Being a good digital citizen (cyber safety)

With all the technology tools that my pupils are learning on, and the inspiration from Jason Ohler's workshops at the ILT Conference,  I have spent a couple of days with the pupils this week just focusing on how to be a good digital citizen - how to behave when online, guidelines for responsible use of our class laptops and ipads etc, as well as giving them specific activities to do with certain apps on the ipads so they can become more familiar with using the apps as presentation tools.




These activities/resources were useful for our sessions:

• We first watched these two videos about what primary pupils are doing online and what is happening to them online. This helped generate discussion about the pupils' experiences of using ICT resources.
• In cooperative groups (we have three pupils maximum - that's another story!) the children talked about the term 'digital citizen' and wrote definitions of what they thought it might mean. We talked about our 'digital footprint' and the consequences that can occur from having anything personal online.
• The groups then created a t-chart titled 'When I Am Online I...should/should not...' - they based their ideas on what they had seen in the videos and what our school ICT User Agreement says (this is a contract that outlines the rules with using any of our computer equipment. Senior pupils all have to take this home at the start of the year, read it with their parents and sign it.) 
• Pupils then had to choose an aspect from the t-chart that their group would 'teach' to other children (and I told them which app they were to do it with eg Explain Everything, iMovie, Book Creator, Comic Life, My Story). They are developing their presentations, learning how to use the apps, reviewing their material - all working cooperatively (I hope!)
• We also checked out the Adventures of the Three Cyber Pigs, working our way through the story as we watched it via the IWB and having discussions along the way:
• First adventure - online safety
• Second adventure - netiquette

• The Australian schools' cyber-safety website  budd:e was very useful in my preparation. It has great lesson plan ideas, some video clips, links to games (see below). Pupils are working independently over the next week to learn about cyber safety while building their own Buddie (an avatar robot) to personify good personal cyber safety practices (it also has a take-home survey for children to discuss with their parents).

Here are two of the creations the pupils came up with - I think they have done very well, with only minimal input/advice from me!

• Using the MyStory app: Tips from the Cyber Safety Crew

• Using Explain Everything: