Digital Literacy and Citizenship

With technology being so frequently used in our classrooms, it is necessary that students understand how to use the internet safely and to be good digital citizens. Most schools, including those that I work at, make students and staff sign Acceptable Use Policies that state the rules and boundaries of school internet use. They typically do not include anything about how or why the internet should be used or explanations of their restrictions. A more beneficial way to create a safe internet environment in our schools is to have a digital citizenship curriculum and to teach those within the school about internet safety. Google provides a free series of lessons with handouts for both teachers and students. Through the Google and iKeepSafe program here, we can hold Professional Development workshops for teachers who can then teach students about internet safety, detecting lies, playing and staying safe, how to be a good digital citizen, stealing, respecting privacy, and what websites are good to use. Parents should also be made aware of this information. These are skills that they will have for life. To evaluate a website, there are important things to look for. The website should have an author posted somewhere on the site. It should also be current, accurate, and free of biased information. It is also important for the topic to be described fully to show that the author knows about what they are writing. All of this is described in the Google iKeepSafe program. Common Sense Media also provides a great program broken down by age groups. There are several units which address safety, security, digital life, privacy and digital footprints, connected culture, respecting creative work, searching, and research and evaluation. Each topic has an overview as well as lessons to go with it. These are wonderful, FREE, resources that schools do not take advantage of often enough!

Part of digital literacy is digital citizenship. There are nine elements of digital citizenship. They are 1. digital access, 2. digital commerce, 3. digital communication, 4. digital literacy, 5. digital etiquette, 6. digital law, 7. digital rights and responsibilities, 8. digital health and wellness, and 9. digital security. You can learn more about them here. Copyright laws are a big topic that we often ignore. Some guidelines to follow when taking things include that things that are creative and tangible are automatically copyrighted where as facts, published work, and things that are significantly altered are usually fair to use. Although there are more possibilities for educational use, there are still limits on how much and the frequency of information allowed to be taken by teachers. Multimedia copies are typically allowed but limited. In some cases, school districts may be liable for the copyright infringements made by their staff! Remember, the internet is NOT public domain. The best way to avoid problems is to ask permission to use something.

As for our students, there are many websites for children to learn about digital citizenship. Some of these include BrainPOP, Webonauts Internet Academy, OnGuard Online Games, AT&T Internet Safety Land, and others. By using interactive websites and playing games, students will be engaged and retain more of what they learn. These are great resources that many people don't know enough about!