaging storyline and a terrific entry point for students to frame and build skills focused on in the Common Core State Standards. Understanding the ethical dimension of reasoning will prepare students for critically evaluating a broad range of topics, from science and technology to history and literature. BrainPOP is making an strong effort to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards by creating new topic movies that consider changes in curriculum and performance based assessment. The Common Core standards for English Language Arts emphasize proficiency in making and evaluating arguments, problem-solving, and critical reasoning. Our ethics movie begins with age old questions – when you’re faced with a tough decision, how do you figure out what to do? What guidelines or examples do you use to make up your mind, and what happens when there’s more than one good way to act?  Tim and Moby offer some simple advice on what to do when you’re faced with tough choices about right and wrong, or good and bad. Students will consider some rules of thumb about ethical decision making, including ways to find a solution that does the most good while doing the least amount of harm. Ethics also primes students… Read the Rest»

Digital Learning Day is a national campaign that celebrates teachers and shines a spotlight on successful instructional practice and effective use of technology in classrooms across the country. Here at BrainPOP, we strive to engage students by providing the best in digital learning content, and we’re committed to supporting teachers in their quest to utilize digital technologies in the classroom. Be on the look out for our newest tool in development called My BrainPOP that will enhance your students’ learning experiences, and give you the ability to track and assess student progress via tailored content. My BrainPOP is currently being piloted in select classrooms across the country and we can’t wait to make it available in your school! You can follow the Twitter hashtag #DLDAY to participate in discussions about the future of digital learning and see how teachers are celebrating digital learning in their classrooms today. A big thank you to Sharon LePage Plante (@iplante) for tweeting about using BrainPOP to teach verb tenses in celebration of this special day. How are you celebrating Digital Learning Day with students? Share your ideas in the comments!  

Now that the school year is in full swing, remember to check out the BrainPOP Spotlight on Digital Citizenship.  More than ever, classrooms are going digital, and it’s our job as teachers to help students understand appropriate online behavior and the importance of interacting respectfully. From Copyright and Plagiarism to Cyberbullying and Internet Search, the Digital Citizen Spotlight provides a collection of useful content to help students understand their role as digital citizens.  A thorough exploration of the Spotlight page can provide a roadmap for navigating the wild, wild world of the web.  Your students will learn a lot, and you will too! Once you’ve explored the Spotlight page and clicked through to its specific topics,  be sure to visit each “Lesson Plans and Teaching Ideas” page.  These pages feature topic-specific lesson plans, graphic organizers, movies, and quizzes that you can customize and remix to use with your own students. After exploring the Digital Citizenship Spotlight, topics, and teaching resources,  put your refreshed digital etiquette skills to use and share your ideas in our community forum.  It’s a great place to meet fellow members of the BrainPOP Educators community and make your voice heard!  

Guest Blogger Brian M. Adams teaches at Copeland Middle School in Rockaway, NJ. He is caretaker of historyknowledge.com. He is a certified nerd and has no relation to the Canadian rock star.   As a history teacher, review of civics is a must.  In searching for new means of doing so and trying to find a different place to start, I checked with some old friends, Tim and Moby.  At the bottom of the BrainPOP site, I saw an icon for GameUp.  I found a link to Executive Command and I was set.   All my classes met in the computer lab one day.  My goal was for the students to better understand what the jobs and duties of the president.  The students brainstormed previously learned information and after that they logged on to the game.  I gave the students no instruction on how to play, what were the goals or how to score points.   I gave them a sheet which asked four questions: How do you earn points? How do you lose points? What roles do you fill as president?  (Create a list) What conclusions can you make about serving as president?   The assignment led to great… Read the Rest»

Get Your Vote On! It’s election time at ISTE! Voting is open for all ISTE members for ISTE Board of Directors. BrainPOP’s very own Vice President of 21st Century Learning is a current ISTE board member. Check out the slate of new board members up for election this year at http://www.iste.org/connect/elections.aspx and cast your ballot. Vote by April 13th! Share your edtech voice and vote!  

Following up to yesterday’s webinar with Common Sense Media,  Kari Stubbs, the Vice President 21st Century Learning at BrainPOP, shares her thrill to discover a new series of books about digital citizenship published by ISTE. The series, which features two puppies, Piano and Laylee, teaches children as young as ages 5-9 digital citizenship concepts. The titles in the series include: Piano and Laylee Go Online, Piano and Laylee Text Message, Piano and Laylee and the Cyberbully, Piano and Laylee Help a Copycat Become a Creative Cat, and Piano and Laylee Learn About Acceptable Use Policies. Available in both hard and soft back, they’d make the perfect complement to BrainPOP Junior’s digital citizenship resources: Internet Safety and Bullying. One could also pair these great books with BrainPOP’s Spotlight on Digital Citizenship, with great topics like: copyright, cyberbullying, information privacy, online safety, online sources, plagiarism, social networking. Plus the spotlight includes an engaging Online Safety Poster featuring Moby and a smart collection of lesson plans.  It’s never too early  to teach our digital kids to be smart online citizens.   How do you teach digital citizenship to your students?  Share your ideas here in our group forums.