Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship
One of the many parts of my job as an instructional technology coach is to design professional development programs for teachers and students in my district. One of the most recent programs that I'm working to develop is a digital citizenship course for a 6th grade exploratory class at our district middle schools as well as a short introduction to digital citizenship for our staff. In addition, April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and because of that, I felt that this topic would be timely and appropriate.
Digital citizenship is something that I believe all teachers should address on some level in all classes. Students need to be given tools to help prevent their own good intentions from exposing them to harm. However, it is most often neglected in classes due to pressures of curriculum, time, and even a lack of knowledge or resources on the part of the teacher (to no fault of their own - teachers are incredibly overburdened with so much during this time of transition and change).
Fortunately, there are many resources available to teachers, parents, and even students that make digital citizenship easily accessible and fun. Here is an annotated list of the sites that I've found to be particularly helpful in my course design and as resources for teaching digital citizenship as a part of any content class (and free!).
Common Sense Media
The resources provided by Common Sense Media are vast and very well differentiated. They provide a wonderful overview with a scope and sequence. Their resources cover teaching digital citizenship to students of all ages. The materials provided could be integrated into a full course of study or used in conjunction with any content area teaching. The website provides free access to all materials and a quick registration to their site will allow visitors to download their content. Users can also order, for a small fee, the entire curriculum pre-loaded onto a flash drive. The content is very friendly, easily understood, and offered in a variety of formats (web versions and PDF).
NetSmartz
This resource is more free form compared to the above, but is not shadowed in its depth of coverage on the subject. There are many lesson plans which can be adapted to be used in any class or situation, as a teacher would desire. As with the previous resource, NetSmartz materials are available as a free download, as long as you register on their website. They also offer educator kits that provide many of the handouts and lesson plans in hard copy. In addition to a huge educator resource, there are many interactive components for students and parents to use on their site. They provide games and tutorials for three main levels: Kids, Tweens and Teens. Each level is approached with age appropriate content, material and engagement.
InCtrl
From Cable in the Classroom, the Teach InCtrl resource gives tutorial videos and accompanying lesson planning materials to teach several digital citizenship topics. They provide materials on all topics for both teachers and students. This is especially important as many adults find it hard to explain these topics to students when it may not seem to apply to their own lives. Different sections regarding online citizenship are separated to make the information easily digested and can help teachers use what is timely and necessary for their classes or students. All resources are downloadable in different formats without any registration necessary.
Google's Good to Know Classes
Partnering with iKeepSafe, Google has a small resource of classroom lessons to use to introduce and teach concepts of digital citizenship to students. They created them as "classes" but the idea seems to be that the resources can be used to generate lessons on digital citizenship that work within any content area class. The classes are: Become and Online Sleuth, Manage Your Digital Footprint, and Identify Tricks and Scams Online. Each class includes resources for teaching and an ending assessment for students. No registration is necessary as all the lesson materials come up in Google documents that are downloadable.
These are by no means the only resources out there. I've come across many others in my search for materials, as well as some school districts that have created similar programs for their students. I've used ideas from all of these as well as from other districts. My biggest hope is that teachers begin to see the need and start using these to help our students become safe and secure online as well as at school.
Digital citizenship is something that I believe all teachers should address on some level in all classes. Students need to be given tools to help prevent their own good intentions from exposing them to harm. However, it is most often neglected in classes due to pressures of curriculum, time, and even a lack of knowledge or resources on the part of the teacher (to no fault of their own - teachers are incredibly overburdened with so much during this time of transition and change).
Fortunately, there are many resources available to teachers, parents, and even students that make digital citizenship easily accessible and fun. Here is an annotated list of the sites that I've found to be particularly helpful in my course design and as resources for teaching digital citizenship as a part of any content class (and free!).
Common Sense Media
The resources provided by Common Sense Media are vast and very well differentiated. They provide a wonderful overview with a scope and sequence. Their resources cover teaching digital citizenship to students of all ages. The materials provided could be integrated into a full course of study or used in conjunction with any content area teaching. The website provides free access to all materials and a quick registration to their site will allow visitors to download their content. Users can also order, for a small fee, the entire curriculum pre-loaded onto a flash drive. The content is very friendly, easily understood, and offered in a variety of formats (web versions and PDF).
NetSmartz
This resource is more free form compared to the above, but is not shadowed in its depth of coverage on the subject. There are many lesson plans which can be adapted to be used in any class or situation, as a teacher would desire. As with the previous resource, NetSmartz materials are available as a free download, as long as you register on their website. They also offer educator kits that provide many of the handouts and lesson plans in hard copy. In addition to a huge educator resource, there are many interactive components for students and parents to use on their site. They provide games and tutorials for three main levels: Kids, Tweens and Teens. Each level is approached with age appropriate content, material and engagement.
InCtrl
From Cable in the Classroom, the Teach InCtrl resource gives tutorial videos and accompanying lesson planning materials to teach several digital citizenship topics. They provide materials on all topics for both teachers and students. This is especially important as many adults find it hard to explain these topics to students when it may not seem to apply to their own lives. Different sections regarding online citizenship are separated to make the information easily digested and can help teachers use what is timely and necessary for their classes or students. All resources are downloadable in different formats without any registration necessary.
Google's Good to Know Classes
Partnering with iKeepSafe, Google has a small resource of classroom lessons to use to introduce and teach concepts of digital citizenship to students. They created them as "classes" but the idea seems to be that the resources can be used to generate lessons on digital citizenship that work within any content area class. The classes are: Become and Online Sleuth, Manage Your Digital Footprint, and Identify Tricks and Scams Online. Each class includes resources for teaching and an ending assessment for students. No registration is necessary as all the lesson materials come up in Google documents that are downloadable.
These are by no means the only resources out there. I've come across many others in my search for materials, as well as some school districts that have created similar programs for their students. I've used ideas from all of these as well as from other districts. My biggest hope is that teachers begin to see the need and start using these to help our students become safe and secure online as well as at school.
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