Yesterday, our Middle School students had a day exploring Digital Citizenship with Robyn Treyvaud. Before I slightly elaborate, the day started off discussing the difference between digital citizenship and cyber safety/cyber bullying. They answered this using Twitter in 140 characters with the hashtag #yisdc.

Students considered how they spend their time online and how people may have different personas in different online communities. Naturally, there was discussion on digital footprints. I won’t go into this area, but an analogy that was made that I think is more accurate is that of a digital tattoo. You may think you cover it up, but it’s always there.

Students were then put into groups of four of mixed grade levels and had to create a media product exploring some of the issues raised. They had two hours to plan and create. Then we spent the last hour and half viewing them and discussing the message, strengths of the product and challenges faced.
Here’s an example of a Middle School video:

If interested, another resource you may be interested in exploring is CommonSenseMedia.org