Bellow are three things that I have either done in the past, or am looking to do in the future.
1. Start the year by dividing students up into pairs and assign each pair one of the nine elements of digital citizenship. Then each pair is responsible for paraphrasing that element and explaining it to the class. Having students paraphrase is a great way to give me a beginning of the year measurement of their language skills. Also, this follows the idea that you can't teach something to someone else unless you understand it yourself. Making them responsible for an element is part of what makes the learning personal for them. I also ask them to think back to the previous year and give personal examples (of this that went wrong, or things that went right) that connect to that element.
2. One way that I want to look at digital citizenship is by starting the year with a mini lesson on empathy. The lesson would focus on digital etiquette, with a specific focus on how to communicate digitally when using technology for the classroom. I would use empathy and gossip/rumors to look at the importance communicating appropriately so that people aren't made uncomfortable by student's digital actions. There is not a 7th grader alive that hasn't spread a rumor or been the victim of a rumor. This makes the topic one that they all have intimate personal experience with. This would connect well to the themes of the pbl project I usually start with Monsters on Maple Street. The focus of the project is plot elements, but the themes of the story fit well with the power of rumors and fear.
3. I would also like to create a lesson/unit about digital health and wellness. I would like to tie this into the same time of year that students are focusing on health and wellness in their science/gym classes. I would make the ties between physical wellbeing and healthy living (exercising, eating right, getting enough sleep, ext) and digital health and wellness (internet/gaming addiction, managing screen time, ect.) I haven't developed this yet, but I really like the idea. Plus the connection across subjects would be really great.
Tags: 702, HW, Digital Citizenship