Digital Citizenship Week 2021
Digital Citizenship Week is celebrated annually during the third week of October. While safe, ethical, and effective use of digital devices is extremely important every day of the year, teachers use this week to collectively focus on these necessary skills and support students in better understanding their responsibilities as digital citizens. This year, Digital Citizenship Week falls on October 18-22, 2021. We hope you will use this time to explore these excellent resources with your students!
CommonSense Education has created and shared leveled lesson plans for teachers to use during Digital Citizenship Week! With 1.1 million teachers using their digital citizenship resources worldwide, teachers can be assured they include high-quality, research-based lessons that target essential skills our students need now!
Check out the linked Google Doc for your assigned age group. The thematic daily plan includes a guiding question, an SEL activity, ideas for promoting student reflection and creation, ways to engage families with communications offered in English and Spanish, and suggestions for celebrating the week!
Note: The green text is hyperlinked to each file, resource, or online tool.
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CommonSense Education's Complete K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Because promoting digital citizenship is important throughout the year, CommonSense offers a free, comprehensive, K-12 curriculum. These lessons cover timely topics that empower students to take ownership of their digital lives. Presentation slide decks, videos, bilingual materials, and customizable resources are available to support these lessons, which cover the following topics:
- Media Balance & Well-Being;
- Privacy & Security;
- Digital Footprint & Identity;
- Relationships & Communication;
- Cyberbullying, Digital Drama, & Hate Speech; and,
- News & Media Literacy.
Be sure to explore the content available for your grade span. The use of these resources will nurture the growth of digital citizens long after this week has ended!
View an overview of the curriculum & the research behind it.
Access the free CommonSense Classroom Posters!
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DigCit Commit / #DigCitCommit
Additional Noteworthy Resources
The new Edvolve Digital Citizenship Curricular Framework can serve as a "blueprint" to guide conversations around digital citizenship education for students in PK through 12th grade. The framework provides a logical sequence for content acquisition and skill development that can help students develop into safe, well-round, literate, and participatory digital citizens.
Google's Be Internet Awesome curriculum gives educators the tools and methods they need to teach digital safety fundamentals. The materials include lesson plans for the five topics, with activities and worksheets that were designed to complement the Interland online adventure game (geared more for grades 2-6). In addition to the curriculum, you might also want to check out the online resources, including the Tip Sheets, and Google's Applied Digital Skills.
Holly Clark of Infused Classroom writes about getting students to think about their digital interactions and being kind online. She includes a customizable Hyperdoc Exploratory Set to use in the classroom to learn about digital citizenship and practice making kind comments and replies while working online.
Dr. Kristen Mattson of Educating Digital Citizens offers a free "Would you Rather?" game to download and play with students. This game is perfect for Digital Citizenship Week and is a great way to get to know your digital citizens. The cards include 50 "Would you Rather" prompts that are sure to ignite interesting discussions about topics and skills crucial to digital citizenship and online safety.
Dr. Kristen Mattson has also curated a couple of book lists that could supplement digital citizenship studies in the classroom. If you are considering a grant-writing project, this would be an excellent option to explore! All of these titles open doors for talking with students about the importance of digital citizenship.
Video Gallery
A quick YouTube search yields numerous videos that will effectively supplement any digital citizenship curriculum! This content will help you keep these important topics current and relevant throughout the school year. Be sure to check out the channels listed below and take advantage of teachable moments each week that will nurture your students' digital citizenship skills. Just like reading and writing, these are skills they will need for a lifetime!
- Above the Noise
- Common Sense Education
- Crash Course (particularly the Navigating Digital Information and Media Literacy playlists)
- NetSmartz
- Planet Nutshell's NetSafe Episodes
- TED-Ed (Perfect for high school students...especially the Hone your Media Literacy Skills and Cyber-Influence & Power playlists)
The suggested videos in the gallery below are an excellent place to start. Click the "Watch on YouTube" button or the YouTube icon in the bottom right corner to view full screen.