As a future educator, I spend a lot of time imagining what I want my classroom to feel like. I picture a space where my students feel safe, curious, empowered, and ready to explore not only the world around them, but the digital one, too. That's why digital citizenship is something I already know I want to prioritize. It's not just about teaching students how to use technology - it's about teaching them how to use it wisely, responsibly, safely, and with empathy.
One of the first things I want to build in my classroom is a sense of community. I believe that when students feel connected and respected, they treat others with respect, too - even behind a screen. I plan to start digital citizenship lessons early, helping my students to understand that their actions online are just as real as their actions in person. Kindness and accountability will be our starting point, whether it's leaving a comment on a shared document or responding to a classmate on a collaborative platform.
Another major goal of mine is to help students become critical thinkers. In today's world, kids are exposed to so much information online—some of it is helpful, and some of it is misleading. I want to guide my students to ask questions like, "Who made this?" "Why did they make it?" and "Is this the whole story?" Even in the younger grades, these questions can become part of how we explore texts, media, and research. If we can get our students to learn to think deeply and question what they see, they'll grow into adults who can make smart, informed decisions online and offline.
I know that part of digital citizenship is also teaching my students how to set healthy boundaries. I want to create a classroom culture where we check in with ourselves about screen time, talk about how being online makes us feel, and celebrate face-to-face moments, too. I imagine having "tech-free" times during the day, as well as regular conversations about what it means to rest and reset.
Looking ahead to the future, I know I still have so much to learn, but I'm excited about the opportunity to grow in this area. I want to continue learning about how to include more diverse voices in the digital content we explore, how to communicate clearly with families about tech use, and how to let students help shape our digital norms and expectations. More than anything, I want my students to leave my classroom knowing that their words have power- on paper, in person, and online. I hope to help them build the skills and confidence to use that power for good.
Hey Sam! I think one of the most important digital skills we can impart onto kids is recognition of bias in what they consume. One thing that was hard for me to grasp when studying college level history, especially when I took classes in classics, ancient history and medieval history is this implicit bias. Literally 100 percent of history has some bias in it. It's impossible to write unbiased history, because you can never know all of your internal biases if you're the one writing the history, and you can never know all of the internal biases of the person who wrote the history you are reading. The only thing you can do is try and find other sources to cross reference to paint a clearer picture, or to try and discover the bias of the history you are reading. This for kids has got to be a hard task. All media kids consume has some bias, much of it thinly veiled. If we want to be creating intelligent and responsible digital citizens, we must raise kids who question what they consume, seek answers beyond what the google AI immediately tells them, and try and discover bias for the purpose of finding some kind of truth. Great post, thank you!
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