Digital citizenship and cyber safety were rarely addressed in elementary school and middle school. However, they were touched on a little more regularly in high school. Most of the time, when these topics were mentioned, teachers showed videos to try and scare students. Sometimes, in high school, we would have lectures about how what we put online can affect us in the future, for example, if an employer were to look at your social media. Videos such as the one below were shown in my high school;
Also it was shown in my school how technology can be used for good purposes… Like this example:
I do not think this was the most beneficial way to get anything across about digital citizenship and cyber safety. Personally; I know some of my classmates did not believe these videos. That something like this would never happen to them by oversharing on social media. I think some ways to teach these topics are videos. But I think having videos of real people who have gone through it would show students it can happen. I also think showing younger students light-hearted videos would help set a foundation, such as this one:
I also think having parents come into the classroom for teachers to discuss digital citizenship and cyber safety with and without their kids would enable students to listen more as both parents and the students are learning at the same time and could help parents reevaluate their digital footprint as well as what they are creating for their children. Starting with small tips for both parents and students, as well as including activities, I think would help educate both parties!
