Learning More About Haters and Trolls

This year in #DigCit class, we dove into our study of Haters and Trolls a little differently. Thanks to CommonSense Media, we watched a short video explaining what haters and trolls are.  We then discussed something specific we learned about haters and trolls from the video, sharing any experiences we had with them.  Next, the students were given either video A or B and a specific question for the assigned video.  They were to then make a graphic representation in our collective Google Slides that answered the question that was assigned to them from the Digibyte. They presented their graphic representation to their assigned question as we continue to share our learning and practice our presentation skills. All of that was meant to get them thinking critically about haters and trolls and the impact the haters and trolls can have, as well as how the students can combat them.

The second step was to think about what else they wanted to learn about when it comes to haters and trolls.  As you can see from the rubric, the students not only had to get outside their comfort zone by choosing a platform they had not previously used, they had to demonstrate their learning as well as engage their audience.   You can see their end products by clicking here.   Feel free to use any of their projects in class!

During their presentations, the students in the audience completed a feedback form to work on their feedback skills and to also help determine who our Techsperts would be.  If you will notice, the first question on the feedback form is asking what percentage of peers have to agree that someone has mastered a platform.  This question only appears once during the semester and they chose 80% as the threshold.  All but one student earned a Techspert badge and they are now the experts in the room for the platforms they used in this project. The students have access to this Padlet that indicates who our Techsperts are so that if they need assistance going forward on a platform, they know who the experts in the room are.  Once a student masters a platform (earned 80% peer review of skills on a platform) they can't use the platform again.  Not only does this expand their knowledge of platforms, it gets them outside their comfort zone (which is where all the magic happens!)  Truth be told, I don't know how to use most of the platforms, but we learn together and I LOVE when a student chooses a platform I've not seen yet!  I love to learn new things!

Grading this project in Schoology allows me to have a live, clickable rubric that instantly shows the students what points they earned and where they needed to make adjustments to earn back points.  I pregrade their assignment prior to class starting so that all I am evaluating during their presentations is the actual presentation itself.  I have also put comments in (which are visible to the students) during the pregrading process and simply have to add comments pertinent to the presentation during their presentation.  I keep a list of common comments in Google Keep, so it is simply copy and paste the ones I need during the presentation.  So easy!!

How are you addressing haters and trolls in your classroom?