Unpacking Digital Citizenship
Let’s take a deep-dive into the role digital citizenship has in your students’ lives!
Let’s talk about digital citizenship. It’s a bit of a buzz phrase in education these days, and everyone knows that it’s important for everyone to be responsible citizens online. Cyber-bullying, trolling, and malicious content have been features of the internet for quite some time now. Opening up your computer can feel like stepping into a dark jungle of danger and temptation – but it doesn’t have to be like that! If we all approach the digital world with caution, responsibility, and good intentions, there is endless opportunity for innovation and creativity.
As technology becomes increasingly prominent in education, ensuring students’ and educators’ online safety is key. Digital citizenship must now play a part in every curriculum and be referenced in every classroom! Today’s students spend a lot of their time on a device, with teens in the United States spending approximately 7 hours of their days online. How can teachers educate their students to become responsible digital citizens? Let’s take a look!
What is Digital Citizenship?
We’re all digital citizens! We use technology and the internet to explore, learn, communicate and share information. The internet can be a vast and scary place, so it’s crucial for everyone to use it responsibly, treat others with respect, and be conscious that we all have a digital footprint!
Digital footprint
Who are you online? This is becoming a bit of an existential question. Let’s not delve too deeply into the concept of having separate identities in the real world and the digital world, that’s not why we’re here. That being said, we all have to stop to think every once and a while, just to make sure we are having a positive influence online! This is a useful habit to share with students too.
Imagine: there’s a massive comet hurtling towards earth, and only those who have been stand-up digital citizens are getting places on the spaceship to Mars. Are you on board that spaceship? Are your students? This is dramatic, yes, but your digital footprint is the core concept within digital citizenship. Encourage your students to bear this in mind when using technology!
What can parents do to help?
Share digital citizenship resources with your students’ parents, so the conversation can continue at home. There are a lot of materials available online, but they can be hard to access and explore. Sharing your digital citizenship resources with parents and guardians in your community will ensure a consistent message is communicated with your students!
Wakelet Student Ambassador Program
Empower your students to become leaders in digital citizenship with the Wakelet Student Ambassador Program. There aren’t a lot of exercises and courses available to share within your classroom. We can all agree that students engage best with interactive activities that unlock their creativity. The Student Ambassador Program is designed to do just that, plus there are some coll badges up for grabs!
There are tons of resources to help you get started in bringing a culture of positive digital citizenship to your classroom. Why not start here? This teacher-made collection is full of interesting and applicable materials!
