I started this blog post back in the fall when social media was touting Digital Citizenship Week and Hour of Code. But I decided not to finish this thought. Well, last week we had #DigitalLearningDay and I found myself thinking about this idea again. It just so happened that on #DigitalLearningDay I was part of a team that had a fundraiser for my former school that featured robotics and coding. During my presentation to the potential donors and stakeholders I said that schools around the country and the world were celebrating #DigitalLearningDay. I followed with…’I hoped that like my former school, #DigitalLearningDay was not just one day but digital learning is integrated into the culture of all schools.’
Digital Citizenship is not just one week long. Neither is coding. For that matter, breast cancer awareness should not just happen in October. I understand and support the idea of bringing these, and more issues to the forefront. Sometimes to ‘get the ball rolling,’ we need to have a kickoff campaign or annual reminders. But let’s not just forget these issues till the next media campaign.
If we are going to prepare our students for their future, we need to make sure they have access to digital devices and the skills and citizenship to effectively use them. One lesson, one workshop, one presentation, even one school year is not enough to make some ideas habitual.
Incorporating coding, robotics and digital citizenship need to be done consistently and with intention. These are not extra skills to be done once a year but need to be integrated into the curriculum. As educators it is time to evaluate what our students need to experience in school, how we will prepare them to be critical problem solvers. Let’s not do Digital Citizenship or coding once a week but rather when those annual weeks come about we celebrate what our students do every day! Let those weeks be an inspiration throughout the year!
Originally posted on Thursday, 01 March 2018.