Notes/slides from a conversation about digital citizenship and social media

Last night, I facilitated a conversation on teaching digital citizenship and social media use to middle schoolers. Around the table were teachers, librarians, media specialists, technologists, curriculum coordinators, and administrators from Friends Seminary.

Their specific questions were:
1. How can we help middle schoolers be safe, responsible netizens?
2. How would you define digital citizenship and how does that play a role in your school?
3. How does social media play a role in your school and what do you do to prepare kids to use it responsibly?
4. What are some activities that you have done with middle schoolers on digital citizenship?
5. What is your scope and sequence in your school on digital citizenship (and others that you may know)?
6. What tools do you use, such as ELGG, to help kids understand digital citizenship and social media?

Besides showing projects I’ve developed/supported using Google Sites, our internal media repositories (powered by Drupal), or our internal social network (powered by Elgg), I shared how I weave in reminders, anecdotes, news stories, and life lessons at every opportunity.

I shared these three recent relevant articles which I’d seen on Twitter:

• Gangs in Anne Arundel use social media to recruit and intimidate
• Promote digital citizenship…10 ideas for rich academic student discussions on the internet
• 10 social media commandments for kids and parents

And this post recommended by Don Buckley to be a good conversation starter:

• Tweens on Facebook and Emoticons Overload

I also shared my collection of mantras that I repeat endlessly in class:

1. Everything you put online is public, permanent, traceable.
2. Use our technology academically, respectfully, responsibly.
3. Make wise choices.
4. We are a community.
5. There’s no such thing as privacy online. It’s public versus less public.
6. The only thing worse than kids behaving badly are adults behaving badly.

Rather than proceed through the slide deck I’d prepared, I ended up ignoring most of it and just sharing examples from specific projects (most of which are documented on this site). I embedded the slides below if anyone is super curious…