Digital Citizenship:
Teaching Safe, Effective, and Ethical Technology Use
Tiger Teacher Nation Professional Learning Day  1/20/2020  in Hays, KS
MPLA/KLA Conference  10/25/2018 in Wichita, KS
by Amy Brownlee, MLS
District Librarian for Sterling Public Schools, Sterling, KS
Our kids are growing up on a digital playground and no one is on recess duty."  Kevin Honeycutt

Digital Citizenship Book List

Digital Citizenship Ready Resources
(free lessons and online games)
Be Internet Awesome (grades 3-6)
Common Sense Media (grades K-12)
NetSmartz (grades K-12)
FBI Safe Online Searching (grades 3-8)

Digital Citizenship Curriculum
​   at Sterling Grade School

Article:  Why Digital Citizenship Matters
​
Middle School / High School Lessons
5th grade and up

Favorite resources: Lesson from School Library Media Monthly magazine.  I love this lesson and use it with 5th graders every year. It focuses on authority and teaches kids how to evaluate a web site. It includes a role-playing activity and website evaluation practice.  We spend three class periods on this unit.  I've posted links to the websites we evaluate in this lesson.
  • Fact checking lesson: Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive by Ammi-Joan Paquette & Laurie Ann Thompson                     
    Teaching Resources                My lesson plan 
    My shortened "Fact or Fiction?" evaluation guide (adapted from Teaching Resources)         
This is a research methods / fact checking lesson (grades 5 and up) involving a book, not a digital source, but it is an excellent, step-by-step way to teach fact checking.  Each chapter presents three stories - two are true and one is false.  Even the true stories sound outlandish, so it's hard to figure it out just from reading the stories.  I have 12 copies of the "It's Alive" version of the book (focusing on plants, animals, and people) so kids can partner up to read it. There are two other books in the series:  one about nature/weather and one about history. "Considering the fresh attention being paid to teaching a skeptical approach to information evaluation, this series opener couldn't be better timed. A brief but savvy guide to responsible research methods adds further luster to this crowd pleaser." --ALA Booklist (starred review).         
Other great resources:
about.me/amybrownlee