Digital Citizenship in Schools

"The internet is the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance. Assange acknowledged that the web could allow greater government transparency and better co-operation between activists, but said it gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents."

Sesame Workshop and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center today released the report Always Connected which examines the media usage patterns of young children. Findings include: * Nearly 80 percent of young children (ages 0 to 5) use the internet at least once a week and just under half of all 6-year-olds play video games. * Almost nine out of ten children over age 5 are TV viewers -- at least three hours daily. * A gap remains in access to technologies, especially among low income and ethnic minority children and also notable differences in usage.

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work-in the web browser itself.

This comes from the Diigo in Education group. Although it is American, it has some useful questions and checklists, quotes and explanations about copyright, ethics and the law to share with students.

Shelly Terrell offers some useful thoughts on digital citizenship in her 30 Goals blog podcast. Look in the archives for #27 as well, Creating a Digital Presence. There is also a free download of her e-book of The 30 Goals Challenge for teachers.

"With more than 500 million Facebook users across the world, it's hard to refute that the social networking site has profoundly changed the way we communicate and share information. But what's the Facebook effect on kids? When it comes to navigating the social networking world - whether it's Facebook or Fan Fiction sites - the terrain becomes even murkier."

"This collaborative mind map has been created by the staff at Pukekohe North school. The staff are starting to explore what digital citizenship might mean not only for the students; but for the staff, the institution of the school and the wider community. You can view the map here. "

Great ideas to inspire you local journey.

Use this same information to do your club, school library, or other organisations page in terms of layout tactics. Students could use this for clubs or fav hobbies. 

"No doubt, the issue of digital citizenship has reared it's head within your class and school. In an age of digital bombardment, how do we equip students to make wise choices about viewing information and posting information? "

"If you are a teacher and you are responsible for educating and learning alongside of adolescents, you should absolutely have a FaceBook account. You can not teach appropriate digital citizenship if you can not model it. Period. Many schools do discourage it and of course, rightfully, discourage "friending" students. But the bottom line is this ~ we can't teach them if we can't reach them. The world is changing fast and if you want to understand how your students operate, you've got to learn the tools yourself. No one can tell you. It has to be experienced, first-hand."

It's not just educators who are exploring the potential of social media. View the segment or read the transcript and learn why social media is important to connecting with young people, including (somewhat surprisingly) young males. The discussion also includes digital identity, digital footprint and the use of twitter. Quite revealing.

"That is why I think effective digital citizenship education is done WHILE students are using educational networks (social networks for education) and cell phones. In fact, that is why we founded Digiteen and spun it off as a nonprofit - because we felt like the kids who came in to Flat Classroom weren't ready because they were clueless about managing their personal identity in safe, wise ways!"

ISTE SIGMS Webinar

" Students ARE being influenced by multiple channels of information every day, and as adults we need to both be aware of the content/messages in those channels and find opportunities to have conversations about them with young people... Particularly when the stakes are high. "

"For a kid who already feels isolated or depressed, Facebook can be the opposite of what it is intended to be. Instead of bringing people into a sense of community, it can create a feeling of inferiority. Some experts believe it can even trigger those feelings in kids who are otherwise well adapted."

"Cyberbullying is a new version of an old problem that presents a thorny paradox: We can't equip our kids with the skills they need to function in a digital world without inadvertently equipping them to be cyberbullies. Many of the "best" cyberbullies tend to be among our most digitally literate young people. Anyone can send a hate text, but it takes some serious cyberchops to hack a website or a profile page and plaster it with shameful pictures, hurtful messages and false accusations. Advanced technology skills in the hands of a bully are analogous to advanced weaponry in the hands of a terrorist. The more skillfully they are deployed, the more damage they cause."

Arizona Department of Education

This policy supports the Victorian Department and Education and Training's need to collect information and the right of the individual to privacy.

A way to view/show youtube clips without the related videos sidebar, ads, comments etc. A useful tool