Digital Citizenship: Resource Roundup

Internet Safety and Cyberbullying

• Tool or Weapon? Addressing Cyberhate in the Classroom by Jinnie Spiegler (2015): Classroom strategies to fight cyberhate include not supporting or reinforcing it, reporting it, supporting the targets, speaking out against hate, and engaging in activism. For more resources on preventing cyberbullying and other forms of bullying, see Edutopia’s “Resources to Fight Bullying and Harassment at School.”
• Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground by Mary Beth Hertz (2015): Responsible digital citizens emerge from schools where students are taught about the rules, risks, and trust involved in safe, respectful use of social media.
• What Your Students Really Need to Know About Digital Citizenship by Vicki Davis (2014): Teach your students about the 9 Key Ps of digital citizenship as you help them acquire both proactive and experiential knowledge of the online world.
• A Starting Point for Ensuring Student Online Privacy by Anne O’Brien (2014): The online privacy debate has started to gain momentum in the education community and protecting students is an important and necessary conversation to be had by schools and districts.
• The Importance of Internet Safety by Heather Wolpert-Gawron (2012): On the importance of teaching students online safety and netiquette and how to partner with parents in this effort.
• How to Teach Internet Safety to Younger Elementary Students by Mary Beth Hertz (2012):  Insights into adapting stranger danger lessons for the virtual world. For more about teaching internet safety and digital citizenship at the elementary level, see also “Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom.”

Digital Responsibility

• The Basics of Open Technology by Ira Socol (2015): From abundant tools and smart budgeting to accessibility and trust, the Albemarle County Public Schools district maintains a tech program that leverages digital literacy for all students.
• Five-Minute Film Festival: Are We Addicted to Technology? by Amy Erin Borovoy (2014): Can’t put your device down? Obsessing over social media? You may want to dig in to this playlist of videos and resources to help educators, parents, and students reflect on their relationship with technology.

• Common Core in Action: Teaching Online Ethics by Heather Wolpert-Gawron (2014): A look at a key element of digital citizenship—responsible use of intellectual property—and the eighth-grade Common Core standard for gathering, using, and attributing relevant information.
• Five-Minute Film Festival: Copyright and Fair Use for Educators by Amy Borovoy (2013): In K–12 education, it’s a challenge to navigate the copyright and fair use waters. What can educators use? How can they use it? We have some fun, engaging videos to help teachers and students understand this confusing subject.

Media and Digital Literacy

• Empowering Student Relationships With Media by Josh Weisgrau (2015): Consider this new taxonomy or ladder of engagement when assigning your students media projects: consuming, curating, creating, critiquing, and publishing.
• The Strategic Imperative for Schools: Technology as Connector by Matt Levinson (2015): If schools hope to prepare students for an unknown future, they must make technology easy to use—through hardware, software, mindset, and practice.
• Amplifying Student Voice Through Digital Literacy by Andrew Marcinek (2015): For students to grow into their digital voices, they must understand the value of personal communication and projecting their own work on the global stage.
• Introducing Social Media to Elementary Students by Beth Holland (2013): Three age-appropriate examples of introducing social media to children in the lower elementary grades.
• Digital Native vs Digital Citizen? Examining a Dangerous Stereotype by Mary Beth Hertz (2012): A look at our assumptions that all kids are born tech-savvy and an encouragement to think more globally about how we can teach them to thrive as citizens in a digital world.
• Plan a Digital Family Summit to Engage Students and Parents by Joe Mazza (2012): A visit to the Digital Family Summit and a look at how children and their parents can learn and play together with digital media.

Other Resources From Edutopia

• Digital Citizenship Week: 6 Resources for Educators by Matt Davis (Updated 2015): Digital Citizenship Week is the perfect time for students and teachers to talk about online responsibility and safety. Resources to bring digital citizenship into the classroom.
• Social Media in Education: Resource Toolkit by Ashley Cronin (Updated 2015): This collection of blogs, articles, and videos from Edutopia aims to help teachers deploy social-media tools in the classroom to engage students in 21st-century learning.
• Five-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship by Amy Erin Borovoy (Updated 2014): Explore the topic of digital citizenship with this playlist of videos on the importance of online safety, manners, privacy, and responsibility.
• Digital Citizenship: Developing a Culture of Trust and Transparency by Andrew Marcinek (2014): Turning a forbidding acceptable use policy into a digital empowerment guideline can shift your school culture into a more tech-friendly place.
• The Path to Digital Citizenship by Andrew Marcinek (2013): A look at the ethical and practical sides of digital citizenship, with a mindful path for teaching the necessary skills in the elementary grades.
• Ideas for Digital-Citizenship PBL Projects by Andrew Miller (2013): Using the project-based learning model to teach students the values of digital citizenship.

Additional Resources on the Web

• Editor’s Pick: Common Sense Education’s Resources for Digital Citizenship Week
• Editor’s Pick: Common Sense Education’s Cyberbullying Toolkit
• Editor’s Pick: Common Sense Education’s Digital Literacy and Citizenship Classroom Curriculum
• Edutopia’s Digital Citizenship pinboard on Pinterest
• #DigCit on Twitter
• Toolkit for Digitally-Literate Teachers from USC Rossier Online
• Digital Citizenship Summit
• Cybersecurity Lab and Guide for Educators from NOVA Labs (KQED)
• Digital Citizenship from Ask a Tech Teacher
• Google's Curriculum: Understanding YouTube & Digital Citizenship
• Cyberbullying from StopBullying.gov
• CyberWise’s Digital Citizenship Learning Center
• Facebook: Introducing a Facebook Guide for Educators and Community Leaders
• iKeepSafe and Google’s Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum
• National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) Resource Hub
• NetSmartz Workshop: Resources for Parents and Educators
• PBS Parents’ Children and Media Resources
• The Cyberbullying Research Center
• The Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island: Teaching Resources
• Discovery Education’s Digital Safety Resources
• "Creating a Safe Digital Space," ASCD’s Educational Leadership (2015)
• "Teaching About Cybersecurity: Taking Steps to Improve Online Safety and Prevent Data Breaches," The New York Times’ The Learning Network (2014)