Tool 10

I want my students to understand these 3 things about being digital citizens:  1) Treat others as you want to be treated.  Don't say anything about anyone that you wouldn't want said about you.  The issues of cyberbullying are real and there are serious consequences for those behaviors.  2)   It is important to give credit to sources when finding or using information.  3)  Everything you do or send on the internet is accessible forever.  It can be forwarded to people other than you intended so always be very discerning in what you say online.  Already, the 10-11 year olds in our community are forwarding very inappropriate e-mails.  One was forwarded to my daughter last week and she showed me. I was amazed at the number of our students on the e-mail forward (and the past forwards). The students need to know how to handle it when they are sent these inappropriate e-mails and NOT to forward these to other people.  They need to show their parent and delete it.  

2 resources available are Brainpop (my children are watching these this summer on digital citizenship) and Easy Tech has some as well.  You can use these in a workstation and discuss as a class.

You can teach the idea of digital citizenship like you do reading. You do it all the time and you use it for everything.   You can make connections in all areas of learning on how to be a good digital citizen.

Parents need to be informed about what it means to be a good digital citizen.  They can be informed in newsletters and on the class blog about how they can encourage good digital citizenship with their child.  There are many videos and links that we can post regarding this.   We could do a feature once a month addressing this issue on the grade level or class blog.