E-School News – Dennis Pierce
“When author and IT director Mike Ribble talks about the importance of teaching students appropriate online behavior, he likes to share a few eye-opening statistics. According to Common Sense Media’s study “Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America,” the percentage of children ages eight and under who’ve used a mobile device nearly doubled from 2011 to 2013, from 38 percent to 72 percent. What’s more, about two in five children under the age of two have used a mobile device. “Kids are coming to school having already had some contact with technology,” said Ribble, who works for the Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District 383 in Kansas. “Whether they have a knowledge of how to use it appropriately is another question.” Findings like these suggest the need for schools to start teaching good digital citizenship to students at a very young age—and Ribble and many others believe that students should learn these skills throughout the K-12 curriculum. But that isn’t happening in many school district.”(more)