Digital+Citizenship



Digital Citizenship
(From VHS curriculum vhslearning.org)
 * Description Today’s students are growing up with a vastly different relationship to technology than experienced by previous generations. In the modern world, social and academic experiences for young people are deeply entwined with the Internet and digital media.

Most students spend a significant amount of time online every day. Understanding ethical and safety-related concerns of the Internet, making good choices online, and being responsible digital citizens are crucial skills and behaviors that need to be taught to and practiced by today’s students.

Digital Citizenship is designed to empower students to think critically, behave safely and participate responsibly in our digital world. Lessons address the nine elements of digital citizenship, so that students become equipped to foster a positive attitude toward technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity. Course Objectives • Understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. • Differentiate between appropriate technology uses in different settings (school, home, work, etc.) • Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. • Apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. • Understand intellectual property, copyright, public domain and plagiarism, proper citations, and website information validation. • Learn to protect your information from outside forces that might cause disruption or harm. • Describe the right and freedom to use all types of digital technology while using the technology in an acceptable and responsible manner. • Understand what a 'digital footprint' is and that your 'digital footprint' remains and evolves, and can have an impact on your life during and after school. • Understand proper behavior when communicating online. • Learn how to protect yourself as a consumer when shopping online. • Explore the concept of privacy in your everyday lives, and how it relates to using the Internet. • To promote positive physical and psycho-social well-being in the use of mobile and internet technologies. • Raise awareness of appropriate online behavior towards others. • Discuss consequences related to cyber bullying and online harassment. ||

Syllabus

Digital Citizenship

Week 1: Welcome to Digital Citizenship Essential Question: What does it mean to be a Digital Citizen? • Familiarize yourself with the rules and policies of the course. • Meet your classmates and get comfortable navigating in the online learning environment. • Understand what is expected of you throughout this course. • Work collaboratively with your peers to build a "social contract" for a productive community of learners. • Discuss misuse and abuse of technology observed by students. • Define digital citizenship. • Identify components of digital citizenship.

Week 2: Starting the Conversation: Elements of Digital Citizenship Essential Question: What is appropriate technology use? • Distinguish appropriate uses of technology and avoid inappropriate uses. • Identify benefits of sharing information online and reflect on the risks of over-sharing online. • Reflect on the factors that intensify online cruelty and cyber bullying. • Identify what targets and up-standers can do when online cruelty occurs. • Recognize roles in escalating or de-escalating online cruelty. • Consider the perspectives of others in online (and offline) communities to online cruelty. • Consider the motivations and feelings of all the parties involved in an incident of online cruelty. • Determine how you should respond when someone is the target of online cruelty.

Week 3: Digital Life 101 Essential Question: What is the place of technology in your life? • Review basic statistics about the current digital landscape. • Explore the role that media plays in society. • Reflect on the positive and negative impact digital media have on you and on society. • Define terms related to digital life. • Discuss the media landscape. Week 4: Respect, Educate and Protect (REP) Essential Question: What does it mean to do the right thing online? • Apply elements of Digital Citizenship to your school’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). • Observe and analyze the factors that foster positive community, both offline and online. • Identify characteristics of websites that excel at creating positive online community. • Define the concept of collective intelligence, and how it works. • Consider when collective intelligence may be valuable or not. • Recognize hate speech and its impact on individuals, groups, and communities, both online and offline. Week 5: Respect: Digital Etiquette Essential Question: What are netiquette best practices? • Identify core rules of Internet etiquette. • Describe common violations of Internet etiquette. • Effectively analyze online communications, identifying their form, audience, and purpose. • Demonstrate a willingness to use appropriate Internet etiquette. • Recognize that not understanding the forms and norms of online communication can lead to misunderstandings and even ill will.

