Working in a 1:1 high school, you can imagine we’ve had our fair share of digital citizenship (digcit) violations along with our classroom successes. But just as we can’t expect our kids to grow up to be positive contributors to society without some serious coaching and character building along the way, we can’t expect them to be good digital citizens without seizing some teachable moments.
I had begun to develop ideas for some sort of training last year as individual digcit violations arose. After going to ISTE13 last year, it became pretty clear that we weren’t doing enough to make sure our students were becoming well-rounded citizens. We needed to be doing more than just modeling positive behaviors online. We need to be proactive about this new side to students’ education!
So where to start?
After some brainstorming and developing the skeleton of a plan, I decided to reach out to the teachers. After all, they’re the ones who are surrounded by our students everyday. Surely they have a better idea than idea about specific issues that our student body faces (acknowledging that many issues are universal). I developed a Prezi to present my two ideas to the teachers before collecting their feedback. Click here to view the short Prezi.
I received a lot of great feedback from teachers. They were thankful to put a day like this into place and had a lot of great suggestions. Most groups said that they think the first option, where students progress through their normal class schedules would be the best way to get through to the kids since they are already comfortable with their own teachers. I’ll be working with each of the departments to plan their “lesson” for the day. I’ve only got a couple of months left, so I need to get moving!
So far, I’ve already collected my free resources from the FTC, and I’ve been collecting a number of resources on my website too. On Monday, I went to watch Steve Smith’s Connected: Students in a 7 x 24 World presentation. I really liked it, and I think his presentation will be a great start to our day (not to mention it’s FREE to school’s in the area thanks to Cincinnati Bell Technical Solutions CBTS)!
So what suggestions do you have for me as I shape this day? What are your favorite digital citizenship resources for high school students? What experience do you have teaching high school students about digital citizenship that I can share with my teachers? I’d love to hear all your ideas and feedback!
Tech To You Later!
Katie
3 thoughts on “Gearing Up for a Digital Citizenship Day”