Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Press Release: Digiteen Project 2009-3

The Digiteen Project 2009

For Immediate Release - October 26, 2009

Beijing, China and Camilla, GA USA

"Digital Citizenship is understanding effective, safe behaviors online that consider long term consequences and give students a method for understanding how to make decisions as new technologies and trends emerge at lighting speed," says Vicki Davis, classroom teacher and co founder of the Digiteen project, a global collaborative project that has now harnessed the power of over 1,000 students from many countries. "Few things are more important than teaching students about effective behaviors online for the protection of them now and in the future."

"We are proud to announce the formation of the fifth Digiteen project, (a Flat Classroom™ project) and the third Digiteen project of 2009," says Julie Lindsay, international educator, e-learning co-ordinator and co-founder of the Digiteen project. "We are finally reaching a point in education where educators around the world are learning that digital citizenship, because of its very nature cannot be taught from a textbook but should be taught from actually participating in global educational networks that merge classrooms to explore the topics and experience first hand all aspects of digital citizenship and cyber safety." These schools represent more than 255 students, from 7 countries, and will run from October - December, 2009. Students will collaborate together on a group wiki and a Ning in a safe, educational network where students can communicate and share about digital citizenship.

The Digiteen Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Beijing, China) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, GA USA) in 2008. This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. Topics of study include digital: access, communications, literacy, security and safety, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, law, health and wellness, and commerce.

"The most unique aspect of this project," says Lindsay, "is that it requires action on behalf of the participants at their local schools and this has been done in a variety of ways from holding school assemblies to the creation of whole virtual worlds for teaching students about digital citizenship. The responses to the need for digital citizenship education are as varied as the students themselves."

With the purpose of the project is to promote effective Digital Citizenship and responsible online choices, a variety of resources are accessed including the book 'Digital Citizenship' by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey and the introductory video Series Growing Up Online by PBS.

This year's classrooms include (in alphabetical order by country.)

Australia
Edwina Neyland

James Cook Boys Technology High School
Sydney, Australia

Canada

Phil Macoun
Aspengrove School
Nanaimo, BC


China

Julie Lindsay
Beijing International School
Beijing, China

Qatar

Andreas Christodoulou and Ray Jones
Qatar Academy
Doha, Qatar

United States

Aram Kabodian
MacDonald Middle School
East Lansing, MI

Anne Macdonald
Falmouth Middle School
Falmouth, ME

Pam Murphy
Long Cane Middle School
LaGrange, GA

Vicki Davis
Westwood Schools
Camilla, GA


Lindsay and Davis also co-plan and manage the Flat Classroom Project and the Horizon ProjectNetGenEd Project. On November 1st they will be launching a new global project called Eracism that involves middle school students in a global debating event with finals being held in a virtual world later in December. Last January they held the inaugural face to face Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Qatar sponsored by HSBC bank and Qatar Academy. The next Flat Classroom Workshop and mini-conference will be held in Mumbai February 2010 at ASB Unplugged. Schools are invited to apply for scholarships to attend by October 31, 2009.

More information about the Digiteen Project 09-3. In addition review all projects and educational networks linked from the Flat Classroom Project website.
Contact us at flatclassroomproject@gmail.com
and

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