Common Sense Education - A One-Stop Shop for Digital Literacy for Parents, Educators and Organizations

Common Sense Education is a non-profit organization with a mission to help us all understand our relationship with the daily bombardment of media in our lives. As the website is chock-full of ideas and resources this post is a mere drop-in-the-bucket overview of the learning available at Common Sense Education. For parents, schools, organizations and individuals this is a bottomless pit of knowledge.

We’ll approach it with an overview of resources in each of the tabs. Also have a look at the wealth of videos on the Common Sense YouTube channel that provides tips and tools for educators. (and don’t forget the Donate button in the top right!)

At the top left you’ll find three tabs, For Parents, For Educators, and For Advocates. For Parents will take you to TV & Movies, Books, Apps and Games, and Advice for Parents. These include reviews and the Common Sense approval seal for honorable mentions. Teachers can find resources for promoting Digital Citizenship, positive Educational Technology, as well as professional development. The For Advocates tab will provide you with resources, and news that with help educators (and their students) to take action for positive and healthy engagement with media. This is all grounded in research that demonstrates the level of effort Common Sense is putting into giving users the most up-to-date information on how we engage with media.

There are other tabs in the banner dedicated to educators.

Digital Citizenship provides lessons for teachers, games and interactive tools for kids, resources for engaging parents and downloadable classroom posters. There are tutorials for curriculum content, as well as toolkits for: Social & Emotional Learning, News & Media Literacy, Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, Anti-Cyberbullying, and Gender and Digital Life.

EdTech Reviews & Resources has a wealth of resources in the recommended apps and edtech tools, teacher-created lesson plans, as well as tips for teachers using technology in the classroom. There is also a video library about digital tools, best teaching practices, and technology integration.

Professional Development includes a one-hour tutorial on Common Sense Digital Citizenship curriculum, and the Common Sense Educator program. Both provide a certificate upon completion. There is a commitment to become a Common Sense Educator, which opens you up to the Common Sense community. The deadline for 2019 is June 30, so get started. You’ll also find monthly webinars, expert advice, a video library, and case studies of schools successfully implementing digital citizenship programs.

Recognition & Community recognizes individual educators, schools, and entire districts for efforts towards “lead[ing] responsible and effective tech use in your school communities and build your practice along the way.” There is information on the Common Sense Ambassador program and how to become one.

The Common Sense Privacy Initiative is a “coordinated effort to evaluate edtech tools, protect student privacy, and build in safety and security from the start.” It’s better said from the Common Sense website:

• Privacy Evaluations - Common Sense evaluates popular edtech apps using a broad range of legal requirements and best practices for data privacy. We focus on the core concerns of safety, privacy, security, and compliance.
• Information Security Primer - Great for district and school technology leaders, this toolkit is for those looking to learn more about evaluating the information security practices of educational software.
• Privacy Questions - Make sense of a vendor's terms of service with this question set that helps educators and administrators come to decisions based on their specific school and district policies.

As a final word, I highly recommend technology coaches and administrators have a careful and deliberate look at Common Sense Education as a vehicle for improving digital literacy in schools and at home.

Footnote: for further reading that will benefit educators and parents, read “Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World” by Devorah Heitner. Here is my review of the book.

Google Forms in the Classroom: How-To Slides Deck & Animation Tutorial

By now, anyone working with G Suite for Education knows Google Forms and likely uses them in class. This post is to introduce a “How-To” Slides deck with animations. The deck can be copied and modified and is intended to be used as an extended-length workshop on using Google Forms in the classroom. However, for anyone interested in getting deeper into Google Forms, maximizing the app in (and out of) the classroom, this may be a useful tool for you. Note the first slides that have some links to practical ideas for using Forms in the classroom. Feel free to make copies and modify to suit your needs.

The Slides deck includes:

Getting Started - Ideas
Build Your Form Part 1: Framework
Build Your Form Part 2: Add Content
Send and Embed Forms in Web Pages
Access and View Responses
Make Your Form a Quiz
Force a Correct Answer
Using Add-ons
Independent Learning

Note that one can click links in the Table of Contents for easier navigation of the deck. Click here or on the image below access the Slides deck.

Click the image to access the Slides deck.

Good luck making Forms an effective learning tool in your classroom!

