Thinking about Digital Citizenship

I work primarily with preservice teachers. Even though many of these students, in their early 20s, have grown up with access to technology, they have varying levels of knowledge regarding digital citizenship. Therefore, it’s important that they reflect on their own digital habits as well as how to support their future students in developing healthy, well-balanced digital lives. In my Integrating Technology & Teaching course, we start the semester with conversations about digital citizenship to provide a foundational “why” for all of our other learning in the course. I also challenge these preservice teachers to create digital citizenship public service announcements to demonstrate what they’re learning about this topic and how they see it applying to their work with their future students. Here’s any example of a Digital Citizenship PSA that was created by one of my students. I’m sharing it with her permission. 

I’m wondering how others ground their teaching work in conversations about digital citizenship. How are you supporting students in cultivating positive digital identities? How do they demonstrate their digital citizenship knowledge and skills? I’d also love to hear from fellow teacher educators and coaches. How are you engaging in conversations about digital citizenship with educators? Please share your ideas in your replies below. Let’s curate some great resources and ideas around this topic!