Teaching Digital Citizenship Skills to Students K-12

According to the ISTE standards for student learning, digital citizenship means, " the importance of teaching students how to respect and protect themselves and others online." With the growing number of 1:1 devices in schools, students need to know and understand how to safely navigate the enormous amount of information on the web. They also need to know that they can either be part of the problem, cyber bullying-illegal websites- and misuse of technology; or part of the solution, standing up for others- being safe online- and making good choices.

Google has a great program for students called, Be Internet Awesome. It is an interactive game for students to learn skills on how to navigate and cope with the internet. It also teaches them how to be safe and shows them what some of the bad choices could lead to. Another great resource for teachers and parents are the ISTE standards for students. They clearly layout and define each of the elements students should be taught so that they can excel at higher level academics and social interactions online.

Teachers play a huge role in creating digital citizens. Modeling good online behavior, teaching students the ISTE standards, and holding students to high expectations are just some ways that you can impact students in a positive way to be a digital citizen. Can you think of other examples of how we teach studenst to be digitally responsible?