Why Whiteboards Are Awesome!

I dearly miss having whiteboard walls in my classroom. They were cheap, thin whiteboards installed on the walls turning dead space into active pods of discussion and collaboration. (and with so much space, sometimes work from a number of classes could be left over time for reflection and/or revision) Back in the day I could have students spread out in small groups sharing ideas in small groups that could be confidently shared out as we went through a variety of brainstorming, planning, analytical, and peer review activities. The monotony of ‘desk life’ was broken. So what was I to do when I found myself without my beloved whiteboard walls? 

The nearest dollar store saved the day - the kind that has large, but portable whiteboards for 10 dollars. Though not like the seemingly endless space of a whiteboard wall, my classes could do the same activities, read around the room. One unplanned bonus was the mobility of our new whiteboards - students could step out into the hallways, cafeteria, and the nearby playground if the younger students weren’t outside. 

Here are some of the activities I and my colleagues have done that were enhanced with whiteboards. 

Any subject - Creating a definition for a concepts, processes, etc. Students continued on with developing their definition by doing further research. 

Any subject - Taking notes from video. Students watched three different videos on the same topic and then determined what were the consistencies and inconsistencies with the content of each video.

Elementary Math - Addition and subtraction with game pieces. One of our Grade 1 teachers had students use a worksheet with whiteboards and small animal pieces to do the math problems, visually. 

Debate - Four corners debate. In this activity, students were given a controversial prompt and had to choose one of four ‘corners’ (options) in the room. Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. Students with similar opinions could discuss their views and write them down to present their group thinking. This activity is great for the timid. They feel safe that others share their opinion, and can refer to the whiteboard when called upon to speak. 

Economics - Determining market forces in a Hawaiian vacation. Students were taught the economic concepts, and given a scenario for application. Note that they had a graph and text to explain their thinking.

History - Analyzing a primary source for the origin, purpose, content, value, and limitations. Each group was given a different primary source from the same topic of study and then presented. 

History - Writing the key ideas for one group topic in a jigsaw activity. Jigsaws are a common activity in all subjects, but having reference to the whiteboard was useful for students to discuss and record their thinking before going back to their initial group. 

History - For and Against Arguments. Why drop the atomic bomb? Students were given the two perspectives to research and later present. In the future, I may have students research the implications for the countries involved. (in particular the USA, Japan, Russia)

Social Studies / Individuals & Societies - Video recording script prompter. Students had prepared an election campaign commercial. With a 60-second time limit, one or two whiteboards was enough for each group. Moreover, they learned to use whiteboards as cue cards rather than reading a memorized script, helping students practice being succinct as well as presenting a prepared ‘script’ more naturally. 

A YouTube Slides Deck Tutorial with Animated Gifs: Reach Out to Your Audience with an Engaging YouTube Channel, Branding & Community Building

The Google Slides deck associated with this post can be found here: https://goo.gl/RocnwY For further learning I highly recommend that teachers read Patrick Green’s “50 Ways to Use YouTube in the Classroom” (available via the EdTech Team Press and Amazon)

Educators are keen to leverage YouTube for teaching and learning but frequently rely on videos for homework, flipped learning, as a tool for classroom discussion, and curating their course videos via playlists. These are of course all fantastic uses of the platform. But I often hear that educators want to create their own YouTube channel but with little time to learn how to do it. You can learn to create a channel with your own teacher or student-made videos. It will take time!

This Slides deck is a step-by-step guide for how to set up your channel, with some of my personal (though not authoritative) suggestions for developing your channel. While it does not get deep into details of registering as a Google Partner and setting up AdSense, it is a starting point. If you can get through this process you will already have the tools to take your channel further by creating a community and monetization. (if your channel becomes even moderately popular why not make a few dollars in the process?) Feel free to add questions and/or suggestions in the comments section below.

To access the Slides deck click this link or the image above.

Keep in mind that YouTube has reinstated its “Editor” feature and will be redeveloping this and other features of the platform in over 2019. There is plenty to be excited about for the teacher yearning to create a channel that works for their students and wider PLN.

Note: The end of the Slides deck has links to further learning via the YouTube Creator Academy and other offerings from YouTube. Have a look and get a great channel started!

Further reading:

3 Ways Teachers Can Use YouTube To Save Time by Patrick Green