Thing #11 - Digital Citizenship (11.5 More Things)

I don't know how much I would touch on digital citizenship during a library orientation other than mentioning it, but I think a whole lesson dedicated to this topic is imperative. And who better to impart this information to our students than an information specialist? I don't think I would talk about all nine elements of digital citizenship in my lesson, but would focus on Etiquette, Literacy, Law, Health & Wellness, and Security. I am not sure if I would try to squeeze them all into one lesson, or make each one it's own. I remember the instructional technology person at my last school giving a really great presentation on Internet safety, and the kids were all ears. I would want to incorporate in my lesson some of the videos, lesson plan ideas, interactive resources (such as ID the creep or Get Your Web License), and other resources provided to us in this "thing" because kids respond well to short videos and computer generated things. It's funny that "Access" is one of the elements of digital citizenship, yet we as educators have limited access to certain technologies in our district with which to teach digital citizenship (You Tube, etc.). Not only is digital citizenship important to teach our students, but this is a topic our fellow educators should be aware of as well (this is a good topic for a training or inservice). In fact, just yesterday I was talking to one of the teachers at my school who is very into technology and doing Web 2.0 projects with her students, and she was saying she would like to have all the legalities regarding what can and can't be done with technology (copyright, etc.) spelled out to her on paper. I myself don't even know all the answers and think this would be a great topic to discuss at one of our future library meetings.