Digital Citizenship in Schools

People are trading their privacy for influence! This irreversible global trend is shaping a communication battleground that will impact on every aspect of our future. The concept of relinquishing privacy is a scary proposition for many people, generally in loose correlation to their age. Similarly the idea of a profound change in societal influence is generating resistance and fear in traditional power centres and institutional mediators of meaning. Governments, corporations, media empires and a host of heritage institutions and their practices will change dramatically as contemporary forces shift the nature of influence.

HERE'S a scene in my house: My almost 9-year-old is on the internet doing something or other, and I am not standing over her shoulder or otherwise monitoring her. Is this negligent? Am I throwing her to the wolves? I have no idea how to approach these thorny questions, so I have lunch with the academic and Microsoft researcher, danah boyd (she spells her name in lowercase letters for complicated philosophical and aesthetic reasons), who has studied this cluster of issues in an original and challenging way.

Useful list to of sites to explore when discovering more about copyright and fair use.

Increasingly, students need to acquire the important skill of critical thinking. Content is growing exponentially on the web, and students are exposed to increasing amounts of erroneous material, misleading, biased or opinionated accounts and false research. During the last week I have been thinking about how teachers can address this issue. One of the new digital literacies students need to acquire is the ability to distinguish the good from the bad content. How do we instill these critical skills in our learners?

There's another mining boom you may have missed. It too involves paying young people six-figure salaries in their first jobs, and exploring deeper for resources that may have been previously overlooked. But it's not about driving trucks or digging holes. It's about building algorithms and crunching facts and numbers. It's mining for data.

Resources, lessons, and strategies for weaving digital citizenship into the core curriculum, condensing the 9 elements of digital citizenship (Mike Ribble) into 4 - with the emphasis on empowering students to step up and take a stand on cyberbullying. Content focuses on grades 6-9, but is easily adaptable to younger or older students.

There are no secrets online. That emotional email you sent to your ex, the illness you searched for in a fit of hypochondria, those hours spent watching kitten videos (you can take that as a euphemism if the kitten fits) - can all be gathered to create a defining profile of you. Advertisement: Story continues below Your information can then be stored, analysed, indexed and sold as a commodity to data brokers who in turn might sell it to advertisers, employers, health insurers or credit rating agencies.

Gwyneth Jones and your digital actions, and online presence....make it worthwhile!

MODEL ACCEPTABLE USE POLICYINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES IN THE SCHOOLS The school's information technology resources, including email and Internet access, are provided for educational purposes. Adherence to the following policy is necessary for continued access to the school's technological resources: Respect and protect the privacy of others. Use only assigned accounts.

A very comprehensive policy, clearly set out and defined.

Internet Acceptable Use Policy: Educational Rationale: As part of our educational curriculum at the Junior School we are aiming to develop the research and communication skills in all of our boys. In doing this, we wish to carry out research in the most efficient and current means of doing this.

Over the past couple of years, I've been trying to collect every good piece of writing and advice about verifying social media content and other types of information that flow across networks. This form of verification involves some new tools and techniques, and requires a basic understanding of the way networks operate and how people use them. It also requires many of the so-called old school values and techniques that have been around for a while: being skeptical, asking questions, tracking down high quality sources, exercising restraint, collaborating and communicating with team members. Post also contains a great Slideshare.