I started my collection by searching for information on online safety and responsible use of technology.  The library is filled with computers and tablets, and we are encouraging and promoting the use of technology all the time.  If we are doing this, it is our responsibility to show students how to appropriately use the power of the web.  I came across the video above which teaches about cyberbullying for a Pink Shirt Day campaign.  It is well-made and powerful when I watch it.  Having said that, I have shown my class several videos like that one, as well as had presenters come in to teach about online behaviour.  They have had little to no effect on reducing the number of incidents related to misuse of phones or social media.  Perhaps it is too late to start at grade 7 and this needs to be taught starting right from kindergarten.

Cyberbullying: Empowering children and youth to be safe online and responsible digital citizens

I also found this BC resource on cyberbullying.  It contains lots of useful information about the cyberbullying including definitions, past failures and why we need to improve, possible ways to deal with the problem, criminal law, and much more.  I particularly connected with the section on monitoring and how it can only take us so far.  While monitoring can help in certain situations, it is far more desirable to enable youth to make responsible decisions on their own.

The picture above is a link to Kids on YouTube by Patricia G. Lange.  I wanted to explore this idea of digital publishing as I believe that my students’ biggest influences are YouTube stars.  How can I use digital publishing, video creation, and online media to help teach literacy to my students?  Lange conducted a two year ethnographic study on the early days of YouTube (2006 – 2008).  I only skimmed through the book, but from what I read, Langue focuses on digital literacies and addresses the question “Are kids learning anything by making so many videos?”  The book appears to have a lot of good information in it, but is written using a lot of fancy lingo which makes it a difficult read (at least for me).

The above picture is a link to an article containing lots of information regarding digital portfolios for students.  The article contains lots of links to other articles as well.  You can find what online portfolios are, how to use them, how to get started, things to consider when choosing a platform, pros and cons, and much more.  There are also links to examples of student portfolios as well as webtools teachers and students can use for portfolios, blogging, note taking, and digital learning.

Finally, this is a video with both teachers and students talking about the benefits of how utilizing online portfolios can better represent the students as a whole.  They also outline a process on how anyone can implement this process in their school as well and provide a link to all their lessons in a Google Drive folder.  The link is in the video description on YouTube but I have also provided the link below.

Google Drive folder with all resources

Works Cited

Fraser, Daniel. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Mar. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmQ8nM7b6XQ.

“Cyberbullying: Empowering Youth to Be Safe Online and Responsible Digital Citizens .” Representative for Children and Youth, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC, Nov. 2015, www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2015_2/590454/1882.pdf.

Lange, Patricia G. “Kids on YouTube.” Taylor and Francis Group, Routledge, 17 Sept. 2016, www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/books/9781315425726.

“Thing 31: Digital Portfolios for Students.” Cool Tools for School, 16 Feb. 2017, cooltoolsforschool.wordpress.com/digital-student-portfolios/.

Digital Portfolios – The Whole Child, The Whole Story, YouTube, 20 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUsy2ORFqII.