Participate: Collecting Digital Resources 2.1.1

2.1.1 Collecting Digital Resources

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Unfortunately, there are many negative repercussions for those who access the world wide web without a sufficient level of digital literacy.  Every day millions of Americans access the internet uneducated and unaware of the many pitfalls that could await them.  This is where some valuable lessons in Digital Citizenship  and Digital Literacy would be extremely valuable.
For several hours today, I have explored the world wide web in search of useful websites and tools that can be used to educate students in order to help them become digitally literate and savvy. It was a roundabout journey through pages and pages of websites- some were promising at first, and then failed miserable or turned into a “for profit venture”, complete with signup and annual subscription rates.  The ones I will discuss are free- with only advertising to support them, so feel free to “notice” or click on an add or two. Below is a link to my diigo account where the best of these resources are posted:
 https://www.diigo.com/list/apeachyteach/Website+Evaluation+and+Safety/305gcdpxs
As I locate more resources, the information on the link will be updated as well, so check back.  Meanwhile, enjoy the “jewels” that I have found on my journey! Together, we will explore some of the best of the sites and their features. 
Probably the most comprehensive resource for teaching digital literacy was the CommonSenseMedia page: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence
Here is a short video that shows some of the topics and the organized layout of the page:

All of their lessons were downloadable and free.  The lessons are also organized by topic and age appropriateness.  Some of them included excellent videos of how the class could be taught, as in the case with http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/lesson-in-action-private-today-public-tomorrow .  This is from their professional development section. 

Here is a screen shot from their professional development page:

One of the best finds of the day was an article by Edudemic.com titled, “How To Tackle Digital Citizenship During the First 5 days of School.”  This website advocates a 5 day process that makes quite a bit of sense to me.  Here’s the gist of it, plus 2 days that I’ve added with resources to support the discussion: http://www.edudemic.com/first-five-days-of-digital-citizenship-at-your-school/

Day 1- DO it Yourself- Create an “Acceptable Use Policy WITH your students- Give them a voice (Ownership)

Day 2- Discuss “Online Privacy”

Day 3- Discuss Personal Identity- and what that means as far as their personal brand and reputation

Day 4- Digital communication

Day 5- Digital Etiquette

Day 6- Digital Information- Evaluate it

Day 7- Digital footprint- tread lightly!

Or course, this would have to be implemented on a school-wide basis to have the greatest impact. 

Every lesson aimed at making children more Digitally Literate and better Digital Citizens helps to protect them.  Teaching internet users to be exemplary Digital Citizens isn’t the responsibility of “somebody”, it is the responsibility of “everybody”.