Digital Citizenship Resources

Digital Citizenship Week is slated for all to take part in during the week of Oct. 18-24, 2015.  It is imperative, however, that we not address digital citizenship in one time or at one shot alone.  

The following resources are recommended from Edutopia and are useful options for schools to address digital citizenship in an ongoing, organized effort. 

• Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum for K-12: Common Sense Media’s interactive curriculum offers something for every grade level. Check out the "Scope & Sequence" tool to find the perfect lesson for your classroom. Plus, you can incorporate Digital Passport activities with students in grades 3-5, and their interactive assessments and videos are super engaging, as well.
   
• Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum : Produced in conjunction with iKeepSafe, Google's Digital Literacy curriculum provides three lessons to help students find reliable information online, manage their reputations, and recognize scams. Additionally, check out iKeep Safe's educator resources for professional-development modules for teachers and a variety of activities to use with students.
   
• Search for Digital Literacy Lessons at MediaSmarts: MediaSmarts is an advocacy and education nonprofit based in Canada that seeks to provide kids with the skills they need to be responsible digital citizens. The organization features an extensive list of lessons on their website, and educators can search for activities based on grade, resource type, media type, and topic.
   
• Lessons for Teaching Digital Citizenship from Cable Impacts: InCtrl is a series of lessons for students in grades 4-8 designed to introduce digital-citizenship concepts to students. Topics covered include media literacy, copyright laws, and privacy. Plus, teachers can browse lessons by subject and topic. Each lesson includes materials, as well as a lesson plan.
   
• Resources for Teaching Digital Literacy from Digizen: Digizen is a repository of useful and engaging resources to teach students of all ages about becoming upstanding digital citizens. Produced by the U.K.-based child safety nonprofit ChildNet International, Digizen features videos, lesson plans, and games, and there are different sections for parents, students, and teachers.
   
• Digital Citizenship Videos from the TeachingChannel: This TeachingChannel playlist of 30 videos highlights ways classroom teachers are introducing digital-citizenship concepts to students. There are resources here for every grade, and each video provides a lesson plan, as well. TeachingChannel teamed up with Common Sense Media to produce these lessons.

Related to this important topic, the annual Digital Citizenship Symposium was held on Wednesday, October 14.  ESU 8 schools who attended brought a team including students, staff, and patrons to ESU #7 in Columbus, NE. The event was held in conjunction with ESUs across the state and two other locations participated simultaneously.  Speakers for the day presented to everyone at once-- either in person at a site or via distance learning equipment to the external sites. In between the speakers, discussions and additional activities were held including the development of team action plans to bring digital citizenship best practices back to the attendees' schools. 

The theme for the day was T.H.I.N.K. and all participants brought back bracelets and poster reminders of this important motto. 

T - is it True?

H - is it Helpful?

I - is it Inspiring?

N - is it Necessary?

K - is it Kind?

Speakers for the day included Karen Haase, attorney from KSB School Law, Kenneth Schmutz, FBI Cyber Task Force, Omaha Division, and Jeremy Nielsen (Common Sense Media) and Heather Callihan. Many informative facts were tweeted throughout the day using the #nedcs2015 hashtag and even more information was collected on the Facebook page for the event.