Description
We have all experienced times when a lack of care in online activities has brought unexpected and potentially negative results, for ourselves or our students. Perhaps we have shared inaccurate information, without being vigilant in checking our sources, and then had to spend time making corrections and apologies. Or maybe we have made a public comment that we later regretted in a forum or a social platform.
This course stresses the importance of ensuring that students and teachers are aware of the morality and consequences of their online activities – i.e., what constitutes being a good “digital citizen”.
During this course, participants will raise their awareness of the complex personal and social issues involved in allowing students to work, learn and interact online, both for themselves and as representatives of their families and their school communities. The course will also stress the importance of teachers guiding their students in behavior that will keep them safe in online environments.
Participants will be provided with examples of a range of existing school-wide policies and processes designed to ensure that students (and teachers) are well informed about what being a responsible “digital citizen” looks and feels like.
By the end of the course, participants will be well prepared in a range of behaviors and practices to enhance digital citizenship and media literacy, including how to guide students in acquiring digital skills and competencies from an early age, how to promote digital literacy, and fight disinformation, how to evaluate and filter data, information, and digital content, how to protect devices and people through careful sharing of personal details as well as the health, wellbeing and our environment.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Appreciate the complex personal and social issues involved in giving students access to the Internet at school;
- Understand the rights and responsibilities of being a responsible digital citizen;
- Design and create a Digital Citizenship Agreement;
- Prioritize content for a Digital Citizenship Curriculum;
- Develop a repertoire of strategies, tools, and techniques to engage students in learning about how they can keep themselves and others safe while online;
- Experience and analyze the real and potential impacts of positive and negative online behaviors.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Course introduction
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools;
- Connecting good citizenship with good digital citizenship – how are they connected and where is the overlap?
Day 2 – Digital security
- How the Internet works: what does “privacy” mean in an online sense?
- Understanding user data and how it is used and shared;
- Online predators, groomers, and the dangers they present to children and adolescents;
- Approaches to teaching students how to protect themselves online.
Day 3 – Digital citizenship agreements for schools
- Case Studies – examples of Digital Citizenship agreements for schools;
- Creation of your own plan for designing a Digital Citizenship agreement and curriculum/protocol for your classroom and/or school;
- What is included in quality Digital Citizenship Curriculum frameworks (Proactive Knowledge and Experiential Knowledge)?
Day 4 – Digital wellness
- What is Digital Wellness?
- Media literacy and discernment of online sources (fake news, correct citations, checking sources, etc.);
- Clinical Protocol – Collaborative problem-solving of school-based issues.
Day 5 – Discussion and Roundtable
- Short TED Talk on the most interesting thing you have learned this week;
- Reflection, feedback, goal setting.
Day 6 – Course closure & excursion
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.