More children than ever have easy access to mobile devices at home and in school, making it critical to impart strong digital citizenship lessons to students.
Children have access at younger ages–42 percent of children up to age 8 have their own tablet, 95 percent of families with children in that age range have a smartphone available for that child’s use, and 78 percent have a tablet.
Teenagers’ social media use has doubled in recent years, from 34 percent who reported using social media multiple times a day in 2012 to 70 percent reporting the same today. Sixteen percent of surveyed teenagers say they use social media almost constantly, and 38 percent say they use it multiple times an hour.
Technology is a powerful tool for teaching and learning, but today’s students must learn that their online behavior stays with them forever and has the power to positively and negatively impact peers.
With Digital Citizenship Week launching on October 15, here are some resources to help educators and students learns about the long-lasting impact of their online decisions.
1. Common Sense Media offers a one-stop shop for grades K-12 educators–they’ll find games and activities along with curriculum resources.
2. Check out this ISTE resource that helps educators teach students about three strategies for using empathy as an antidote to cyberbullying.
3. CyberWise offers digital citizenship resources for parents and educators to use in order to teach students about being safe and responsible.
4. Digital Passport, from Common Sense Media, offers a suite of games to help students in grades 3-5 learn about some of the issues and challenges they may encounter online.
5. NetSmartz has compiled interactive and age-appropriate resources to help children ages 5-17 understand how to be smart and stay safe online and offline.
6. Digizen helps children, educators, and parents understand what digital citizenship means and how to apply it when confronted with issues or situations online.
7. Digital citizenship and global awareness go hand in hand, because students will eventually join a workforce with global connectivity. Digital citizenship will help students listen to and communicate with their global peers with empathy and understanding for other cultures. This P21 list of global awareness resources can help educators get started.
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