Digital Citizenship For Online Interactions With Students

Learning Objectives

Why Create Norms?
Digital Citizenship Basics
Digital Citizenship Online Tools & Resources
How to access the best go-to resources

Creating Norms

Classroom created Norms will help students build ownership and awareness of expectations when online and foster a sense of belonging and community when we are not in a face-to-face classroom. The Norms can be posted in the online classroom, students can help create them using an online discussion, and they can be referenced when starting any online collaborative or live (i.e. Zoom) learning experience. Norms should be created, revisited, and combined as the group sees fit.

Consider asking students . . .

What behaviors would you like to see the group follow?
What do you consider the most important Norms?
What Norms could you live without?
What are the consequences if you do not follow a Norm?

(Video from Edutopia 1-14-2019, PowerPoint Created by Doreen Pietrantoni/MaryBeth Elko)

Norm-Setting Protocol-Updated

Basic Digital Citizenship Practices

When teaching digital citizenship there is no one way to do it. However, over the years how we share this information with students has changed from what NOT to do to a focus on the "Do's of Digital Citizenship". As teachers the most powerful way we can share digital citizenship with our students is by modeling. This also ties into NYS Social Emotional Benchmarks.

Positive Language to Use When Sharing Digital Citizenship Behaviors with Students:

Keep online login information somewhere safe and private
Share only information you feel comfortable with anyone knowing
Communicate with others as you would in the classroom or Follow the same classroom rules in-person and online
Post comments, pictures and information that you can be proud of
Make sure you understand rules and policies before signing up for anything online

(Video from ISTE 8-27-2018)

Online Discussions

Online Discussions are a great tool to provide equity of voice for students. Discussions also allow for the introduction of and practice of Digital Citizenship. Providing a forum for students to share, dig deeper, and explore new ideas can increase student understanding of concepts, build empathy, think more critically about what they say, recognize similarities and differences, and provide think time for students to flesh out their response.

Consider . . .

Provide clear expectations of how students should respond
Model a reply in the first response to illustrate how student should respond
Differentiate by providing a sentence starters in the discussion question directions
Provide clear expectations of how students should cite any unoriginal thought or resources
Remind students: Think Before You Post

Link: Creating Engaging Online Discussions

Online Discussions align to NYS Digital Literacy Standards:

K - 12 DL.2 Digital Use, DL.6 Digital Citizenship

(Image created by Doreen Pietrantoni)

Collaboration

Just because students can't be in the same room together doesn't mean they can't still collaborate and work on projects together. There are many tools that allow students to create together in small groups but the most powerful tool you have is your Google or Microsoft environment. Students are able to work on different documents, slide shows and/or spreadsheets together.

Things to Keep in Mind:

You don't need to use an add-on program or third-party app for collaboration. You can use share links with students in Microsoft or Google environments.
Students are able to give group members sharing and edit links without teachers being involved
If you want to see what student groups are working while they are working, you can create a shared folder for each group and give access to each group member.
Make sure students are given edit access and not just view-only.
Students and teachers can use the comment feature in Google and Microsoft to given notes and suggestions to group members.

Collaboration by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Online Bulletin Boards

There are many different types of tools that allow students to contribute to an online bulletin board like Padlet, Lino-It and others. There bulletin boards are a great for teachers to create a board about a specific topic, ask an essential question or even post an artifact for a DBQ. Students are able to provide answers, pictures that are relevant to the topic and even like posts from peers. Boards can stay around as long as the teachers want to keep them public for students and available for students and teachers to refer back to throughout a unit.

Consider:

There a quite a few online bulletin board tools available with Padlet being the most popular. Before using a tool with students or creating an account make sure that you check with with your IT dept or Office of Instruction to make sure the tool is approved for district use.
Most tools allow teachers to chose if they need to approve student posts before they are visible.
An online bulletin board is a great tool to use as a K-W-L chart at the start and the end of a unit.
If you don't want to a third-party app/program, tools such as PowerPoint, Slides, Google Draw are great alternative that already approved by your district depending on your school's platform.

Bulletin Board Stickies Post-it by geralt CC0

Multimedia Resources

Using multimedia resources such as videos and images engages students in an online environment. It also allows educators to reach all learners by providing different ways to deliver content.

Keep in Mind:

Use resources curated by school district to ensure they are vetted for safety and content. For example: Safari Montage, Learn 360, BrainPOP for video or Soundz-a-Bound for royalty free music and sound effects.
Use advanced search features to customize searches that are aligned to the correct copy right rules, especially with images. Or use these resources for images to find copyright free content.
Always provide citations for every article, image, video shared with students. This models appropriate citizen behavior "students understand the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property" (ISTE Standards: Citizen 2c-Student), Citizen 3c-Educator)
When using 3rd party resources such as YouTube embed the content so students are not directed to the YouTube site.
When in doubt, check with your Technology Director on which resources are appropriate to use.

(Video: Common Sense Education: Copyright and Fair Use )

Resources

Professional Learning Evaluation: www.monroe.edu/pd/evaluation

Contact Information:

Parker Ormerod - parker_omerod@boces.monroe.edu

Doreen Pietrantoni - doreen_pietrantoni@boces.monroe.edu

Contact Information:

Parker Ormerod - parker_omerod@boces.monroe.edu

Doreen Pietrantoni - doreen_pietrantoni@boces.monroe.edu

Page updated

Report abuse