Digital Citizenship in the Intermediate Classroom

Abstract

Technology is a tool that is increasingly used in today’s classroom to encourage engagement, innovation and deeper learning experiences. Students are gaining access to technology at younger ages, yet are not necessarily equipped with the skills and understandings required to use these resources in an effective and responsible manner. To ensure student safety, specific lessons are required to develop a variety of digital literacy skills, such as how to protect personal identities, effective research practices, ways to share information in ethical ways, and steps to ensuring positive online interactions. By developing a series of 60 lesson plans tied directly to the outcomes defined by the British Columbia Ministry of Education in their Digital Literacy Framework, I have initiated work on a comprehensive collection of tools and resources that will hopefully be used to set a consistent standard of safe online behaviours for students across B.C. Feedback garnered from a peer review as well as sharing the project with colleagues indicates the need for such a resource and the potential value of the collection found here. As new and exciting technology emerges, this resource will need to be updated and maintained to ensure that it continues to promote the development of digital literacy skills and practices for all students and to support them on their own journeys towards digital citizenship.