This week we talked about digital citizenship and I decided I wanted to challenge myself and look into different ways to incorporate talking about digital citizenship into the classroom.
To start what does it mean to be a digital citizen? Well the definition of a digital citizen is…
digital citizen – a person who develops the skills and knowledge to effectively use the Internet and other digital technology, especially in order to participate responsibly in social and civic activities.
So why teach about digital citizenship? It is something I believe in teaching my students. I don’t want to just teach them how to effectively use the internet but how to behave when using the internet. I feel like we always focus on the negative things when teaching kids. We always tell them don’t do this and don’t do that. Well that isn’t going to help them. Instead of telling them what not to do we should be giving them the tools on what to do. We don’t need to be scaring them away from the internet. The internet is a wonderful place filled with knowledge and helpful sites in addition to the not to helpful.
A few weeks ago I tweeted this poster..
And personally, I like it. I feel as if it could be a valuable tool for teaching students to stay safe online. I can see myself displaying this in my classroom to help guide my students as they are navigating the world wide web. However, I feel as if there are other posters out there that could be just as good. In my search, I came across this one from this site…
Again, a poster I really like that can help my students understand what it means to be a digital citizen. But these are just posters. How can I actually go about teaching my students how to navigate the internet as well as what is appropriate when using the internet. I came across this website which is the same place I got the second poster from. Something that really caught my eye was the Resources to Explore section. I found that some of the resources not only would help my students grow their digital citizenship but they could help me grow my own as well.
I have also include links to a few other posters and resources I found to be interesting and could be useful when talking about what it means to be a digital citizen and digital citizenship:
- Collection of Videos
- 5 Easy Techie Ideas for Digital Citizenship Activities
- Create A Digital Footprint
- Top 10 List of Technology Themed Read Aloud Books
Jordyn Harcourt 
I love the SMART poster! And I totally agree, I think we should start teaching digital citizenship at the earliest time possible, lessons can be reinforced and expanded as the students go through the grades.
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Jordyn,
I couldn’t help but notice how some of the things you posted were geared toward younger students. I think that this is great! The talk of digital citizenship needs to start at a very young age. Children already have their pictures posted on the internet when they are just a new born baby. As they grow older, they quickly become experts with technology. Therefore, we need to have a sense of urgency. Children and youth need to learn how to be responsible. As educators, I hope that we can lead by example. Thank you for this post and all of the helpful resources that you made available.
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I completely agree! Children are online from the moment they are born! Some even have social media pages before they can talk! The younger we can start teaching them how to be good digital citizens the better in my eyes!
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