Article 4: Students and a Digital Driver's License

In the article, Students Need a Digital Driver’s License before they can Start Their Engines, gives an incredibly insightful idea on how to promote digital citizenship to students. Authors Gary Swan and Marty Park have created this “driver’s license” idea so that their students could be smart when using technology. Students are given DDLs (Digital Driver’s License) after completing modules that teach students the importance of digital citizenship. Students are given cases in which they are tested on so and upon completion and passing, they are given their DDL and are able to access the school’s internet and iPads for educational use. The cases include etiquette, low risk behaviors online and internet safety. More and more districts are using the idea and often altering them to make the idea work best for their schools. As of now, they are gearing it towards the high school level ages because it is somewhat of a contract claiming that they do know how they need to behave, so if they use the technology in any inappropriate way, they can take the device away.

I found this article to be perfect in creating an effective, safe, technological learning environment with students. As a teacher, it would be a lesson in the use of technology, but also how to use it appropriately. Having the students be tested on the material would show understanding of their responsibility to use the internet in a responsible manner allows educators to spend less time monitoring and more time using the technology for its purpose; learning.

The follows digital citizenship for the ISTE NETS because it is helping students learns about technology on top of how they are to use it in a school setting. The cases teach about internet safety, cyber bullying, and other situations that can have a negative outcome with technology.

Park, M. & Swan, G. (2012, January). Students need a digital driver's license before they can start their engines. Learning and Leading, 40(4),

Article 3: March on Washington

In this article, Teaching the March on Washington, author William Benedict Russell gave some advice for history/social studies teachers on web sites that will help aide learning about the famous March on Washington that occurred just over fifty years ago. The March on Washington is a standard historical event taught in classrooms all over the United States. It is most known for the place in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I Have a Dream Speech”. This lesson and its historical significance to our country are taught at many different levels, varying from elementary to high school ages. The web sites he provided would allow students to be interactive with history, rather than just working from a textbook.

I really enjoyed this article because I am looking to become a history teacher. I think the web sites that the author gives us are great because it allows students to work on a technological level observing firsthand accounts, audios, and visuals of the event. It puts history on a level students can understand with a medium they are comfortable with, technology. It makes history more modern. I looked at some of the web sites he recommended and I really found them easy to navigate and really interesting. I liked the ability to look at clips and hear audio from the event. I think that would make it more interesting that reading about it out of a history book or me just lecturing about it.

I believe that this falls under the ISTE NETS for teachers because it allows me to create a curriculum that is technology based while using different types of ways to show primary and secondary sources to my students. With technology, the students are able to get a better feel what it was like during the March of Washington through seeing visuals, movies, and listening to audios as well as getting first hang accounts from the internet.

Russell, W. (2009, February). Teaching the march on washington. Learning and Leading, 39(9),