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Digital Citizenship

Your student is taking part in classroom lessons from Common Sense Education’s K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum, designed to educate and guide young people to harness the power of the Internet and digital tools so they can become safe, responsible, and respectful digital citizens.

What is Digital Citizenship?

Digital media and technology is evolving at a rapid pace, bringing with it amazing opportunities as well as real risks for our children. On the positive side, young people are using the Internet and mobile technologies to create, connect, explore and learn in ways never before imagined. Challenges from harmful behaviors, cyberbullying to digital cheating, are surfacing in schools and in homes across the country. Young people face ethical challenges daily without a roadmap to guide them.

What Common Sense Education Teaches

The core message of the curriculum is one of empowerment: With powerful digital tools that allow for creation and communication comes great responsibility. The curriculum centers on 8 main categories based on the digital ethics research of Dr. Howard Gardner and The GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Common Sense Media

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Digital Footprint & Reputation

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Relationships & Communication

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Information Literacy

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Creative Credit & Copyright

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Self Image & Identity

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Privacy & Security

What Families Can Do

Common Sense Education takes a whole-community approach to digital citizenship by providing parent resources to help you support your kid’s learning. As we engage in these lessons in class, we will be sending home parent tip sheets, videos, and an occasional activity worksheet for you to do together with your kids. You can visit the Common Sense website at www.commonsense.org for more parent resources.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Raising and educating young people in today’s 24/7 digital media environment is one of the most exciting and overwhelming challenges that parents and schools face today. Working together with Common Sense Education, we can raise a generation of kids who become smart, responsible, and respectful digital citizens.

Understanding YouTube & Digital Citizenship

From Google:

Overview
We have devised an interactive curriculum aimed to support teachers of secondary students (approximately ages 13-17). The curriculum helps educate students on topics like:

YouTube’s policies

  • How to report content on YouTube
  • How to protect their privacy online
  • How to be responsible YouTube community members
  • How to be responsible digital citizens

We hope that students and educators gain useful skills and a holistic understanding about responsible digital citizenship, not only on YouTube, but in all online activity.

Parenting, Media, and Everything In Between