Digital Citizenship Article

        In the article “Developing Digital Citizens” by Venessa Monterosa the author gives tips to help start a conversation in a district about what steps to take in order to incorporate digital citizenship.

In 2013 the United States’ second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District launched a Digital Citizenship Week. One of the elementary schools in the district kicked off the event. The district felt like the event was a success, but wanted to find a way to get everyone in the district across grade levels talking about digital citizenship.

The article provides tips to teachers and districts on how to develop more awareness of being a good digital citizenship. According to the article, 90% of teenagers from 12-17 use some type of social media daily. Because of this, students beginning early on need to learn about what type of digital footprint they leave every time they are on social media. The author also reiterates numerous times that colleges now use social media as a recruiting and filtering technique as they admit new students.

Creating a district-wide digital citizenship curriculum should involve many parts, just as instituting any curriculum would. Some tips to help start that process are:

-      Put together a diverse team: involve teachers, administration, and students because they all provide a different view

-      Define social media terms: for instance the difference between social media and social networking

-      Identify key social media topics and content: what are the most important topics to cover?

-      Create a partnership: Involve Common Sense Education or other online community as well as community members.

-      Connect with a variety of stakeholders: schools can showcase what they know to the community

-      Establish a digital citizenship week: helps emphasize the important of being good citizens.

Students need to be prepared for the 21^st century and part of that is learning how to be a good digital citizen. Talks about adding it into the daily curriculum may seem time consuming or unnecessary, but it is in today’s society.

Monterosa, V. (2015). Developing digital citizens. Leadership, 44(3), 30.