Instilling the principles of good digital citizenship can help students become smart, responsible, and respectful members of their online communities. Via Simon Vasey, Dean J. Fusto, Makena Conteh

By The Daring English Teacher As more people gain access to technology, educators around the globe are embracing 21st Century learning methods. Whether your classroom is a fully-functioning 1:1 classroom where every student has access to a device or if you have limited access and take your students to a shared lab, teaching digital citizenship is more important than ever before. Our students need to know the power of the Internet, how to use it safely, and the lasting consequences of their digital footprints. We have to teach our students how to stay safe. As a 1:1 high school English teacher, I utilize Google Classroom, shared Google Docs and Slides for collaboration, and other collaborative sites on a weekly basis, so my high school English students need to know what is and is not appropriate behavior when it comes to electronically posting collaborative content. Here are five different ways that you can include digital citizenship in your classroom. 1. INTRODUCE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP To introduce digital citizenship to your students, provide them with this Digital Citizenship Graphic Organizer and have them complete it individually or in groups. You will want to give them plenty of time to truly think about each section in the organizer. Once students complete the organizer, instruct them to discuss what they’ve written either in small groups or with the entire class. This gets students to start thinking about digital citizenship and everything that it entails. Once students see just how much of an impact their digital footprint can have, they really are quite amazed. You can download this free digital citizenship activity HERE! 2. MAKE THE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP CONNECTION REAL There are many examples of recent and relevant digital blunders to use as talking pieces and examples with your students. Because their are in the limelight, when celebrities, athletes, and public figures make digital mistakes, it does not take long for their inappropriate comments, tweets, or photos to go viral. Discuss some of these examples with students, and have them identify the mistake, and what should have been done instead. By being able to see just how important digital citizenship is, students will begin to take it more seriously. 3. TEACH MORE THAN JUST ONLINE SAFETY While much of digital citizenship focuses on online safety, privacy, and acceptable online social norms, digital citizenship includes so much more than that. Digital citizenship also includes knowing how and when to use technology and the Internet effectively and efficiently for educational, professional, and recreational use. Two websites that are filled with an abundance of information for teaching digital citizenship are Common Sense Education and ISTE. Both of these organizations provide educators with updated resources and information about teaching digital citizenship. What I like about ISTE is that they provide digital teaching standards for educators that outline what students should know. 4. CREATE A CLASSROOM CONSTITUTION FOR DIGITAL BEHAVIOR Take a day with your students to brainstorm proper, effective, and productive online behavior and acceptable use, and then use this information to make a classroom constitution for you and your students. Since they helped create this constitution, they will have more buy-in and take more care to follow the rules and use technology effectively. MAKE A DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP FLIP BOOK This Digital Citizenship Mini Flip Book covers many of the criteria for teaching digital citizenship in your classroom including Internet safety, social media, cyberbullying, electronic care, and more. The last page includes a student and parent consent form so that parents become aware of digital citizenship as well. I used this mini flipbook with my students, and there was even a place in the book for us to all write in the digital behavior classroom constitution we created together. It is a fun, hands-on activity for secondary students that really gets them to understand the essentials of digital citizenship.

Another great digital citizenship poster that is up on the wall @WLELions @sdavids51 #EdCamp35

Do your students need lessons about online safety and digital citizenship? We created these lessons to help our students stay safe online.

Do your students need lessons about online safety and digital citizenship? We created these lessons to help our students stay safe online.

Digital Citizenship Resources for the Elementary Classroom

Spread the loveInnovation in technology can do a lot to improve or disrupt the education system. Only a few startup companies have made successful and innovative solutions to make a positive and huge impact. Obviously, there is a need in the market, yet many companies struggle to sell their products to schools. Here are few reasons why this happens and a possible solution. It is not easy to reach the people who make the decisions. Authority figures are hard to reach and are often overwhelmed with companies trying to sell them something. They receive a large number of proposals and […]

Ready to teach digital literacy? Here are ten ideas to help you teach important critical thinking skills to your students.

Explore free resources for Digital Citizenship Week and ideas for teaching students digital citizenship curriculum.

Ready to teach digital literacy? Here are ten ideas to help you teach important critical thinking skills to your students.

This blog is intended to give helpful tips and tricks for incorporating technology into your classroom.

We have been discussing how important it is to be a responsible user of technology - especially when online. I decided to show a video crea...

Digital and Civic Literacy Skills The internet is an amazing tool for teaching and learning. But, before we can teach students to harness its power and become good citizens of the web, we need to understand the intricacies of how it works and how it can be manipulated to mislead and even harm users. Learning the Landscape of Digital Literacy

I came across this book after reading an article on Edutopia by Vicki Davis, an inspirational educator known on Twitter as @coolcatteacher. Vicki’s article is about Digital Citizenship and sh…

Celebrate Digital Citizenship Week by building capacity for students and families to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world.

We will be focusing on discussing Digital Citizenship over the next two weeks in the library, and how to be safe while on the internet. I created these posters and bookmarks quite a while ago to help teach the information to my students, and have a way to review them throughout the year. You can... Read more

Teaching students about digital citizenship is important. This post is the first in a series, covering the basics of digital citizenship.

Although threats and detection software have some impact, the best way to prevent plagiarism is to teach students how to avoid it in the first place.