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As tales of online cruelty mount, districts are trying a mix of prevention and punishment, incorporating internet safety into curriculum and tightening student conduct codes.Whether a pattern or merely an unfortunate streak, what's not disputed is the direction of the general drift in cyberbullying cases: upward. Once relegated to the playgrounds and back lots, the schoolyard bully now finds prey online. While the states are responding to cyberbullying by adopting legislation that mixes prevention with punishment, for school districts the issue quickly turns from educating the community about the threat of cyberbullying to crafting a response when an incident actually occurs. Districts are realizing that integrating internet safety education into curriculum isn't enough. They must also address cyberbullying in their conduct and discipline codes.

Click on the buttons in the Blue Menu for carefully selected and annotated resources in each of our six CyberSafety areas: identity safety, cyberbullying, cyber predators, piracy & plagiarism, inappropriate content, social networks.

Free Brainpop video on digital citizenship. Free Brainpop video on digital citizenship. Four other free videos are included in the series: BLOGS, CYBERBULLYING, DIGITAL ETIQUETTE and ONLINE SAFETY.

Flash cartoons based on Charlie's Angels that teach kids about how to stay safe on the internet [from the folks at Wired Safety]. Topics include: Cyberbullying, Predators and Strangers, Personal Information, Piracy, Cyber Citizenship, and Protecting your computer.

Canadian resources covering digital citizenship, Web 2.0, copyright, plagiarism, Internet Safety and Cyberbullying.

Like many states, Texas now has state legislation driving cybersafety education in schools. In accordance with HB 3171, Section 38.023, the Texas Education Agency has developed and made available to school districts a list of resources concerning Internet Safety. In the navigation bar are links to 3 types of pages which are for students, educators and parents. Within each of the pages are links that categorize different aspects of Internet safety and digital citizenship to educate and inform.

Santa Ana School District has posted their cybersafety materials online in fulfillment of requirements for AB 307. Materials were used district wide (Feb 23-27) in all grade levels. The same materials were also used in the Newport Mesa Unified School District for CyberSmart Week.

Currently four missions are available for students with the following themes: email/spam, chatroom safety/privacy, cyberbullying awareness, web dangers. Download and print the hint sheets for each series.

If you're attending NECC and have an interest in Digital Citizenship topics, here are some workshops and sessions you'll want to attend:

A Q&A of how Seattle Schools are dealing with cyberbullying.

Check out Edutopia's collection of articles, videos, and resources on cyberbullying, netiquette, and internet safety.

Brainpop's new unit on Digital Citizenship covers topics like computer viruses, cyberbullying, blogs, copyright, digital etiquette, privacy, online safety, plagiarism, and social networking in their familiar format with Tim & Moby. And best off, it's all free.

For a wide range of topics/resources on Digital Citizenship, check out this Diigo List. All resources have been tagged and cataloged from the entries found in the Ad4dcss Diigo Group on Digital Citizenship. This just makes them easier to find when educators are preparing a workshop or focusing on a specific topic area.

On this area of the Digizen website we outline the three major areas of the advice, Understanding, Preventing and Responding; and provided links to current resources.

Eleven Lesson Plans and Student Activity Sheets on Cyberbullying for Grades K-12. [Cybersmart Curriculum].

This excellent series of interactive case studies explores 8 topics: Wireless, Social Networking, Digital Permanence, Cyberbullying, Misinformation, Fair Use, Privacy and Downloading. Through multimedia activities, students examine issues affecting schoolwork, class papers, entertainment activities and online safety. Units are illustrated with Nickelodeon-style graphics and include assessments of learning. "Power to Learn" is Cablevision's nationally recognized education initiative. Some of the resources here are available in Spanish.

Bullying is on the rise and putting all our kids at risk, on and off line. Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) joins blogtalkradio (at 8 minutes into the program) to help us understand the importance of digital citizenship in the online world as a buffer for challenging events such as bullying and as a necessity for being part of today's society in general.

10 Rules to Guide Student Activities and Behaviors online.

The Rochester Regional Cybersafety and Ethics Initiative has conducted the largest cyber safety and ethics survey of K-12 students in the Nation, with more than 40,000 students throughout the area participating. This new study shows that the majority of cyber offenses involving children, adolescents and young adults are perpetrated, not by adults, but rather by peers of approximately the same age or grade level. For a summary of the research report, see: Key RIT Cybercrime Research Findings.

An effective school-based strategy to address the issue of online safety should include these six key components:
EDUCATIONAL USE - Schools must ensure that when students use the Internet, their activities have an educational purpose -- class assignments, extra credit work, and perhaps some high quality enrichment activities as a reward
SUPERVISION AND MONITORING Schools must shift focus from reliance on filtering to better supervision and monitoring.
MEANINGFUL CONSEQUENCES Misuse of the Internet must lead to a meaningful consequence -- but it should be recognized that suspension of Internet access privileges just causes more work for teachers. Requiring a service contribution to the school and establishing "close monitoring status" for all Internet use are preferable consequences.
ACCIDENTAL ACCESS TO PORN - All students and staff must know that if inappropriate material appears, they should quickly turn off the monitor or turn it so it can't be seen, and then report it. Following any incident or discovery, there must be a responsible assessment of culpability.
INAPPROPRIATE BLOCKING Selected staff in every school building must have the authority and ability to quickly override the filter to provide other staff or students access to sites that have been inappropriately blocked
INTERNET SAFETY AND RESPONSIBLE USE EDUCATION Schools must provide effective Web 2.0 Internet safety and responsible use education to students and parents.