Digital Citizenship Projects

Each year I do a large unit on digital citizenship with grades 3-5. I introduce the topics and really have great conversations with my students about this very important theme that is so relevant to our kids. In 5th grade, we dive deeper into social media and the positive and negative effects it has on kids. For this particular project, I let students choose a topic from this list:

• Digital Citizenship and Identity
• Privacy and Security
• Screen Time Management
• Information Literacy
• Digital Etiquette and Empathy
• Cyberbullying Management
• Digital Footprint
• Self Image and Reputation

I love this graphic by @sylviaduckworth

I give students choices to how they will present their information and allow them to be creative and expressive while addressing the topic they choose.

• Create a PSA
• 10 Facts About…
• Create a commercial
• Author a book on the topic
• Record a puppet show
• Create a presentation
• Create a movie
• Create a movie trailer

Apps Used

• iMovie
• Adobe Spark Video
• Puppet Pals
• Keynote and Quicktime
• 30 Hands
• Puppet EDU

The overwhelming majority of kids chose to use Adobe Spark Video to create their projects.

Sample Videos from My 5th Grade Classes

• Harmful Effects of Cyberbullying
• Digital Footprint
• Pros and Cons of Social Media Use
• Be Cautious on the Internet
• Cyberbullying
• Digital Etiquette
• Social Media
• Cyberbullying
• Social Media
• Managing Screen Time
• Social Media Talk Show
• Social Media Awareness
• Copyright and Creative Credit

Check out Common Sense Media for a wealth of information on digital citizenship, including amazing curricular resources.

 

 

An Introductory Lesson in Keynote for Primary Students

An Introductory Lesson into Keynote with Primary Students

I loving using Keynote, both on the Mac and the iPad. Keynote is a powerful presentation tool where students can show off knowledge of a subject. There are many web-based presentation tools I love, but Keynote has some really cool features that really resonate with students. For this project, 2nd graders used Keynote to illustrate and animate the letters in their first names.  Here are some helpful tips if you do this project with your kiddos!

Keynote from April Requard on Vimeo.

 

-Create a text box for each letter in the child’s name so each letter can be animated separately. (This is a great teaching moment about shortcuts Copy/Paste)

-Have your students experiment with various fonts, sizes, and colors. Each letter can be a different size, color, and font!

-Teach your students about alignment and placing. Also, Keynote has built in tools to help with alignment!

-Practice the timing of each letter. You want to make sure that they go in the right order? Or do you? Have them play with the timing of the letters.

-The animations are the best part. They will love choosing a different animation for their letters.

-Export as a QuickTime movie…upload to iMovie and make a class movie with all of their names!

Have fun!