Week 6: Educate: Communicate Essential Question: What are the different ways we can communicate and collaborate digitally and safely? • Identify and evaluate different tools used to communicate and connect digitally. • Describe and demonstrate the appropriate use of a variety of digital technologies to conduct various tasks and solve problems. • Participate and communicate effectively and respectfully with others. • Create and contribute to an original collaborative project in an online community. • Understand rules for safe online messaging, and feel empowered to deal with uncomfortable situations when communicating online. • Identify risky forms of self-disclosure and their possible consequences. Week 7: Protect: Rights and Responsibilities Essential Question: What are the rights and responsibilities of a good digital citizen? • Examine and discuss online responsibilities and the importance of responsible and respectful behavior in the digital world (and beyond.) • Explore what you consider inappropriate technology use. • Determine what information should remain private, and what is suitable to be shared publicly. • Identify ways to act with resilience, consideration and self-awareness online. • Explore and investigate what it takes to properly respect the digital rights and responsibilities of yourself and others. Week 8: Respect: Digital Access Essential Question: How are we impacted by access to information and usage of Internet technologies? • Define the term digital divide and explore consequences for individuals and society. • Understand your own level of access. • Develop an understanding of the risks of driving while using a cell phone. Week 9: Educate: Digital Literacy Essential Question: Where do you get dependable, quality information on the Internet? • Practice and assess various online search and research techniques. • Practice taking real-world questions and topics and converting them into a set of search terms to use for developing queries. • Use filtering and operators to narrow searches and solve problems that appeared in their search results. • Evaluate information found online to determine its credibility. • Organize and manage information found online. Week 10: Protect: Safety and Security Essential Question: How do you balance your digital security and safety with digital access? • Understand and discuss security risks on the Internet, and their potential harm. • Practice effective security practices as related to technology, technology systems, digital media and information technology including the Internet (e.g., strong passwords, protecting password and user ID, not disclosing important personal information.) • Recognize and understand the purpose of security protection measures for technology. • Define the meaning of, ways to identify, and strategies for avoiding instances of phishing and types of e-mail/internet viruses. • Define what identity theft is and why it is important to guard against it. • Recognize scams to access private information. Week 11: Respect: Digital Law Essential Question: What are the legal and ethical implications of using or manipulating other people’s work on the Internet? • Explain what plagiarism is and how to prevent it. • Identify the legal and ethical considerations involved in using the creative work of others. • Define the key concepts of inspiration, appropriation, copyright, and fair use and examine how they relate to creative work. • Consider the perspectives of the original creator, potential audiences, and the broader community when using others’ material • Consider both the creative benefits and ethical drawbacks of digital photo manipulation. • Understand the importance of purpose and context in evaluating digitally edited images. • Think critically about how the Internet allows users to both celebrate and regulate our “copy-change-paste” culture. Week 12: Educate: Digital Commerce Essential Question: How do you become an effective consumer in a new digital economy? • Understand how to make appropriate decisions about purchasing items online • Learn content-related features of an effective e-commerce website • Learn to protect yourself as a consumer when shopping online. Week 13: Protect: Health and Welfare Essential Question: How can we be psychologically or physically affected by technology use? • Develop awareness of the potential dangers of spending too much time online. • Explain the term Internet addiction and its warning signs. • Understand how computers can be harmful over time. • Understand the importance of ergonomics, repetitive stress injuries related to working and playing at the computer, and evaluate and apply strategies for setting up a healthy computer workstation. Week 14: Living Public Lives on the Internet Essential Question: What are the implications and consequences of living public lives on the Internet? • Describe the concept of online ethics as it applies to four key areas: Privacy; Self-Expression and Identity; Connected Culture; and Respecting Creative Work. • Define digital citizenship and identify their online responsibilities. • Learn about the important concept of having a digital footprint, and the impact your digital footprint may have on future opportunities, including college and employment. • Consider how to present an authentic and positive image of yourself. Week 15: Finishing the Conversation: Elements of Digital Citizenship Essential Question: What Have I Learned About Being a Responsible Digital Citizen? • Review the information learned and issues explored in the course. • Discuss present events as well as what the future might hold for digital citizenship. • Share some final thoughts with your classmates, bringing closure to the community of learners created in this online classroom. • Reflect on your experience in the course. • Share advice for future students of this course.