Topic 1: Digital Citizenship

Guiding Questions:

• What is digital citizenship?

• What are the rights and responsibilities of a digital citizen in today’s world?

Using the Web to explore new online tools can be lots of fun and a great way to publish your thoughts and creativity online.  The Web also offers ways to communicate with friends around the corner and around the world.  The Web offers a lot of freedom, but this freedom goes hand-in-hand with responsibility to practice good "netiquette" as a digital citizen.

Activity 1: Watch these three videos, below, as you develop your own answers to the guiding questions.  You can also talk over your ideas with your classmates.  Be prepared to post your response.

•  Post to be private
• Protecting Your Reputation Online
• Your Digital Footprint    (click to play “A Tale of Two Footprints”)

*BLOG-GUIDES - Guidelines for Writing/Posting/Commenting Online

   1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries, grandma) to know or see.
   2. Don't share personal information.  Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
   3. Before you post something, think about what could happen because of what you are writing.
   4. Know your audience.  Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how will they interpret my words?
   5. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
   6. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling. Take pride in your words.
   7. Only post information that you can prove is true.  Don't gossip! Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or hurtful?
  8. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work. Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

Commenting on the Blog Posts of Others

Good comments:

    * are constructive, but not hurtful;
    * consider the author and the purpose of the post;
    * are always related to the content of the post;
    * include personal connections to what the author wrote;
    * answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
    * follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.

* adapted from Student Blogging Guidelines by Kim Cofino
http://teenlearning.csla.net/blogging-guidelines-for-students/