Cybercitizenship: Professional Development Module
OVERVIEW
This module is broken down into three sections: Safety and Security, Digital Life, and Research and Information Literacy. For each section we have attempted to provide enough resources and materials to update your knowledge in any unfamiliar areas and to also integrate this knowledge into your classroom activities. For each section there is also a simple activity. At the end of the first section you will complete a short quiz. At the end of the other sections you will prepare a lesson or activity with aspects of cybercitizenship incorporated into it. The expectation is that all teachers will incorporate aspects of cybercitizenship into their programs. Please save materials and samples to share with colleagues! Your Technology Integration team is available to guide and assist you wherever necessary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
"Character is what you do when no one is looking."
Online, people can feel invisible. This leads to the belief that they can behave in ways that they normally wouldn't in person or in public. The relatively new concepts of "cybercitizenship", "netiquette", or "online ethics" all try to capture the idea that people have both rights and responsibilities in the virtual world, the same as in the "real world".
Across the world, providing age-appropriate instruction of cybercitizenship, information literacy and internet safety is considered an absolutely essential part of best practice - not just for technology teachers, but across the curriculum. In some jurisdictions, it has even been placed at the core of the language curriculum, as a fundamental type of literacy that students need to master.
Beyond the pedagogical concerns, the area of Cybercitizenship has many implications from an administrative and supervision standpoint. In most jurisdictions schools face some kind of legal obligation to provide a safe educational environment. When you are dealing with an are that includes cyberbullying, identity theft and online predators, schools must be proactive in protecting students or risk being held legally responsible for the consequences.
This is a wide-ranging and ever-changing topic which can intimidate adults and students alike. To fully understand the minutia of every new and emerging threat, and the many types of responses is a very difficult task. For parents, classroom teachers and other non-specialists it is more useful to have a basic framework to understand the major areas of concern, and to develop a common sense approach to dealing with all kinds of cybercitizenship concerns.
We will be surveying the framework used in the excellent curriculum developed by the Common Sense Media Group. They examine the issue of cybercitizenship in terms of three major strands:
- Safety and Security: Students learn the basics of Internet safety and security, including how to create strong passwords, handle inappropriate content, avoid unwanted contact (e.g., predators), and protect against identity theft, phishing, and malware.
- Digital Citizenship: Students learn to think critically about how they treat others in this fast-paced digital world, and they learn to use the Internet in legal, ethical, and responsible ways.
- Research and Information Literacy: Students learn research and evaluation skills, including how to search the Internet effectively, evaluate the trustworthiness and usefulness of online information, and how to correctly cite sources.
Common Sense Media (2010) Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture, http://www.commonsense.org
Goals
- Provide teachers with a basic working knowledge of current issues in Cybercitizenship.
- Direct teachers to resources in both English and Spanish that can be used with students of all ages.
Guiding Principles
You can't know everything!
While it is reasonable to expect that teachers and students devote some effort to keeping their technology skills current, it isn't reasonable to expect that teachers, parents or students be completely up-to-date on every issue and emerging threat. The technology simply moves too fast - even specialists are constantly reevaluating their knowledge and learning new skills.
But, mostly, common sense will do the job!
However, you can standards of safe practice and a framework for thinking about cybercitizenship issues that can be helpful no matter what new threat you are faced with.
It takes a village!
Teaching about digital citizenship and protecting students from emerging threats is necessarily a cooperative effort between students, parents, teachers and members of the community - including administration, law enforcement and other authorities. It should not be expected that a classroom teacher cover this whole curriculum with their students. Nor is this a job reserved for IT teachers.
Topic 1: Safety and Security
Unit 1: Safety
Broad Issues in this area include: Cyberbullying, Netiquette, Protecting Privacy
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- What are the benefits and risks of online talk?
- How do we recognizing inappropriate contact?
- How can we applying common sense tips to online talk, and stay safe when connecting with others?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Extend existing personal safety discussions to include online life.
- Together with your students, develop an online safety and privacy policy for your class.
- When doing any academic work online, for any subject (creating websites blogging, pod-casting, collaborating via wikis, or posting creative work) include explicit instruction, discussion and assessment of online behavior.
- In language programs use current events, articles and videos about online safety as nonfiction texts, or topics for discussion and debate.
- Have students create media products / public service announcements promoting safe and responsible internet use.
- Always model safe behavior and take advantage of "teachable moments" when they come up.
RESOURCES
Cyberbullying
Netiquette for Personal Communication
Privacy
Unit 2: Security
Broad issues in this area include: Identity Theft, Cyberfraud, and other security threats
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- How do we manage our information online to keep it secure?
- Who can we guarding against identity theft and keep our data safe from hacking and malware, and protect against phishing?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Issues surrounding hacking and malware, and the use of security software should be explicitly taught in IT classes.
- Issues surrounding identity theft should be explicitly taught in life skills settings.
- In language programs use current events, articles and videos about online security as nonfiction texts, or topics for discussion and debate
- Have students create media products / public service announcements promoting safe and responsible internet use.
- Always model safe behavior and take advantage of "teachable moments" when they come up.
RESOURCES
Identity Theft
Security Risks: viruses, propaganda, spyware, adware, phishing/pharming/spoofing, spam
Topic 1: Safety and Security
Take the Quiz!
Topic 2: Digital Citizenship
Unit 1: Digital Life
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- What are the positive and negative impact of digital media on your life, community, and culture?
- How do we define good digital citizenship?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Together with your students, develop an online safety and privacy policy for your class.
- Use online collaboration tools for academic tasks, with modeling, explicit instruction and discussion about positive online interactions.
- Discuss and model fair and constructive comments and criticism, as opposed to online "flaming". Examine the legal implications of liable and slander.
- Use social networking and other web-based tools to promote classroom events, and communicate with parents, and to anchor authentic discussions about digital life.
- In language, ensure that there is a strong and consistent media literacy component to the program.
- Have students create media products / public service announcements promoting safe and responsible internet use.
- Life skills and health classes should explicitly cover digital life issues.
RESOURCES
Unit 2: Privacy and Digital Footprints
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- Knowing that that the Internet is a very public space, how can we manage our digital footprint and respect the privacy of others online?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Extend existing personal safety discussions to include online life.
- When doing any academic work online, for any subject (creating websites blogging, pod-casting, collaborating via wikis, or posting creative work) include explicit instruction, discussion and assessment of online behavior.
- Together with your students, develop an online safety and privacy policy for your class.
- Have students create media products / public service announcements promoting safe and responsible internet use.
- Always model safe behavior and take advantage of "teachable moments" when they come up.
RESOURCES
Unit 3: Self-Expression and Identity
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- Why must we be concerned with the ways we present themselves online?
- How can we recognize when playing with identity crosses the line into deception?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Have students critically examine their own online identity (or their parents!) with a Google-yourself activity.
- Have students critically examine their social networking footprint (Facebook, etc.).
- Have students explore how the internet can be used to create a positive footprint to achieve career goals.
- Discuss and model fair and constructive comments and criticism, as opposed to online "flaming". Examine the legal implications of liable and slander.
RESOURCES
Unit 4: Connected Culture
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- How do the ethics of online communities compare with the "real world"?
- What are the negative behaviors to avoid, like cyberbullying and hate speech?
- What positive behaviors and relationships can support collaboration?
INTEGRATION IDEAS:
- Extend existing personal safety discussions to include online life.
- When doing any academic work online, for any subject (creating websites blogging, pod-casting, collaborating via wikis, or posting creative work) include explicit instruction, discussion and assessment of online behavior.
- Together with your students, develop an online safety and privacy policy for your class.
- Have students create media products / public service announcements promoting safe and responsible internet use.
- Use social networking and other web-based tools to promote classroom events, and communicate with parents, and to anchor authentic discussions about digital life.
- In language, ensure that there is a strong and consistent media literacy component to the program.
- Always model safe behavior and take advantage of "teachable moments" when they come up.
RESOURCES:
Unit 5: Respecting Creative Work
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- What are the benefits and responsibilities of being a 21st-century creator?
- How do you get credit for your own work and giving others proper credit and respect online.
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Model, discuss, and provide explicit instruction surrounding copyright and proper referencing procedures.
RESOURCES
Activity: Integrate Digital Life Into your Classroom
Prepare a new lesson or activity, or modify an existing lesson, taking into accounts issues you learned about in this section. For example, it could be a writing assignment with digital life as the theme, or a multimedia project where you insist on students properly citing the images they use. You should include at least a brief "learning moment" lesson on the aspect of digital life you are including, and it should included as a component of your assessment as well.
Topic 3: Research and Information Literacy
Unit 1: Searching
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- What strategies can we employ to use search engines more effectively and efficiently?
- How do we decide the most effective search engine, and search strategy to use?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- A Google Scavenger hunt for sites or information that require using advanced strategies
- Explore search engines specifically designed for use by students, or to return reliable results
Resources:
Unit 2: Research and Evaluation
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- How do we determine whether a website is reliable or not?
- How can we recognize political, religious or commercial interests or biases a website creator might have?
INTEGRATION IDEAS
- Critically examine different websites, comparing and contrasting them in terms of credibility, reliability or bias.
- Include criteria for selecting appropriate sources when teaching and assessing research skills.
- Include digital media in any/all media literacy activities and discussions.
Resources:
Activity: Integrate Research and Information Literacy into your classroon
Prepare a new lesson or activity, or modify an existing lesson, taking into accounts issues you learned about in this section. For example, it could be a research assignment where you teach advanced Google strategies, or search using "reliable" sources only. You should include at least a brief "learning moment" lesson on the aspect of research and information literacy you are including, and it should included as a component of your assessment as well.
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