Tag Archives: Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship Resources

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This 20 yr old website, Childnet, offers a wealth of knowledge that has been divided into the following categories: Young people, Teachers and Professionals and Parents and Care Givers. I particularly like the list of conversation starters they have along with print out family agreement contracts to be found under the Parents tab.

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Edutopia is a website where you can search Core Strategies and Popular Topics, some of which are Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, Cyberbullying and Digital Responsibility.

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Common Sense Media is one our favourite websites as it rates and educates,  apps, websites, TV shows, videos and more for kids, families, and schools. It offers programs, lessons, videos, PDF’s, webinars posters and lots more. A brilliant resource website.

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iKeepsake,  is a website supported by GOOGLE that has good resources.  We like their take on  Digital Citizenship.  The3 C’s :- Appropriate Contact,  Appropriate Content and Appropriate Conduct. The website has a good guide to Facebook for parents.

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Cyberwise Website gives online safety education for both parents and teachers. We love their opening video talking to parents about the change in current technology. They give three straight forward tips to parents – 1. Talk to your kids. 2. Be a good role model and 3. Make sure kids are learning Digital Citizenship. Cyber Civics emphasises “critical thinking, ethical discussion and decision making about digital media issues… all through role-play, hands-on projects, and problem solving tasks.” They also offer paid courses for adults and paid Cyber civic courses for education.

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South West Grid for Learning Digital Literacy is a UK based education site that has produced schemes of learning for all primary year groups.  We can’t speak highly enough of this find!  Here is a summary taken from the site to provide you with an idea of the wealth of resources found there.

‘These schemes of learning:

  • offer a comprehensive yet balanced approach in addressing safety and security concerns, including ethics and behaviour issues, as well as digital literacy skills
  • provide child-centred, media-rich lesson materials that emphasize skill building, critical thinking, ethical discussion, media creation, and decision making
  • address the whole community by providing materials to educate parents and families about digital citizenship
  • provide additional resources and links and suggestions for curriculum opportunities’

The swgfl provides free downloadable PDFs of lesson plans, and curriculum overviews, for each year level with well thought out ideas and interesting content.  Check it out, it’s worth a look!

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KidSmart has a number of resources for teachers, the best being two downloadable story books that are appropriate for use with younger children.  These books are accompanied by lesson plans and chat questions.  They also have a tips page for parents with ideas to support safe responsible use of phones and internet enabled devices, and suggestions for setting up parental controls on gaming devices.  How often do you hear a parent say at an interview, “I just can’t get him/her off the computer, help!!”  Now when this happens, you know where to refer these parents …   🙂

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Looking for multimedia resources to enhance your cyber safety lessons? UK Safer Internet Centre has a number of videos at your disposal!

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This site provides all the information you will need to qualify as an eSmart school.  The site defines eSmart as ‘a school where the smart, safe and responsible use of information and communications technology is a cultural norm’.

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Cybersmart is an Australian Government initiative from the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner.  This Government site assists both teachers and parents in educating responsible digital citizens.  It has a number of lesson plans, games, achievement certificates and quizzes along with advice for parents.

Understanding eSmart Terminology

Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship is the responsible and appropriate use of technology. It is a topic which is widely discussed in schools from Prep through to Year 12. Our children are growing up in a digital world and need to learn how to make the correct choices about their contribution to online content. They are given devices that give them online access at a very early age. Education is crucial.

 Digital Integrity
Digital Integrity is one area that requires focused, teaching. Our definition of Digital Integrity, is always doing the right thing all the time online, even though no one is watching you. It brings to mind morals and character as well as good citizenship. Integrity requires strength of character but can also be taught through encouragement and reward by supportive parents.

Digital Identity
From a young age it is important to teach children about their digital footprint and the importance of maintaining a positive Digital Identity at all times. Schools are joining up and becoming eSmart schools. They are intentionally building a community that teaches students to have a positive digital footprint, or identity, that supports their  future job applications and interviews. It is important to teach responsible online behavior early so it becomes part of normal behavior.

Family Involvement
Partnership between school and home need to be very close. It is the overall responsibility of a parent to maintain a close involvement in their child’s digital world. Although children learn, and use technology at school, and in most cases are given devices by schools, it remains to be said that it is still the parent’s responsibility to oversee the use of that device. Parents often blame schools for the over use and incorrect use of technology, when it is their responsibility to police the device and exercise parenting skills in the home environment. Parents need to have family discussions around the boundaries and use of their child’s technology, as they would a new bike or skateboard on a busy road.

Some questions may be:

  1. What information can I share?
  2. Whom am I sharing it with?
  3. How secure is the information?
  4. How long should I stay on my computer?
  5. Does deleting my content erase it forever?

 Global Community
Education is no longer confined to the classroom. The internet and social media has brought the world closer with exciting educational experiences  and immediate interactions with others, be they be in the next state or on the other side of the globe.

Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is where someone uses the internet to bully someone. It may be in the form of text or images and often on social media or via email. The person bullying often posts anonymously and are mostly cowards. Sadly the victim may not be aware that they are being talked about on social media which may be seen or read globally. Commonsense Website have a great “Nearpod” Curriculum which is target to year 5 students upwards.

Copyright
 “A simple definition of copyright is that it is a bunch of rights in certain creative works such as text, artistic works, music, computer programs, sound recordings and films. The rights are granted exclusively to the copyright owner to reproduce the material, and for some material, the right to perform or show the work to the public. Copyright owners can prevent others from reproducing or communicating their work without their permission or may sell these rights to someone else. ” (Smartcopying website) The Smartcopying website has numerous PDF downloads and clear concise information for schools regarding copyright.