I had a conversation with a friend of mine whose child was the victim of some serious cyberbullying earlier this year. She shared how poorly it was handled. She said she looked at the curriculum and realized that we are missing out on so many opportunities to embed media literacy and digital citizenship and leadership into our programs. Addressing this problem has been a passion of mine for many years.
Students are using social media with greater and greater frequency and yet so few teachers use social media as part of teaching and learning. We can argue that this is a parent involvement issue and we would be correct (and believe me I am working hard on helping with the parent education piece); but the bottom line is social media is a part of our world and so we need to teach with this lens if we want to help our students thrive.
Part of our reluctance to engage with social media at school is because we are limited by privacy laws and we aren’t quite sure how to balance the risk with opportunity. And so, last year, Adam Hill (you may know him from Mr. Hill’s Musings or Media By Example) and I got together to create a course called, Empowered Digital Leaders. Working with Adam has been such a rewarding and positive experience; we live in opposite parts of the world and do much of our work while the other is sleeping, but our passions and our learning journey have made for a really great partnership.
The #EmpoweredDigitalLeaders Summer and Fall cohorts were made up of an incredible global community of educators from vastly differing experiences and who brought so much richness to the course. We are excited to announce that we have taken the course to the teachable platform and that registration for the Spring Cohort (which begins on May 8th) is now open.
Using the descriptors of digital leadership, as outlined in Social LEADia, the course will empower you and your students to leverage social media to:
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Learn and share learning
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Empower and celebrate others
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Promote important causes
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Make a positive difference in the world
Intended audience:
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Elementary teachers who know they should somehow empower their pre-teen students to use social media positively but don’t know where to start
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All teachers who wonder how to embed social media in the context of teaching and learning without adding to their already full plates
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Administrators who would like to support their teachers and students to use social media positively
Check out what past participants had to say about the course:
“The Empowered Digital Leaders Online course is masterfully designed to stretch your thinking about how you define your mission as a social media role model for your students. You will be energized by the resources, discussions, and expert leadership of Jennifer Casa-Todd and Adam Hill.”Christia Osborn-Preston, K-5 Humanities/Technology Teacher, USA
“This is a fantastic little course that is inspiring yet not time consuming. The resources are excellent, and Adam and Jennifer have shifted my thinking yet again. I highly recommend this meaningful course to anyone working with students.“Cindy Kaardal, Studio 4 Teacher, Vietnam
“This course is a great introduction to using social media to grow student leaders. Jennifer and Adam work extremely hard at facilitating meaningful conversations and curating resources to hit all subject areas and ages. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to help students become social media leaders.”Melissa Dills, Tech Integration Specialist, USA
“This course has sparked my interest and given possible ways to allow my learners to implement social media for social change. To be the change they want to see in the world.“Dr. Michael Harvey, Science Teacher, Malaysia
“#EmpoweredDigitalLeaders is worthwhile PD. I walk away with ideas to help my students be empowered and to help guide them – I want to teach them how to swim, not watch them drown!“Tracey Catling, Leader of Curriculum Support | Y6 Teacher | eLearning Mentor, Australia
Teacher Appreciation Week
Also, this week marks Teacher Appreciation Week (at least in North America). This has been quite a year, hasn’t it??Everywhere I look, teachers are taking on more or going on leaves. I have never seen so much stress and anxiety in my teaching career (and I have been teaching for 28 years).
I so appreciate you reading my blog and all that you do for kids! Please leave a message in the comments or reply to this email sharing about a teacher who inspires or inspired you.
Please take care of yourself and your family.