Cyber Civics: Whose Work is it Anyway?

The first group of 8th Graders has completed the Year 2 Cyber Civics curriculum, and these students have had some time to reflect on the experience.

When asked what they found to be most valuable and what they most enjoyed, the answers were quite united.

Several students found that it was really valuable to learn how search queries actually work, with those busy little search engine spiders exploring the whole web to bring the most useful results to the top of the screen.

Knowing this helped them hone in on which words are actually key to yielding these results, aka the “keywords” to an effective search query.

Students also cited the value of being able to decipher “organic” versus “sponsored” search results, and knowing that Wikipedia does have value for research, so long as it is never the be-all-end-all of one’s answers.

Students really enjoyed getting to put their search query skills to the test through in-class research topics of their choice, and valued the time to improve their typing skills; in general, it was really exciting and important to them to have a school set of computers in the classroom.

Several students reported that the most enjoyable project was a small-group composition of original songs, under the guise that the famous “Happy Birthday” tune and lyrics were still under copyright and could not be used for a commercial celebrating a child’s anniversary of years on earth. This particular activity resulted in videos of these hilarious and sometimes morose ditties, several complete with choreography and/or instrumental accompaniment. As soon as these videos were created and posted online, the students’ creative work was under automatic copyright. From here, they were able to create a Creative Commons license that could allow for some flexibility as to how and where this work could be used or referenced by others.

As the instructor, I was impressed with how fully many of the students connected with the curriculum, putting new skills into practice almost immediately, and often getting into lively discussions about the material with very little encouragement or coaxing.

The rules and regulations surrounding online privacy and rights to creative content were both hot-button topics, and the students really took these up with full engagement and enthusiasm.

I, too, thoroughly enjoyed each of the birthday song presentations; having a full belly laugh with a bunch of teens is a great way to end a Monday! It continues to be a true highlight of my teaching experience to bring this curriculum to our middle school students and their parents.

Claire Harrison is what you might call a Waldorf lifer. She attended the Portland Waldorf School for fifteen years, and though her daydreaming nine-year-old self would be shocked to hear it, she graduated high school determined not to be a teacher. However, by the time she graduated from undergrad, she was committed to pursuing a career in Waldorf teaching and accepted the position of First Grade Assistant to the Class of 2016 (who would later be her 8th graders!). She has worn many hats at both Cedarwood and PWS since 2008, and received her MEd in Elementary Education with a Waldorf Certificate from Antioch University NE while teaching full time. Now serving as the Educational Support Specialist, Mrs. Harrison greatly enjoys working with students in every grade, helping them find true success in their time here at Cedarwood and beyond.