Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship ought to be something that we are continuously learning about as educators and teaching to our students.  As a technology tool in introduced to a classroom, appropriate uses should naturally be a part of that instructional piece.  There are many different topics under the umbrella of digital citizenship as discussed in an article posted by Edutopia.  Students need to learn how to stay safe and keep their content safe, they need to know how to browse and post responsibly, and they need to be literate in digital content.  Not all of this can or should be taught at the same time.  If we want students to understand and soak it in and practice it, we should teach it as they need it.  This will lead to more authentic discussion and hopefully leave a lasting impression for future use.

I especially liked the video in our lesson about digital footprints.  Videos I’ve seen in the past were more focused on the effects of a negative digital footprint.  This video, I felt inspired the viewer to leave a positive print as they navigate online.  A reflective way to get students to analyze their own digital footprint would be to create a footprint scavenger hunt.  It could walk students through different ways that someone could trace their activity.  Then have some reflective questions to see if what they found truly represents who they are or want to be.  I believe many of us are unaware of the information our online searches and posts can tell about us.  Vicky Davis speaks to this through her article on Edutopia; specifically what information is shared in posted photographs.  Backgrounds in photos can give away ones location via street signs, or tracking via a license plate number, and much more.  Digital Citizenship is about best practices but also overall awareness so we can practice discernment while being online.  

My school district purchased a Nearpod License for all the middle school teachers since we are 1 to 1 with iPads.  Within Nearpod, there are digital citizenship lessons we follow at the beginning of the year with our students.  Some lessons are used across all grade levels and others are more grades specific if the technology is new to a student or not.  I’m not sure the cost of the license or the lesson, but it has been very helpful for us to have pre-made research based curriculum for presenting this material.  However, I think it would be even more meaningful for our students to create their own digital citizenship lessons.  This could be a school wide initiative, and end of year assessment piece for computer classes, or an elective class offered.  It could also allow for opportunities for families to be involved.

I believe that Digital Citizenship is mostly modeled from home.  Kids learn so much from their home environment so parents need to play an active role in educating their kids about digital responsibility.  Edutopia posted another article that gave recommendations on how to go about doing this.  My school used to have “Appy Hour” sessions after school where our student tech team would present on different technology tools so teachers could see the ins and outs of something before implementing them into their class.  I think this idea would be great to get teachers, students, and parents all involved with digital citizenship.  This could happen once a month and presenters would volunteer to present over different topics pertaining to Digital Citizenship.  Parents and their children could team up and do something together.  The sessions could be open to anyone interested and even recorded and posted on a school website as reference tools.  This would get buy in from all angles, which I think is really important.