Technology & Learning Innovation Blog

At Colegio Roosevelt, digital citizenship is a topic that is taken very seriously. Not only do we celebrate #DigCitWeek every year across all divisions, but this important concept it also working its way into the day-to-day learning of the classroom. A great exemplar of this is in Mr. Shaun Schaller’s Grade 6 Design class where kids are creating public service announcements, or PSAs, around one of the 8 different facets of digital citizenship. Students pick a topic in digital citizenship and then build a shareable animation using an open-source illustrator program to send the community. 

Student Eva is working on a project to help people avoid scams online. “There are lots of scams on social media that you need to be aware of. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is!” says Eva. Giacomo is creating a PSA on avoiding viruses. “Students can easily be tricked into thinking they have won something and then they can have your personal information stolen forever. That is terrible!”

The work these students are creating will live far beyond the walls of their design classroom. Students will submit their projects into our middle school daily bulletin where they will be seen by the whole division. This is a great way to add an authentic purpose and audience to their work. According to Mr. Schaller, some students are taking their learning even one step further, “a few students are posting their work on their @amersol YouTube channel and sharing their projects with the whole world in safe and secure way!” says Mr. Schaller.

To see some of the work in this great project, keep an eye on the MS daily bulletin!

The students in the combined Grade 9/10 Digital Media course are taking on an exciting challenge. They are asking how can Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) be used to bring information to life on campus? By experimenting with these bleeding-edge technologies, students are solving authentic challenges on the Roosevelt campus while at the same time getting hands-on experience with important new tools.  

Teacher Sherrie Buchner is leading this innovative new course. She wanted to expose the students to transformative and current technologies. According to Ms Buchner “It's about the authentic projects that new media and tools can unlock. These tools have the potential to ramp up student engagement and transformers learning at our school" says Sherrie.

Grade 10 student Luke is currently working on an augmented reality solution to inform the community about the sustainable plants on campus. The plants were very purposefully chosen when the new buildings on campus were built. According to Luke, "We are trying to inform the community using AR technology. We want to teach them about the unique plants at school; they are native to peru, easy to grow and non-toxic. We want all students to know a bit about them, they are perfect for a school in Lima!" says Luke. 

Grade 10 student Sebastian is focusing on informing our community about the safest evacuation on campus. According to Sebastian "People were confused where to go during an emergency. If people don't know this important information and there is an actual earthquake… their lives could be in danger!" So Sebastian is building a VR evacuation route with the use of 360 photography to guide people through campus using arrows that highlight the correct path to safety. "Maps can be confusing and they change all of the time. With this solution, we can quickly update the VR world with the correct information when the route changes" says Sebastian. 

Finally Grade 10 student Shawn opted to use AR to highlight the important legacy plaques around campus. "My project is about Dr. Anne Johnson, the person who had the media centre named after her" says Shawn. "Dr. Johnson was an important counsellor who made an incredible impact with students in their college applications and in their academic and personal growth. She devoted her life to kids but she tragically passed away in 1985 right before her own son's graduation from FDR." Shawn worked with one of our longest serving staff members, Nora Marquez and combed through old yearbooks to learn a lot about this important member of FDR history. "Bringing back the fading memories of important people at FDR is really important to me" says Shawn "It won't be too long before there is no one on campus who can speak about these plaques with first-hand knowledge, so we want to capture it before it is gone for the rest of the community to benefit from". 

Projects like this highlight the passionate teaching, unique learning and deep impact that quality integration on campus can bring to students everyday at FDR.

At Colegio Roosevelt, we talk about something called the 'guaranteed curriculum'. This is the set of learning experiences that all students will receive no matter what class they are in, what grade they are in or how long they will be at our school. You could think of the guaranteed curriculum as the foundation of learning experiences at FDR. And bit by bit, a new component of 'guaranteed curriculum' is being implemented at school; digital citizenship! 

By now most of us are familiar with the term 'digital citizenship'. According to Common Sense Media, 'digital citizenship' can be defined as “the self-monitored habits that sustain and improve the digital communities you enjoy or depend on.” While this seems like a pretty vanilla definition, digital citizenship or #DigCit is becoming one of the most important skill-sets schools can teach today! 

This is the fourth year that Colegio Roosevelt has formally observed Digital Citizenship Week on campus. This is a global initiative to spend one week at school highlighting the importance of being cognizant of who we are online. And we offered experiences to every member of our community; from the smallest of elementary kids all the way up to parents and teachers! You can find our whole list of options on our 2019 #DigCit Menu (bit.ly/FDRdigcit2019)

In middle school, students received lessons on important topics like planning their digital footprint, finding digital balance and the importance of understanding conflict online. Each student reflected on these skills and generated a #digcit poster to share with the community: 

Every year we celebrate Digital Citizenship Week is another addition to our guaranteed curriculum at school. We can say, hand over heart, that kids are being introduced to skills and concepts which will protect them online and serve them for years into the future. And that is what school experiences should be!