Mark your calendars: Digital Citizenship Week 2019 is October 14-18.

All of our EGUSD Digital Citizenship Site Coordinators have been busy submitting their site implementation plans for the 2019-2020 school year, and we are encouraged to see that there have been some big changes over last year’s plans. We asked the question – If your site has not yet shifted from teaching digital citizenship as a stand-alone to weaving it into subject areas, how do you plan to make that transition?

We invite you to explore some of the below resources, which may inspire you to try something new during Digital Citizenship Week.

How will your students, staff and families celebrate this annual event? We would love to showcase #DigCit activities happening at our schools. From lessons, to activities, to guest speakers – please keep us in the loop with whatever you are planning.

If you are looking for ideas, Common Sense is always our first go-to resource. Checkout their Digital Citizenship Week 2019 page, which highlights new lessons and resources to help ignite classroom conversations during Digital Citizenship Week and throughout the school year. Note: If you don’t already have a Common Sense account, it will take you only a minute to set one up. You will need to be logged in to download their lessons.

Ask your primary students to share one takeaway from We the Digital Citizens.

Empower your middle school students with ideas for dealing with Digital Drama Unplugged.

Challenge your high school students to confront Hate Speech Online.

Bring your teachers and administrators into a conversation on digital citizenship as a stand-alone topic vs. digital citizenship as an integral part of the core curriculum. We love a recent question raised by Rocklin USD’s Ryan O’Donnell (@creativeedtech) and PLESD’s Brian Briggs (@bribriggs): Is Digital Citizenship like teaching Family Life?

Many parents are not well versed on ever-changing digital citizenship issues and topics and all things social media. There is an absolute need for a home-to-school partnership in educating our students in what it means to be positive, contributing citizens in all the communities to which they belong – both face-to-face and online.  Digital Citizenship skills go well beyond competency in using a Chromebook. We all need to learn how to navigate a variety of topics and this can’t be done in a single lesson. It makes sense to integrate Digital Citizenship focus areas into core curriculum lessons. Below are some examples:

All Subjects:

• Media Literacy – How do we check sources for credibility when doing online research? Sample lesson: Hoaxes and Fakes 
• Digital Footprint – How can we ensure that our online lives are leaving a positive digital trail? Sample lesson: Our Online Tracks

Health: 

• Media Balance – How much screen time is appropriate? What does the research show? Sample lesson: The Health Effects of Screen Time
• Cyberbullying – How to confront bullying in all its forms? Sample lesson: The Power of Words

History/Social Science/Current Events:

• Hate Speech – How can an ‘upstander’ change a negative trend? Sample lesson: Countering Hate Speech Online
• Privacy and Security – How is student data being protected – or not? Sample lesson: Debating the Privacy Line

We’ve come to realize that we all need digital citizenship and media literacy skills along with tips for protecting our online privacy. We appreciate all the resources Common Sense offers parents. We would also like to acknowledge several other organizations for their invaluable #digcit resources for adults:

• Cyberbullying Research Center – Researchers Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin continually update their findings on cyberbullying. Their resources for educators range from creating a positive school climate to understanding the alarming rise in sexting.
• ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) – A year ago, ISTE CEO Richard Culatta made an on-going commitment to keep digital citizenship at the forefront on technology integration via #digcitcommit. ISTE has also woven digital citizenship into their Technology Standards.
• iKeepSafe – The Internet Keep Safe Coalition© (iKeepSafe) certifies digital products as compliant with state and federal requirements for handling protected personal information.
• The Privacy Project – From the New York Times, this is a great online newsletter for updates on a variety of privacy issues.

If you are available on Wednesday, October 16, we hope you can join the EGUSD team for the 7th Annual Stand Up, Speak Out Against Bullying Rally. This event is sponsored by the OCA and the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Tolerance and will be held at the California Museum’s Unity Center. This year, 6th grade students from Roy Herburger Elementary will participate in the youth rally.  Click here to see highlights from last year’s event.

Stand Up Speak Out! 7th Annual Youth Rally
Wednesday, October 16, 2018
8:30 – 11:30 a.m.
CA Museum – Unity Center
1020 O Street, Downtown Sacramento

We are looking forward to showcasing what our schools are doing, including how they celebrated Digital Citizenship Week, part of National Bullying Prevention Month. Please add to the conversation and resources by leaving a comment below.

“Digital citizens think critically about what they see online, understand the benefits and risks of sharing information, and balance screen time with other activities. But digital citizens aren’t born—they’re taught by teachers like you!” Common Sense