Teaching Digital Citizenship

Teacher Behaviors

Constant and rapid change means that the tools students use now won't necessarily be the tools available when students enter the workforce.  Teachers should convey that learning how to learn and how to adapt are the most important skills students can learn in a classroom.

Successful teachers of digital citizenship exhibit the following characteristics:

• ability to assess both process and product
• engage in inquiry along with students, modeling the need to continually build new knowledge and skills
• ability to tolerate uncertainty in the learning process and turn unsuccessful experiences into "teachable moments"
• comfortable with change
• eager to embrace new ideas and tools
• selects the tools appropriate to the learning outcome, rather than enforcing learning outcomes tied to certain tools

Student Expectations

Students should...

• be responsible for developing and enforcing the rules of the community
• make connections between learning experiences and be able to articulate those connections
• be active collaborators in the learning process, helping other team or class members as appropriate to the experience
• be willing to say "I don't know" as a starting point for learning

Classroom Design

Digital space

Strong classrooms have a digital space in addition to the physical space, one where students can work together to construct knowledge.  This online space makes the learning process available to them 24/7, though teachers must make time in the physical classroom to access online spaces to ensure that all students have access. 

Physical space

Physical spaces should be designed in ways that promote small- and large-group collaboration.

All Day, Every Day

Teaching digital citizenship -- like teaching traditional citizenship -- isn't something you can schedule once a week, or write a couple of curriculum objectives to cover. It has to be an integral part of teaching and learning. If students are made -- and behave as -- citizens of the classroom, then the classroom becomes a model for real-world democracy. Lessons about citizenship emerge organically from the learning process -- and if they don't, you can nudge students in the right direction at a "teachable moment."