The school I work at has a user agreement that students and parents must both sign that outlines how students are to behave online (summed up = don’t go to bad sites, don’t bully). The school implements a few digital citizenship classes for a term or two around 5th grade and that is it. Any other classes focus on coding or using a digital resource to complete an assignment.

I really like the idea of moving away from a static approach to teaching and learning about digital citizenship. I would love to help develop an overarching guide to integrating digital citizenship into the curriculum. The issues students face online change as they grow (and as technology changes!) so having a single digital citizenship class in middle school is not going to meet evolving student needs. It is also more practical to teach these skills in context while students are working on digitally-based projects. They are able to practice the skills immediately so they are not just theoretical. Having teachers integrate this across multiple year levels also gives a team approach as a whole school and holds all teachers accountable (i.e. if all teachers are talking about correct attributing, they are more likely to correctly attribute themselves!).

I would also love to see a partnering between parents and the school. I find that many parents have never thought about technology–until their child runs into trouble. I wonder how many of them think about how they are modelling their technology use and the impact it has on their child. Have they considered how they might set their child up for success by encouraging them to create a personal learning network? As a teacher librarian I wonder about organising a yearly parent night to discuss challenges facing students online, weekly information in the school newsletter to prompt thinking and/or informal round table gatherings to discuss digital learning environments in school and at home. What strategies would you use?