#DigCitCommit
Welcome back to a new school year! This year we are so happy to be utilizing the new words from #DigCitCommit. (See graphic below). Balanced. Alert. Informed. Engaged. Inclusive.
From the ISTE website: “A diverse group of tech, education and media organizations announced today that they have come together to launch the Digital Citizenship Commitment campaign (DigCitCommit) with the goal of redefining digital citizenship and reaching 1 million students by 2021. The campaign will engage educators, allow for the sharing of best practices and provide them with the tools to teach a new definition of digital citizenship and well-being.”
Using these words as building blocks, I have revamped all of our Digital Citizenship conversations with our third-sixth grade students. Scaffolding the topics, we spend 4-5 hours in each classroom talking about what it means to be alert, balanced, informed, inclusive and engaged. The point is to equip our students to be in control of their behaviors, making positive choices that will help make the world a better place! By the end of November, we will have been in all of our 64 classrooms, talking to over 1,300 students about the positive potential they hold in their hands! In fact, we talk frequently about the POWER OF THEIR HANDS to do good, sometimes with no technology attached.
I think what I love most about this time in the classroom is the potential to dialogue face to face with teachers and students. To hear their ideas, their questions, their perceptions and their challenges. Our sixth grade team coined the idea of #S.W.O.T – Supper WithOut Tech. They’ve been creating signs for their families to place on the table to remind each other that meals should be spent with human contact – not absorbed with technology. Or, the Padlet wall our sixth grade team put together in which each sixth grader came up with one change they want to embrace, based on the power #DigCitCommit words. Truly, the joy and the power come when students are given the opportunity to shine, to lead, to craft the world they want to see in front of them.
I’m thankful for a district that supports these conversations and sees the power of collective efficacy. When we come together, we help equip our students to use technology for the right reasons, and showcase HOW it can be used effectively.
NOTE: We were given permission from ISTE to use the #DigCitCommit graphic in our work with students. If you’re interested in seeing how we scaffold the conversations between grade levels, I’ve linked my website with the Digital Citizenship scope/sequence and curriculum.
https://talkingtechtoconnect.weebly.com/digital-citizenship-curriculum.html