College Height's Technology: Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is a skill that is imperative for students to learn to communicate digitally and collaborate safely and responsibly. This encompasses all online issues including, but not limited to, email etiquette, cyberbullying, protecting private information, and healthy digital habits. All students need digital citizenship skills to properly participate in their communities and make smart choices online and in life. (Common Sense Education, https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship). High School students at College Heights were issued a Chromebook. Therefore, the school provided digital citizenship lessons. Students completed lessons using Google tools such as Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Drawings. Students began their week reflecting on their digital footprint and thinking about the consequences of their online behavior. This led into an overarching theme of healthy digital habits. Today’s society is completely different than it used to be and we are constantly immersed in the digital domain. As technology continues to tighten its grip on our lives, the price for staying connected means that we lose the “human” connection —our voices, touch, and facial expressions. Our culture’s immersion in technology means we have to be intentional in knowing and implementing healthy digital habits. Students logged their daily digital usage and reflected on it. They interviewed parents and made commitments to establish limits in their personal use of technology. The goal of the digital citizenship week was to have students think about their digital usage and make conscious choices to stay safe and have healthy digital habits. Students learned how to create strong passwords and ran them through a database simulating hackers to confirm the strength of their passwords. Finally, students created a list of how to identify cyberbullying and what to do if they see it. The constant connection digital devices provide means that it is more difficult for students to get away from others who are being mean. This public shaming can be stopped when students know how to handle the situation. All in all, it was a successful week of students reflecting on good digital habits and promoted becoming good digital citizens.