Digital Citizenship in Schools

"Facebook has been analysing our relationships all along, to the point where they are able to make predictions about our behaviour. Most interestingly, Facebook monitors the quantity of wall-posting interactions between potential suitors to determine what phase of the relationship they are in. 100 days prior to becoming 'Facebook official' and updating their relationship status, Facebook observes a steady increase in the number of interactions between suitors. Is social media that engrained that we are conducting courtship on Facebook instead of real life?"

"New research from the ACMA is casting a clear light on what Aussie teens are involved in, online. It shows that kids from 14 - 17 years are, unsurprisingly, active players in Australia's digital economy, who are online more often than ever before, use the internet and mobiles for everything from entertainment to shopping, research, banking and sharing with friends."

"So, like every other one of the world's 1.28 billion monthly active Facebook users, you blindly agreed to Facebook's Terms and Conditions without reading the fine print. You entrusted your photo albums, private messages and relationships to a website without reading its policies. And you do the same with every other site ... sound about right? In your defense, Carnegie Mellon researchers determined that it would take the average American 76 work days to read all the privacy policies they agreed to each year. So you're not avoiding the reading out of laziness; it's literally an act of job preservation. So here are the Cliffs Notes of what you agreed to when you and Facebook entered into this contract. Which, by the way, began as soon as you signed up:"

"Most internet users would like to be anonymous online at least occasionally, but many think it is not possible to be completely anonymous online. New findings in a national survey show:"

"Users should use and reuse weak passwords for websites which don't hold valuable information, say researchers from Microsoft, overturning decades of accumulated wisdom on internet security. By not having to worry about remembering complex unique passwords for every individual website, users can focus their efforts on recalling secure passwords for high-value sites like banking or e-commerce."

"Released last year, Reimagining Citizenship for the 21st Century report (produced with the financial support of the Hewlett Foundation) outlines the practices and dimensions of citizenship today, within the context of 21st century learning. This new model, with the interconnecting aspects of civic literacy, digital citizenship and global engagement, provides a kickstart to the important conversation of how we can help schools and communities make 21st century citizenship a reality for all students. In addition to outlining the new vision for 21st century citizenship, the report also provides examples of promising practices of 21st century citizenship in and out of school, and recommendations for policymakers and educators."

2 great discussion starter posters

""Librarian and blogger Megan Egbert suggests a redirection of how we perceive the word 'cyberbullying' and how it can positively effect our fight against this horrible crime.""

Bob Greenberg from The Brainwaves video series recorded this at ISTE 2014 in Atlanta.

Alan Levine further refines his approach to searching for relevant images - excellent resource for all learners!

An example of the power of Twitter for a Primary School to connect and communicate with the world.

"Earlier this month non-profit organisations and companies including Google, Mozilla, Yahoo, and Reddit united to organise a day of action called Reset the Net. The event marked the first anniversary of Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Administration's extensive and illegal dragnet surveillance apparatus."