Curriculum
Digital Citizenship Lessons & Activities
Dear Educators,
CyberSmart! is pleased to announce the release of our Digital Citizenship Package to teachers and other educators concerned with preparing students for learning, work, and life in the 21st century. This suite of lessons for Kindergarten through high school actively engages students in exploring their personal, social, legal, and ethical responsibilities in today's digital society.
Focused on age-appropriate skill building and improved dialogue between adults and students, these free standards-aligned lesson plans bring together research-based strategies and a flexible format designed to fit easily within existing curricula.
In presenting these lessons for digital citizenship, we acknowledge that, to be prepared for life in the 21st century, students must be able to navigate the digital and face-to-face worlds using the same high standards for personal conduct and ethical decision making, protect themselves and their private information, and develop lifelong learning skills.
We did our homework
Adopting an integrated approach, we closely examined best practices from the fields of digital security and digital literacy and the most current research findings in the fields of school violence prevention, character education, online victimization, cyberbullying prevention, youth risk-taking, and ethical decision making. Together, these materials offer schools the opportunity to begin a dialogue with students and build a sustained digital citizenship campaign to continually remind the school community about safe, ethical online use.
This digital citizenship package
- uses a social constructivist learning approach, allowing students to define the problems and issues themselves and thus "own" them; without this ownership, no behavioral change can occur
- focuses on developing students' critical thinking and decision-making skills
- sustains digital citizenship discussions throughout the school years, similar to the ongoing programs advocated by cyber security experts
- emphasizes the core character values of caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others
In these carefully developed lessons, students
- consider the power, rights, and responsibilities of digital citizenship, including adherence to their school's acceptable use policy
- learn what behaviors constitute cyberbullying and how to deal with cyberbullying situations
- develop the understandings needed to protect themselves, their private information, and keep digital networks secure
- learn to avoid plagiarism, respect copyright, and use digital hardware and networks ethically and within the law
- develop skills for digital collaboration and learning
Tell us what you think
We encourage you to try our Digital Citizenship Lessons and tell us what you think. We listen very carefully to your feedback and appreciate you taking time from your busy day to contact us.
Warm regards,
All of us at CyberSmart!
