Note: This is one in a series of blog posts to be used by Auburn’s Social Media Design Team to conduct a study group before making recommendations for social media policy. If unfamiliar with this series, you might find reading this post helpful.
Education for Digital Citizenship Study Questions
- What are Auburn schools current doing related to Digital Citizenship (both for students and adults)?
- What is considered best practice around teaching digital citizenship?
Although intended as a tool for Auburn’s Social Media Design Team, everyone is invited to use these posts as a resource. And if you are not a member of Auburn’s Social Media Design Team, you are welcome to post comments, too. But please limit/be thoughtful of the sharing of opinion and stay focused on the focus questions – we a trying to use these posts for fact-finding, identifying resources, identifying best practice, etc. Thanks!
Multiple Pathways 
Overall, there is insufficient education regarding digital citizenship at all levels. We need to develop a structure to teach our students and help them to understand the potential impact of the abuse of social media and other forms of communication through the use of technology.
How do we keep this consistent? Who will provide the instruction?
Teaching good digital citizenship needs to start at kindergarten and continue throughout a students schooling.
As a student I have noticed that there isn’t much digital citizenship being taught in the classes at all.
The group discussed the need to set boundaries and educate the community regarding the need for these boundaries. Brain research also indicates that students can’t understand the consequence of their actions until the early twenties.
There is a strong need for educating verses limiting/blocking. All students receive social media education in the elementary level at 6th grade, perhaps some of these same lessons should be revisited and readdressed at a higher level in later years as well? 6th graders (and younger students) have the invisibility factor going on that these scenarios won’t happen to them, but as students get older and face these situations for real in their own lives, they are in need of a more developmental approach on how to deal with the given situations (i.e bullying, harassment, etc.).
(Sorry..reposting from another blog under banning/blocking…)
At the elementary level digital citizenship is touched upon in PEACE class. “Cyber Bully” was also recently viewed during PEACE class at the elementary level.
This article is aimed at parents and suggests a well-balanced approach to helping kids make appropriate online choices without being heavy handed and driving them towards sneakiness.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/new/how-not-get-unfriended-your-kid