Digital Citizenship plays a crucial role in student’s lives all year round in school, at home, with friends, and at some point in their career. Learning these healthy and safe habits early on will help them navigate the digital world successfully for years to come. These skills and habits are beneficial for social, emotional, and even physical health. So, with Digital Citizenship week right around the corner, we’re sharing some activities to help introduce these lifelong skills and habits to ensure digital success!
1. Practice Being Kind Online
A great place for students to start is to practice using technology for good. It’s the unfortunate truth that there are many people in the world that are using the internet for unpleasant reasons. It’s also true that the internet is not always a kind place. Instead of focusing on a lack of kindness, we should do our best to focus on creating kindness everywhere we go.
Being kind online can go a long way, it’s easy to do, and it’s the right thing to do! In this activity, students can practice their digital etiquette and spread kindness by inspiring others, complimenting a classmate, and sharing a personal story.
2. Explore the 9 P’s of DigCit
Get started with Digital Citizenship by introducing the 9 P’s! Passwords, private information, personal information, photographs, property, permission, protection, professionalism, and permanence – are all essential topics for students to learn about when navigating the online world. Understanding why each of these topics are equally important can equip students with the knowledge needed to make safe and responsible decisions before they post!
3. Encourage Students to Share Their Voice
After learning about the different elements of digital citizenship, have your students ask themselves, “What does being a digital citizen mean to me?”. Ask them to reflect on what they have learned, and share their voice! Students can add an audio clip to the sticker of each element and give an example, or share a more personal response.
4. Understanding Your Digital Footprint
It’s important for students to understand that their digital footprint has nothing to do with the actual size of their foot, and that their digital footprint might be a lot larger than they think! Everything a person does online contributes to their digital footprint, and could affect them positively or negatively for many years. After learning about what their digital footprint really consists of, ask students to complete the following drag and drop activity to gain a clear understanding of what these vocabulary words mean in the online world.
Bonus Activity!
Have students use Buncee to create a pretend social media profile page. After they complete their profile, ask them to share it to a Buncee Board you created for this class’s activity. Did you know that Buncee Boards are a great place to practice Digital Citizenship? Students can comment on each other’s Buncees, reply to comments, and add reactions! These actions can all be moderated by a teacher and require approval before they are posted. This is to ensure students are practicing their digital etiquette, digital literacy, digital responsibility, and more in a safe environment!
Check out this Buncee Board for more Digital Citizenship activities!
