Mr Hammerlund

A parent of mine recently reached out to tell me that his kid has an internet addiction problem. I knew I would get an email or a question like this sometime. I have given advice before, but it was either to parents of early-elementary students or in my role as tech coach. Ideally, when parents have young kids they will stop using their phone or iPad as a pacifier to make their kids behave or be quiet. I also think parents should use the internet together with their children to show them how to use it properly -- how to know when to stop, how to know what scams look like, how to know how to search, how to know how they can use the internet for work and not just consuming information and share out their achievements, and how to communicate like a citizen ... But that is a goal too lofty for most parents who don't know or do many of those things themselves. I really need to start talking with my own students more about balance and both the positive and negative effects of tec...

Last week I went to clean out my spam email and found this piece of trash. It caught my eye because the subject line said: Change your password ********** immediately. Your account has been hacked . I will definitely give this scammer credit for making a subject that was attention-getting - the password was very similar to one I used before. The note goes on to say that I need to pay about $800 USD in Bitcoin to a provided account. (how generous!) The author went on to say that I couldn't get in contact because I did have a minor freak-out but then thought through what the email said. The phisher said there was evidence of dirty habits. If watching CNN on YouTube is dirty, you caught me. The password wasn't exactly what I used to use. I also knew that my password was different at the date of the "hack". The hacker  phisher said s/he used my own account against me. So, I went into my sent box to see if an email was sent from my account. It wasn't. I...

This year the third grade teacher and I are swapping classes once a week so my students can get a period of art, and her students can get a period of tech skills. I agree with the decision to hold off on giving them their school email address for a few months, but it makes the lessons a little more challenging. So, seeing as how they will, or most likely, are online I have spent the last few weeks doing offline responsibility activities. Talking about topics around questions like: What does responsibility look like? How can you be a good communicator? What do you like people to say to you? The Plan Copy of the template . I wanted the students to practice communicating online, and I had seen the fourth-grade teacher do an Instagram thing last year. Since Instagram is pretty popular, I went with it, but I didn't find an Instagram template mobile template I liked so I made the above one. The students drew pictures of what they did over the autumn break. Next...

Good communication offline and online is very similar. You should be cordial. You should give compliments. You should try to keep the conversation going. What comment would you make about this picture? Not finding anything in my own files for elementary students, I came up with the following guidelines. Compliment If you are taking the time to write a comment, there must be a reason. Give the author a boost and tell them what caught your attention. Connection (if possible) Just like in reading, show a connection from the post to yourself or from another comment in the thread to yourself. Ask questions in your writing Conversations are like playing catch with a baseball. The game ends quickly if you don't throw it back. A question is how you can do that in your comments. Think before you post.  Ask yourself, is this something I want my parents, teachers, friends, strangers to see? What are the consequences if you post this? === Browsing through my f...