Over the course of the last few months, we have begun our initiative to create better digital citizens in our schools and community.  This has led me to giving lots of talks to students as well as parents and one of the illustrations I find myself using over and over again is that of driving and comparing student participation in the digital space to that of someone underage driving a car.  So needless to say when this video by billgx came down the pipe (via Twitter I believe) I was all over it!  It's simple, short and worth 1000's of words.  I am going to add this to our growing list of videos on the topic of digital citizenship and let it do the talking!  Another fine example of content creation and sharing at its best.  What do you think about it?

I work in a school district that realizes teaching digital citizenship is of the utmost importance and wants to do more to create a community of wise, educated digital citizens.  So what we have decided to do is launch a campaign aimed at educating our faculty, students and our community in this area of digital citizenship.  This effort is still in its infancy but we are planning on kicking off the community involvement component this fall by offering "town hall" style meetings where we will be bringing in various experts to share their thoughts on topics such as internet and cell phone safety, legal consequences of inappropriate digital behaviors, as well as cyberbullying and social networking.  We have even gotten sponsors to offer door prizes (3 netbooks and an Xbox 360) as a way to encourage attendance.  Our hope is that we can share ideas and information that will encourage parents and others in our community to take a serious look at their own digital behavior while empowering them with the resources they need to play an active role in teaching their children how to lay down positive digital footprints and become good digital citizens.  We find that many parents want to be leaders for their children in the digital space but feel unprepared, so we are aiming to change that.  We believe by giving them some practical tips and info, as well as sharing with them a common vocabulary that their children will be hearing on a frequent basis in their classrooms, parents will feel empowered to get involved in digital lives of their kids and hopefully make a positive impact on their future.  We created a "teaser" video seen here that will be shown at all the school registration/open house events as well as school websites in hopes of raising an interest and encouraging parents to attend one of the meetings.  What do you think?  Have you tried implemented something similar in your district?  If so, share a link or your thoughts in the comments.

WallWisher is great web2 tool for the classroom. It's SUPER EASY, FREE, there's no sign-in to post/create and the ways to use it are vast! It's a sharable, embeddable bulletin board that you can add sticky notes to along w/images, videos & audio. By adding Vocaroo to the mix, you get a talking bulletin board! Vocaroo is another VERY EASY tool to use that allows anyone to record audio right onto the Vocaroo site and then it gives you a URL & embed code for your recording-and it only takes 3 clicks and there's no sign-in! All you need is a microphone. So how does it work with WallWisher? Well, after recording, you copy the url and paste it into the box at the bottom of your sticky note-giving your sticky a voice! How cool is that?! If you want to learn more about Vocaroo, check out @teachakidd 's blog post. But just go to the site and try it once...it's too easy! For some great ideas on how to use WallWisher, check out 16 Interesting Ways to Use WallWisher in the Classroom by @tombarrett.

Here's an example-this is a wall from one of my 3rd grade teachers. She created it for her students to post to as they begin their study of famous African-Americans. With her permission, I tweeted out the link and asked for others to post. Now her students are sharing outside the walls of their classroom!

-So here are some steps-

1. Go to this wall I created and check it out! Try posting something-simply doube-click on the page, type in your name and that's it! Click my sticky to see how Vocaroo actually works when used in a post.

2. Go set up an account at WallWisher-use your Google ID to sign in if you have one.
3. Make a Wall to use with your class
4. Go to Vocaroo and record instructions for students on how to use the wall.
5. Paste the URL for the recording into a Sticky on your wall.
6. Share your wall via email, embed it on your wiki/blog/website, or tweet it and see if others will post!

If you do create a wall, share the link to it in the comments so others can see what you are doing, get ideas and even leave a note!

Here's what a Vocaroo Recording looks like when you embed it: