Tool #11

I did lots of reading about being a good digital citizen. There were several interesting sites, but the one that I liked the best was the TEA website. It had a graphic that was simple, but powerful -
Knowledge + Application =Internet Safety.

I think that safety is one of the most important things that our students should learn about being good digital citizens. We need to protect the students from those who might seek to cause disruption or harm. There are people who may hide their true identity or be on-line to promote negative ideas.

Going along with that, we need to teach students that everything they see on the internet is not true. They need to be skeptical about things because many things they will see are not valid. We need to teach them how to analyze information approriately.

Etiquette is another important thing that we need to teach our students. Students may not realize that interactions in the virtual world can spill over into the real world (example: cyber-bullying).

The best way to teach these skills to our students is by explaining and modeling rules. Students should be reminded that the rules are there to ensure student safety. Ongoing teacher monitoring is also extremely important.