Nicole Krueger
May 20, 2019
How can we teach kids to use technology responsibly when the technology is changing faster than we can keep up? How can we help students — and teachers — understand that good digital citizenship also involves using digital tools to do good things in the world?
Grappling with these questions is just the beginning of the digital citizenship conversation. Most educators recognize the need for it, but many struggle with the best way to teach it.
In classrooms where digital citizenship is taught effectively, teachers have two things in common: They model ethical technology use for their students on a daily basis, and they naturally incorporate conversations about it whenever technology is part of their lesson plan. In other words, they weave digital citizenship seamlessly throughout their curriculum.
Here are some resources to help:
Schools have long woven citizenship lessons into their curricula, but now that much of our social interaction happens online, many teachers are trying to figure out how to teach students about responsible digital citizenship as well. The two actually aren’t that different. This infographic compares the basic tenets of traditional citizenship with the essential elements of digital citizenship.
Digital age educators know that kids do best when they can learn something authentically, by figuring out their own answers to real-world problems that are relevant to their lives.
K-pop band BTS and their loyal international fandom known as ARMY may seem a world away from your classroom or anything as serious as digital citizenship, but there are lessons to be learned from the way BTS fans behave and react that will be applicable to any fandom or community that your students — or you — may be a part of.
All students need digital citizenship skills to participate fully in their communities and make smart choices online and in life. Empower students to think critically, behave safely and participate responsibly in a digital world with Common Sense Media’s K-12 curriculum.
This ISTE U course will guide you in exploring various sets of learning standards, identifying frameworks for digcit education, integrating digcit across content areas, and even sharing how students can connect online to participate in social justice and sustainability projects.
Educator and author Kristen Mattson, Ed.D., has a bone to pick with a lot of the digital citizenship curricula. Too much of it, she says, focuses on what not to do, and it rarely addresses the opportunities and responsibilities of the digital world.
It's easy to focus on the screens. Screens follow some rules, they can be tucked away, they can be banned. But if your solution to personal tech issues rests only on the screen, you're missing the larger point. If programs and training on digital citizenship do not focus on risk factors, they will never fully address the problems that stem from technology use.
How do we teach digital citizenship to older students, who don’t respond well to lecturing and finger pointing? Instructional technology coordinator Cynde Reneau shares her strategies for guiding students to draw their own conclusions about cyberbullying.
While many schools address digital citizenship through the occasional school assembly or one-off lesson plan, administrators at Rowan-Salisbury School District knew they needed to go bigger. They paid 25 teachers from around the district to develop a comprehensive K-12 digital citizenship curriculum.
This is an updated version of a post that was first published on Dec. 24, 2014.
Nicole Krueger is a freelance writer and journalist with a passion for finding out what makes learners tick.
Tags