Digital Citizenship

Thursday I met for half hour with my principal and discussed some technology needs for the fall.  The one she asked me to tackle while we are waiting for the school to finish being cleaned (fingers crossed that we reopen tomorrow) is a lesson on digital citizenship/Internet safety.  So I discussed some ideas with our tech coach.  He said it should be a lesson that we can use this year for all grades and then next year with the 6th grade and new students.  We decided that we would create another lesson that could be added on to the curriculum next year.  He also said he wanted it to be something that the 2 of us could present to all grades to make sure that a uniform front is presented.  Money is limited so he told me to utilize free resources or make resources as much as possible. 

So, this weekend I have been researching and working on this task. I have spent 2 hours working and have found a TON of great resources.  I will share two of them with you here. 

• Digital Passport
• If I taught elementary or even just middle school, I would totally be using this resource.  It is in Beta stage, but is really neat.  You create accounts for students who then can log in and go through learning modules based on different lessons (online chatting, privacy, searching, creating work, etc.).  The lessons include videos and games that  help the students learn.  The students earn badges toward their passport.  
• Common Sense Media 
• Since our school is 6-12, however, I think this option will be much more suitable.  The lessons are all available online for free or you can purchase them on a jumpdrive.  Each lesson comes with a printable lesson plan, activity sheets, videos, assessments, and more.  The lessons estimate in time from 45 minutes to 1 hour so they are perfect for an assembly with our students.

The two lessons I am deciding  between are Digital Life 101 (Click here to go to that lesson).  It is supposed to be for grades 6-8, but when I looked through the lesson it is easily adaptable for 6-12.  It is a general introduction to digital life and focuses on the responsibility that comes with using technology. 

The second lesson I am looking at is along similar lines, With Power Comes Responsibility (Click here to go to that lesson).  Both lessons look like great tools that I can adapt to our needs. 

So my goal tomorrow is to decide between the two lessons, adapt any parts that need to change and/or create anything that needs to be made, and email it to my administrator and tech coach for approval.